Project-based Learning (PBL)

On this website https://www.edutopia.org/, there are three articles which are related to project-based learning (PBL) written by By Jorge Valenzuela on November 18, 2021 (Ending Project-Based Learning Units With a Call to Action),  Zachary Herrmann on October 27, 2021 (6 Ways to Guide Students to More Authentic Work in PBL) and Katie Piper on October 14, 2021 (Getting Parents Excited About Project-Based Learning), respectively.

The first article illustrates the significance of a call to action (CTA) in PBL, which can get learners involved and influence the external world outside of schools. The second one shows that it is of vital importance for learners to have an authentic learning experience, so the learning experiences are not meaningless for students. The last one demonstrates that teachers should endeavour to dismiss the suspicion of parents because there is a doubt for parents when they had some kind of PBL at a young age.

 

Firstly, this PBL is different from the traditional PBL and it is not the same as (Task-based learning) TBL as well. Even, from my perspective, it has more agencies than traditional education because most education happens at school and family environment with little participation of our society and community. However, Jorge Valenzuela holds the view that the products students make are the highlight throughout the process of TBL and can be used to exhibit their learning outcomes to the public. Meanwhile, it is high time that students should be willing to showcase their abilities and present their best products. Also, they can obtain enough motivation and positive feedback from the viewers, which creates a virtuous circle for students to be self-motivated in learning and exploring. What is more, there is no doubt that some PBL is suspicious for some people, such as parents, because they had a dissimilar learning experience when they were young. They treated PBL as “doing projects”. Nonetheless, PBL requires students to showcase their capacities from numerous dimensions according to their conditions to achieve deep learning with the help of scaffolding. Hence, it is of vital importance to enlighten parents to understand this kind of PBL and change their minds to accept and support it, so students, schools and communities can be integrated effectively to boot the productivity of the teaching method. Last but not least, I agree with Zachary Herrmann in terms of the significance of authenticity in PBL, though I believe it is crucial in all varieties of learning. Authenticity can ensure students that the contents they learnt and the projects they made can be used and done in the future.

 

PBL can also be used when it comes to language teaching and learning if there are proper chances for students to express themselves freely to language learners and native speakers or anyone interested despite the existence of (task-based learning) TBL method. We can combine these two similar methods from the perspective of theory because they are not exactly the same seeing through from the inner core. If the production that students makes can be appreciated by more interested people, it will be a huge motivation for students to be self-motivated to learn, in that learners know what they are learning is meaningful and will be observed by not only their teachers and family members but the whole community or even society. Other people can consider the topic in light of English teaching. There are actions to do and always many when more parties are involved in one thing. 

 

Sources

https://www.edutopia.org/article/ending-project-based-learning-units-call-action

https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-ways-guide-students-more-authentic-work-pbl

https://www.edutopia.org/article/getting-parents-excited-about-project-based-learning