EDTECH 542: Week 8 Final Reflection

PBL Reflection

My PBL Project Website

This course has been very beneficial for providing a solid foundation for project based learning (PBL). PBL provides for a student centered, constructivist approach to teaching and learning. This approach facilitates authentic real-world relevance for learning and builds 21st century skills that are essential for student readiness beyond the classroom. The following questions provide reflection for the course.

-What do you now understand best about Project Based Learning?

There are essential elements that make PBL a highly rigorous form of teaching and learning. Through this process, students gain knowledge and skills by working collaboratively on a project over an extended period of time.   

-What do you understand least well?

There are many social skills, critical thinking, and independent work that students do during a project. The instructor must scaffold and facilitate the learning of these skills. The transition from teacher centered to student centered is very hard for students who primarily get their instruction in teacher centered environment. What are some ways to help alleviate this tough transition.

-What did you expect to learn in this course?

How to create a complete PBL unit, that meets all of the characteristics of PBL.

-What did you actually learn? More, less, and why?

I think my expectations were met. I gained exactly the knowledge of PBL that I thought I would.

-What will you do with what you have learned?

I will evaluate my current teaching practices and see where it would be appropriate for PBL to be incorporated given the units of study. Even for the units that it may not be ideal for me to incorporate PBL, there are many key characteristics of PBL that can be implemented on a smaller scale to increase student engagement and rigor in my classroom.