“Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
Project-Based Learning is not new, in fact, it’s been around a long while. John Dewey, American Philosopher, well-known for his education reform and progressive ideas in the early 20th century, said that schools should “Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” Such is the basis for Project-Based Learning, or PBL.
Students asked to complete “projects” in schools should not be confused with Project-Based Learning. Often what we encounter in school as projects are actually culminating or summative projects. They have value and purpose, too, but they aren’t the same as PBL. These culminating or summative projects will remain a large part of what we see in American classrooms, but they serve a different purpose.
Generally, they are used in a traditional classroom setting where the teacher uses direct instruction of the content to teach students, and students then have an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of that content with a project.
Project-Based Learning, however, is much more than that. Students start with a question to answer or a problem to solve. The project is not just the demonstration of the learning, but it becomes the process for the learning. PBL asks students to apply knowledge to create something and the learning happens throughout the process. Students are engaged in a variety of hands-on steps and phases of sustained inquiry throughout the learning. The teacher is still responsible for framing the question as well as facilitating the process to ensure that students are achieving the appropriate benchmarks and standards, rigor, and content. However, Project-Based Learning allows students to also gain important 21st century skills like critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, cultural competency, and more. PBL asks them to work in ways that are more like a professional would approach a problem in the workplace. The learning of the content is as important as the process, and students learn how professionals in various industries approach their work. The learning becomes more relevant, with real world applications and hands-on processes rather than transactional and abstract.
The Palm Valley School has been hosting the Buck Institute for Education conferences on our campus for several years now. We subscribe and use their PBL Gold Standard Model in our curriculum. Recently rebranded as PBL WORKS, the Buck Institute is widely viewed as the definitive model for PBL implementation. Last year, our spring conference brought over 200 educators to our campus to learn about the Gold Standard method for Project-Based Learning alongside our own Faculty. Educators came from local schools in the Coachella Valley, from other schools across the United States, as well as those who travelled here from Mexico, Canada, the U.K. and China to learn more about Gold Standard PBL. Not only do attendees at our conferences gain the valuable training that the Buck Institute offers, but they get to do so while connecting with and learning alongside a global cohort of other passionate educators.
While the Buck Institute PBL Works curriculum is geared for students in kindergarten or older, we have had our preschool faculty trained in this methodology as well. As such, they have worked with national faculty from the Buck Institute to tailor the curriculum and approach to PBL for their age groups as appropriate. We are so pleased to have developed our own framework for PBL in the preschool age groups. PBL leverages children’s natural curiosity by engaging their sensory needs to touch and participate in learning. We are excited to be offering an overview of our preschool PBL approach in a conference this spring (May 18th) for both educators and parents, along with a variety of other topics.
PBL engages students in ways that traditional learning can’t. It allows students to have choice and voice in their learning, and moves beyond “what” we want them to learn, to also encompass “how” we want them to learn. PBL helps students to see solutions to problems as engaging and meaningful. It moves them beyond “google-able” answers and asks them to consider solving problems using the tools, processes, and frameworks that scientists, geologists, politicians, judges, artists, entrepreneurs, and other professionals use to create solutions to challenges and to answer questions that impact the world around them.
If you are interested in learning more about any of our PBL Conferences, or how the Palm Valley School uses PBL for increased student academic outcomes, please visit our website at www.pvs.org for more information.
