Incoporating PBL in classroom 😄

Hello everyone ☀️

This week I will talk about Project Based Learning and how important is to incoporate it in the classroom in order to facilitate the teaching process 😃.

Project based learning (PBL) is an approach that gives students the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills through engaging projects set around challenges and problems they may face in the real world.

PBL takes students through some steps :

• Identifying a problem 

• Agreeing on finding a solution

• Designing and developing a prototype of the solution. 

• Refining the solution based on feedback from experts, instructors or peers.

Defining the Problem 

Students should ask questions about the problem. What is the nature of problem they are trying to solve? Asking such questions will help students frame the problem in an appropriate context. If students are working on a real-world problem, it is important to consider how to find a solution and what are its benefits.

Generating Ideas 

Next, students should be given the opportunity to brainstorm and discuss their ideas for solving the problem. Brainstorming should encourage students to think wildly, but to stay focused on the problem. When students have the opportunity to think, to generate their ideas, that means that they soon or later will figure out the solution of the problem. 

Prototyping Solutions 

Designing and prototyping a solution are the next phase of the PBL process. A prototype might take many forms: a storyboard, a role-play or even an object. The purpose of prototyping is to expand upon the ideas generated during the brainstorming phase, and to quickly convey a how a solution to the problem might look and feel. 

Testing 

Testing takes place in a “live” setting. Testing allows students to glean how well their products or services work in a real setting. The results of testing can provide students with important feedback on the their solutions, and generate new questions to consider. Did the solution work as planned? If not, what needs to be added? 

As a future teacher, how am I going to incoporate PBL in my classes? 

Before I answer this question, I would like to emphasize the importance of PBL. Project-based learning is an approach which enables students to actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire transferable knowledge. Up to here, we understand that PBL helps students to be more active, communicate and cooperate with each other. By trying to find solutions for different problems, they develop critical thinking. We all know that critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration are the 21st century skills. As future teachers, we should try to develop these skills on our pupils/ students. The best thing I would do, is to give my pupils the opportunity to choose topics on their own in order to make the projects easier and more entertaining. When pupils choose the topic by themself, it means that they feel more confident because they will work on a project that they already have information and knowledge on. This will help them feel motivated about working in groups and as a result they will cooperate with each-other. They will learn new knowledge by interacting together and having fun 😄

That was all for today. See you next time ☀️😃

Sara 💓