Project-Based Instruction
Synopsis
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects. It is a dynamic, flexible pedagogy that may look different for every group of students in every classroom. The essential elements promote deeper learning, greater engagement and higher quality work. These elements include: Challenging problem or question; Sustained inquiry; 21st Century Skills; Significant Content; Student voice and choice; Feedback and Revision; and Public audience. From a teacher’s perspective, Project-Based Learning is a method of structuring curriculum around projects to promote learning of prioritized academic content. These projects highlight the process of learning itself by offering authentic, inquiry-based activities for learners to access content, share ideas, and revisit their own thinking. At the risk of becoming redundant, return again to the difference between projects and project-based learning–primarily that Project-Based Learning is about the process, and projects are about the product that comes at the end. Project-Based Learning often requires students not simply to collect resources, organize work, and manage long-term activities, but also to collaborate, design, revise, and share their ideas and experiences with authentic audiences and supportive peer groups in the classroom, or within physical and digital communities the student is a member of and contributes to. When PBL is effectively programmed and scaffolded, this can have a significant impact on the students and the teachers’ practices.
