Top PBL News Stories

 

Here are some articles, blog posts, research studies, and other resources I’ve recently run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

 

Vote for our session at SxSWedu! Featuring our CPO Brandon Wiley and the voices of students: What’s In It for Me? The Power of Projects.

 

Problem-Solving Techniques Take On a New Twist
The Harvard Gazette
Very interesting implications for project based teaching in this research by a professor at Harvard Business School. Key finding: for the best solutions, intermittent group work is better than constant interaction. Also this: “higher performers were able to get even better by learning from the low performers.”

Implementing Equity in Education
District Administration
Several angles on equity issues are covered in this article, including powerful professional development by the Oregon Center for Educational Equity that emphasizes dialogue about race and gender. Also featured: Buck Institute Executive Director Bob Lenz, pointing out that PBL can build teachers’ cultural competence and ability to be more inclusive of all students.

Leveraging Project-Based Learning to Improve Career Readiness
America Achieves
This white paper takes a thorough look at how PBL prepares students for today’s world of work. I like that it talks about the importance of authenticity, and creating the right conditions in a school for PBL to thrive. Lots of links to research studies and resources—and citations of the Buck Institute, plus a career-ed adaptation of our Project Design Rubric.

Innovations in Education: Project Based Learning
Reading Horizons
Motivate Learning Through PBL
We’re Doing It Wrong
I'm featured on these two recent podcasts. The first one is 38 minutes, covers the what & why of PBL, and also includes a parent of a student experiencing PBL and “Nerdy Teacher” blogger/author Nick Provenzano. The second one is an hour of just me going into a variety of PBL topics I was asked about by host Joe Pazar.

Using Continuous Improvement to Disrupt Inequity and Promote Deeper Learning
Education Week
EL Education, which uses PBL extensively, has been engaged for two years in its “Crew” project to promote more equitable learning experiences for students, and this article reports on lessons learned.

Learning to Lead K-12 Project Based Learning
District Administration
Our National Faculty member Michael Niehoff offers practical advice for school and district leaders who want to implement PBL, focusing on “expectations, culture, and collaboration.”

The Project-Based Path to Learning
The Hindu Business Line
More evidence that PBL is going global: Blogger Vishnu Karthik makes the case, saying, “This form of pedagogy reflects the ethos of globalisation with focus on collaboration and empathy.”

Empower Learners Through Project-Based Learning
ISTE
Teacher Rachelle Dene Poth describes her Spanish class project that focused on U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and used tech tools to connect with other students around the world.

Embracing Inquiry-Based Instruction
Edutopia
A biology teacher at Saddle Brook High School in New Jersey reflects on the struggles and successes she and her colleagues experienced when trying a new approach (not quite PBL, but a stepping stone) and on its potential.

The 7 Keys to Creative Collaboration
John Spencer
Another well-done animated video from John Spencer, on what makes teams effective.

Post-Secondary PBL Supports
Ginger Lewman
A handy collection of blog posts, articles, and resources about using PBL at the college level.

Walther Farms Project
Schoolcraft Strategic Partnerships for Learning
This sounds like a very cool K-4 project that combines math, reading, social studies, and science, in which a school worked with a local farm. Love their video, “The Next Potato.”

 

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