PBL Home          Resources          Standards          Inspiration          About the Author
Literature Review                History/Rationale              

History/Rationale

Initial analysis
Using project based learning to foster an environment of mastery and student engagement

Description of the Educational Context 

Many of my colleagues have mentioned the apathy that seemingly all students these days have towards learning.  Clearly the style of teaching is in need of a makeover, but for many teachers, developing a new style of teaching after 15+ years of teaching one particular way, seems daunting and is outside of their comfort zone.

Learners

Often times, teachers are not up to date on current methods and new technology that will enhance learning, or even worse, they have been inundated throughout the years with various strategies, never fully mastering or feeling comfortable with one in particular.  With my fellow cohorts of the Touro M.Ed. program, one of our plans is to offer a step by step guide to using project-based learning in the classroom that will allow for mastery of a subject as well as ensuring student engagement.

Evidence that Instruction is Appropriate as a Potential Strategy

According to Ruth Colvin Clark, we as humans will believe one thing and then not explore any other ways of doing something.  Many times, it is comfortable for us as teachers to fall into a routine of teaching a particular style throughout the years instead of adapting our teaching style to the needs of our students. In addition, the emphasis on teaching to the standards has stifled the creativity of many teachers and teachers are hesitant to develop new strategies in fear of diminishing standardized test scores or advanced placement scores.  The standards that are focused on with Common Core, however, focus less on the subject and more on the way the student thinks about the subject.

Justification for Instructional Product Chosen to Meet Learner Need

One of the ways people will make sense of things is through interaction with others, according to Clark.  Communication and collaboration are 2 of the 4 C’s in 21st century learning, and project-based learning not only allows for these two, but thrives upon it.  Allowing students to communicate and collaborate with each other in a structured environment while working on a PBL assignment is a great way to ensure that students are mastering material, while keeping them engaged with the task.  PBL also allows for the other 2 C’s to be utilized, creativity and critical thinking, on a daily basis.  Given this, PBL is an excellent teaching strategy to help our students develop 21st century skills while mastering subject matter content to pass standardized or advanced placement tests.  With the implementation of the Common Core standards in 2014, helping students develop the skills that the 4 C's represent will be vital to the success of the students not only in life after high school, but also on those all important tests.

Sources of Data

The sources of data that were used in this research are from the history department at Vintage High School.

Methods of Data Collection

Data was collected through a survey that was given to the teachers at a staff meeting.  The questions revolve around the teaching strategies teachers currently use, their comfort level of utilizing web 2.0 tools in the class room, and incorporating the 4 C's of learning to help students prepare for the Common Core standards.

Findings

Of the 12 teachers who were in attendance for the staff meeting, all 12 of them completed this survey.  The following are the results of this survey:

Conclusions and Recommendations

Summary of findings

Based on the survey, direct instruction is the prefered method in 92% of the history classrooms.  This is not surprising based on interactions with teachers in the past.  Given the rigors that are involved in PBL, the pressure put on teachers by the state in the form of the CST, and the fact that teachers, like all people, are creatures of habit.  Changing a teaching style that has been in use for numerous years is scary even if he CST’s are not taken into account.

When speaking with teachers, I found many of them confused doing projects in class with project based learning.  After clarifying that in PBL you do not preteach but instead the students learn from the problem, some of the teachers expressed how misinformed they were with PBL.

The survey also suggests that the majority of teachers in the history department are not excited about web 2.0 tools.  Most of the web 2.0 tools were familiar to the staff, at least in name, but the general consensus is that those tools didn’t have much of a place in their classrooms because the students didn’t have access to technology during class. From the low number of teachers who utilize their students cell phones in class, I wonder if the real reason for the lack of web 2.0 in these classes is simply because their particular teaching style isn’t favorable to these tools.

User Goals

1) To help make teachers comfortable with PBL so they will use it in their class
2) Create a database of PBL projects for each subject in the department
3) A stronger presence in the school and community through projects

Instructional Goals

First I will work with other teachers in my department to help them get comfortable teaching with 21st century skills in mind.  I plan to have a data base of numerous PBL/CBL project available for every subject in our department.  I will then help other teachers on an individual basis to help them get comfortable with PBL.
  1. With the help of 2 other teachers, we will each make PBL lessons for geography, world history, U.S. history, government, and economics this year.
  2. We will print these out and formulate a booklet of PBL lessons so other teachers can emulate and use at their convenience.
  3. We will video record various scenarios during a PBL lesson to give other teachers an idea of what they can expect when teaching using PBL.
  4. This website that is being made by the cohorts of Touro M.Ed. program will be a great way for my colleagues to get initial and extra information on teaching in a 21st century classroom.

References

Ahn, R., Class, M. 2011. Student-Centered Pedagogy: Co-Construction of Knowledge through Student-Generated Midterm Exams. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 23(2) 269-281

Clark, R. C. (1999).Developing technical training: A structured approach for the development of classroom and computer-based instructional materials (2nd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: International Society for Performance Improvement.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 

Johnson, D. Johnson, R., Winter 1988. Cooperative Learning: Two heads learn better than one,  Transforming Education (IC#18) 34

Slavin, R., 1991. Student Team Learning: A practical guide to Cooperative Learning. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED339518.pdf

Appendix

This survey is designed to see how comfortable you are with PBL and Web 2.0 tools.  The results are anonymous and will be used on a website that helps teachers become familiar with project based learning and integrating various forms of technology into the classroom.