As noted by the World Economic Forum, "innovation and entrepreneurship provide a way forward for solving the global challenges of the 21st century, building sustainable development, creating jobs, generating renewed economic growth, and advancing human welfare." Today's students must become skilled critical thinkers, communicators, and collaborators in order to successfully respond to new and complex problems and to carve out opportunities in an increasingly competitive labour market.
With its focus on real-world challenges, project-based learning (PBL) offers a powerful approach for future-focused education and recipe for life-long learning. Through PBL, “students pursue solutions to non-trivial problems by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts.” By involving learners in authentic activities that mirror the types of roles and tasks that are done in the real world, outside the classroom, PBL works to increase engagement and decrease absenteeism as students come to see their learning as meaningful and purpose driven. And, by integrating knowing and doing (Markham, 2011) with teamwork, PBL contributes to deep understandings of central concepts while also contributing to a range of 21st century skills such as creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and communication.
A growing body of research points to additional benefits such as a broader knowledge base, better information retention, overall gains in academic achievement, and the development of leadership abilities. Teachers who employ PBL report greater professionalism and collaboration with their colleagues, as well as deeper relationships with their students (Thomas, 2000). Moreover, because it offers a range of learning opportunities in the classroom, PBL can also help to engage learners of diverse backgrounds and interests, as well as ones who do not respond well to traditional instructional methods (Railsback, 2002; SRI, 2000).
As noted by the World Economic Forum, "innovation and entrepreneurship provide a way forward for solving the global challenges of the 21st century, building sustainable development, creating jobs, generating renewed economic growth, and advancing human welfare." Today's students must become skilled critical thinkers, communicators, and collaborators in order to successfully respond to new and complex problems and to carve out opportunities in an increasingly competitive labour market.
With its focus on real-world challenges, project-based learning (PBL) offers a powerful approach for future-focused education and recipe for life-long learning. Through PBL, “students pursue solutions to non-trivial problems by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts.” By involving learners in authentic activities that mirror the types of roles and tasks that are done in the real world, outside the classroom, PBL works to increase engagement and decrease absenteeism as students come to see their learning as meaningful and purpose driven. And, by integrating knowing and doing (Markham, 2011) with teamwork, PBL contributes to deep understandings of central concepts while also contributing to a range of 21st century skills such as creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and communication.
A growing body of research points to additional benefits such as a broader knowledge base, better information retention, overall gains in academic achievement, and the development of leadership abilities. Teachers who employ PBL report greater professionalism and collaboration with their colleagues, as well as deeper relationships with their students (Thomas, 2000). Moreover, because it offers a range of learning opportunities in the classroom, PBL can also help to engage learners of diverse backgrounds and interests, as well as ones who do not respond well to traditional instructional methods (Railsback, 2002; SRI, 2000).
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