PBL Course 03 - Blog 04 - Smith, Robert

Reasons to Use Contracts in a PBL Classroom

I haven’t had a lot of questions about PBLs or Learning Contracts from other teachers. So, for the purposes of this blog, I brainstormed a couple of my own: a) when working in groups, how do you keep one student from taking over and b) how do you make sure students aren’t just doing nothing. These are completely legitimate questions that I have to answer before I design, or adapt, in some cases, a lesson. My answer is the template I created.

“Yeah, a template!” says the imaginary person to whom I am conversing.

“Hang on, there, Bob.” I’m going to go ahead and call my imaginary conversation partner Bob. “Hold up, Bob. Just because I’m using a template doesn’t mean that it’s one-size-fits-all.”

Bob looks at me incredulously and says, “But it looks good. I think I’ll just use it for everything anyway. Thanks!”

Bob, if it was only that easy! There aren’t any real one-size-fits-all templates. Or worksheets. Or lesson plans. Or toothpaste. Or shoelaces. Seriously. Those shoelaces come in different lengths. You really need to read the little numbers on the packages before you buy a whole lot of them. They aren’t really expensive, but who needs like seven packs of 24-inch shoelaces lying around the house?

Anyway, I digress. If using one sheet, form, etc. for everything, solved all of education’s problems, then I’m sure a famous scientist (looking at you, Robert J. Marzano) would have copyrighted it by now. But, group contracts, even those pre-fab ones you can just Google and print, are essential to the PBL environment. They set learner expectations and help to manage the students, or little people, who are learning how to be adults, or big people, in the world. Also, just like everything else in PBL, it’s about learning by doing. Or, learning through failure. Or, learning when you never imagined a situation arise in your planning and you have to adapt on the fly. It’s all about having three kids and no money when all you want is three money and no kids. (Thanks, Homer!) Seriously, though, it is really all about being student-centered, being responsive to your own little classroom community. Therefore, it is really rare when one-size ever fits-all.

Oh, look. Bob’s back. He’s sad. He tried to use a template and ended up catching his room on fire. I do not have any idea how that happened, I just know that I smelled fire and saw him with an extinguisher.

“Hey Bob. Why so glum?”

“Those templates you told me to use didn’t work.”

“I told you to use…what? Look, never mind. Here sit down, grab a bag of marshmallows, and listen up. Let’s look at the why we should use contracts. And, maybe a couple of ways to actually get them to work.”

Why Contracts?

1.       It’s real life. Real life. Contracts are a part of our daily world. Better get used to it.

2.       Using contracts helps students to learn and to understand those behaviors which advance a group. Also, they learn those behaviors that may hold it back.

3.       Contracts let students learn to become in charge of their own environment and set realistic expectations for themselves.

4.       Students get a taste of what contracts mean and what it means if you sign one that you don’t agree with, and what it means if you break a contract!

5.       Finally, they learn how to compromise for the sake of the group and the work.

“So, there you have it, Bob. Those reasons why we need contracts and why we need different contracts for different folks.”

Bob looks at me sullenly.

“You still don’t get it do you, pal?”

Bob nods, left-to-right.

“It’s okay, Bob. You probably need to go get that arm looked at. It’s still smouldering.”