This week we have learned a great deal about Project Based Learning, which is something that is a little intimidating to me as I work with elementary students from first grade to fifth grade. It is intimidating because of the amount of independence that is expected from the students. Since most of the questions come from the natural curiousity of the students, I am interested to research and see how this type of learning has been successfully integrated into the early childhood classroom. My take on PBL is that it is a great way for students to really get involved in their own learning and takes the "lecture" aspect out of the classroom. As a teacher, I want to provide an environment that in indusive to learning, whether that means that I am personally teaching my students or whether I am supporting their learning as best I can.
PBL is slightly similar to research based learning, which I am pretty familiar with from 6400. RBL was the only learning style that I really got to learn about in depth, and the focus is more on the actual obtaining of the information through researching than through the project at the end. However, I am hoping that in this class, with the large amount of teacher in it, I can learn ways of implementing (successfully) project based learning with younger students.
This week I don't really have anything "new" to report on my project for this class. So as the week progresses I might have more to post so that my group has something on which to comment!
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Your post got me thinking-- could Project-Based Learning be tied in with Service-Learning? I'm doing a project on Service-Learning in another course, and something about your post made me connect the two. With SL, students actually do a project in the community that betters the community in some way, whether it be by planting a flower garden or visiting a nursing home. If there was some way to connect the two types of learning, wouldn't that be a great thing? I think that would also help with tying it into the elementary school curriculum (which I agree-- with the ages of elementary school children, it is often difficult to do projects like the ones discussed in PBL!). I think you could find a great deal of service projects that elementary-age students could easily complete, and have them research how to do it, what they'll need, etc.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought :) I'm eager to here more about your project!
I understand what you mean by being intimidated by PBL. I teach middle school and even though my students are older and more capable than most elementary students it might not make it that much easier for me to use PBL on a regular basis. In my class we work on projects but they are small and usually based on textbook instructions, nothing compared to the projects we saw in last week's videos. I can't even imagine pulling something like that off.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to say that I really liked your statement about making your classroom indusive to learning, no matter how the learning takes place. I feel the same way.
I didn't really think about the differences between elementary and high school when it comes to PBL until you mentioned it. I'm actually curious as well on what types of projects you can do at the elementary level. I teach high school and when I think of PBL I'm connecting it with some type of job field or work experience, because that's a major focus once you get to high school. I'm interested in knowing some examples of implementations at the elementary level, just for my own curiosity.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on Sarah's post, I believe Service Learning is a specific type of PBL. It wouldn't take much effort at all to really combine some concepts/skills into a service project. It's a great way to motivate students!
I had never heard of Service Learning until now! What a great concept. Thanks for introducing me to this, guys! :)
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