Project-Based Learning: RTC Library Resources about PBL

Learn how to implement a real-world approach to project-based learning. Authentic learning experiences are created around genuine, outside audiences and meaningful purposes. They meet the Common Core, engage students in critical thinking and 21st Century learning, teach important skills such as research and collaboration, and improve student learning. This practical guide provides step-by-step instructions to make it easy for teachers to create their own authentic learning experiences. The book is loaded with a variety of examples from different grade levels and content areas. Bonus Each example incorporates technology and addresses the Common Core State Standards.

Problem-based learning has become a widespread teaching methodology in disciplines where students must learn to apply knowledge, not just acquire it. This volume describes the basics of the method, along with the variables that affect its success.

Problem-based learning is a way of constructing and teaching courses using problems as the stimulus and focus for student activity. This edition includes a wide variety of case studies as well as substantial revisions in the light of recent changes.

For nearly a decade, scientists, educators and policy makers have issued a call to college biology professors to transform undergraduate life sciences education. As a gateway science for many undergraduate students, biology courses are crucial to addressing many of the challenges we face, such as climate change, sustainable food supply and fresh water and emerging public health issues. While canned laboratories and cook-book approaches to college science education do teach students to operate equipment, make accurate measurements and work well with numbers, they do not teach students how to take a scientific approach to an area of interest about the natural world. Science is more than just techniques, measurements and facts; science is critical thinking and interpretation, which are essential to scientific research. Discovery-Based Learning in the Life Sciences presents a different way of organizing and developing biology teaching laboratories, to promote both deep learning and understanding of core concepts, while still teaching the creative process of science. In eight chapters, the text guides undergraduate instructors in creating their own discovery-based experiments. The first chapter introduces the text, delving into the necessity of science education reform. The chapters that follow address pedagogical goals and desired outcomes, incorporating discovery-based laboratory experiences, realistic constraints on such lab experiments, model scenarios, and alternate ways to enhance student understanding. The book concludes with a reflection on four imperatives in life science research-- climate, food, energy and health-- and how we can use these laboratory experiments to address them. Discovery-Based Learning in the Life Sciences is an invaluable guide for undergraduate instructors in the life sciences aiming to revamp their curriculum, inspire their students and prepare them for  careers as educated global citizens.

What are "essential questions," and how do they differ from other kinds of questions? What's so great about them? Why should you design and use essential questions in your classroom? Essential questions (EQs) help target standards as you organize curriculum content into coherent units that yield focused and thoughtful learning. In the classroom, EQs are used to stimulate students' discussions and promote a deeper understanding of the content. Whether you are an Understanding by Design (UbD) devotee or are searching for ways to address standards--local or Common Core State Standards--in an engaging way, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins provide practical guidance on how to design, initiate, and embed inquiry-based teaching and learning in your classroom. Offering dozens of examples, the authors explore the usefulness of EQs in all K-12 content areas, including skill-based areas such as math, PE, language instruction, and arts education. As an important element of their backward design approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the authors *Give a comprehensive explanation of why EQs are so important; *Explore seven defining characteristics of EQs; *Distinguish between topical and overarching questions and their uses; *Outline the rationale for using EQs as the focal point in creating units of study; and *Show how to create effective EQs, working from sources including standards, desired understandings, and student misconceptions. Using essential questions can be challenging--for both teachers and students--and this book provides guidance through practical and proven processes, as well as suggested "response strategies" to encourage student engagement. Finally, you will learn how to create a culture of inquiry so that all members of the educational community--students, teachers, and administrators--benefit from the increased rigor and deepened understanding that emerge when essential questions become a guiding force for learners of all ages.

"The book is written in a lively, engaging, conversational style, without compromising on empirical rigour to substantiate its claims. ...All practitioners of problem based learning will benefit from the multipronged perspectives on pbl facilitation contained here." British Journal of Educational Technology Interest in problem-based learning continues to flourish worldwide. To date there has been relatively little to help staff to examine the complex issues relating to facilitating the implementation of problem-based learning and the ongoing development of staff, students and the curriculum. This book explores a broad range of issues about facilitation, in particular: understandings of facilitation that have emerged from the author's recent research and ways of equipping and supporting staff in terrestrial and virtual contexts. It also questions how students are assessed and suggests ways of preventing plagiarism in problem-based learning. It examines what it might mean to be an effective facilitator and suggests ways of designing problem-based curricula that enhance learning.

Engaging and motivating students--especially the least motivated learners--is a daily challenge. But with the process of problem-based learning (PBL), any teacher can create an exciting, active classroom where students themselves eagerly build problem-solving skills while learning the content necessary to apply them. With problem-based learning, students' work begins with an ill-defined problem. Key to this problem is how it explicitly links something important in students daily lives to the classroom. This motivational feature is vital as students define the what, where, and how of resolving the problem situation. Problem-based learning may sound potentially chaotic and haphazard, but it rests on the firm foundation of a teacher's work behind the scenes. The teacher develops a problem long before students see it, specifically choosing the skills and content the problem will emphasize and matching those to curriculum and standards. Though a PBL problem will have no "right" answer, the teacher structures the experience so that specific learning takes place as students generate the problem-solving steps, research issues, and produce a final product. The teacher guides without leading, assists without directing.

Implementing Project-Based Learning explores the need to better engage 21st century learners and prepare them for the changing world. Author Suzie Boss investigates three new literacies--(1) digital, (2) media, and (3) global--and infuses them with traditional approaches to learning through project-based learning (PBL). PBL allows teachers to create connected learning experiences and develop students' global competency, while giving students the opportunity to explore real issues and solve genuine problems that matter to them and the larger world. Boss shares five specific types of PBL and success stories from real schools implementing them. PBL has the potential to fully engage digital learners, changing teacher-student dynamics and giving students greater influence and agency in their learning. As Implementing Project-Based Learning illustrates, students can use PBL to find their passion and create real change.

Today's classrooms should support multiple learning styles while incorporating technology use in an authentic, real-world manner. To achieve this digital age learning environment, Walter McKenzie brings together ideas from multiple intelligences and project-based learning to develop a new instructional model, the Intelligence Quest (IQuest).

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach that has the capacity to create vibrant and active learning environments in higher education. However, both experienced PBL practitioners and those new to PBL often find themselves looking for guidance on how to engage and energise a PBL curriculum.

"If you have ever wanted to know about PBL, here's the book for you." Clyde Freeman Herreid, Director of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science Focuses on the practical questions which anyone wishing to embark on PBL will want to know: "Where do I start?"-"How do you find problems?"-"What do I need to know about managing groups?"-"How do you grade in a PBL course?" These case studies, from a variety of disciplines - including biochemistry, pre-law, physics, nursing, chemistry, political science and teacher education, provide examples of best practices.

This book is a guide for the development and implementation of problem-based learning (PBL) in college-level courses. It provides practical advice from real professors, includes examples of PBL in action through every stage from problem development to implementation, and integrates cross-disciplinary experiences into the practice of PBL in the college classroom. Its nuts-and-bolts approach makes it valuable to faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and faculty development professionals interested in learning how to do PBL, as well as to those already using PBL who would like to learn more about what other practitioners do in their classrooms. Readers will learn what really is and isn’t PBL and why some choose to use it, what its effect on the learning landscape is, and how to overcome tricky issues such as class size, student resistance, controlling classroom chaos, conservative colleagues, assessment, and student evaluations. Extensive examples and resources for further study are included, making it a concise and comprehensive guide to launching a successful problem-based learning course on your own.

Problem Based Case Learning (PBCL) is a learning process that begins with a problem presented by a business partner in cooperation with the instructor. High school and/or college students work in teams to focus on that problem as part of their normal classroom assignments. Students work on problems, which have never been solved, but would be beneficial to the business if they were solved. Students must integrate all academic skills while solving the problem by communicating with the business partner, identifying factors affecting the problem's solution, cooperating with team members to formulate a potential solution and then communicating that solution verbally and in writing back to the business partner. The successful process can be applied to all technology based courses as well as academic areas such as math and science. Funded has been provided by the National Science Foundation to Nashville State Community College with the assistance of teachers in colleges and high schools across the nation. Nationally recognized educators such as Dr. John Bransford, has been instrumental in the design, development and implementation of the PBCL process.

This standards-based, teacher-friendly second edition offers step-by-step procedures that make this effective teaching model highly doable for all teachers, with examples showing problem-based learning in action.

A teaching and learning model for college faculty or adult educators that promotes learner engagement and knowledge retention while preparing a diversity of students for the 21st century workforce.

Illustrates how to strengthen learners' problem-solving skills by incorporating problem-based learning (PBL) with Internet resources and presents projects that correlate to national science, mathematics, and technology standards.

Problem-based learning is becoming increasingly popular in higher education because it is seen to take account of pedagogical and societal trends (such as flexibility, adaptability, problem-solving and critique) in ways which many traditional methods of learning do not. There is little known about what actually occurs inside problem-based curricula in terms of staff and student 'lived experience'. This book discloses ways in which learners and teachers manage complex and diverse learning in the context of their lives in a fragile and often incoherent world. These are the untold stories. The central argument of the book is that the potential and influence of problem-based learning is yet to be realized personally, pedagogically and professionally in the context of higher education. It explores both the theory and the practice of problem-based learning and considers the implications of implementing problem-based learning organizationally. "Problem-based learning is contested and murky ground in higher education. In her study, Maggi Savin-Baden clears the thickets, offering a bold ambitious framework and, in the process, gives us a compelling argument for placing problem-based learning in the centre of higher education as an educational project. It is a story not to be missed." - Professor Ronald Barnett "This is a challenging and very worthwhile read for anyone concerned with the future of higher education, and issues of teaching and learning. The metaphor of 'untold stories' is powerfully explored at the level of staff and student experience of problem-based learning." - Professor Susan Weil

We're all learners on life's journey, and often the messy problems we encounter present us with the best education. Researchers are finding that the same concept holds true for students in our classrooms. Problem-based learning (PBL) is an authentic, experiential form of learning centered around the collaborative investigation and resolution of real-world problems. In PBL, students address a problematic situation from the perspective of a stakeholder in the situation. As both a curriculum organizer and instructional strategy, PBL fosters active learning, supports knowledge construction, integrates disciplines, and naturally combines school learning with real life. In this second edition of their book, Torp and Sage offer opportunities to learn about PBL from a variety of perspectives. New to this edition is an in-depth look at assessing education in and through problem-based learning--how to use assessment not only to see what students have learned during the PBL experience, but also how to use assessment to enhance PBL itself. New examples--from elementary, secondary, and university levels--new charts, and expanded graphics enhance every chapter of this new edition.

This edited volume presents an original approach to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) centric Project-based Learning (PBL). We define PBL as an "ill defined task with a well-defined outcome," which is consistent with our engineering design philosophy and the accountability highlighted in a standards-based environment. We emphasize a backward design that is initiated by well-defined outcomes tied to local, state, or national standards that provide teachers with a framework guiding students' design, solving, or completion of ill-defined tasks. These tasks are well suited to our integrated approach because tasks typically require students to incorporate skills and knowledge from multiple domains rather than simply single school-based subjects.

Increase achievement and engagement for all students in 21st century classrooms! Project-based learning has emerged as one of today's most effective instructional practices. In PBL, students confront real-world issues and problems, collaborate to create solutions, and present their results. This exciting new book describes how PBL fosters 21st century skills and innovative thinking. The author provides instructional strategies, assessment methods, and detailed instruction on how to: design projects for various content areas across all grade levels, integrate technology throughout the learning process, use Khan Academy, webquests, wikis, and more, to foster deeper conceptual learning, build social learning networks, and differentiate instruction by scaffolding supports for the learning process

Combine project-based learning and instructional technology to develop higher-order thinking skills in your students!

Each project is prefaced by the author's reflections on the context of the project, its challenges, and the means to overcome those obstacles.

Projects are the innovative way to develop "soft skills" along with the academic qualities of students.

In this book, project-based learning expert Suzie Boss explains how real-world projects engage and motivate students while teaching relevant, rigorous content and skills that align with standards and put learners on the path to active citizenship.

Lead students through powerful learning experiences with Reinventing Project-Based Learning, a guide for educators, administrators and professional development specialists who want to make the shift to a more student-driven learning model. Explore proven strategies for overcoming the limitations of the traditional classroom, including a wealth of technology tools for inquiry, collaboration and global connection to support this new vision of instructional design. The book follows the arc of a project, providing guided opportunities to direct and reflect on your own learning. In the expanded second edition, educators will find the latest tools, a deeper look into assessment strategies, added close-ups on promising practices and a chapter on trends that are poised to shape education in the coming years. With rich illustrations and teacher interviews from around the world, Reinventing Project-Based Learning shows you how to design authentic projects that make the most of available and emerging technologies.

Project based learning (PBL) is gaining renewed attention with the current focus on college and career readiness and the performance-based emphases of Common Core State Standards, but only high-quality versions can deliver the beneficial outcomes that schools want for their students. It's not enough to just "do projects." Today's projects need to be rigorous, engaging, and in-depth, and they need to have student voice and choice built in. Such projects require careful planning and pedagogical skill. The authors--leaders at the respected Buck Institute for Education--take readers through the step-by-step process of how to create, implement, and assess PBL using a classroom-tested framework. Also included are chapters for school leaders on implementing PBL systemwide and the use of PBL in informal settings.Examples from all grade levels and content areas provide evidence of the powerful effects that PBL can have, including* increased student motivation and preparation for college, careers, and citizenship; * better results on high-stakes tests; * a more satisfying teaching experience; and * new ways for educators to communicate with parents, communities, and the wider world.By successfully implementing PBL, teachers can not only help students meet standards but also greatly improve their instruction and make school a more meaningful place for learning. Both practical and inspirational, this book is an essential guide to creating classrooms and schools where students--and teachers--excel.

This second edition of Project-Based Learning (PBL) presents an original approach to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) centric PBL. STEM PBL is defined as an "ill-defined task with a well-defined outcome," which is consistent with our engineering design philosophy and the accountability highlighted in a standards-based environment. This model emphasizes a backward design that is initiated by well-defined outcomes, tied to local, state, or national standard that provide teachers with a framework guiding students' design, solving, or completion of ill-defined tasks. New to this edition is revised and expanded coverage of STEM PBL, including implementing STEM PBL with English Language Learners and the use of technology in PBL.

Everything you need to know to lead effective and engaging project-based learning! This timely and practical book shows how to implement academically-rich classroom projects that teach the all-important skill of inquiry. Teachers will find: A research-driven case for project-based learning, supported by current findings on brain development and connections with Common Core standards Numerous sample projects for every K-12 grade level  Strategies for integrating project-based learning within all main subject areas, across disciplines, and with current technology and social media Ideas for involving the community through student field research, special guests, and showcasing student work

This book, a product of over 10 years of teaching experience, is filled with innovative student problem-solving activities. Designed to help provide the ideal science learning model as set forth by the Project Kaleidoscope Committee, this book seeks to enmesh the learner in a community of learners, make the learning experience personal, and establish connections that place the content in context.

With the growing interest in problem-based learning among nurse educators worldwide comes the need for a book that will be a comprehensive guide and resource for anyone considering its implementation in nursing education. This book is that resource. Its strength is its integration of relevant theory, research, and practical information. It is an invaluable resource for nursing faculty contemplating the use of the problem-based learning model.