Project-Based
LEARNING
Have you ever felt like you were climbing and climbing, stepping on each rung carefully, only to reach the top, look up, and still be too short to reach the apple?
The format of today's educational system bleeds this connundrum and it reads something like this: Get on the first rung, study one particular subject through lecture and writings, take test, move to next rung. Similar to the practice of medicine today, extracting a single object from the whole being is leaving the operative limited. Today's traditional education model is trying to extract out a particular subject , teach it independent of the others, then show cognition through testing.
This traditional (flat) structure of education is gaining a lot of resilience, especially since the inception of the Internet and tools thus associated. Charter. alternative, and specialized high schools are popping up throughout our communities fullfilling a need to provide an education that engages the learner in a more harmonious gathering of subjects.
One particular method for doing this is Project Based Learning (PBL). PBL is a format for educating that involves the followinig characteristics: engagement, multi-subject connectivity, assessment and improvment in place of grades, and applying skills to real life scenarios.
Often, in traditional classrooms, PBL is a short term, small piece to the curriculum. A more progressive format of PBL consists of taking a whole term or longer to create a working project that encompasses the use of multiple subjects. Students may be assessed throughout as a means to encourage improvement and cognition; not just to obtain the apple.
The goal of a well thought out, planned project is to create a learner who recognizes the connection of the information with the outside world. The learner is able to apply what they learned in another setting and they are making connections to other people along the way, aka "networking".