A Framework for Student Success!

Developing questions about complex, intriguing, and sometimes mysterious experiences or phenomena seems to be a very natural occurrence. When people encounter strange happenings or difficult concepts and ideas, they naturally formulate questions such as, “What’s going on? Why is this happening? What does this mean? What will happen in the future?” If they decide to answer these questions, they embark on a journey of thought that may take a few minutes, hours, or years.

A systematic teaching method that engages students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

--Project Based Learning Online – Buck Institute

• Serve as facilitator• Model thinking and problem-solving strategies

effectively• Structure meaningful tasks• Work with students to frame worthwhile questions • Manage the structure of multiple day-to-day

activities to produce high quality outcomes• Teach students to set goals

Set goals Explore and ask questions Work well with peers Stay accountable to self,

peers, and teacher for project outcomes

• Increases student motivation and engagement in learning

• Is more effective that traditional instruction in increasing academic achievement

• Improves student retention of knowledge over time

• Improves mastery of 21st century skills• Is especial ly effective with lower-

achieving studentsBuck Institute

Buck Institute

From Buck Institute Web site http://www.bie.org

http://www.pbl-online.org/mod1/movies/msatmovie.htm

http://pbl-online.org/

http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning

http://www.bie.org/

I can explain what Project-Based Learning is and how it works for motivating struggling students.

I can plan units around driving questions and projects that are important to students.

Imagine life as problem-free. Wouldn’t that be wonderful! Or, would it?In any case, life does not come problem-free because that is the nature of life here on earth, full of challenging opportunities to learn, grow, reflect, and enjoy. This may be the most obvious reason why project-based learning is important for us to consider – PBL engages students in life as we know it, full of fascinating, problematic situations worth thinking about, investigating, and resolving. --from Problem-Based Learning by John Barell (2007)