April 17-21, 2017

Each Friday we post a list of articles, blog posts, research studies, and other resources we’ve run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

Here’s what we liked this week:

Immigration and Borders: Student Exploration Through Art, Dialogue, and Travel
Education Week
Ryan Sprott, AP World History teacher at International School of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas (who is in the process of becoming one of our National Faculty) describes a timely project that sounds great; multi-disciplinary, engaging, an arts inquiry component, and an intriguing essential question: What is the purpose of a border?

#PBLChat: When Projects Go Wrong
New Tech Network
I joined NTN’s Matt Thompson in hosting this Twitter chat on April 18. We had lots of excellent conversation with thoughtful educators and shared resources about how to avoid some common trouble spots in PBL.

School district destination: Deeper learning
District Administration
An overview of the Hewlett-funded Deeper Learning network, most of whose schools use PBL, with practical advice for school leaders and a strong argument for using PBL with low-income and at-risk students.

Be The Change You Want to See By Shifting Traditional High School
KQED Mind/Shift
This detailed post tells how two teachers started a school-within-a-school program that uses PBL and combines English, science, history, and work-based learning.

New Promise in a Historic Rural High School Through Project-Based Learning
American Youth Policy Forum
How PBL is changing the culture of a school and transforming students – many of whom are low-income, rural black students. This is Part 3 of a blog series about AYPF’s recent study tour to South Carolina, “Advancing Equity through Deeper Learning in Rural Schools: The Journey of School Transformation.”

High school should be more like preschool
The Hechinger Report
An overview of the recent spread of PBL-using schools in diverse settings across the U.S., with a focus on City Neighbors High School in Baltimore.

Teacher-Centered Versus Learner-Centered Learning
KnowledgeWorks
A short post with a table showing the differences between teacher-centered and learner-centered learning (which demonstrates how compatible PBL is with the latter).

Interdisciplinary Education and the Student Voice
Psychology Today
A report on a study about what qualities in a student are most important for interdisciplinary education, which found the (PBL-friendly) winners to be: openness, creativity, bridging, and perspective-taking.

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