News in Education: What is PBL?

PBL (Project Based Learning) is a main option in the 21th Education. Projects vary in length, from several days to several weeks or even a semester, but it can always motivate students:

• Is intended to teach significant content. 

• Requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication. To answer a Driving Question and create high-quality work, students need to do much more than remember information. They need to use higher-order thinking skills and learn to work as a team, be able to read a variety of material, write or otherwise express themselves in various modes, and make effective presentations.

• Requires inquiry as part of the process.

• Is organized around an open-ended Driving Question. This focuses students’ work and deepens their learning by framing important issues, debates, challenges or problems.

• Creates a need to know essential content and skills. PBL reverses the order in which information and concepts are traditionally presented: it begins with the vision of an end product or presentation. This creates a context and reason to learn and understand the information and concepts.

• Allows some degree of student voice and choice. Students learn to work independently and take responsibility when they are asked to make choices.

• Includes processes for revision and reflection. Students learn to give and receive feedback in order to improve the quality of the products they create, and are asked to think about what and how they are learning.

• Involves a public audience. Students present their work to other people, beyond their classmates and teacher – in person or online.  

We will do a PBL activity next term... 

be prepared to learn and have fun!

Sources

BIE 

World history educators blog