Life is not an exam, it’s a project.” It is the mantra that American pedagogue Bob Lenz repeats when talking about learning. Lenz is director of the Buck Institute for Education, a non-profit organization responsible for disseminating Project-Based Learning (PBL). Between 30% and 40% of users of the website, which offers free resources for teachers, are international. Lenz has been to Barcelona to evangelize the education sector and visited L’Horitzó school, which has been using this methodology for years.
What is ABP?
It is an approach or a methodology. It is also a philosophy that is based on the idea that students learn the content of the courses, but also skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and even that they gain a sense of empowerment to change things. It is inquiry-based, where students are asked to apply or demonstrate their knowledge, not just regurgitate it in an exam. They work as a team when appropriate and reflect on their learning so that they can transfer what they have learned to new situations.
A premise is creativity.
It is a fundamental piece that is missing in traditional education, but not the most important in ABP. Critical thinking, collaboration and teamwork are, for me, equally important.
Is everything learned with ABP?
No. The ABP will not teach you to read, it will inspire you to read. It is motivating to learn basic academic skills, such as reading, writing or mathematics. In most schools, students are told, “Read this, solve this problem.” But they are never told why or how it connects to the world. The ABP raises, instead, a question that is answered by learning mathematics, reading or history.
Does it motivate students and teachers?
Certainly. Many of the jobs that the students we have now will have don’t exist yet. Project-based learning teaches you to be a learner. You are learning to learn, and committed and motivated. For teachers, it is a much better way to be a teacher than the traditional way. They want to contribute significantly in the lives of their students. They look for that moment when the student goes “wow”. In a traditional classroom, this never happens.
It requires motivated teachers, something that doesn’t always happen…
It’s hard for teachers right now. But if they receive the necessary support, training and resources, ABP will help them find the motivation. In our workshops we often have teachers who have taught for 30 years who say, “Now I’m excited for the first time in years to teach again.”
Is PBL the antithesis of rote education?
It allows the student to be better able to remember the content and skills. It is important that there is room for reflection on learning, what we call metacognition. To remember longer, you need context. In the ABP, students tend to get good results in the exams long after they have done the project.
It’s a way of teaching that not everyone understands…
One of the things we do is have the teachers do a project so they can experience it. And we also need to give parents evidence so they can see that students are getting good results.
What would you say to the parents?
That I am more concerned about the future of their children if they focus on exams than on projects. Because life is not an exam. Life is a project.
There is a fear that without books they will lose control of what their children learn.
It’s something new. When they have the opportunity to go to the presentations, they see the learning. Although getting to that point takes some time. But it’s not about one thing or the other, I think that “all project or all traditional” is a wrong contrast.
Because?
To assess students as a whole, it is necessary to have knowledge, mastery of knowledge, application, understanding and reflection. Most schools only assess knowledge. We’re missing out on the other stuff. The fear is that only the projects will remain and the academic part will be eliminated. And that’s not good. But the mark in the big exam tells you very little about what the student knows and can do. If you just take the exam, you don’t have to prove that you know something.
Do other countries use the ABP?
We helped Chile. China also has a national project-based learning policy. Finland is a leader in “learning by phenomena”. And I think India has a national policy for VET.
Detractors say that children don’t learn, that they just play and hang out.
That is why we have developed high quality standard procedures. If the standard is followed, you can be sure that the projects will lead to good results. We need to make sure that the people who are doing PBL are using the rules and be able to share that so they see that it’s not just a loosely structured thing. It is very important that teachers in schools that do PBL can say how they know that students are learning academics in addition to skills.
It ensures that the ABP is good for people with fewer opportunities. Because?
And also for students who traditionally do well in school because they progress faster. It’s good for both of them. They stay engaged instead of giving up. Young people today face a challenge, because they prepare and work hard for an exam and even get to university and ask themselves: “Why am I here?”.
