Project Based Learning in the Classroom

When I was a high school student, I loved solving problems. Not a problem on my AP Calculus test that I spent the previous night studying all night for but real problems. I wanted these problems to challenge me and push me to think creatively, critically, and collaboratively with other students. This was fun. This was challenging. 

When looking at pedagogy in the present day, I am personally moved and inspired by what project based learning aims to achieve for students. The traditional, essentialist paradigm of teaching is questionable in its ability to prepare students for the real-world. By limiting students to lectures and tests, educators can limit the vast possibilities of a young, passionate mind. Students become bored or burnt out. To combat this, project based learning pushes students to utilize critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication to solve a project or problem. These problems are multi-faceted and complex; they are not easy. However, the fruit of this approach is seen in the development of the young mind. This approach can change the attitude of a student and drastically improve the student's trajectory in terms of his or her future learning and career development. With such an important and daunting task, it is important for me to look at other educators' perspectives on project based learning. Thus, I looked at two blogposts: "My Plans for PBL Leadership in 2019" by Gabriel Fernandez and "Strategies for Teaching Argumentative Writing" by Andrea Marshbank. 

The blogpost written by Gabriel Fernandez looks at specific ways to ensure that effective project based learning is happening in the classroom. He is an educator who, similar to me, sees the complexity and daunting nature of project based learning, so he explores six questions that will improve his approach for the new year. He looks at these questions with the perspective of providing high quality work for students and improving their experiences. One of the questions that impacted me was question five, or "How will we increase our instructional competence?" This question looks at the teachers' role in the project based learning approach and how they must be committed to increase their "pedagogical prowess and instructional competence" (Fernandez, 2019). Teachers are in charge of critiquing and revising students' work and in my classroom, I want to ensure that I am doing my part by providing effective feedback to further their understanding and encouraging them to improve.

The blogpost written by Andrea Marshbank looks at strategies for teaching argumentative writing in a ninth grade English class. Marshbank sees argumentative writing as a crucial skill for the real world and a facet of project based learning. Arguing is something students have to be good at; students have to argue to college administrators why they are fit for the school, and they have to argue to their job interviewer why they are fit for the job. To ensure that students can improve their argumentative skills and solve problems in the real world, Marshbank looks at the strategies of illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, extending, and countering and how to teach them to students. One strategy that I resonated with was countering because I think it is valuable to look at opposing arguments and think in different perspectives. In my classroom, I want to enforce these strategies to teach students that argumentative writing is important because it allows our voices to be heart. 

Although I am hopeful and inspired by what project based learning can achieve, I do see the challenges of implementing PBL effectively in the classroom. Primarily, the traditional paradigm of teaching is easier; there is a specific way to do things, and teachers just have to adhere to the set curriculum and teach for the sake of knowledge. However, with PBL, there is an addition of the 4 C's -critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. How do we ensure that students are being developed in these areas? How do we evaluate their intellectual growth? Lastly, teachers have to show pedagogical prowess and competence, a reflection of how complex PBL is. How do we make sure that teachers are effective in facilitating a PBL-classroom? 

Source: 

http://www.bie.org/blog/my_plans_for_pbl_leadership_in_2019

https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategies-teaching-argument-writing