Project-based Learning in the Classroom

Project-based learning is the inquiry project that I have selected as my subject for investigation. In Project-based Learning, or PBL, activity in the classroom moves away from teacher-centered instruction. PBL activities and practices are student centered, interdisciplinary, and integrate real-world practices and problems. PBL promotes student understanding by promoting the acquisition of real knowledge by exploring, making judgments, and synthesizing information. PBL allows students to practice the skills they will need as adults in the real working world (Project-based learning handbook). Students carry out a long-term project through the planning, design, and produce a publicly displayed or presented product (Patton, 2012).

The specific curriculum approach that project-based learning is predicated on is the humanistic approach. This curriculum approach is student-centered, and proponents believe in cooperative learning, independent learning, and small-group learning. Students are encouraged to investigate a subject they have an interest in, because feelings and knowledge are important in student learning. This in turn encourages self-motivation and a desire to learn in the student (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2013).

The major philosophy influencing project-based learning is pragmatism, which emphasized that knowledge is an evolving process where reality constantly changes. Teachers should teach critical thinking skills and methods of problem solving in a setting which was interdisciplinary. In pragmatism, learning is exploratory, not explanatory. The student interacts with his environment, which is always changing. No knowledge is permanent (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2013).

Progressivism is an outgrowth of pragmatic philosophy. Progressiv...

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...ates. The Progressive Education Association, which was founded at Teachers College, Columbia University, promoted a “child-centered” approach to teaching, which focused activities around the students’ interests. William Kilpatrick, a professor at Teachers College, wrote a paper entitled, “The Project Method” in which he laid out this child-centered system of education. These projects were to be interdisciplinary in nature, and were to reflect the interests of the child. Students would work together in groups, collaborating with each other in finding the answers to their own questions. Among others who would influence this progressive movement in education was John Dewey, who believed that children learned best through inquiry and problem solving. Children learned best when they were vested in the topics being studied and were truly curious about them (Wrigley).