Lesson 4.1: Key Concepts of PBL
What is Project-Based Learning?
Project-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogy that focuses on student-centered, inquiry-driven learning experiences that deal with real-world problems and obstacles. Through engaging with real-life challenges, project-based learning suggests that students will acquire and retain knowledge more effectively.
To create PBL experiences in the Music classroom with Scratch, we'll be focusing on three main areas of PBL design (from the Buck Institute of Education's "Gold Standard" PBL design.)1
1. Student Voice & Choice (Students will select a Role in our Scratch PBL) "Having a say in a project creates a sense of ownership in students; they care more about the project and work harder. If students aren’t able to use their judgment when solving a problem and answering a driving question, the project just feels like doing an exercise or following a set of directions...More advanced students may go even further and select the topic and nature of the project itself; they can write their own driving question and decide how they want to investigate it, demonstrate what they have learned, and how they will share their work."1
Think / Pair / Share: What are some examples of projects in which students have a choice in how they participate? What are some non-examples? Discuss with a partner.
2. Challenging Problem or Question(Students will be presented with a programming Challenge in Scratch)
"The heart of a project – what it is “about,” if one were to sum it up – is a problem to investigate and solve, or a question to explore and answer. It could be concrete...or abstract. An engaging problem or question makes learning more meaningful for students. They are not just gaining knowledge to remember it; they are learning because they have a real need to know something, so they can use this knowledge to solve a problem or answer a question that matters to them. The problem or question should challenge students without being intimidating."1
Think / Pair / Share: What are some examples of good challenge questions as outline above? What are some non-examples? Discuss with a partner.
3. Critique & Revision(Students will be given formative and summative assessments using rubrics)
"Students should be taught how to give and receive constructive peer feedback that will improve project processes and products, guided by rubrics, models, and formal feedback/critique protocols. This common-sense acknowledgement of the importance of making student work and student products better is supported by research on the importance of “formative evaluation, ” which not only means teachers giving feedback to students, but students evaluating the results of their learning."1
Think / Pair / Share: What are some examples of formative and summative assessment that you've seen in our course? What are some from your own work? Discuss with a partner.
4. Public Product (Students will share their projects publicly and remix each other's projects) "There are three major reasons for creating a public product...First, like authenticity, a public product adds greatly to PBL’s motivating power and encourages high-quality work. A certain degree of anxiety can be a healthy motivator. But too much anxiety can of course detract from performance – the trick is to find the sweet spot, not the sweat spot – so it’s important that students are well prepared to make their work public. Second, by creating a product, students make what they have learned tangible and thus, when shared publicly, discussible. This has an impact on classroom and school culture, helping create a “learning community,” where students and teachers discuss what is being learned, how it is learned, what are acceptable standards of performance, and how student performance can be made better. Finally, making student work public is an effective way to communicate with parents, community members, and the wider world about what PBL is and what it does for students. When the public sees what high-quality products students can create, they’re often surprised – and eager to see more."1
Head over to Lesson 4.2: Sample PBL in Scratch to check out an example.
References
1"PBL Blog." Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements | Blog | Project Based Learning | BIE. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.