Top 6 PBL News Stories

 

March 28 – April 1, 2016

 

Each Friday we post a list of our favorite articles, blog posts, and other resources we’ve run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

Here’s what we liked this week:

Dear Class, Welcome to the Real World
Forbes
"The education we have no longer corresponds to the education we need" says Sebastien Turbot, who praises the power of PBL, drawing from what he's seeing as a parent of young children and as an educator at the Paris School of International Affairs.

Gallup Poll Finds Engagement in School Dropping by Grade Level
Education Week
Further support for one of our main arguments for PBL. Sadly, only 32% of 11th graders say they are engaged, compared to 75% of 5th graders. The reason? “Older students feel less cared for by adults and see less value in their own work.”

Debating Real Scientific Questions Fosters Deeper Learning
Expeditionary Learning
“Deeper learning is most likely to happen when students are exploring a genuine question together,” according to Hillary Mills, in this post from BIE’s fellow traveler in Deeper Learning. Check out the two videos showing students engaging in academic conversations about science.

Exhibitions: Purpose Behind Hard Work
Coalition of Essential Schools
A great article by Nancy Faust Sizer, wife of the late Ted Sizer (a guru of mine, who once visited my classroom at Oceana HS) whose ideas influenced a generation of school reformers. In BIE’s language it’s “public product” but the ideas are the same: exhibitions “emphasize depth, engagement, appropriate goals for each student, personalization and student initiative. It is student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach.”

Discover, Acknowledge, and Learn from Your Innovative Teachers
Education Week
A valuable message to school leaders who “cling to traditional classroom design, the delivery of information, the assigning of homework as practice, assessing through multiple choice and essay tests…” – support teachers who are trying “new and pioneering learning opportunities” such as PBL.

4 Ways to Use Project Based Learning to Support English Language Learners
Getting Smart
Bonnie Lathram and Megan Mead provide helpful ideas and resources (including BIE’s book, PBL for 21st Century Success). Sample quote: “Projects allow students to experience through creating and therefore pulling knowledge that they already have–despite the language.”

 

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