Projects, the usual diorama, mobile, play-dough model, or poster (digital or physical), are intended to be a recall of knowledge after the teaching and learning have concluded. The PBL experts at Edutopia and Buck Institute of Education metaphorically refer to them as the dessert not the meal. Projects have a place within a certain type of instruction, but are not project-based learning.
Project-Based learning is an instructional method in which students learn the content WHILE doing a project, in which they have made most decisions. It's the meal that involves the learning of the content and standards. It is NOT something done at the end or on the side, like a dessert. It IS the learning.
Something I have done and loved in the past was what I lovingly termed my "Mesoamerican Indian Fair." My students (in a nutshell) had to research a specific topic related to the group of Indians we were studying, and then create a handmade product (not digital) that they would ultimately present on the day of the fair. (this involved a research journal, trips to a university library, calendars, and signed project terms etc.) On the day of the fair their project had to be set up like a museum exhibit for classes around the school to visit and learn about something they probably didn't already know. Sounds like a decent project, right? Well it was and it served it's purpose well! But it wasn't a TRUE project-based learning project. We were all taking the SAME path. I made MOST of the choices. Students had choices but their boundaries of freedom were much smaller. They weren't all being guided by a real-world problem, and THAT is the crux of it for me. The real-world problem was never posed. If I would've had a problem that was posed so that they could learn the standards THROUGH the project then it would've been project-based. But that is OK! Projects are not frowned upon, they are just DIFFERENT from project-based learning! (deep breath)
Now let's take the project above and make it into a project-based assignment. Here is an example of a "problem" that could be posed for each of them to show mastery of in different ways:
You are an Aztec teenager and have started working with a team of workers to move heavy stones from the mountains down into the center of Tenochtitlan to help build a great pyramid . How were the stones moved over such a long distance being so large? Describe and present that process in detail.
Throughout the project kids will naturally discover multiple things. What was the geography of Tenochtitlan like? What was the climate like? What was everyday life like? What was the culture like? They will have to present their thoughts in several different forms. So instead of focusing on a product, like in my above project, they are focusing on multiple products to solve a problem, and will learn so much more along the way. Why? Because that is how life works. Poject-based learning looks like life.
Before you reject it just know that if we don't start making school look like life, we are failing our kids. We can throw out a long list of "should" statements but at the end of the day, education should be done like life. How do you learn today as an adult? Would you enjoy PBL as opposed to listening to an instructor lecture? What about lower order activities like worksheets that foster recall? Would you prefer that to solving problems in a simulated real-world setting? I'd love to hear your feedback!
Visit Edutopia to learn more! - http://www.edutopia.org/blog/time-debunk-those-pbl-myths-suzie-boss
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