Project Based Learning: Engaging Class in Independent

Meets the needs of learners with varying skill levels and learning styles.

Engages and motivates bored or indifferent students

As with any teaching method, Project Based Learning can be used effectively or ineffectively. At its best, Project Based Learning can help us as a teacher create a high performing classroom in which we as a teacher and our students form a powerful learning community focused on achievement, self-mastery, and contribution to the community. It allows teacher to focus on central ideas and salient issues in the curriculum, create engaging and challenging activities in the classroom, and support self-directed learning among our students.

 

Project Based Learning in Our Classroom 

Planning for a project must take into account what is possible in our classroom. The scope of a project will be affected by the bell schedule, the time allocation, and the many other factors that impact our work that will affect our consideration to conduct project to our class. Perhaps the first question that usually arises is: do I have time to do this project? To answer that question, it is helpful not to think of Project Based Learning as taking time away from the regular curriculum. Instead, consider a standards-focused project as a central method of teaching and learning that replaces conventional instruction for a portion of your course. Standards-focused projects teach students the same essential information you might teach them through lecture and discussion. Project Based Learning teachers also find that they do considerably less ''busy work" activities in the classroom. And, though projects take time to plan, teachers have more time to work with students once a project is under way.

It is true that projects do not lend themselves to covering a laundry list of topics, as too often happens in the classroom. But in the case of good education, less is more. If you are pressed for time and need to include many topics in your instruction during a year, you may want to think about the concept of "uncoverage." This means making a de- liberate decision about topics that you want to teach in depth versus topics that can be simply "covered." What parts of your curriculum can be easily and successfully handled through lectures or textbook assignments? What parts require more depth? Identify those topics that reflect the most important ideas and concepts in your curriculum and incorporate those topics into projects. Those are the topics with which you want students to grapple. The remaining topics you can deal with through direct instruction.

Are our students capable? 

Two questions regarding students immediately arise when you are thinking about a project. How much will they be involved? And, are they capable of a project, both behaviorally and academically? Student autonomy is one of the hallmarks of Project Based Learning. Most teachers still introduce student autonomy in stages, depending on students' age and experience. Before planning your project, think about how much you want your students to be involved in its design and how much autonomy they will have in carrying out project activities. You may want to select the project topic, particularly for the first project in your classroom. With students who are eager and prepared, you may wish to have them select the project topic and define the learning outcomes. Your role becomes one of coach and facilitator, helping students shape the project so that it meets content standards and allows for a variety of assessments. Are your students ready and capable? That question can be answered based only on your experience and knowledge.

Often, teachers do not introduce projects until the midfall or later, giving them time to assess students and prepare them for project work. If students have not had experience with projects, it's worth remembering that they will need training in such skills as collaboration, research, project management, and oral presentations. As the addition, you may have to manage them closely until they have mastered self-management skills.

By conducting Project Based learning in which students will study and work with their friends in group will also affect their motivation to do more. It means that the students' motivation also affected by this method. When students works in group to do the project, they will learning more active to solve o finish the project, of course, it will affect them become independent learner.