Digital Age PBL

Really interesting diagram using a bike analogy of what PBL is.

That's a great graphic image!!

Social Studies PBL in 5 Steps: 1. Create a question for students to answer. 2. Give students time to research. 3. Have students organize and visualize their research. 4. Have students create their stories. 5. Students share their projects.

Social Studies PBL in 5 Steps: 1. Create a question for students to answer. 2. Give students time to research. 3. Have students organize and visualize their research. 4. Have students create their stories. 5. Students share their projects.

Project-Based learning

This article from the Journal of STEM Education presents teachers (who don't normally experience what is like to work in fields outside of education) who took part in externships in STEM jobs so they could learn for themselves exactly the types of scenarios their students might encounter. The results drove authenticity in their PBL teaching. I think it's important for teachers to truly understand these demands, and not just read about them. If we provide these contextualized environments for our students because we believe it's best for their learning, why don't we work toward providing those same experiences for ourselves? Bowen, B., & Shume, T. (2018). Educators in Industry: An Exploratory Study to Determine how Teacher Externships Influence K-12 Classroom Practices. Journal of STEM Education, 19(1), 5-10.

The students create itineraries in the target language to travel to different cities of their choice.

An excellent overview describing what the TIM is and how to use it.

This article by Melinda Kolk, supports the same argument about the value an authentic audience can have on learning as the Monica Burns article. What I liked about Kolk's thinking that was different, was the idea of a flexible audience. Different groups may have different audiences based on the information and stakeholders the groups choose. Kolks also stressed the need for not just authentic audiences, but for authentic and real-world problems, which might influence who the audience is. The article suggests focusing on ideas that matter, work that matters, and effort that matters (Move from Projects to Project-Based Learning, 2022).

This article from Edutopia, written by Monica Burns, shares the value of having an authentic audience with project- based learning. An authentic audience gives purpose to the work by placing it in the real world with real people interacting with their creations. Different audiences can be selected based on the content and the goal of the learning. Audiences can vary from students in the school, other schools, or members of the community.

This study compared 7th and 8th graders' achievement between groups of students who engaged in project-based learning with those who did not. This study is based on Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory, a method of experiential learning that starts with observation and reflections that leads to abstract concepts that lead to new ideas and thinking (Cervantes et al., 2015). The learning cycle, pictured below helps students learn and practice 21st-century learning skills needed for both college and career. The groups that engaged in project-based learning outperformed the groups that did not engage in PBL in both STAAR reading and math tests(Cervantes et al., 2015).

Good example ideas for Elementary level teachers

I found this article interesting and worth sharing with the class because it has to do with the benefits of PBL for students with ADHD.

I went to the AECT.org site to see what it had about project-based learning. AECT stands for Association for Educational Communications and Technology. It is a professional organization for people interested in educational technology. I first checked out its "divisions" to see if it had one dedicated to PBL (it does not). I eventually searched the site for the term, which surprisingly only resulted a few hits. One was an interview with Dr. Krista Glazewski, who serves as the editor for Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning (IJPBL). I was curious to see if that journal would include the topic of PROJECT-based learning, and it does. The interview was informative because it talks about the three main areas this journal covers (research, conceptual pieces, and "voices from the field"). Professor Glazewski explains that it is an open access journal, committed to remaining free to contributors and readers. (the first 10 minutes was especially informative)