What is PBL? To help teachers do PBL well, we created a comprehensive, research-based model for PBL — a "gold standard" to help teachers, schools, and organizations to measure, calibrate, and improve their practice. In Gold Standard PBL, projects are focused on student learning goals and include Essential Project Design Elements: Ask a TAS teacher about PBL.
“I want to get into PBL”. Something I hear and see a lot of recently. I’ve been an advocate of PBL for a while, so in lieu of people understanding what PBL is, I take it as a sign they want to do something new (to them) in their classroom. Romance: They often head off to Buck Institute or start consuming Edutopia content. For the more wealthy, they hire in US consultancies like New Tech Foundation who offer seemingly “off the shelf programs “and “pay-for-databases of projects”. If you are an Australian teacher interested in PBL, I give you fair warning that all these findable things will not transform your classroom – and in my view, will more likely raise alarm bells among parents and suspicion amount school-executives who will generally “like” the idea, but only if the reality dove-tails into their expectations (after all, most school execs are instrumentalists by nature of their job-description and that’s not a bad thing IMO).
Like this: Like Loading... Venturing into Project Based Learning. I’ve been reading about Project Based Learning for some time now, and I struggled trying to find a way to integrate this kind of pedagogy into my regular classroom practice. I think I do a fairly good job of challenging my students and getting them to think beyond the obvious, but my English classes do tend to follow what would be perceived as traditional structure. This last term we studied Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We did make a decision early on to plan the unit using the principles of Understanding by Design (Wiggins & Tighe) and this meant we had a driving question to help us focus. Our question was, ‘What drives the choices we make?’ It took us some time to get to this question in one of our planning sessions, but I’m so glad we went to the effort of doing this. Ramping up our multimodal task I’m sure we’ve all been there.
A “Main Course” project: These points are elaborated here – I suggest you take a look. Sharpening the hook Our student assignment Week 1 – Investigation. Kath Murdoch: Home. In defence of PBL. Over the last month or so, I’ve felt increasingly like I’m on the defensive when it comes to project-based learning. I guess the fact that it is starting to become more well-known and teachers outside of the online clique are starting to get interested is turning some people off.
No one wants to get caught out supporting a ‘hip’ edu fad, right? But I’m stoked that it’s coming to the attention of more teachers, and even better that it’s coming to the attention of teachers not in the ‘clique’ of online edtech peeps. That means it’s actually going to move from being something people talk about to each other in online spaces, to something that real, working teachers actually do in their classrooms. I am just one parent who has already seen the change that PBL can make to her child’s learning and attitude towards school. So what are some of these criticisms I’m hearing? Like this: Like Loading... How to select great topics for PBL in Australia | The Playable Classroom. The driving question is always a sticking point for teachers new to PBL. Writing a few powerful words in a sentence or two, powerful enough to charge curiosity and enthusiasm is a skill. This is why great copyrighters get paid vast sums for writing relatively little.
The driving question, I always found to be an awkward and misleading term. What PBL is trying to do is drive a topic, not a reply to a philosophic question. I prefer to think about topics. PBL in Australia is significantly different to the US (warning to those gazing at US consultancy networks for the answer) – our and their frameworks are significantly different as is the culture and side of the road we drive on. PBL is better (in Australian contexts) to be thought of as topic based. Not every aspect of the Australian curriculum (or a topic in it) is suitable or needs it! So what is the criteria for topics? Like this: Like Loading... Project-Based Learning Immersion - Professional learning journey for educators. What Is PBL Really? Do you want to engage your students in Project Based Learning (PBL)?
Maybe you are asking yourself what is PBL really? Am I doing it right? Well, first of all, the most important thing to understand is that PBL is a construct made up by human beings and so there are lots of variations! And you are entitled to construct your own version, too, within some parameters. My suggestion is to study many of the great resources that are available to you and then create your own working definition and effective PBL practice. (I’ve included some of my favourite resources below.) Some Parameters to Consider I have created this diagram, enhanced by the critical eye of Brenda Sherry, which may be useful as you consider what is important to you and to your students. We like to think with the frame of continua rather than dichotomies simply because things are rarely on or off, black or white, ones or zeroes! You could likely add other dimensions to consider as you build your own understandings and beliefs! The 8 Elements of Project Based Learning: A Model Project |
As most of you know, the uber gods of PBL are BIE. I was first introduced to the BIE PBL ‘model’ from mate Dean Groom who handed me over what I still refer to as my ‘PBL Bible’ – a ring-binder full of the BIE Freebies that help teachers plan effective projects and keep students on track as they move through the different phases of each project. The cool thing is that you can use as much or as little as you want … PBL is a very personal process that (like all good teaching) should be tailored to the expertise and needs of the teacher and students. However, there are 8 Elements of Project Based Learning that can be called the ‘essential elements’ of PBL … keeping an eye on these and ‘testing’ your project design based on them can help you determine if what you’re creating isn’t just a ‘project’. I really like this statement from BIE contrasting PBL and traditional ‘projects’: The Emo Project Here is the project outline that I gave my students: Does the project teach significant content?
Education - Challenge Based Learning. Challenge Based Learning - Home Page. Project-Based Learning. Internet Catalogue.