Some years ago, I visited a school and attended the class of Mrs. Jen, as a fellow visiting teacher. Unlike traditional classes that I experienced, the teacher did not teach anything specific in the
subject. Instead, she raised critical questions and gave them to students at the beginning of the class. She assigned them into groups, where they were required to collaborate with others in the group to develop a particular project initiated by themselves, with the aim of addressing the critical questions raised by the teacher. The students were excited to work on their project. They brainstormed with others in their group, assigned tasks to be done, executed them, and then presented their projects. The students were, therefore, proactively engaged in the learning process. Their presentations were impressive and attractive, full of new ideas and elaborate in performance. At the end of the class, I talked to Mrs. Jen about my own impression of her class and how successful it had been. She said she had implemented the project based learning strategy, which she believed was effective in the substantial development of skills in her students, as the strategy included teamwork, creative and critical thinking, and the utilization of problem solving skills. With these skills, students will achieve success when joining the 21st century workforce.
Subsequently, the more I explored and investigated this strategy, the more I discovered that I was in full agreement with her about the effectiveness of this teaching strategy.
Theoretically, project based learning is defined as the “student-driven” and “teacher-facilitated” approach to learning (Bell, 2010). By using this strategy, students acquire new knowledge, skills, and experiences through the creation of projects, initiated by themselves, under the supervision and facilitation of their teachers. In the other words, through this implementation, students use multiple senses to learn, as well as utilizing both independent and team work performances. By its very nature, project-based learning can help students to develop multiple skills which will be extremely beneficial for them as the future workforce, while at the same time, the strategies employed transform the learning environment at schools (Larmer & Mergendoller, 2010).
However, further research on project based learning revealed that this strategy has not been widely adopted in schools worldwide. For example, when I spoke to teachers that had working experience in schools in developing countries (i.e. Vietnam, China, India, Philippines, etc.), I found that the schools there knew about this strategy but they did not implement it voluntarily or regularly. Thus, the question was raised as to why this strategy is not used across the board by schools everywhere, and especially at the locations I visited. The answer to this question is that the application/implementation of this strategy into the teaching process requires significant conditions.
When students are assigned to do projects, they require a certain amount of time to complete these projects. However, it appears that in many schools, the time allocated for lessons may be limited, so teachers do not have the necessary time frames which would allow them to apply this strategy. This is especially the case when schools do not promote collaboration between teachers to teach a group of topics that are relevant to each other which would help them to apply the strategy of project-based learning for groups of subjects.
On the other hand, although teachers only play the role of facilitator in the project based learning classes, they have to prepare very carefully for the class before the implementation. For example, they have to determine critical questions, think about the design of the class, prepare evaluation criteria, and other supporting documents, etc. Compared to traditional teaching methods, which are based on a fixed curriculum and teaching plan, project based learning classes require significant effort in preparation and implementation. Consequently, teachers may not be willing to apply this strategy, especially when this innovation in teaching is not assessed as a criterion of their performance appraisal.
Thirdly, to facilitate students to do projects, schools have to be well equipped, especially for projects of students in the higher grades (i.e. from grade 6 to grade 12). Therefore, in practice, several schools in developing countries are unable to satisfy these conditions.
Additionally, there may be other reasons for the prevention of the application of this strategy in schools of developing countries, such as cultural factors, organizational and political motives, leadership, etc.
Therefore, in order to promote the use of this strategy in practice, I believe that the abovementioned conditions need to be addressed by the schools, the teachers, and other relevant educational bodies. Furthermore, the curriculum must be allowed to be revised by teachers to be flexible while ensuring that all expected teaching outcomes of the school year can be met. The adoption of this approach may be improved in developing countries if these factors are taken into consideration.
References :
Bell, S. (2010). Project-based learning for the 21st century: Skills for the future. The Clearing House, 83(2), pp. 39-43.
Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J. (2010). Essentials for project-based learning. Educational leadership, 68(1), pp. 34-37.