6.1.4 Project Based Learning

 According to http://bie.org/about/what_pbl Project Based Learning (PBL) 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.

 Problem Based Learning is learning through a team of students identifying and trying to solve a real-world problem over several weeks. It is a type of inquiry or learning through doing. It is the ongoing act of learning about different subjects simultaneously achieved by guiding students to identify, through research, a real-world problem (local to global) developing its solution using evidence to support the claim, and presenting the solution through a multimedia approach based in a set of 21st-century tools.

Students show what they learn as they journey through the unit, interact with its lessons, collaborate with each other, and assess themselves and each other. They do not just take a test or produce a product at the end to show their learning.

The videos have given me a new perspective about learning – the strongest point about PBL which will be contrasted with the traditional mode of learning:

Traditional learning- which is the guiding approach of the Ugandan Education system prescribes what is to be learnt on a specific day. The daily lessons that teach a skill fit within a unit based on a topic or theme. However, each lesson works independently and can function without being embraced in a unit that connects them all in a learning story. Instead, PBL couches lessons in a tale- a tale about a problem that must be solved or an activity that must be developed. The learning happens along the way towards the presentation of the solution. With PBL, you learn this when you need it. Learners use the knowledge they get guided by real world professional experts who enrich the teacher’s knowledge.

The strongest aspect of PBL is its flexibility and the working relationship among the collaborative partners. Each partner brings different resources to the table: space, material resources, facilitation skills, academic knowledge, or time. Partners work together to allow each to lead in their areas of strength, to create learning opportunities for each other, to provide feedback, and to support each other’s work throughout the project they are involved in.

PBL does not ask the teacher to replace the subject content. It asks that the teacher create a vehicle in which to communicate their content. If PBL is a play, then the math or science or history or writing -- or whatever the teacher wishes to teach -- make up the scenes that propel each act toward the final curtain call.

The challenge with PBL for both the learners and teachers is in coming to understand one’s own power and privilege and the unwillingness to engage in critical self-reflection and introspection. This   perception can affect both community work and the co-creation of knowledge causing challenges in the service-learning environment.