Project-Based Learning: A Comprehensive Overview

Project-based learning (PBL) is a dynamic and multifaceted approach to education where students delve into real-world challenges and complex questions through extended exploration. This method fosters a deeper understanding of subject matter and cultivates essential 21st-century skills. PBL transforms the traditional classroom into an active learning environment where students take ownership of their learning journey.

Understanding Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is a general term used to describe several methods of curriculum organization. Although the many types of learning under this broad term have differences in how they are first created and implemented, how they evolve and who works on them, they have similar goals and issues. At its core, PBL involves students working on a project over an extended period - ranging from a week to a semester - to investigate and respond to a complex question, challenge, or problem. Students demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience. As a result, students develop a deep understanding of project content, as well as stronger critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity skills.

The term "project" refers to assignments, or sets of assignments, that are long-term (often two weeks or more) and product-oriented (from small to large scale). Process is important as well, especially in student-driven group projects, where the primary goal may be cooperative learning. However, the reality is that most school projects culminate in a demonstration or exhibition to a large audience, so the final product becomes critical. A typical school project may ask students to research a topic over the course of a few weeks and to produce a written paper, a visual, a skit, a song, a video, an oral presentation, or a combination. Other projects might involve creating larger-scale products, such as museum exhibits, school murals, full plays, or the well-known science fair.

Project-based learning is built on core concepts and design principles that set it apart from other educational methods. The core concepts of project-based learning are authenticity, extended time, inquiry-based learning, public product and teacher as coach.

Historical Roots and Evolution

Project work has long been part of American School's curriculum. As Diffily and Sassman indicated, project work was being done in 1896 at the Lab School at the University of Chicago and articles on projects were published at least as early as 1918. Many variations of project-based learning connect back to the writings of John Dewey, particularly his Experience and Education originally published in 1938. John Dewey is recognized as one of the early proponents of project-based education or at least its principles through his idea of "learning by doing". In My Pedagogical Creed (1897) Dewey enumerated his beliefs including the view that "the teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these". For this reason, he promoted the so-called expressive or constructive activities as the centre of correlation. Educational research has advanced this idea of teaching and learning into a methodology known as "project-based learning".

Read also: What is Project-Based Learning?

William Heard Kilpatrick built on the theory of Dewey, who was his teacher, and introduced the project method as a component of Dewey's problem method of teaching. Kilpatrick endorsed project-based learning in his 1918 essay The Project Method, calling for "whole-hearted purposeful activity proceeding in a social environment". Among many others, Bloom and Gardner have had significant impacts on project-based learning by creating practical frameworks for developing curriculum. Some scholars also associated project-based learning with Jean Piaget's "situated learning" perspective and constructivist theories. Piaget advocated an idea of learning that does not focus on memorization. In the twenty-first century, educational focus has shifted toward STEM and STEAM fields. Project-based learning supports student creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, all critical foundations of STEM and STEAM learning.

Key Elements of Project-Based Learning

Strong projects-that drive student learning and create authentic change-involve the key elements of project-based learning:

A driving question that gives a project meaning.
A relevant final product that students create and share.
Collaboration with community experts.
Time to share the work with a relevant audience outside of the classroom.
Assessment and feedback are built into the project so students know how they are improving and what they are learning.
Reflection on the project and process.

Types of Project-Based Learning

Considering how and why projects are created, and for whom, helps differentiate the project types. Some projects are entirely driven by student interests, while others are created using limited student input or choice. Some projects are created solely by teachers, or teams of teachers, and are often based on their personal interests or passions. These projects are often created and organized around curricular goals and objectives. The audience for projects can vary-a single teacher, a class, the entire grade, the entire school, or even the community. Because students are the ones who are supposed to be working, the role of the teacher in most project-based learning situations is that of facilitator or coach. This shift allows students to learn time management skills and personal responsibility. According to Terry Heick, there are three types of project-based learning. The first is challenge-based learning/problem-based learning, the second is place-based education, and the third is activity-based learning.

Student-Centered or Student-Driven Projects: These projects arise from and guided by student interests, are not constrained by subject or discipline boundaries, and the learning that takes place is connected to the world outside the classroom. These projects are the most free-form and the least driven by curriculum standards. Specific content and skills are embedded in the projects, more as by-products than targets. Some teachers, for example, make connections to curriculum standards only in retrospect, documenting and recording the content and skills learned by the children after projects are completed. As facilitators, teachers then guide the students toward other projects and topics that fill academic gaps. In extreme cases, some teachers will virtually ignore content goals altogether, caring more about student autonomy and collaboration than in specific content. These projects, then, are usually more process-oriented than content-oriented. Applied Learning, as described by Diffily and Sassman, Curriculum Integration, described by Beane, and some service-learning projects may fall into this category.
Teacher-Directed or Curriculum-Directed Projects: These projects offer the least student choice. Teachers with a passion they wish to share with their students often create these projects. A teacher interested in storytelling, for example, may create a project where the students research and learn a story from their family's history. The teacher then creates a list of goals and objectives drawn from the state or local language/arts standards and requires all the students to meet all the requirements. Although students may get a few opportunities to make choices within the project, they are essentially driven by a teacher-selected topic and must meet specific curricular expectations. Many science fairs and single discipline projects fall into this category because of their prescriptive nature.
Hybrid Projects: Most projects will fall somewhere in between the two previous models. For these projects, the teachers recognize the value of student autonomy, but stay committed to curricular goals. The Foxfire Approach described by Starnes and Carone falls into this category. In projects developed by approaches like this, students do not have much choice in what they learn, but they do have nearly complete autonomy in how they learn. Many interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary projects fall into this category because they cross subject boundaries and often ask students to explore outside the realm of curriculum frameworks or specific classes. In many of these projects, students have choices about how to approach the material: as a scientist, as a historian, as a poet, etc.

Getting Started with Project-Based Learning

Teachers wishing to create a project-based curriculum must decide which of the many forms outlined above fits with their situation. Teachers in a content-driven school system can either fulfill their curricular obligations using a project, or alternatively, they can try to carve out a few weeks for an optional project-based curriculum. Before beginning the projects, however, Diffily and Sassman suggest doing pre-project work that includes activities designed for building prerequisite skills such as disagreeing without criticizing, supporting opinions, and decision-making strategies.

There are many considerations that must be weighed when teachers are first trying to develop a project-based curriculum:

Read also: Benefits of Service Learning

Individual & Group Projects

One of the first considerations is deciding whether the projects are for individual students or groups. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Individual projects allow students to choose what interests them, without having to compromise with others. With many teachers facing large class sizes, assigning individual projects can be a problem of too many student interests, not enough follow-through and assessment, and a potential lack of resources.

Group projects offer the opportunity for students to develop a variety of interpersonal skills. As Starnes and Carone indicated, for example, students working in groups must explore, test, and refine their ideas with others, which can lead to deepening and clarifying their own ideas.

Students can be grouped by age, ability, interest, role, and even randomly. Before beginning a group project teachers should consider the advantages and disadvantages of various grouping strategies. Schlemmer and Schlemmer provided great ideas for how to group students for many different situations. Facilitating groups raises its own set of issues:

Framework

Besides working from the state or local standards, teachers may want to use an organizing framework for developing projects. Many teachers have found using Bloom's Taxonomy or Gardner's Multiple Intelligences useful for creating project requirements that educate the whole child. Starnes and Carone provide eleven clear practices for developing projects based on students' interests. Schlemmer and Schlemmer provide a very useful matrix on various differentiation strategies, as well as ideas for differentiating the products themselves. Diffiliy and Sassman provide ideas for getting started as well as ideas for student products.

People Involved

Another early consideration is to decide who exactly should be involved in the project. Because project-based learning often involves many subject areas, teachers may quickly find themselves in unknown territories if they do not involve other teachers, students and/or adults. This is especially true in higher grades, where knowledge becomes more and more specialized and departmentalized. Other teachers, adults and even students can contribute their expertise and resources to the project. In a multidisciplinary approach, for example, students can focus on the historical parts of a project in social studies one period, scientific elements in another period, mathematical components in another, and so on. Experts from outside the school can be contacted, not only to get their input, but also to make connections to the outside world.

As many teachers have discovered, however, coordinating with other faculty can be as much work as the project itself. Conflicting schedules, lack of planning periods, technology failures, and many other factors can make collaboration with colleagues difficult. Teachers may find it easier and more convenient to tap into online communities.

Purpose & Reason

Teachers wishing to create a project-based curriculum should immediately consider the purpose and reason. Like any educational endeavor, students and teachers should not engage in projects simply because they are fun or different. Many teachers have at least initial purposes for their projects: to explore a theme in depth, to build social skills, to empower students to make their decisions, etc. However, the ultimate reason behind the project is often overlooked.

Genuine & Artificial Projects

Even when projects have a purposeful context and end, there is still the consideration of how genuine the projects are. Students are often much more motivated by, and interested in, projects that involve the real world, as opposed to artificial simulations. For example, in a project involving money, the students could be handling fake bills to reach a mathematical goal, or they could be handling real cash in an actual school store to raise money for their own field trips and/or donating to a charity. Sizer referred to this idea as the contrast between life outside of school and traditional school practice.

For many teachers, creating genuine experiences inside of school can be difficult. District requirements, rigid school structures, colleague resentment and other factors can all hinder a teacher's initiative. Very large projects that attempt real world connections may even require school reform or restructuring.

Process & Product

In many ways project-based learning focuses on the final product. The final products, also called artifacts, are often supposed to be comparable in seriousness and scope to those in the real world, complete with a larger audience. Because the products are often large productions like presentations, museum exhibits, and science fairs, many teachers fall into the trap of focusing primarily on the results and neglect the process.

Schoolwork & Homework

Another important consideration in starting is deciding how much of the work is to be completed in school and how much is to be done as homework. Because projects often use up significant amounts of class time, many teachers assign or expect much of the work to be done at home. This leaves valuable class time for things such as: checking in with individuals or groups, assessing progress, problem-solving, teaching and re-teaching related skills or content, and using school resources. Schoolwork, then, is often for organizational issues surrounding the projects themselves, whereas homework is for the work of the projects.

Mandatory & Optional Goals

An important consideration in creating any project is determining what goals and objectives are mandatory versus those that are optional. Since many teachers are in situations that are content-driven, this distinction becomes essentially what is school mandated and what is not. Optional goals allow for student choice and greater variation in the final products. Many teachers who use optional goals create menus, where students can choose what interests them to work on at a particular time. These menus offer students various choices, yet still provide direction. Kohn and Diffily and Sassman have indicated that student autonomy has many benefits, including raising interest and increasing motivation.

Audience

The audience is vitally important for project-based learning. For starters, the audience frames and helps to define the purpose of the project. In general, the larger the audience, the more the project will be taken seriously. When possible, teachers should seek opportunities to increase the size of the audience for their projects, whether that means inviting a few parents into…

The Instructor's Role in Project-Based Learning

The instructor's role in project-based learning is that of a facilitator. They do not relinquish control of the classroom or student learning, but rather develop an atmosphere of shared responsibility. The instructor must structure the proposed question/issue so as to direct the student's learning toward content-based materials. Upfront planning is crucial, in that the instructor should plan out the structural elements and logistics of the project far in advance in order to reduce student confusion once they assume ownership of their projects. The instructor must regulate student success with intermittent, transitional goals to ensure student projects remain focused and students have a deep understanding of the concepts being investigated. The students are held accountable to these goals through ongoing feedback and assessments. The ongoing assessment and feedback are essential to ensure the student stays within the scope of the driving question and the core standards the project is trying to unpack. According to Andrew Miller of the Buck Institute of Education, "In order to be transparent to parents and students, you need to be able to track and monitor ongoing formative assessments that show work toward that standard." The instructor uses these assessments to guide the inquiry process and ensure the students have learned the required content.

Best Practices for Instructors

You, the instructor, play a critical role in ensuring effective PBL.

Design for authenticity and agency: With consideration of your course context, the course learning objectives, and the needs of your students, what project could you have students work on throughout the course? What room will there be for student voice, choice, and input in the project? Who is the audience for the final deliverable?
Build the culture for collaboration: For many students, a PBL approach could be new and their past experiences working in groups may be fraught. The expectation of PBL is that each individual student will contribute to all aspects of the project and will respect and learn from each other’s contributions. How might you work with your students to establish expectations and build class community?
Scaffold student learning: Instructors scaffold project elements and subtasks to help students build upon the work they’re doing. How will you guide students toward the culminating project?
Manage teams and project activities: While students are expected to take ownership of their projects and their work, and learn to use the processes, tools, and strategies of project management, instructors help students as they work collaboratively and define and set project deadlines and subtasks.
Provide feedback: Instructors provide students with feedback on their progress throughout the course of a project. What opportunities will there be for ongoing formative feedback (e.g., written feedback, check-in meetings, facilitating peer- or self-assessment activities)?
Create opportunities for reflection: Students engage in ongoing reflection on their learning and progress throughout the project.
Showcase student work: An important feature of PBL is students having an opportunity to showcase their work. How might you create opportunities for the showcase of student work? Are there campus-wide initiatives you might encourage students to participate in?
Collect feedback: Just as it’s important for instructors to provide students with feedback throughout the process, it’s equally important to collect feedback from students. How might you invite feedback from students throughout the process? What opportunities will you create for responding to and implementing feedback in the moment?

The Student's Role in Project-Based Learning

The student's role is to ask questions, build knowledge, and determine a real-world solution to the issue/question presented. Students must collaborate, expanding their active listening skills and requiring them to engage in intelligent, focused communication, therefore allowing them to think rationally about how to solve problems. In the digital and remote learning era, traditional roles have adapted to incorporate virtual collaboration. Instructors now serve as digital facilitators, using online platforms to monitor progress and provide asynchronous feedback, while students must develop both project and digital management skills.

Benefits of Project-Based Learning

PBL is an innovative approach to developing student skills and offers significant benefits for today’s students. The world that students will graduate into hasn’t been created yet-a reality that has come into sharp focus with the invention and development of A.I. Educators know this, and know that teaching students reading, writing, and math just isn’t enough anymore. That’s where project-based learning comes in. The benefits of rigorous PBL (project-based learning) go beyond learning standards and moving through a curriculum. Students who learn through projects:

Gain deeper learning as concepts are connected to real-world scenarios.
Are more engaged in learning and find learning more relevant.
Demonstrate independence and persistence in learning.

In fact, one study found that students who learned through project-based learning demonstrated stronger academic achievement and thinking skills, compared with students who engaged in traditional learning models. Furthermore, the benefits of project-based learning apply to all students, particularly those in low-income schools. In addition to the academic skills students develop through project-based learning, students also develop 21st-century skills, including critical thinking and communication. Through project-based learning, students are taught and required to use collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.

Proponents of project-based learning cite numerous benefits to the implementation of its strategies in the classroom - including a greater depth of understanding of concepts, a broader knowledge base, improved communication, and interpersonal/social skills, enhanced leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing skills. Some of the most significant contributions of Project-based learning have been in schools of comparative disadvantage where it has been linked to increased self-esteem, better work habits, and more positive attitudes toward learning. Student-choice and autonomy may contribute to students growing more heavily interested in the subject, as discovered by researchers in a 2019 study in which they evaluated student engagement in a Project-Based after-school program.

Challenges and Considerations

Opponents of project-based learning caution against negative outcomes primarily in projects that become unfocused, as underdeveloped assignments or lessons may result in the waste of class time and inability to achieve the learning objectives.

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