STRONGLY AGREE


I was familiar with Project Based Learning before EDT3470


I understand after EDT3470 how to implement Project Based Learning in my teaching


I support the use of Project Based Learning in elementary school classrooms


3.6% (1) 28.6% (8)


AGREE


DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE


39.3% (11) 39.3% (11) 67.9% (19) 3.6% (1) 17.9% (5) 0% (0)


53.6% (15)


I will use Project Based Learning as a strategy in my future teaching 39.3% (11)


Figure 2: Selected student survey results.


As a final project for the course, each team of students developed a project resource website where other teachers can learn about the team’s project-based unit and how to implement it in their own classroom. These websites include links to their assignments from throughout the semester along with guidelines for how they all fit together into a larger unit.


Course Evaluation A formative evaluation of this redesigned version of EDT3470 was conducted in 2009. Data was collected from 90 students across 6 lab sections of this course. The evaluation consisted of classroom observations and an end-of-semester survey. A few themes emerged from the classroom observations. Based on the questions they asked of their instructors, students appeared focused from week to week on the big picture project unit they were building and how each weekly assignment fit into it. Based on conversations project teams had in planning their project based activities, there appeared to be enthusiasm over the hands-on, authentic components of their project units. Students also seemed to appreciate opportunities to think creatively about the kinds of activities their students could participate in, particularly those that could take place outside the classroom.


A less positive theme was confusion over how PBL works given how different it is from most of the methods these pre-service teachers have experienced as students or have been exposed to in their teaching methods courses.


“...students


appeared focused from week to


week on the big picture project unit they were building...”


Students’ responses to the survey largely reflect the positive feelings observed in the classroom. While only 43% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were familiar with PBL before this course, 97% agreed or strongly agreed that they support the use of PBL in the classroom and 86% agreed or strongly agreed that they will use PBL in their future teaching (see Figure 2).


The survey also asked students what they most and/or least appreciate about PBL as a teaching strategy. What they appreciated most fell into three main categories: 1) PBL is highly engaging, 2) it is multidisciplinary,


and 3) it is fun. What they appreciated least fell into these three main categories: 1) it is complex and hard to develop PBL environments, 2) creating PBL environments is time-consuming, and 3) it is not easy to ensure students will learn valuable lessons from their PBL experiences.


Lessons Learned Evidence suggests that students see PBL as complex, time-consuming and generally


Winter 2010/11 |


42.9% (12) 3.6% (1) 46.4% (13) 14.3% (4)


0% (0) 0% (0)


hard to pull off. In the next iteration of this course, instructors will invest more time early in the course examining what successful PBL environments look like from a big picture perspective to provide a schema they can refer back to throughout the semester. This will be supported with more video case examples of PBL environments via www.edutopia.org (George Lucas Educational Foundation, 2009) earlier in the semester to give students a more tangible look at PBL environments and projects.


EDT3470 instructors also want to address students’ concerns about PBL being hard to implement by focusing them on the benefits of and strategies for collaborating with other teachers. The fact that the redesigned version of this course has students working in teams seems like a good start, but it is not clear that they are making the connection that this kind of collaboration may be possible in a professional setting as well. This will be made more explicit and explored as a theme in the next iteration of the course.


Brian Horvitz is an assistant professor of educational technology at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He can be reached via email at: brian.


horvitz@wmich.edu


References Barron, B.J., Schwartz, D.L., Vye, N.J., Moore, A., Petrosino, A., Zech, L., Bransford, J.D., & The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1998). Doing with understanding: Lessons from research on problem- and project-based learning. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7(3&4), 271-311.


George Lucas Educational Foundation (2009). Edutopia: What works in public education. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from http://www. edutopia.org.


John Dewey (1964). John Dewey on education: Selected writings. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.


Krajcik, J.S. & Blumenfeld, P.C. (2006). Project- based learning. In R.K. Sawyer, Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences. West Nyack, NY: Cambridge University Press.


Thomas, J. W. (2000). A review of research on project-based learning. San Rafael, CA: The Autodesk Foundation.


U.S. Department of Education (2004). National education technology plan. Retrieved June 23, 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ os/technology/plan/2004/plan.pdf.


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