How exciting it must be to be a student and a teacher in a
school or classroom where Project Based Learning is being implemented
well! I watched in excitement as
students tracked Monarchs’ Migrations (Curtis, 2002), started a business called
Flower Power (Curtis, 2001), and designed incredible schools (Armstrong,
2002). It was evident to me that the
connections among students’ learning was strong. Nothing was learned in vain or simply for the
sake of needing to know. Everything the
students learned was learned for the sake of something. It was being applied. I can only imagine how much higher student
motivation and engagement must be then.
In classrooms where Project Based Learning is taking place,
teachers have, what seems to be a more daunting role. While an exciting one, I look at what they
are doing and facilitating in their classes and feel overwhelmed! The teachers are not simply presenting lessons,
guiding practice, and then letting the students practice a skill
independently. Rather the teacher is a
weaver of learning. They are weaving
together all sorts of standards and objectives into an overall task at hand. The objectives are all interconnected and
meeting many standards at one time. The
teachers set clear goals and provide immediate feedback for students. The teachers find a balance between
challenging each learner while ensuring they have the skills to be successful
for the project at hand. Patty Vreeland,
a teacher at Newsome Park Elementary sums up the work needed of a teacher
well. She states, “We’ve got to know our
curriculum. We’ve got to know the
standards inside and out” (Curtis, 2001).
She goes on to “add that teachers must be willing to work harder to
ensure that projects are meaningful learning experiences” (Curtis, 2001).
Students in these classrooms are active participants of their learning. They, with guidance from their teacher, drive their learning by using skills they have mastered they take it in the direction they need to in order to achieve their task at hand. When students, or anyone for that matter, has a choice in their learning or work engagement is higher. If we can find the purpose of any task and we are given choice motivation is higher. This is exactly what each student featured in these schools seems to be experiencing!
While Project Based
Learning seems to be a little chaotic at first, upon closer investigation it is
actually very well organized. In Newsome
Park Elementary projects are divided into phases (Curtis, 2001). In Phase two for example, “students do field work, meet with experts,
gather information from the Internet and other sources, and then compile the
information in a variety of forms, from written and picture portfolios to Web
pages and computer-generated brochures” (Curtis, 2001). Phase three includes a presentation of some
sort where community members, parents, students, and staff are invited to view
the final project. This was definitely
the same format followed by students in Ms. Reeder’s Geometry class. Real Architects came to view and evaluate
their final school designs (Armstrong, 2002)!
Another similarity I immediately noticed among the examples
was what appeared to be an extremely rich community between the students,
staff, and the greater community in which the schools lived in. Bringing in experts from the community on
certain topics allowed for more than just the members of the school to be
vested in the success of all students.
According to Dillion (2014), author of Edutopia.org article “The Power
of Digital Story,” when students, staff, and parents feel a part of a rich
community learning is only more supported and enhanced by all. If learning is supported in every aspect of a
students’ life then the learning experience taking place is going to be one of
more value. If there is more purpose in
what the student is learning then their engagement will be higher.
Each of these classrooms were also full of autonomy, mastery,
and purpose (Pink, 2006). The students
were working with skills they had mastered and using those skills had a
purpose. There was a high level of
autonomy. While the teachers were
clearly facilitating the learning and steering it in appropriate and organized
directions there was still a high level of autonomy among the students. There was even a high level of autonomy among
the teachers as well. While they were
all meeting the necessary standards, how they reached those standards among
their students was up to them and their learning communities.
Resources
Armstrong,
S. (February 11, 2002). Edutopia: Geometry Students Angle into
Architecture through Project Based Learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects
Curtis,
D. (October 1, 2001). Edutopia: More Fun Than a Barrel of …Worms? Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms
Curtis,
D. (June 6, 2002). Edutopia: March of the Monarchs: Students’ Follow the Butterflies’ Migration. Retrieved
from http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs
Dillon, B. (2014, December 15). The power of digital story. Retrieved March
2, 2015 from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/the-power-of-digital-story-bob-dillon
Pink, D.
(2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York: Riverhead Books.
