Final Blog: Course Reflection

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

Prior to this course I had only a vague idea of what project based learning was. After working on my own PBL unit, I had to redefine my notion of what a “project” entailed. My pre-EdTech 542 understanding of a project was having students work on a research paper that I would grade and a presentation that students would present to their peers, but which, ultimately again, I would grade. The feature of PBL that struck me the most is its heavy emphasis on reflection, reflection not only on the student's’ part, but also more importantly on the instructor’s. The driving question relies on a reflective process to be effectively constructed, the activities that are deployed during the PBL unit rely on the instructor’s continuous reflection on student progress, and the success of future PBL units relies on the instructor’s reflection on the student products and outcomes of a completed unit.

What I am still a bit unclear about is whether lectures or mini-lectures of any type have a place in a PBL unit. In my teaching context, students are learning skills rather than concepts. Many of these skills such as the proper application of grammar and vocabulary require explanations of grammatical forms, abstract meanings, and examples of use. In addition, in the ESL context, learners may require multiple variations of an explanation of a particular topic. In the effort to be a “guide on the side” is anything that resembles lecturing abandoned in a PBL context?

What did you expect to learn in this course? What did you actually learn? More, less, and why?

I enrolled in this course expecting to learn how to effectively incorporate projects into my teaching context. As I mentioned above I didn’t have a clear picture of what project based instruction looked like. As I progressed through the course I learned the specifics of incorporating an effective PBL unit into my teaching context. I have a clearer understanding of the main features of PBL (e.g. a clear driving question, sub-questions that promote critical thinking, multiple opportunities for student reflection, and a product or service that is presented to an authentic audience). I was also able to clearly see how PBL naturally lends itself to the critical and creative thinking characteristic of the higher order thinking levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

What will you do with what you have learned?

I plan to present the PBL unit that I’ve created in this course to my peers in the ESL department. Since the department is fairly open to new pedagogy, I should have no problem convincing my peers to allow me to pilot the project. After having my students present their projects to the ESL faculty and having my peers rate the in-class essays (summative assessment), I will report on the overall PBL experience, make adjustments to the unit as required, and recommend that other sections implement the same or similar project during future semesters. Although my goal would be to implement Gold Standard PBL a few trails and revisions will probably be required. I might also suggest the PBL format for courses at lower level courses in the credit ESL department, non-credit ESL department, and Intensive English Program.