Gold Standard PBL: Our North Star
Teachers make the shift to Project-Based Learning for a wide range of reasons. Whether your goal is to increase student engagement, develop collaboration and critical thinking skills, connect across content areas, or bring more student voice and choice to learning, PBL offers an effective approach to instruction.
Can PBL lead to rigorous learning? Consider this evidence:
- Students who learned with a PBL approach in Advanced Placement U.S. Government and AP Environmental Science outperformed peers on exams and were more likely to earn a passing score of 3 or above, with the chance to receive college credit. That’s just one outcome of a multiyear study released by Lucas Education Research.
- Elementary students made academic gains in science, language arts, and social studies after experiencing project-based instruction, according to three studies released by Lucas Education Research.
In addition, the Deeper Learning Network includes hundreds of schools across the United States that are committed to Project-Based Learning and other 21st century learning practices that prepare students to succeed in college, careers, and civic life. Compared to students who do not regularly experience deeper learning, students at these schools:
Achieve higher scores in assessments of reading, math, and science
Report higher levels of collaboration, academic engagement, motivation to learn, and self-efficacy
Are more likely to graduate from high school on time
Are more likely to enroll in four-year colleges and universities
But here’s the catch: Not all projects achieve the same great results.
As a student yourself, did you ever experience projects that were fun, but not academically rigorous? As a teacher, have you seen projects deliver uneven results—with only a few students doing most of the heavy lifting?
To make sure that all students are getting high-quality learning experiences, it’s important to know what makes projects effective. To guide your Project-Based Learning journey, you need a North Star.