10 ways in which Project Based Learning teaches life skills

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ClickEinstein

8 min readOct 28, 2015

According to Buck Institute for Education

“Project Based Learning, is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge ”

In simpler terms, Project Based Learning often referred to as Problem Based Learning or PBL is learning by doing in its truest form. It as a process of learning with core focus towards solving a real world problem. Honestly, PBL is a really wide and complicated term. It could be understood best if practiced. One may easily find multiple definitions for PBL, or even create one, but one thing that forms the core of any PBL project is its authenticity. Throughout the project duration, the students are working on an authentic problem and presenting it to an authentic audience. The problem that the student tries to solve matters to the student. John Larner of Editor in Chief at the Buck Institute for Education explains the sliding scale of authenticity in this article where a project can be “not authentic”, ” somewhat authentic”, and ” fully authentic”.

Undoubtedly, every teacher wants her/his student to succeed. But often times, the parameters to assess success in learning are only grades. How do we make sure that there is a lesson for everyone in what is taught to them? Even if most of your students score an A plus on the test, do you feel a common test does justice to students of different learning abilities? Most importantly, how will this make an impact in your student’s life. Many of us learned lessons from life. Why not bring those real life experiences into the classroom? In the process of solving problem, students undergo a complete learning journey that involves finding a problem, gathering evidence, defining it, proposing different solutions and then arriving at a solution/s. That problem may be faced by students personally or might be something they see as a problem for the community. Essentially, PBL prepares students for life. Between the classroom, curriculum and all those fancy degrees, the important thing that is often forgotten is that it isn’t education if it doesn’t make students independent and responsible. Project based learning makes student both. While many may argue that a PBL approach burdens students, on the contrary, this approach works best for each and every student. Every student learns his/her own lessons which are distinct for each of them. Here, I would discuss how PBL can teach students more than a conventional learning approach:

#1 It makes students responsible towards themselves and society

The very purpose of PBL is to find gaps or needs which can be answered through the interventions by the students. Once faced with an opportunity to look outside their books and closed environment, students get a chance to absorb what is happening outside and how they can bring the change. It empowers students with an opportunity to change what they feel needs to be changed. It ensures that they do not grow as the adults who blame others for the problems in the society. From the time students have to find a problem, till the time they have to find a solution, at each step the students take responsibility for the project. With PBL we can ensure that we are raising a generation of adults who are problem solvers not naggers. This wonderful talk by Zoe Weil defines why we need a generation of solutionaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5HEV96dIuY

#2 PBL makes students empathetic

After school, the students are going to step in the real life. They might choose any profession, meet new friends and start a family, everything always comes down to understanding and respecting the human. The key to having a successful relationship, whether personal or professional is the ability to empathize with the people who are a part of your personal and professional life. A Project Based Learning requires a thorough understanding of the problem in hand and the people who are the key stakeholders. The PBL starts with why, who and how and this is why it immerses students in the situation they try to solve. Will the students always succeed in understanding the issue at hand? Out of love and compassion, teachers are often so concerned with the success of students that they forget to appreciate what the students might have learnt from the failures. Various researches have shown that teaching empathy also affects the academic performance of students positively. Maybe, they are not able to bring out an immediate change today, but they have taken a definitive step towards it.

#3 Students learn to articulate problems and driving questions

To be able articulate a problem is a skill that many of us are not able to learn in our lifetime. As a short experiment, try this for yourself. Try to define clearly an issue/problem that you are facing as a 3 lines long problem statement. Was it easy or was it difficult? Defining a problem or rather to arrive at a problem is one of the rarest skills that we lack both professionally and personally. We are not able to arrive at a right answer because we do not ask the correct question. PBL gives ample opportunity to be able to find an issue and narrowing it down to the cause and probable solution. While you may be tempted to provide the right questions and answers to your students always, remember after 10 years they will be fighting battles with themselves, just to find and define the problems they are facing. Today’s struggle is better than tomorrow’s failure.

Tip for teacher — Define a well defined rubric. What is a problem. Why is it a problem? What can be done about it? Here is a simple tubric, which is a simple tool that helps students arrive at driving questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2CAmW7c-Ow

List of Resources for driving questions:

These are just to get you started. Many teachers after few PBL projects are able to define their own rubric for driving questions.

#4 PBL promotes divergent thinking

“Out of the box” thinking is a word that is loved by all of us until it is our turn to work towards it. We are always focused towards finding a definitive answer. Our fascination with correct answers is carried with us ahead in our adult life. Whatever looks different is termed as quirky. We cease to imagine. Even so, imagination is said to be the skill left to only few artsy people. A PBL approach, embraces divergent thinking. Even if the students are working in a group, each individual sees a problem differently. Remember the story of 7 blind men and an elephant. In the end the students might choose a single solution, but that would be by choice and not because of the lack of it.

#5 An ultimate lesson in Team Building and Collaboration

It is often said that the students learn more in the playground than inside the classroom. Team building and collaboration can make classrooms there ultimate learning playground. PBL can help students appreciate the importance of healthy criticism, sharing ideas, accepting others opinions, expressing differences and assigning tasks based on interests and aptitudes. Students can learn how to work in groups, how to leverage their and other teammates skills to help the team succeed. The ability to take responsibility for both the success and failure of the team is an asset for each individual. It does not matter if the students are working individually or as a team, it is essential to share, critique and help each other improve. A tip for teacher, be open to ideas and be patient. It will be completely worth it. As a teacher, you may even define how students give feedback to each other. Critical Friends Protocol described in the earlier blog post could be an excellent way to creative positive classroom environment during feedback sessions.

#6 PBL projects can be a perfect opportunity for involving parents

More than often, students find problems within their immediate surroundings. A problem based learning approach can be a perfect opportunity to involve parents in their kids learning. The parents might retaliate, but will surely be involved once they are told how it is a primer to life skills. They can act as experts, assessors or planners throughout their child’s journey. The parents could be the audience to their kids presentation of the learning journey or maybe the one who take them on a field trip for conducting research or help them prepare a questionnaire for their interviews. Being a witness to their kid’s life learning journey can be a really satisfying experience for parents and a perfect opportunity to know their kids better. A class blog, an Instagram account or class presentations with parents can be very simple yet extremely effective means of sharing the students’ learning journey with their parents.

#7 Students learn to work under constraints and plan accordingly

The students must be asked to define their own constraints and then come up with solutions. Real world invariably has constraints. PBL could be their first brush with the non-idealistic world where they learn to find solutions even when there are limited resources in terms of money, knowledge, time etc. True creativity is to solve a problem with the resources in the hands. When did you learn the most? When there were constraints and you tried solving the problem or when you had access to all the things needed to solve a challenge? Irrespective of the result, most of you would agree constraints taught you well. The PBL approach is just a mini drill for many such constraints to come. They become more resourceful.

#8 Students learn how small steps can make a huge impact

Almost invariably, PBL leads to solutions that might impact students, their peers, teachers, parents and society. To know how they can be instrumental in making an impact no matter how small can be a really empowering lesson for the kids. Again, they might not do so today, but have faith that they will tomorrow.

#9 Self- Discovery

What is that one thing that you would like to change in the world if you could? PBL has this question in its core. Try asking this simple question to your students and you will realize, each one of them has different aptitudes and interest. The path to self- discovery may start from this point onward.

#10 An opportunity for the teacher to learn

The biggest incentive as a teacher to implement this approach is an opportunity for you to learn. As a teacher, your role in PBL is to both teach and learn. Inside a classroom, you may act as a facilitator, a critique, a motivator and a learner. You can assist your students in their learning journey only when you know what their expectations are. This could be a perfect opportunity for you to learn what students want to achieve. This could be exhausting, but imagine how much you can learn by knowing 25 new things rather than teaching one thing to 25 students. The students can be your window to the outside world.

Truth be told, you will most probably face many issues in your first attempt in implementing PBL. But if that occurs, there is always a piece of paper and pen to your rescue. Write down what made the project fail. There are many who tried PBL and failed, but and not just them, many others learnt from their failures. The important thing to remember is that one day each one of us has to solve the problems in the real world. This could be your chance. Why not teach our kids to start taking responsibility to solve them today, one step at a time.

Originally published at blog.clickeinstein.com on October 28, 2015.