While doing reporting for Edutopia’s series, “Schools that Work,”  I’ve encountered references to project-based learning, project learning, problem-based learning, and expeditionary learning.  Is there a difference among these?  If so, would someone help me understand the distinctions?  Thank you.

A Post on Behalf of John Mergendoller, BIE Executive Director:

Hi Kathy, good to hear from you.

As for your question, it depends upon who you talk to.

At BIE, we believe that project based learning is the umbrella term incorporating problem-based learning and project learning—as well as many other descriptions of teaching and learning that individuals/organizations coin (inquiry based learning, anchored instruction, simulation based learning, etc.). For us Project Based Learning is the big tent, and there are more similarities among the “learnings” that fit in the tent than there are differences.

From our point of view, Problem Based Learning is a subtype of Project Based Learning because it is built around a carefully defined problem or scenario. It’s roots are generally traced back to medical education in the 60’s when Howard Barrows decided to see if he could make medical education more engaging by presenting medical students with carefully constructed simulated patients an asking them to diagnose what was wrong with the patient and proscribe treatment. Barrows gave the medical students copies of lab results, descriptions of what the patient said and how s/he looked, xrays and the like and asked them to decide what should be done next (lab tests? drugs? specialist?). To make these decisions, students generally defined “learning issues” and assigned different learning issues to different members of the group. Barrows was there to guide the deliberations, ask pointed questions, etc.

Problem based learning is alive and well—you can download high school economics and government problems from the tools section of our website or find others by googling problem based learning. Generally these problems require students to assume a specific role (student council trying to raise money for the school, UN advisors to a governing body of a newly formed nation) and solve a carefully specified problem. In general, problem based learning is base on a scenario (you are the student council and you need to . . .) and is much like a simulation. In contrast, project based learning usually involves creating something, or addressing a real world issue. There are hybrids, of course.

Project learning is, from my (and probably BIE’s) point of view, an unneeded and confusing term. The ORACLE educational foundation began using this term several years ago. GLEF also switched to Project Learning from Project Based Learning. Milton would have to tell you why. The Project Management Institute Educational Foundation also adopted project learning. But let me tell you, no one else has. I get Google alerts weekly on “project based learning” and “project learning.” The words, project learning, appear very infrequently on the web. When they do appear, it is generally in the context of a description of “Project Learning Tree” (a good organization) or a blogger who writes, “the goal of our project is learning what . . .” As far as I can see, only GLEF and OEF use project learning to mean what the rest of the educational world calls project based learning. And that’s why I said the term is unneeded and confusing.

I hope this is helpful—feel free to follow up if you’d like to explore this more. And, at the risk of seeming vain, it might be useful to take a look at the beginning of the “Pervasive Management of Project Based Learning” article which is downloadable from the research section of the BIE website.

http://www.bie.org/research/study/pervasive_management_of_project_based_learning

There we try to define project based learning (which you can call project learning if you wish) and talk about some of the complexities inherent in attempting such a definition.

best-

j.

If I may jump in to add another thought, Expeditionary Learning is an non-profit educational transformation organization that partners with new and existing schools to improve school culture, student character, and academic achievement with a rigorous project-based and research-backed curriculum.  They are in 165 schools across the country and reach nearly 50,000 students.  You can find more information at http://www.elschools.org.

Hello Newbie—

We are big fans of Expeditionary Learning. They have been around a along time, have a solid instructional model, and have test results that demonstrate its effectiveness. Also, High Tech <www.hightechhigh.org>, New Tech <www.newtechfoundation.org> and Envision Schools <www.envisionschools.org> all use Project Based Learning as a core instructional technology extremely well.

In their evaluation report for Gates-funded small high schools, researchers from SRI International and American Institutes of Research devoted a page (p. 40) to “project based learning”, noting:

    “Among the schools in this initiative that reported efforts to implement a common pedagogy across all classes, project-based learning (PBL) is the most commonly cited instructional strategy”

They try to distinguish between problem and project based learning, but conclude that:

    The distinction bet ween the two approaches is fuzzy, however, and many educators will refer to the same activity interchangeably as “project-based” or “problem-based” learning, or simply “PBL.”.

Source.  Mitchell, K., Shkolnik, J.,Song, M, Uekawa, K., Murphy, R., Garet, M., & Means, B. (2005).  Rigor, relevance, and results: The quality of teacher assignments and student work in new and conventional high schools.  Washington, D.C.:  American Institutes for Research and SRI International, p. 40.   http://smallhs.sri.com/documents/Rigor_Rpt_10_21_2005.pdf

Personally, I find it useful to use PBL to avoid conflict, but I think of project-based as a broader term, with problem-based learning being a particularly well-honed approach with certain characteristics that not all projects share.  In BIE’s survey of project based learning in high schools, only 17% of teachers said they preferred to call it something besides project-based or PBL (e.g. problem- or inquiry-based).  Of course, we asked the same questions about instructional practices regardless of what they called it!  There are a lot of other aspects of PBL not discussed here and more specific definitions that appear in various places.  Would those be useful to share?  What works for you?

I have a question for anyone here who can answer me. I would like to use PBL for a higher education project. I’m a teacher for a master in public administration program. Do you think that PBL could be used successfully at this level? Hope someone can answer me. Thank you and waiting for feedback.

Diana,

Yes, there has been growing interest in PBL in a number of fields, and evidence of effectiveness in areas such as the one you are studying. 

This is documented in the IJPBL meta-analysis issue (the Walker & Leary Meta-analysis, specifically, and briefly in my introduction)
http://www.bie.org/research/study/meta

From my introduction : “PBL shows considerable promise outside of medical education…the most favorable results for PBL appeared in studies of teacher education, social science, business, allied health, and other disciplines. Walker and Leary found that it is in these non-medical disciplines where new problem types are most likely to be explored, e.g.,“strategic performance”and “design” problems that so far have had better outcomes than comparison treatments.”
     
You can also see the wide range of disciplines using PBL on the “unofficial” AERA SIG page I created here.  http://tinyurl.com/aerasigpbl  I think there is work in UK and Australia and you might see.  Also Maastricht University, Netherlands emphasizes PBL and has an English web site for its programs.  Finally, you might look at the University of Delaware link which points to a clearinghouse of PBL in higher education.

These are just the ones that spring to mind.  I’m sure you will find others. 

Good luck,

Jason