One of the reasons traditional schools struggle with project-based learning, especially on the secondary level, is that their entire system is built around content-driven curriculum instead of interdisciplinary. But if you pay attention to how young learners like to learn, most of them naturally navigate to learning based on some type of project. In fact, you could make the argument that is how all of us learn best.
So what would a school have to do if they were to quit filling their day with content-drive curriculum and embrace project-based learning?
Three authors from the University of Pennsylvannia took a stab at answering this question in an article published in EducationWeek online back in October of 2021. Zachary Herrmann, Pam Grossman, and Sarah Schneider write,
“Teaching is a lot like running.”
“Research has found that running as little as five to 10 minutes a day can have a massive impact on your health. In other words, you don’t have to go from a no-exercise lifestyle to an Olympic training regimen to see improvements. Taking small steps now can make a big difference later.”
“Similarly, project-based learning – an approach to teaching in which students create real solutions to real problems – can start with taking the equivalent of a five-minute run every day.”
“Consider authenticity, a core aspect of project-based learning. In our book, Core Practices for Project-Based Learning, we encourage teachers and leaders to think of authenticity along three dimensions: the students, the discipline, and the world. For each of these dimensions, here are simple changes you can make to build more authentic learning experiences for your students:
“Find connections to students’ lives – So much of the work students do in school is disconnected from their daily lives. To help students make personal connections to their work, find ways for them to draw on their perspectives, beliefs, ideas, and values as they explore the big ideas of the lesson or project. In an English/language arts class, students might explore how the themes in a novel resonate (or don’t) with their own lived experiences. In a math class, students might identify patterns or phenomena that they find curious, then work to represent them mathematically to explore further.”
“Engage in the work of the subject-matter discipline – Rather than having students ‘learn about’ math, science, or history, position students as mathematicians, scientists, and historians. For example, students can develop and refine mathematical models rather than do problem sets. They can design and run investigations to test hypotheses instead of listening to lectures. And they can work with primary-source documents to construct arguments about what happened in the past in lieu of memorizing names and dates.”
“Link the world to the world outside the classroom – Students deserve to engage in work that has meaning outside of the classroom. To do this, ask yourself three questions: What are students being asked to produce? Who is the audience for students’ work? And what is the potential impact that work has?”
“In many classrooms, the answer to these questions is that students are producing a paper or test for the teacher to review for a grade. But what if students produced something of value (an argument, solution, prototype, or proposal) for a real audience (the school, a community, a field, or an organization) that had the potential for a real impact (to educate, to raise awareness, to solve a problem, or provide a service)?”
But the real question we need to ask ourselves here is why would the traditional system feel motivated to change itself into a project-based learning organization? It seems like there are enough principals, teachers, and other staff patting themselves on the back for a job well done for project-based learning interest to be held at bay.
I guess this is one of the big reasons I feel the current traditional public school system needs to be replaced. Not enough classrooms, schools, or districts are even trying to improve by trying different.
And that is mightily disappointing.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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