Project-based Learning can oftentimes feel like an overwhelming shift from our traditional classroom. The truth is, though, that you do PBL every single day in your daily teaching routines. This is one of the reasons why it is considered a “real world” approach to education. You already possess a lot of the skills necessary for bringing PBL to your students. Your daily routines and professional practices are PBL driven. Let’s explore how you naturally embody all of the skills necessary to implement PBL successfully.

The Core Elements of PBL in Teaching

1. Real-World Relevance: PBL projects are all about solving problems in meaningful ways to achieve a particular outcome.
2. Student-Centered Learning: PBL encourages students to take ownership of their learning process.
3. Inquiry and Exploration: PBL involves a deep dive into a problem or task by asking questions, conducting research, and exploring solutions.
4. Collaboration: PBL emphasizes teamwork and collective problem-solving.
5. Reflection: PBL incorporates reflection as a means of helping students learn from their experiences.

Recognizing PBL in Everyday Teaching

1. Curriculum Planning and Real-World Connections: When planning lessons, we think about what would make a lesson extremely engaging and would get our students excited about what they are learning. We have a problem before us, and we are planning how we would like to tackle that problem. We evaluate different approaches, and we can easily identify the most boring way to teach students about any given topic, but then we start to explore more meaningful ways that would bring this topic to life for our students because we want them to be excited and want to learn about the content.

Example: You plan an introductory event that allows students to step into the shoes of the colonists in America. The event will stoke a lot of emotional responses, and it will help students to understand colonial perspectives toward injustice. 

2. Differentiated Instruction and Student-Centered Learning: Differentiation is an overwhelming aspect of any lesson. Making sure all of your students’ needs are being met takes a lot of time and planning, but we know that it needs to happen for all students to get the most out of each lesson. This student-centered approach is a cornerstone of PBL, where projects are designed to be meaningful and accessible to all students. Your desire is to see each of your students as individual learners so that they can internalize what has been covered.

Example: You present a choice board of various projects so that students can choose something that resonates with them. 

3. Questioning and Inquiry-Based Learning: We ask students probing questions all the time because we are trying to get them to really think about the content. Leveling that process up, we have students create questions that they would like to explore, thus building an inquiry nature into our students. It is exciting for students to come up with questions that stump their teacher. This gives us a chance to model the idea that it is okay to not know something, and for us to encourage research as a rewarding task.

Example: Starting a unit with an open-ended question like, “why is it important to measure accurately in your everyday life” and guiding students to investigate pros and cons and provide examples.

4. Collaborative Learning: Collaboration comes naturally for teachers. We chat with other teachers on our team, share ideas, ask for help, dialogue in online communities, and read articles. We know that we do not have all of the answers and we must engage others, especially if we are trying to grow. This is a skill that we also bring into the classroom. Our students work in teams or groups to complete assignments, discuss ideas, and solve problems. PBL makes this a natural component of every project. Students are constantly sharing ideas, getting feedback, and seeing how their part is just as important as others in the group. 

Example: Students work together to create an immersive experience that ties all components of the unit together.

5. Reflective Practices: Good teachers are reflective teachers. Reflection is an essential part of teaching, whether it’s reflecting on the effectiveness of a lesson or asking students to reflect on what they gained from the lesson. Reflection within PBL helps students understand that learning is a journey and it helps students to improve how they are engaging within your classroom..

Example: Have students keep learning logs to document their success as well as their errors along the way. 

Translating Teaching Skills to PBL Implementation

1. Lesson Planning to Project Design: Sometimes, lesson planning can be a laborious task, but it is essential if we are going to create a meaningful experience for our students. We need to know where we are taking our students and exactly how we intend to arrive at that destination.  This skill directly connects to designing PBL projects. You present the destination (which is typically based on a standard and phrased as a question), set achievable mile markers along the way, and guide students along the way. 

Action Step: Start by identifying a core topic and brainstorm real-world problems related to that topic. Allow your students to have a voice in the project’s design to build ownership and meaning.  

2. Differentiation and Personalized Projects: This daunting task is going to become more manageable because students will do the differentiating for themselves. By helping students determine how they would like to approach a project, ensuring that every student can engage meaningfully. This empowers students to take ownership in THEIR project, not YOUR project.

Action Step: Create project guidelines that include various options for research methods, project formats, and presentation styles. This allows for greater voice and choice within your classroom.

3. Inquiry-Based Lessons to Research Projects: We naturally use questions to guide student learning in our classrooms. If we can base the entire mastery of a standard into an open-ended question, we provide room for students to be curious and inquiry-driven in their approach to the curriculum. It is important to note that the freedom found within inquiry is unfamiliar territory for many students. It is important to guide them in formulating their own questions and developing research plans to find answers.

Action Step: Introduce a project with a broad, open-ended question related to your subject area. Encourage students to narrow down their focus based on their interests.

4. Collaborative Activities to Team Projects: Expand your collaborative activities into comprehensive team projects. We know that students sometimes dread group projects because there is always one kid who does all of the work, a couple who do some of the work, and one who doesn’t do any of the work. When students work in teams, they are able to see how important their part is, and it also ensures that there is accountability for everyone in the team. We see this in our everyday practice. We work with students, but we also need the support of custodians, secretaries, administrators, cafeteria workers, and intervention specialists. We do not work in isolation. 

Action Step: Assign roles within groups to ensure every student has a clear responsibility. Provide tools and strategies for effective teamwork and conflict resolution. We must teach students how to resolve conflicts without yelling at one another. 

5. Reflective Journals to Project Reflections: Integrate structured reflection periods throughout the project timeline. As I said before, good teachers are reflective teachers. We spend a lot of time reflecting (Daily, hourly, and even moment by moment). Encourage your students to reflect on their progress, challenges, and what they’ve learned throughout their experiences.

Action Step: Schedule regular check-ins where students share their reflections and receive feedback. Use these reflections to guide future learning and project adjustments.

Things to Think About

1. How can you leverage what you are already doing to build a more meaningful, student-centered classroom?
2. What differentiation strategies do you already use that could be turned over to students so that they feel more empowered within your classroom?
3. How can you use questions to develop more inquiry in your lessons?
4. In what ways can you make teams and groups a more effective collaborative process within your classroom?
5. How do you currently use reflection in your teaching, and how can you integrate more structured reflection for your students?

Conclusion: Embracing Your PBL Potential

You already possess a lot of the skills to transition and develop PBL in your classroom. By seeing how PBL and your natural routines and procedures align, you can confidently begin to tweak what you are currently doing in your classroom. You are a lifelong learner and collaborator, so leverage your existing skills to create enriching, real-world learning experiences for your students. Through PBL, you can make education more engaging, relevant, and impactful, preparing your students to be equipped for the challenges that lie ahead.

I would love to hear how your skills could translate to a PBL classroom? How could this transform your classroom? If you are interested in learning more about how to grow your understanding of PBL, check out my latest book, Modern PBL: Project-based Learning in the Digital Age.