Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is a general term used to describe several methods of curriculum organization. Although the many types of learning under this broad term have differences in how they are first created and implemented, how they evolve and who works on them, they have similar goals and issues. In general, the term "project" refers to assignments, or sets of assignments, that are long-term (often two weeks or more) and product-oriented (from small to large scale). Process is important as well, especially in student-driven group projects, where the primary goal may be cooperative learning. However, the reality is that most school projects culminate in a demonstration or exhibition to a large audience, so the final product becomes critical. A typical school project may ask students to research a topic over the course of a few weeks and to produce a written paper, a visual, a skit, a song, a video, an oral presentation, or a combination. Other projects might involve creating larger-scale products, such as museum exhibits, school murals, full plays, or the well-known science fair.

Overview

Project-based learning is a general term used to describe several methods of curriculum organization. Although the many types of learning under this broad term have differences in how they are first created and implemented, how they evolve and who works on them, they have similar goals and issues.

In general, the term "project" refers to assignments, or sets of assignments, that are long-term (often two weeks or more) and product-oriented (from small to large scale). Process is important as well, especially in student-driven group projects, where the primary goal may be cooperative learning. However, the reality is that most school projects culminate in a demonstration or exhibition to a large audience, so the final product becomes critical. A typical school project may ask students to research a topic over the course of a few weeks and to produce a written paper, a visual, a skit, a song, a video, an oral presentation, or a combination. Other projects might involve creating larger-scale products, such as museum exhibits, school murals, full plays, or the well-known science fair.

Project work has long been part of American School's curriculum. As Diffily and Sassman indicated, project work was being done in 1896 at the Lab School at the University of Chicago and articles on projects were published at least as early as 1918. Many variations of project-based learning connect back to the writings of John Dewey, particularly his Experience and Education originally published in 1938. Among many others, Bloom and Gardner have had significant impacts on project-based learning by creating practical frameworks for developing curriculum. In the twenty-first century, educational focus has shifted toward STEM and STEAM fields. Project-based learning supports student creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, all critical foundations of STEM and STEAM learning.

There are many benefits to project-based learning. Projects appeal to many students and teachers because they are flexible. As Barab and Landa indicated, projects can serve diversity in all its forms: cultural, developmental, cognitive, motivational, and stylistic. Schlemmer and Schlemmer wrote that projects allow for differentiation by many standards—content, process, product, readiness, interest, and learning profile.

Because of this flexibility, projects offer a chance for students to develop various skills because they are the ones doing the work. The skills depend on the goals and objectives of the project, but can involve anything from tangible skills, like sewing, or thinking skills, like decision-making. Group projects also provide an opportunity for students to develop interpersonal skills and help build community. Because projects are often long-term, students often develop deep knowledge on a subject, sometimes to the point where they become experts. As Diffily and Sassman indicated, this can help students develop a sense of empowerment and importance.

Applications

Considering how and why projects are created, and for whom, helps differentiate the three project types outlined below. Some projects are entirely driven by student interests, while others are created using limited student input or choice. Some projects are created solely by teachers, or teams of teachers, and are often based on their personal interests or passions. These projects are often created and organized around curricular goals and objectives. The audience for projects can vary—a single teacher, a class, the entire grade, the entire school, or even the community. Because students are the ones who are supposed to be working, the role of the teacher in most project-based learning situations is that of facilitator or coach. This shift allows students to learn time management skills and personal responsibility.

Student-Centered or Student-Driven Projects

These projects arise from and guided by student interests, are not constrained by subject or discipline boundaries, and the learning that takes place is connected to the world outside the classroom. These projects are the most free-form and the least driven by curriculum standards.

Specific content and skills are embedded in the projects, more as by-products than targets. Some teachers, for example, make connections to curriculum standards only in retrospect, documenting and recording the content and skills learned by the children after projects are completed. As facilitators, teachers then guide the students toward other projects and topics that fill academic gaps. In extreme cases, some teachers will virtually ignore content goals altogether, caring more about student autonomy and collaboration than in specific content. These projects, then, are usually more process-oriented than content-oriented. Applied Learning, as described by Diffily and Sassman, Curriculum Integration, described by Beane, and some service-learning projects may fall into this category.

Teacher-Directed or Curriculum-Directed Projects

These projects offer the least student choice. Teachers with a passion they wish to share with their students often create these projects. A teacher interested in storytelling, for example, may create a project where the students research and learn a story from their family's history. The teacher then creates a list of goals and objectives drawn from the state or local language/arts standards and requires all the students to meet all the requirements. Although students may get a few opportunities to make choices within the project, they are essentially driven by a teacher-selected topic and must meet specific curricular expectations. Many science fairs and single discipline projects fall into this category because of their prescriptive nature.

Hybrid Projects

Most projects will fall somewhere in between the two previous models. For these projects, the teachers recognize the value of student autonomy, but stay committed to curricular goals. The Foxfire Approach described by Starnes and Carone falls into this category. In projects developed by approaches like this, students do not have much choice in what they learn, but they do have nearly complete autonomy in how they learn.

Many interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary projects fall into this category because they cross subject boundaries and often ask students to explore outside the realm of curriculum frameworks or specific classes. In many of these projects, students have choices about how to approach the material: as a scientist, as a historian, as a poet, etc.

Getting Started

Teachers wishing to create a project-based curriculum must decide which of the many forms outlined above fits with their situation. Teachers in a content-driven school system can either fulfill their curricular obligations using a project, or alternatively, they can try to carve out a few weeks for an optional project-based curriculum. Before beginning the projects, however, Diffily and Sassman suggest doing pre-project work that includes activities designed for building prerequisite skills such as disagreeing without criticizing, supporting opinions, and decision-making strategies.

There are many considerations that must be weighed when teachers are first trying to develop a project-based curriculum:

Individual & Group Projects

One of the first considerations is deciding whether the projects are for individual students or groups. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Individual projects allow students to choose what interests them, without having to compromise with others. With many teachers facing large class sizes, assigning individual projects can be a problem of too many student interests, not enough follow-through and assessment, and a potential lack of resources.

Group projects offer the opportunity for students to develop a variety of interpersonal skills. As Starnes and Carone indicated, for example, students working in groups must explore, test, and refine their ideas with others, which can lead to deepening and clarifying their own ideas.

Students can be grouped by age, ability, interest, role, and even randomly. Before beginning a group project teachers should consider the advantages and disadvantages of various grouping strategies. Schlemmer and Schlemmer provided great ideas for how to group students for many different situations. Facilitating groups raises its own set of issues:

Framework

Besides working from the state or local standards, teachers may want to use an organizing framework for developing projects. Many teachers have found using Bloom's Taxonomy or Gardner's Multiple Intelligences useful for creating project requirements that educate the whole child. Starnes and Carone provide eleven clear practices for developing projects based on students' interests. Schlemmer and Schlemmer provide a very useful matrix on various differentiation strategies, as well as ideas for differentiating the products themselves. Diffiliy and Sassman provide ideas for getting started as well as ideas for student products.

People Involved

Another early consideration is to decide who exactly should be involved in the project. Because project-based learning often involves many subject areas, teachers may quickly find themselves in unknown territories if they do not involve other teachers, students and/or adults. This is especially true in higher grades, where knowledge becomes more and more specialized and departmentalized. Other teachers, adults and even students can contribute their expertise and resources to the project. In a multidisciplinary approach, for example, students can focus on the historical parts of a project in social studies one period, scientific elements in another period, mathematical components in another, and so on. Experts from outside the school can be contacted, not only to get their input, but also to make connections to the outside world.

As many teachers have discovered, however, coordinating with other faculty can be as much work as the project itself. Conflicting schedules, lack of planning periods, technology failures, and many other factors can make collaboration with colleagues difficult. Teachers may find it easier and more convenient to tap into online communities.

Purpose & Reason

Teachers wishing to create a project-based curriculum should immediately consider the purpose and reason. Like any educational endeavor, students and teachers should not engage in projects simply because they are fun or different. Many teachers have at least initial purposes for their projects: to explore a theme in depth, to build social skills, to empower students to make their decisions, etc. However, the ultimate reason behind the project is often overlooked.

Genuine & Artificial Projects

Even when projects have a purposeful context and end, there is still the consideration of how genuine the projects are. Students are often much more motivated by, and interested in, projects that involve the real world, as opposed to artificial simulations. For example, in a project involving money, the students could be handling fake bills to reach a mathematical goal, or they could be handling real cash in an actual school store to raise money for their own field trips and/or donating to a charity. Sizer referred to this idea as the contrast between life outside of school and traditional school practice.

For many teachers, creating genuine experiences inside of school can be difficult. District requirements, rigid school structures, colleague resentment and other factors can all hinder a teacher's initiative. Very large projects that attempt real world connections may even require school reform or restructuring.

Process & Product

In many ways project-based learning focuses on the final product. The final products, also called artifacts, are often supposed to be comparable in seriousness and scope to those in the real world, complete with a larger audience. Because the products are often large productions like presentations, museum exhibits, and science fairs, many teachers fall into the trap of focusing primarily on the results and neglect the process.

Schoolwork & Homework

Another important consideration in starting is deciding how much of the work is to be completed in school and how much is to be done as homework. Because projects often use up significant amounts of class time, many teachers assign or expect much of the work to be done at home. This leaves valuable class time for things such as: checking in with individuals or groups, assessing progress, problem-solving, teaching and re-teaching related skills or content, and using school resources. Schoolwork, then, is often for organizational issues surrounding the projects themselves, whereas homework is for the work of the projects.

Mandatory & Optional Goals

An important consideration in creating any project is determining what goals and objectives are mandatory versus those that are optional. Since many teachers are in situations that are content-driven, this distinction becomes essentially what is school mandated and what is not. Optional goals allow for student choice and greater variation in the final products. Many teachers who use optional goals create menus, where students can choose what interests them to work on at a particular time. These menus offer students various choices, yet still provide direction. Kohn and Diffily and Sassman have indicated that student autonomy has many benefits, including raising interest and increasing motivation.

Audience

The audience is vitally important for project-based learning. For starters, the audience frames and helps to define the purpose of the project. In general, the larger the audience, the more the project will be taken seriously. When possible, teachers should seek opportunities to increase the size of the audience for their projects, whether that means inviting a few parents into the classroom or creating a small museum that is open to the public. As Starnes and Carone indicated, the varied and broad use of the audience can serve as a vehicle for discussion, provides public scrutiny, increases student motivation, provides practice for stepping away from one's own viewpoint, and even creates an opportunity for sharing satisfaction.

Reflection

Reflection should be built into every project. Students and teachers can learn important lessons from this step, since they can look back at what worked, what did not and why. Starnes and Carone pointed out that teachers and learners can also anticipate future problems and can develop strategies to deal with them. As with assessment and grading, reflection should be ongoing so that students and teachers can make modifications during the project to be as successful as possible.

Archiving

Because projects often involve a lot of work, a lot of people, and elaborate final products, most teachers want to archive the results. However, because this consideration is last, and because projects are often due at stressful times of the year, archiving is often overlooked or under planned. Teachers may find that they reserved the video camera, only to find that the battery has to be recharged, or that the digital camera is missing a memory card.

Teachers should carefully plan this stage as early as possible before all the other considerations and stresses make planning it nearly impossible. One of the requirements of the project can involve archiving, so that the students are also planning for posterity. Parents can be a valuable resource for archiving since many of them bring cameras to school events. A letter to parents in the early stages can guarantee that enough resources are on hand throughout the process. School or local newspapers can be contacted as well, which also increases the audience.

Issues

Many issues are raised when a teacher wishes to create a project-based curriculum. For starters, teachers without exemplary examples of projects in their own histories may find the idea of projects daunting. Concerns about making connections to district or state standards complicate matters, since project-based learning may seem to lack control over content.

Even when a teacher can make connections to the curriculum, there are still issues with the students' motivation and how well they collaborate in groups. Many students lack the necessary long-term planning and interpersonal skills to succeed in project-based situations. Some students may not do any work, leaving others in a bind of either doing extra or receiving a lower grade. Some students may dominate the conversation and prevent compromise.

Curriculum Connections

Curriculum connections are not difficult in project-based learning. Teachers can simply make the state or local requirements a mandatory part of the project. Rather than focusing on what to learn, students can invest in how to learn the material. Starnes and Carone made this process very clear and simple using the eleven elements of the Foxfire Approach. Schlemmer and Schlemmer provided many concrete ideas on how to connect to content requirements.

Homework & Parent Involvement

Homework is a major issue when it comes to projects. For starters, according to Kohn, homework in general is of questionable value. Add to this the family stresses that often develop from projects, from such things as last minute shopping trips to expensive purchases, and project work done at home may not be as valuable as is first supposed.

Many teachers and parents view projects as a wonderful opportunity for children to build social skills, develop long-term organizational skills, critical thinking, initiative, and more. However, this is certainly not guaranteed. According to Kohn, there is no empirical evidence to support growth in these areas from homework.

Because projects are often very complex, parents tend to get involved, especially when their children are young. As many teachers have found out, though, parental involvement can range from helping a little to essentially doing the entire project. In some cases, the child will have done little or no work, with little or no learning.

Teachers can avoid some of these issues by keeping as much of the project work in the classroom as possible. Parents could be asked to bring the materials to school for the students to work on under teacher supervision. If homework is necessary, teachers can send letters home describing exactly how parents should and should not get involved.

Motivation

One of the biggest issues with projects is student motivation. Because projects are long-term, students can easily lose their motivation. What is initially very exciting and interesting soon becomes mundane. Some teachers use an extrinsic reward system to keep students motivated, but as Lavoie and Kohn have indicated, this can be problematic. Students may come to rely on these systems to know whether they're doing well or not, rather than accurately self-assessing. Students may also work for the rewards instead of for the purposes of learning.

Competition, grades, and punishment are also used as motivators, but these can all backfire, especially for certain types of students. Essentially, competition may work well when students feel they can succeed or win, but when many students fall behind and see no possible victory, they often quit. If this happens in the middle of a project, it can be nearly impossible to get students re-invested. This is true of grades as well. Students who fail in the early stages of a project may simply give up, since there may not be a way for them to recover and get a good grade. Punishment may backfire as well, since, as Lavoie indicated, it only works when the threat of punishment exists. Since projects often require students to take initiative and move around freely, punishment may not be effective.

Students should have ongoing feedback throughout the entire project process to help them stay motivated and on track. Students who do not get quality, ongoing feedback may find that the work they did was incorrect and that their efforts were wasted. As with failing early on, this can derail even the most dedicated students.

Teachers may find that offering students choices may alleviate some motivation issues. A student who tires of drawing a picture, for example, can simply move to another part of the project: writing museum cards for an exhibit, practicing being the docent, etc. Making connections back to the reason and purpose of the project can also help, especially when the projects serve other people, as is the case in service-learning. Praise and encouragement can also be useful, although as Wiggins noted, praise will not create better products.

Even when students can make choices throughout the process, they will often experience a lull somewhere in the process. Since different things motivate people, teachers may find it useful to read more about motivation in general.

Long-Term Planning

One common issue with projects is that many students lack long-term planning skills. A successful project-based curriculum should include lessons and discussions about time management, prioritizing, and effective study skills. A skill like speed-reading could, for example, have a positive effect on a student's success, since they could process more material in less time. Armstrong wrote a concise book on many useful study strategies that students, teachers and parents might find useful. Teachers may also find that breaking up long-term projects into distinct stages or sequences may help many students.

Because projects often involve a lot of work done at home, communicating with parents is essential. A letter home to parents outlining the project, complete with specific due dates, can help a great deal. Teachers can also use resources such as web-based calendars, internet forums, websites, automated phone systems and newsletters to keep parents apprised of the progress of the project.

Assessment & Grading

Assessing and grading projects can be challenging. Because projects are long-term, involve many components, and are usually for larger audiences, students must have ongoing quality feedback. Many teachers have suddenly found themselves in embarrassing situations because their students were not actually finished with their projects, were missing sections, did not follow directions, and so on. As Wiggins indicated, ongoing assessment not only lets the students know where they stand in relation to their goals but can also educate them and improve their performance. These assessments include rubrics, classroom disposition checklists, anchor papers, portfolios, and many others.

Because projects are complex, there should be a variety of assessment and grading techniques. As Wiggins noted, no single assessment technique can adequately measure complex tasks. So, teachers should use multiple assessments whenever possible. For example, a test to measure specific vocabulary, a rubric to assess group dynamics, a classroom disposition checklist for behavior, anchor papers for final written products, a panel of judges to critique an exhibit, and so on.

Because projects often simulate real life experiences, or are real life experiences, assessment is often modeled on what would happen in the real world. Known generally as authentic assessments, they attempt to evaluate student work based on real world standards and methods. Scientists publish experiments so that others may try to duplicate the results, historians and curators create exhibits (which are then critiqued by reporters and writers), business owners must meet the needs of their clients, and so on. For example, instead of just having the art teacher grade an art project, community members who own local art galleries could be brought in to critique the work.

Contrast these to what Atwell called the school genre. Many teachers still ask their students to write book reports, for instance, yet there is no such thing as a book report in the real world. There are book reviews, but those are written for an authentic audience, not just a single teacher checking to see if the work was done or not.

Grading is especially tricky with group projects. Many teachers have found out the hard way that grading groups can be a bad idea. Group projects often fall on the shoulders of one or two students who do most of the work, so grading everyone equally rewards some and penalizes others. Irate parents quickly point out that their child did most of the work and is being penalized unfairly. However, if enough assessments are used throughout the process, the group grade will not significantly affect the overall grade. A baseline grade can be used for the group, modified by criteria like effort, resulting in a fairer grade. Teachers who want to grade the group on their cooperative and collaborative efforts can send a letter home to parents before the project begins to explain the goals of cooperative learning.

Facilitating Group Projects

Finally, facilitating group projects can be very intimidating, even for veteran teachers who have good classroom management skills. Many teachers have experienced the frustration of seeing some students working hard, some hardly working, some distracting others, and still others who seem to have no idea what is going on. However, if the other issues above are dealt with and planned for, these concerns will be minimized. For example, when students know that a larger audience awaits their work, they will be more dedicated to their work. When they have autonomy, they will feel more invested. When students are taught how to work in groups and how to plan for the long term, they will have the skills they need to be successful. When teachers use ongoing assessment to provide feedback, students will know how to adjust their behavior and work.

Terms & Concepts

Applied Learning: Learning that has direct applications to, and connections with, the world outside the classroom.

Cooperative Learning: Learning where small groups of students work together to achieve goals.

Curriculum Integration: Curriculum that is centered on significant, relevant problems that draws together students and teachers in meaningful ways that are unhindered by subject or discipline boundaries.

Experiential Learning: Active learning that is based on creating direct experiences for students.

Inquiry-Based Learning: Learning that is driven by student questions and facilitated by teachers.

Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Curriculum that approaches learning from one angle into several academic disciplines.

Multidisciplinary Curriculum: Curriculum that draws together content and material from several segmented disciplines.

Problem-Based Learning: Collaborative learning that focuses on solving complex problems.

Service-Learning: Learning that connects the classroom to the world outside through meaningful community service.

Bibliography

Armstrong, H. W. (1995). Study is hard work. David R. Godine.

Atwell, N. (2000). In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning (2nd ed.). Heinemann.

Barab, S.A. & Landa, A. (1997). Designing effective interdisciplinary anchors. Educational Leadership, 54, 52-55. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Beane, J. (1997). Curriculum integration: Designing the core of democratic education. Teachers College Press.

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. David McKay.

Boston University Center for Teaching & Learning. Project-based learning. www.bu.edu/ctl/ctl‗resource/project-based-learning-teaching-guide/.

Chun-Ming, H., Gwo-Jen, H., & Iwen, H. (2012). A project-based digital storytelling approach for improving students' learning motivation, problem-solving competence and learning achievement. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 15, 368-379. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Daniels, H. (1994). Literature circles: Voice and choice in the student-centered classroom. Stenhouse Publishers.

Dewey, J. (2015). Experience and education (1st Free Press ed.). Free Press.

Diffily, D. & Sassman, C. (2002). Project-based learning with young children. Heinemann.

Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: The theory of the multiple intelligences (10th anniversary ed.). Basic Books.

English, M. C., & Kitsantas, A. (2013). Supporting student self-regulated learning in problem- and project-based learning. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 7, 127-150. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Kohn, A. (2018). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A's, praise, and other bribes (25th anniversary ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company.

Kohn, A. (2006). The homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing. Da Capo Press.

Lavoie, R. (2020). The motivation breakthrough: 6 secrets to turning on the tuned-out child. Atria Paperback.

Melvin, M. (Ed.). (2022, May 27). Project-Based Learning (PBL): Examples, benefits & 10 classroom strategies. Prodigy Education. Retrieved May 30, 2023, from https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/project-based-learning

Postman, N. (2011). The end of education: Redefining the value of school. Vintage Books.

Schlemmer, P. & Schlemmer, D. (2008). Teaching beyond the test: Differentiated project-based learning in a standards-based age. Free Spirit Publishing, Inc.

Sizer, T. R. (1996). Horace's hope: What works for the American high school. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Starnes, B.A. & Carone, A. (1999). From thinking to doing: Constructing a framework to teach mandates through experience-based learning. The Foxfire Fund, Inc.

Weir, K. (2002). A parent's guide to school projects. Mars Publishing, Inc.

Wiggins, G. (1998). Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance. Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers.

Wong, H.K. & Wong, R. (2018). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher (5th ed.). Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.

Suggested Reading

Anderson, L.W. & Krathwohl, D. (Eds). (2014). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Longman.

Beane, J. A. (1990). A middle school curriculum: From rhetoric to reality. National Middle School Association.

Burton, L.H. (2001). Interdisciplinary curriculum: retrospect and prospect. Music Educators Journal, 87, 17-21. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Gardner, H. (2000). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. Basic Books.

Gillies, R.M. (2006). Teachers' and students' verbal behaviours during cooperative and small-group learning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 271-287. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Hohmann, M. & Weikart, D.P. (1995). Educating young children. High/Scope Educational Research Foundation.

Levy, S. (1996). Starting from scratch: one classroom builds its own curriculum. Heinemann.

Nikitina, S. (2006). Three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching: Contextualizing, conceptualizing, and problem centering. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38, 251-272. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Silberman, M. (2009). Active learning: 101 strategies to teach any subject. Allyn and Bacon.

Tomlinson, C.A. (2017). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (3rd ed.). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wolk, S. (1998). A democratic classroom. Heinemann.