Effectively implementing PBL
Educators participating in the research used Defined STEM as the core resource to implement PBL in their classrooms. The tool is designed to offer educators pre-built, project-based lessons complete with stardards-aligned resources, engaging videos, activities, and grading rubrics. Teachers received ongoing professional development on how to implement PBL in their classrooms and were highly supported by their administration. Teachers were given free range of the tool, but had to engage students in a minimum of one project a quarter. Many of them used the pre-built lessons to supplement traditional lessons and fill gaps in the curriculum.
Each task contains between three and six products that allow students to demonstrate their understanding of content, concepts, and skills. The learning experience focuses on student-centered inquiry and group learning, with the teacher acting as a facilitator.
For teachers who have not experienced PBL, the shift can create uncertainty in the classroom, especially for those who feel the need to give students “soapbox” speeches and lectures. With PBL, teachers become more of a classroom guide who facilitates learning and allows students to discover answers on their own.
Some teachers hesitate to do this. They want to jump in and give the answers rather than allowing students to solve problems and learn from mistakes. In reviewing the comments collected during the study, it became increasingly apparent that as teachers’ comfort levels with PBL grew, so too did their perceptions of the methodology’s overall effectiveness in engaging students.
Reflecting on the early phases of implementation, teachers collectively suggested that being able to see the process of PBL in action would have helped them through the early phases of the initiative. “Being able to see a PBL class prior to implementation may have lessened the sense of ambiguity we experienced,” said one educator.
This new research should encourage teachers to try PBL, because the results show that it works. Findings consistently indicated that project-based learning enhances student performance, motivation, student engagement, teacher/student interaction and the learning of 21st-century skills such as collaboration.
A fifth-grade teacher participating in the study said of students: “From the beginning of their school experience, everything was fed to them. Getting them to think in the beginning on their own, outside of the box, was very hard. They were not used to doing this. They were used to someone giving them the solution. By the end of the year they were actually saying here is what it is, they were able to think abo