Educational Theory Supporting Project Based Learning
(PBL) and Learning Communities
Few subjects in high school can do what journalism does: give
students a real audience, give students a sense of independence,
and give students a reason to learn. It provides the opportunity
for students to work on a real life project as a team. However,
journalism is also the only subject in the high school curriculum
that gives administrators a regular headache every time the paper
is published. It is usually the least favorite program of the administration.
Why? Because often there are complaints about the paper: about the
accuracy, the choice of news stories, the writing errors, and the
opinions expressed by the students. The question often put to the
principal is "Who is in charge?" or "Who is censoring this paper
after all?" In addition, there are other problems. First, it is
difficult to find journalism teachers because most teachers of English
have no journalism training and are afraid to have their student's
work published every few weeks for the community to criticize. Second,
publishing a newspaper is an expensive proposition which makes the
journalism class one of the most costly in the school.
So, the big question is, why should a high school want a journalism
program? Can any benefits outweigh the inherent problems in the program? You
can decide for yourself after you see the data. As we all know, education in
American needs to be dramatically improved, not only in the inner cities, but
in most areas of the country. Few programs manage to capture the attention of
the students. Everyone is looking for ways to effectively integrate the curriculum
and to get students engaged. Classrooms in the inner city are a disaster for
the most part and the nation is facing an enormous teacher shortage. What can
be done?
Number One: Get students involved and passionate
about something and then they will want to learn.
Number Two: What could possibly get them
involved? Power, sports, movies, food, freedom of expression, and computers
are possible contenders. Is there anything in the curriculum that combines any
of these interests? Try journalism.
Power of the press
Team effort—they feel unified
Opportunity to review movies, CDs, restaurants, products
Opportunity for freedom of speech
Use of computers to produce the paper
A journalism program that gives students freedom of expression
is a school-sanctioned opportunity for students to be in control.
One proposed solution to the problems plaguing education has
been Project Based Learning (know as PBL). Multiple conferences are held each
year promoting PBL and showing how it effectively integrates the curriculum
and captures student interest the way that no other programs do. The George
Lucas Educational Foundation is one of the best known of these educational foundations.
It is "a nonprofit organization that gathers and disseminates the most
innovative models of K-12 teaching and learning in the digital age."
Seymour Papert
Many educators and educational organizations support PBL.
One of these is Seymour Papert, a renowned expert on children and computing.
He describes learning environments in which children collaborate on meaningful
projects and powerful ideas. His work can be found at http://www.glef.org/papert.html
Project Based Learning is even happening at the college level
and at the International Conference on Problem-Based Learning in Higher Education
held in Baltimore, MD in June, the conference summary said:
In the past decade, faculty in community
colleges, four-year colleges, and research universities have begun to move
away from traditional didactic instruction to a more student-centered approach
to learning. An increasing number of academic institutions throughout the
world have recognized that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional
method that challenges students to develop the ability to think critically,
analyze problems, find and use appropriate learning resources. In fact,
PBL is a pathway to better learning, helping students to learn how to learn.
Stanford Professor and Carnegie Foundation President Lee Shulman's
New Taxonomy of learning starts with a simple listing of he parts which can
be seen as descriptors of project based learning. Shulman addressed the AAHE
meeting in Chicago in 2002 where he discussed his taxonomy. Here is the link
for his talk: http://litd.psch.uic.edu/initiatives/speakers/shulman_01.html
"A Taxonomic Trek: From Student Learning to Faculty Scholarship"
Shulman's New Taxonomy
The unfolding began with a simple listing of the parts of
the taxonomy:
Engagement
Understanding
Performance
Reflection
Design and Judgment
Commitment
The parts are connected as can be seen by the chart below:
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
The key components of Harvard Professor Howard Gardner's
multiple intelligences theory holds that "each individual possesses different
forms of intelligence to greater or lesser degrees. Those intelligences are
linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, naturalist, body-kinesthetic,
intrapersonal -- such as insight -- and interpersonal -- such as social skills."
Gardner says, Unless individuals take a very active role in what it is that
they are studying, unless they learn to ask questions, to do things hands on,
the ideas just disappear."
Gardner favors project based assessment. Throughout the country,
educators are using performance assessments to measure what students know and
can do. These real-world evaluations include:
Standards-based projects and assignments that require
students to apply their knowledge and skills;
Clearly defined rubrics (or criteria) to facilitate a
fair and consistent evaluation of student work;
Opportunities for students to benefit from the feedback
of teachers, peers, and outside experts.
Grant Wiggins, one of the country's foremost experts
on assessment, says, throughout the country, educators are using performance
assessments to measure what students know and can do. These real-world evaluations
include:
Standards-based projects and assignments that require
students to apply their knowledge and skills;
Clearly defined rubrics (or criteria) to facilitate a
fair and consistent evaluation of student work;
Opportunities for students to benefit from the feedback
of teachers, peers, and outside experts. http://www.edutopia.org
Description of a Theme-Based, Integrated Curriculum
based on Gardner's Theory.
Teachers do not give grades because they feel that getting
a grade, even an A, limits students in their performance and sends the wrong
message about motivation, which they want to come from within the child. The
progress
report details a student's performance in each of the multiple
intelligences on three dimensions -- progress, participation, and performance
-- and includes self-assessment. Progress is indicated by N (needs help), S
(steady progress), or R (rapid progress). For participation, students receive
a triangle (intrinsically motivated), a square (extrinsically motivated), an
X (disruptive), or a circle (passive). "That is the absolute worst thing
to happen on your progress report -- to be given a circle" explains Bolaños.
"It means that you are not participating at all. And that's very bad. That's
worse than an F to get a circle
While teachers carefully plan what their students need to
know in accordance with Indiana state standards and Key Learning's own competencies,
the best way they have found for students to acquire information and critical
thinking skills is through projects. Teachers, in consultation with students,
spend a fair amount of time in the spring coming up with possibilities for themes
for the next school year. Parents, community members, and other interested parties
can provide input. The faculty makes the final decision, and themes are selected
for fall and spring. In the 2001-2002 school year, themes included "Our
World at Play" and "Movements" for K-8 students, and "Shared
Use of Symbols" and "Shared Life Cycle" for high school students.
Key Learning Community opened its elementary school in 1987,
its middle school in 1993, and its high school in 1999. In 2000, the three schools
moved into a single building. Started by veteran teachers who were exploring
creativity in children, Key Learning's program is based on the theory
of multiple intelligences, which holds that each individual possesses
different forms of intelligence to greater or lesser degrees. Those intelligences
are linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, naturalist, body-kinesthetic,
intrapersonal -- such as insight -- and interpersonal -- such as social skills.
This theory was pioneered by Harvard University professor Howard
Gardner.
The "guiding principle in education," says Key Learning
Principal
Pat Bolaños, had been that "you take an IQ test and
you know whether or not you're smart or dumb or someplace in between."
Those on the high end of the test got enrichment courses; those on the low end
got remediation. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences "blew that
out of the water," she says. The theory concluded that "people are
not smart or dumb or someplace in between ... [but] you could be very strong
and capable in one area of intelligence and very weak in one or two of the others,"
something she says she saw in her own children. Many of her colleagues agreed.
"We said, 'Let's say that all of these areas of intelligence are equally
important for all children and we will design a school that honors that starting
principle.'"
Etienne Wenger
In Communities of Practice: Learning Meaning, and Identify
by Etienne Wenger, the thesis is "communities of practice" or "learning
communities" enhance the learning process. Wenger has four basis
critical assumptions about learning: 1.We are social beings. Far
from being trivially true, this fact is a central aspect of learning.
2. Knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to value enterprises—such
as singing in tune, discovering scientific facts, fixing machines,
writing poetry, or being convivial 3. Knowing is a matter of participating
in the pursuit of such enterprises, that is, of active engagement
in the world. 4.Meaning---our ability to experience the world and
our engagement with it as meaningful---is ultimately what learning
is to produce.
He also says that a social theory of learning integrates the
following components:
Meaning: a way of talking about our changing
ability—individually and collectively---to experience our life and the
world as meaningful. Practice: a way of talking about the shared historical and
social resources, frameworks, and perspectives that can sustain mutual engagement Community: a way of talking about the social configurations
in which our enterprises are defined as worth pursuing and our participation
is recognizable as competence Identity: a way of talking about how learning changes who are
are and creates personal histories of becoming in the context of our communities.
Alan November
Alan November wrote Empowering Learners With Technology
in which he says:
The real revolution in learning is not about adding
technology on top of the current structure of school. Instead, the real
revolution is about a transformational shift of control from the school
system to the learner.
Chapter one, "Teaching and Learning the Structure of
Information", stresses the need for students to know how to evaluate information,
to think critically about the information they find on the Internet. Chapter
two, "Empowering Learning By Expanding Relationships," looks at the
need for collaboration in education between students, teachers and parents,
both locally and around the world. Chapter three, "Emerging Roles with
in the Knowledge Community," examines how the role of teacher changes when
students are empowered.
In Chapter four, "Accessing Primary Sources to Enhance Critical Thinking,"
November highlights the resources available through sites such as the National
Archives and includes examples of assignments that can be used to enhance students'
critical thinking skills. Finally, in Chapter five, "Building Knowledge
without Boundaries: Online Learning," November discusses the growing trend
toward online learning, using the examples of three pioneering online school
programs.
Educational Renaissance Planners was founded by Alan November
to promote the effective use of information and communication technologies that
support and enhance learning for children and communities. ER Planners includes
a team of researchers, writers, and educational leaders who bring a variety
of work and educational experiences, skills, and knowledge together
William Glasser
In Choice Theory, renowned author William Glasser
M.D., says in his chapter about "Schooling, Education, and Quality
Schools" that the "main reason so many students are doing badly
and even good student are not doing their best is that our schools,
firmly supported by school boards, politicians, and parents, all
of whom followed external control psychology, adhere rigidly to
the idea that what is taught in school is right and that students
who won't learn it should be punished.
He continues saying that forcing students to acquire knowledge
or memorize facts that have no value to them results in low grades and failure.
"Forcing people to learn has never been successful, yet we continue to
do it because we think it is right." (237)
Glasser says, "Education is not acquiring knowledge;
it is best defined as using knowledge."
His book on The Quality School: Managing Students Without Coercion is
Shirley Brice Heath and Milbrey McLaughlin
"Identity & Inner-City Youth: Beyond Ethnicity and Gender"
April 26, 1995
In many inner-city areas, schools and other institutions
have failed to prepare students to become effective members of society. The grassroots
efforts that have sprung up to help those students offer lessons that could help
save many of our most vulnerable children, say the winners of the 1995 award.
Stanford University professors Shirley Brice Heath and Milbrey
McLaughlin conducted five years of intensive fieldwork in some of America's
most distressed inner-city neighborhoods. They presented their findings in "Identity
& Inner-City Youth: Beyond Ethnicity and Gender," which was printed
in 1993 by Teachers College Press.
They studied 60 organizations, ranging from theater groups
to gangs, that engage about 24,000 children.
The researchers found that, while many teachers advocate emphasizing
ethnicity, gender or self-esteem, the successful organizations instead promote
a feeling of community, or family.
Successful institutions serve several purposes in addition
to their focus, are proactive in recruiting and working with students, provide
shields against the negative aspects of neighborhood life and draw on and respond
to the particular talents and needs of their community.
Effective institutions also view youth as a resource and as
a collection of individuals of value to society rather than as a problem to
be corrected.
"Their book is about education, but it is not about schools,"
said UCLA professor Ronald Gallimore, winner of the 1993 Grawemeyer Award in
Education for his work in reshaping curriculum to fit the needs of the community.
The book is important, he s aid, because it "invites all of us to look
beyond schools and educational research for new ideas and directions for education."
Heath is a professor in the departments of English and Linguistics.
McLaughlin is a professor of education and public policy at Stanford University.
Constructivist Learning Design
by George W. Gagnon, Jr. and Michelle Collay
This paper represents a collaborative effort of
two teacher educators to articulate a constructivist approach to
"designing for learning" rather than planning for teaching.
See our Constructivist Learning Design Notes for a simplified version.
Ongoing collaborative research with teachers is presented in our
Constructivist Learning Design Study. We believe this focus on learning
is needed if teachers are to implement a constructive approach to
thinking about day-to-day learning by the students. Conventional
lesson planning focuses on what the teacher will do. If learning
is teacher directed, then the focus of the lesson plan is on what
the teacher does. When designing a learning experience for students,
teachers focus on what students will do. Our language encourages
teachers to focus on thinking about how to organize what learners
will do rather than plan their teaching behaviors.
Teachers and teacher educators make different
meanings of constructivist learning theory. At a recent retreat
with facilitators of learning communities for teachers who were
studying in a Masters of Education program, we were talking about
our common reading of The Case for Constructivist Classrooms (Brooks
& Brooks, 1993). We asked the ten facilitators to answer this
question, "What is constructivism?" The results were interesting
because all of their definitions were quite different and reflected
their own understanding of the term and the text. This was a clear
demonstration that what we read does not produce a single meaning
but that understanding is constructed by the readers who bring prior
knowledge and experience to the text and make their own meaning
as they interact with the author's words. The following interpretation
of constructivist learning reflects our understanding of and beliefs
about constructivism.
