An
example of project-based learning would perhaps be the culminating task for a
unit that I came up with for a Grade 9 Applied French class on my third
teaching block. The unit theme was music
(Very original on my part, right?) and the culminating, inquiry-based project
was that students had to plan a weekend trip to see their favourite singer or
group perform. This project was
inquiry-based because the students had to figure out what they would need to
make the plan. They needed to be able to
sustain a short phone conversation with a friend to make arrangements to meet
up (questions, date, time, and familiar vs. formal language), they needed to be
able to buy tickets at a ticket booth (questions, numbers, recognizing methods
of payment and when the vendor makes a mistake), and they needed to be able to
make a schedule (date, time, basic vocabulary).
They also needed to be able to say who their favourite singer was and
why (verbs of feeling; giving good reasons).
All instruction and all assignments were geared toward preparing
students for the culminating task.
My
experience with project-based learning as a learner is that it can be
frustrating. Inquiry-based learning was
the big thing while I was taking my undergraduate degree, and sometimes I felt
as if project/inquiry-based learning was an excuse for the professor or T.A. to
tell us nothing, yet claim to be teaching us.
I find that this sort of strategy is the kind that the student fails to
appreciate on the short term, but appreciates immensely on the long term. The inquiry-based approach more accurately
depicts real-life, which hurls a series of problems at you that you must
overcome in order to succeed.
As
a teacher, my experience with project-based learning is that it turns you into
a resource person, rather than a lecturer.
Instead of tossing water at empty glasses and hoping that some gets in,
you give them the pitcher so they can pour it themselves, and they also have
the choice of lemonade! I also
appreciate the focus that project-based learning gives my instruction. No more busy-work, it’s all relevant, or if
it’s not, students pick the knowledge that’s most relevant to them. You can still fulfill all the curriculum
requirements, even if students are learning slightly different content.
It’s
this ability to differentiate our instruction that makes project-based learning
relevant to today’s students. Our
society requires more and more education and is becoming more and more
specialized. In this type of society, the
patience for generalist knowledge wanes.
Students want to learn things that are going to be relevant to them, in
their future. Rather than designing a
French class where the few students who go on to study French literature will
benefit, we can design French classes where all students are learning the
grammar and vocabulary that will be most useful to them on their chosen path.
Link
for Project-Based Learning:
It
is important that students learn from examples because they have to be able to
connect what they’re learning in the classroom to real-life situations and
scenarios. This connection is important
because it’s what motivates students to work hard and what engages them in
their own learning. It’s almost
evolutionary: unless what I’m doing has a direct link to my survival, do I want
to invest a lot of time in it?
The
project-based learning strategy can be used to inform and teach students,
rather than giving them the information directly, by setting up the project so
that the work that those students complete answers their own questions. Rather than me saying, “Here’s
information. Learn it and you’ll be able
to answer this question,” students begin with the question, and then find the
answer(s).
This
form of instruction could easily be considered individualized or
student-centred because as aforementioned, students’ own learning goals are the
focus of teaching and learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment