PBL Global

I recently enrolled in  Thom Markham's online PBL Global course. The course is designed introduce teachers to the principles, practices and instructional benefits of Project Based Learning.The course outlines best practices for successfully planning, managing, and assessing a project. During the introduction to best practices section I was asked to consider my thoughts on the following questions about PBL:

How would you describe the main difference between old style 'projects' and PBL to a colleague? 

Old style projects is focused on the teacher giving students information and direction in their learning. PBL requires active engagement from students. Students learn they have a voice and choice in their learning. They are involved in activities relating to real world problem solving and requiring critical thinking.

 It's the end of the school year. Your student just graded you on how well you've implemented PBL. What did he / she say?

At first we didn't fully see what our teachers were trying to get us to do. The way we were learning was different and we had some anxiety about this. At first we required extrinsic motivation to complete PBL and our teachers needed to help us lots. Now we can better see where we are heading and no longer require extrinsic motivation as we are motivated to complete these projects that are more interesting than how we previously learned.

Explain how you plan to stimulate higher-order thinking, creativity, and a nonlinear path-of-action among your students by 'Coaching' as well as 'Teaching.'

By leaving grades and success criteria out when establishing the driving question to ensure that the focus is on students having active participation in their learning. Ensure the emphasis of PBL is on the learning and that together we create authentic learning opportunities. Presenting new information to students to get students asking more questions. Transferring ownership of learning to students while tapping into their curiosities. Also ensuring students are involved in the assessment process through them assisting with creating the likes of rubrics for assessment.

When I stop and take some time to reflect on our school's PBL journey it is obvious that we have come a long way. Within our hub our next steps are:

• Transferring ownership to your students when establishing driving questions/ sub questions.
• Prepare students to take control and establish increased direction.
• Give quality feedback that is descriptive, clear, timely, consistent and actionable.