Final Blog Kimberly Trott

What I Thought I knew and What I now Know about PBL

Wow, last summer I really thought this was going to be a glorified version of projects.  It has really turned out to be much more than that.  I will also say it has taken me three PBL implementations too really get a handle on it. For me the elements crucial for success are the time expectations and the group contract. 

I still have not mastered either but the one most critical to success is what you put in the group/teacher contract.  You start to learn what you must put in the contract in order for chaos not to prevail. The teacher must implement the consequences to those expectations if someone does not comply with them. His is so difficult.  It has to be robotic.  This is so hard and you cannot be swayed by your sympathy for students not to implement it.  Such as, knowing that a certain student just cannot stay focused and letting them slide for their misbehavior.  If you do not penalize them the way written it will come back to haunt you.   

Project based learning is richer because when you allow students the ability to have choices within the project then you are turning over the learning to them because you are trusting them to perform at a high level.  I feel it is important to make sure the students understand this trust in order to insure active commitment to the project. 

As a teacher, I still like some structure within the PBL as far as researching the material I feel they need to know. Maybe because they are ninth graders they cannot handle just a free for all and pace themselves.  I find it more helpful to have a clear notion in my head of what I know I want students to learn about, and take those topics and make sure they are structured into individual components within the project. 

I am still not 100 percent sure the best method to implement the learning.  Students did tell me they found it hard to do the project and then to also learn the material I was giving them in class.  Therefore, the second project I did with PBL was only the project, no other classwork.  I think if our school implemented a PBL program, I would not be so worried about making sure I cover the material in precision detail and could only give a grade on the project versus a project and a test. The PBL would be their assessment.

Overall, the three classes have made me a better teacher just for the fact that I now trust my students more.  Students can handle responsibility, deadlines, and collaboration if time is given to teach these skills.  The key word is TIME.  TIME would be possible if students received instruction in PBL over several grades, in that manner students would have a working vocabulary and skill set to jump right in and all you would have to do is review the skills.  These three courses are actually the hardest education courses I have ever taken, due to the fact that I had to actually implement them.