PBL Cohort Reflections - January 2014
As reflective learners, during our January "Digging Deeper" day, the cohort of PBL teachers discussed what made PBL successful in their classroom. Then they wrote about the changes in their teaching practice, student learning, and classroom culture as a result of PBL They also included in their written reflections the challenges and plans to improve for their next PBL unit. Finally, they bravely spoke about PBL in front of an iPad in order to "capture" their thoughts in their own voices. The video on the right is a compilation of snippets of the learning and growth as a result of project-based learning from some of our PBL cohort members.
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Quotable PBL teacher thoughts
How has project-based learning changed your classroom culture, your teaching, and your students' learning so far?
Learners were put in control of their own outcomes...Voice and choice is a new part of the classroom in a larger way than it ever was before. The students are eager to work in their groups! I have never felt comfortable integrating subjects and everything I do/teach always feels so isolated. This first project allowed me to integrate subjects and it was wonderful. It made teaching more fun and the kids learned more! The PBL groups are more inquiry-based and have more voice/choice and encourage my students to reflect more on the significance of the work we do in art. The kids are becoming independent thinkers - a huge transformation from their first project! I am used to almost "spoon feeding" my students concept by concept, idea by idea, and I had to become more willing and comfortable to let my students collaborate. When they did, some critical thinking and creative ideas started flowing. |
I believe it takes them to a completely new level of critical and compassionate thinking. Embracing one's own learning will not only help htem pass the class but appreciate that this for a lifetime of successes. In the past, I have preached lifelong learning to the students. I am now giving them opportunity to experience a true, meaningful, personal learning. Students are thinking at home, discussing with families, and living the PBL unit. I felt that my students talked to each other differently. They were in charge of their own learning...I want the next project to be for a more authentic audience, to make the urgency to do well come alive in them. My class is more willing to look for answers and not expect me to give them the answers. PBL challenged my students AND me to thinking beyond what was expected in the curriculum. Because it was meaningful, it was easier to learn the technology and more engaging to do the work. |
Recipe to create effective PBL LEADERS
IN TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
A GROWTH MINDSET
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Mindsets are beliefs—beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities. Think about your intelligence, your talents, your personality. Are these qualities simply fixed traits, carved in stone and that’s that? Or are they things you can cultivate throughout your life?
People with a fixed mindset believe that their traits are just givens. They have a certain amount of brains and talent and nothing can change that. If they have a lot, they’re all set, but if they don’t... So people in this mindset worry about their traits and how adequate they are. They have something to prove to themselves and others. People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, see their qualities as things that can be developed through their dedication and effort. Sure they’re happy if they’re brainy or talented, but that’s just the starting point. They understand that no one has ever accomplished great things—not Mozart, Darwin, or Michael Jordan—without years of passionate practice and learning. (mindsetonline.com) |
GRIT
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Grit is not just having resilience in the face of failure, but also having deep commitments that you remain loyal to over many years...the people who are, for lack of a better word, "ambitious"—the kids who are not satisfied with an A or even an A+, who have no limit to how much they want to understand, learn, or succeed—those are the people who are both talented and gritty.So the inverse relationship between talent and grit that we've found in some of our studies doesn't mean that all talented people are un-gritty. That's certainly not true. The most successful people in life are both talented and gritty in whatever they've chosen to do. But on average—and I think many teachers would resonate with this—there are a lot of fragile gifted and talented kids who don't know how to fail. They don't know how to struggle, and they don't have a lot of practice with it. Being gifted is no guarantee of being hardworking or passionate about something.
Carol Dweck, more than anyone else, is a role model for me. We're collaborating with her on a couple of projects. One thing we've found is that children who have more of a growth mind-set tend to be grittier. The correlation isn't perfect, but this suggests to me that one of the things that makes you gritty is having a growth mind-set. The attitude "I can get better if I try harder" should help make you a tenacious, determined, hard-working person. - Angela Lee Duckworth (ascd.org) Another key resource : The Duckworth Lab |
PLAY, PASSION, AND PURPOSE
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“It is [the] combination of play, passion, and purpose that best develops the discipline and perseverance required to be a successful innovator.” Some argue that innovators like Steve Jobs are born and not made, and so the schooling they get doesn’t matter. However, I have come to understand that most young people can be taught to innovate in whatever they do. We are all born curious, creative, and imaginative. And the best schools—from pre-K to graduate school—continue to develop these capabilities in students. They do so not by delivering more-of-the-same education, but rather a very different education. Schools like High Tech High or the New Technology High Schools have established reputations for producing highly innovative graduates. But what and how these schools teach are radically at odds with conventional education.
Our students want to become innovators. Our economy needs them to become innovators. The question is: As educators, do we have the courage to disrupt conventional wisdom and pursue the innovations that matter most? An excerpt from “Graduating All Students Innovation Ready” Ed Week (tonywagner.com) |
HIGH EXPECTATIONS: BOUNDARIES OF POSSIBILITIES
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For better or worse, we kids aren't hampered as much when it comes to thinking about reasons why not to do things. Kids can be full of inspiring aspirations and hopeful thinking. Like my wish that no one went hungry or that everything was a free kind of utopia. How many of you still dream like that and believe in the possibilities? Sometimes a knowledge of history and the past failures of utopian ideals can be a burden because you know that if everything were free, then the food stocks would become depleted and scarce and lead to chaos. On the other hand, we kids still dream about perfection. And that's a good thing because in order to make anything a reality, you have to dream about it first.
In many ways, our audacity to imagine helps push the boundaries of possibility. Learning between grown-ups and kids should be reciprocal. The reality, unfortunately, is a little different, and it has a lot to do with trust, or a lack of it. Now, what's even worse than restriction is that adults often underestimate kids’ abilities. We love challenges, but when expectations are low, trust me, we will sink to them. - Adora Svitak An excerpt from Adora Svitak's Ted Talk |