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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Tags

^Music, Art and Makerspaces ^21st Century Skills All Ages Strategy

Skills

Flexible Thinking Social Awareness Attention Verbal Reasoning Abstract Reasoning Spatial Perception

Project-Based Learning (PBL)

If your student is ready to go deep into exploring a topic and you want to strengthen time management and planning skills

Teach It!

  1. Objective: Project-based learning will engage students in actively investigating and responding to relevant questions, giving them effective practice in integrating information, learning and applying knowledge, and developing communication and collaboration skills.
  2. Teacher Takeaways: In project-based learning, students learn through active investigation of authentic real-world questions or problems. Students choose the specific topic, with teacher guidance/support as needed. Explicit opportunities are built in for student reflection, teacher feedback, student revision and final presentation. The content and experiences should be standards-based (i.e. students must show mastery of specific information) and skills-based (i.e. students develop cross-curricular skills including critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication) to ensure students are still meeting learning standards.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

Research shows the long-term importance of giving students practice and guidance in integrating information, applying skills, knowing how to think through and solve problems creatively, and collaborate and communicate with others. Project-based learning is shown to increase engagement and long-term retention. With the appropriate teacher support, this active learning approach can be especially beneficial for students who have weaker attention and do well with more hands-on, multi-sensory learning. Project-based learning also provides an opportunity for students with specific strengths in areas such as creative thinking, cognitive flexibility, spatial perception, art and design, to excel in ways they might not with traditional classroom learning and assessment.