Project Based Learning (PBL)

I also just finished reading the much-discussed article of Susan Gaer, “Less Teaching and More Learning.” I found how she motivated the learners for Project Based Learning. It is also informative for the initiation. She is right to opine that students learn more than a teacher teaches.

Project Based Learning (PBL):

Project-based learning is a component of an inquiry-based approach to learning. In this approach, students create knowledge and understanding through learning activities built around intellectual inquiry and a high degree of engagement with meaningful tasks. Within the context of this inquiry-based approach, projects take the role traditionally afforded to assessments such as tests and quizzes. Projects are designed to allow students with a variety of different learning styles to demonstrate their acquired knowledge.

4 basic elements of a classic project-based learning activity:

1) an extended time frame;

2) collaboration;

3) inquiry, investigation, and research; and finally,

4) the construction of an artifact or performance of a consequential task.

Rubrics:

I think there is very big role of rubrics in PBL for evaluating the sense of understanding of the students. It can simply help measure the understanding of the students. It also makes the students clear about the concepts of the project or activity they are involved in.

These days, students also want to do several activities of learning and developing their skills independently but within a limit. Article about rubrics also states "Providing separate scores for different dimensions of a student's writing or speaking performance does not give the teacher or the student a good assessment of the whole of a performance." Analytical Rubrics provide detailed information about the strengths and weaknesses of the students in their language proficiency.

Since the Project Based Learning deals with an extended time frame; collaboration; inquiry, investigation, and research; and the construction of an artifact or performance of a consequential task, the students can do much more than a teacher expects them to. PBL gives them confidence and encouragement with motivation to work in group to meet a target and show that they can also do.

PBL is an approach to teaching with a target and motivation where the learners work in group with the help of given instructions and resources, planning to come up with a solution. It is also a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing cross-curriculum skills while working in small collaborative groups. PBL could be incorporated as a powerful tool in the curriculum itself. It can be incorporated for almost all the subjects.