Project Based Learning
“True learning is based on discovery guided by mentoring
rather than the transmission of knowledge.”
John Dewey
Project Based Learning is innovative, but not new. It dates back to the early 20th century when John
Dewey, educational theorist and philosopher, challenged the traditional view with his Learning by
Doing (doing with understanding, hands--on, minds--on learning). Memorizing meaningless contents
has many drawbacks, a lack of knowledge and abilities, that can be made up for this approach to learning.
PBL engages students, no matter their learning style, and provides real--world relevance for learning
while satisfying the varied interests of the students.
Students work collaboratively to suggest solutions for almost any real endeavor. The project development
is a guided process --outlined by the teacher-- in which the tasks are accomplished according to an
individualized role system. Once the goals are established, the teacher monitors the process, but it is the
group of students who is in charge of the project. This way they develop their creativity while taking
responsibilities and building self--confidence.
Although projects are suitable to a wide range of contents and levels, they all share some distinctive
features. A challenging and focused driving question is the start of every good project. These kind of
inquiries cannot be answered using memorized knowledge; they are not “googleable” questions. This
approach favors to work closely with active and engaged students doing meaningful work, taking
decisions, and constructing their own solutions. PBL benefits the consecution of specific educational
objectives for ongoing learning about a dynamic world.
Catalán (2005) sets the Golden rules for Project Based Learning:
1. Students must take responsibility for their own learning.
2. The proposed problems follow general, variously named steps and must be framed with open questions.
3. The goal is not over--specialization, but a multi--disciplinary solution for a challenge.
4. The acquired knowledge in the autonomous study must be applied to a practical issue.
5. Synthesizing what has been learned along the project is crucial. Before the evaluation, it is necessary to
analyze if students have acquired the concepts and ideas, and to work on the strengths and weaknesses
resulting of the project.
6. Assessment and self--assessment must be done at the end of every activity and when the project is
finished.
7. Individual assessment will always be done according to previously outlined objectives.
8. The topic and activities must be always connected to real world situations and provide moral values.
9. Cooperative work, collaborative learning and responsible autonomy are crucial.
Project Based Learning implies:
Authenticity
• Is the project based on a meaningful and important problem/question for the student?
• Is the problem/question related to the community?
• Does the problem/question offer opportunities to produce something personal and/or social
outside school?
Academic rigor
• Does the project/question imply a multi--disciplinary approach?
• Does the project/question challenge the student to use methods of investigation of one or more
areas? (i.e. Does it makes the student think as scientist do?)
• Does the student develop higher order thinking skills? (i.e. Does it lead the student to reach
conclusions or look for different perspectives?)
Applied Learning
• Does the student work on a problem clearly related to life and work? (i.e. Does the student design
a product or organize an event?)
• Does the project/question require organizing and self--directing skills?
• Does the project/question require skills typically expected in job performance (problem solving,
ICT, group work)?
Active exploration
• Does the student need to undertake fieldwork for a significant period of time?
• Does the project/question require the use of a variety of methods, means and resources for the
investigation?
• Is the student expected to do a presentation about what he/she learned?
MI development
• Which MI are favored by the project?
• Is the project/question expected to be solved from different perspectives?
Multidisciplinary skills
• How many disciplines are implied in the project/question development? Are they curricular
disciplines?
• Does the student face new disciplines that do not normally appear in the classroom?
Teacher and Students in Project Based Learning
The teacher is not the main source of information anymore. He/she acts as a facilitator, a mentor that
offers the students a wide range of resources and counseling for their investigations. The process takes
place under the monitoring of the teacher, whose main role is not to give the required knowledge
(although he/she can do it, if necessary), but:
- To identify the group necessities and to set the project’s objective.
- To set out good projects.
- To facilitate the learning plan for each group.
- To offer a frequent feedback to each group.
- To monitor the process and both individual and group progress.
The teacher favors and acts at the “moments for learning” (Moursound, 1999) that open the possibility to
gather all the class together to learn and discuss a specific (and maybe unexpected) situation that a student
or group of students may have found.
The teacher is responsible for the final product, learning and assessment. He/she uses the tools and
methodology for real evaluation and must face the big challenge: each student is constructing his/her own
learning instead of studying the same contents than all his/her classmates. Teacher learns along with the
students, acting as an example of how the learning process never stops.
From the students’ perspective, there are plenty of advantages in PBL. It promotes thinking and acting
according to the project’s design, elaborating a plan with defined strategies to get a solution that not only
fulfills curricular objectives.
It also boosts learning diversity, as students work all together, and stimulates an emotional, intellectual,
and personal growth thanks to direct experiences. They learn to learn from one another and helping their
classmates improves their knowledge and abilities. This way they gain skills to assess others’ and to give
constructive feedback to their partners and themselves. PBL approach encourages students to experiment,
discover, and learn from their mistakes, to face difficult and unexpected obstacles.
Moursand (1999) states that PBL:
1. Focuses on students and promotes their intrinsic motivation.
2. Stimulates collaborative and cooperative learning.
3. Lets students practice to improve their products and presentations.
4. Is designed for students to get engaged in “doing” things, not only in “learning about” something.
5. Requires that the students work actively in a product or presentation.
6. Is challenging and focused on higher order mental abilities.
Advantages of using Project Based Learning in Second Language Learning
Working on a project demands an authentic and contextualized use of language; that is why students’
attention swaps from the form to the meaning. Interaction and work based on meaning favor the
communicative competence development. PBL, as well as the communicative approach, are founded on
cooperative learning. Languages are acquired by means of meaningful communication and taking the best
of the process of interaction and negotiation.
COLLABORATIVE SKILLS MACRO--AREA
KEEPING POSITIVE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Useful linguistic functions to express
Collaborative skills
collaborative skills
To fit in with the group. To greet and introduce yourself. To say goodbye.
To remember classmates’ names. To ask somebody’s name.
To encourage everyone’s participation. To call (politely) someone’s attention.
To share socializing moments. To invite someone. To accept someone’s attention.
To express gratitude. To express gratitude.
To show respect for classmates. To apologize.
To express concern for another. To show interest in somebody’s health.
To give a compliment. To express feelings of affection, gratitude and satisfaction.
To contribute to a positive To use indirect verbal acts to soften petitions or to modulate
work atmosphere. the expression of opinions.
Non--verbal acts:
- To smile
- To respect the different cultural codes for physical contact.
WHAT TO DO:
HOW YOU CAN SAY IT:
COLLABORATIVE USEFUL LINGUISTIC FUNCTIONS
SKILLS
To understand others points of view:
Let’s see; try to explain your point of view…
To listen to and to reflect on If I have understood correctly, your point of view is…
what others say.
To ask for clarification:
What do you mean exactly? // In other words? // Why do you think that…?
To make a proposal:
Why don’t … + proposal? // What if … + proposal?
To accept different points of
view
To express agreement:
That’s right // Yes, indeed // I agree
To express an opinion:
In my opinion… // According to my point of
view… I think (that)… // I don’t think (that) …
To justify opinions:
I think … + because // I don’t think …+ because…
To accept disagreement and
formulate ideas.
To express disagreement:
Well, as you can see // It depends //
Possibly I do not entirely agree with you
because…
Showing agreement + but / however … (for instance: The proposal is not bad but
we must bear in mind that…)
To seek other’s opinions to confirm an agreement.
So you…+ conclusion + don’t you?
Would you agree + proposal – conclusion?
To identify common ideas
to intercede on a conflict.
To reach an agreement, harmonizing different points of view:
To summarize, we all agree that…
In short, the most important point/fact/idea is that…
To control others’ emotions:
I realize that… // I understand very well that…
To keep emotional balance
during discussions.
To minimize stress:
Among all these aspects, which one do you consider most important?
Adaptado de ELENA LANDONE. El aprendizaje cooperativo del ELE: propuestas para integrar las funciones de la
lengua y las destrezas colaborativas. http://www.educacion.es/redele/revista/landone.shtml
Requirements to Design a Good Project
• To define the project’s objectives. We should take in mind two aspects: The subject contents and the
language contents.
In addition to Bloom’s taxonomy, there are five more elements to take into account when setting out
learning objectives:
✓ Which important cognitive skills will students develop?
✓ Which social and affective skills will students develop?
✓ Which metacognitive skills are going to be improved with this project?
✓ What kind of problems will students be able to solve?
✓ What concepts and notions should students be able to apply?
It is convenient to be very exhaustive because, that way, both the teacher and the student will understand
what is going to be learnt. That is why we have to give a concise explanation about the main project’s
objective and in what way it addresses the problem.
• To define the real context and formulate the question or problem. The projects are born from
challenging questions that cannot be answered through a memorized based learning system; on the
contrary, they place the student in a problem solving active position, turning students into
decision--makers and researchers.
Projects are used to get significant and specific educational objectives; they are not an addition to the
“real” curriculum or a simple entertainment.
• To define requirements and resources. A good project must have a list of criteria or quality
standards; besides, it has to have a range of instructions in order to fulfill it, such as timing and goals.
Moreover, we must specify all the steps and tasks we need to reach the problem solution, that is, the final
product.
Furthermore, it is also important to define the support in which tasks will be presented: poster, web quest,
PowerPoint, video, interview…if it is necessary to make an outline for presentations or interviews…
• Classroom management. How many sessions will be spent on the project? Will students need to work
at home? How are teams going to be organized? Will deadlines be stated?
PBL is a good way to work emotional management with students due to the fact that this will make them
feel that they can really fulfill the task that has been appointed to them.
• Continuous assessment. In the same way that PBL is focused on real context and brings up authentic
problems, in continuous assessment, it is expected that students will solve complex problems and tasks.
The emphasis is made on higher level thinking skills. Evaluation is a direct measure of students’ abilities
and knowledge of a given content. Students understand clearly the assessment’s rules, which are focused
on the final product, the presentation or the production/representation.
References
Anthony, E. M. (2010) Language Learning: Collaboration in English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
Problem--Based Learning (PBL) Classroom. Applied Linguistics, Global and Local. Proceedings of
the 43rd Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics 9--11 September 2010
University of Aberdeen. http://www.baal.org.uk/proceedings_10.pdf
Bottoms & Webb, (1988) APRENDIZAJE POR PROYECTOS. NorthWest Regional Educational
Laboratory. Eduteka. http://www.eduteka.org/AprendizajePorProyectos.php
García Bernardino, R. y de la Calle, C. Trabajando por proyectos en las aulas de infantil. Escuela Infantil
Los Gorriones. http://www.eeilosgorriones.es/material/proyectos.pdf
Lee, M. & Carrington, A. Promoting Problem--Based Learning for English as a Second Language
Learners. Purdue University, Amy, Tuttle Middle School.
http://www.discover.education.purdue.edu/challenge/.../TLT_monica_esl.ppt
Moursund, D. (1999) Project--Based Learning Using Information Technology. ISTE.
Traducción de los capítulos 1 y 2 realizada por EDUTEKA y disponible en
http://www.eduteka.org/APPMoursund2.php.
Project Based Learning. Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/project--based--learning
Project Based Learning for the 21st Century. Buck Institute for Education. http://www.bie.org/
Roldan Tapia, A. (1997) El trabajo por proyectos en el sistema educativo español: revisión y propuestas
de realización. Revista de Investigación e Innovación en la clase de idiomas, 9.
http://www.encuentrojournal.org/textos/9.9.pdf
Landone, E. (2004) “El aprendizaje cooperativo del ELE: propuestas para integrar las funciones de la
lengua y las destrezas colaborativas”. Università degli Studi di Milano Dip. Scienze del linguaggio e
letterature straniere comparate. Revista electrónica redELE, Marzo 2004.
http://www.educacion.es/redele/revista/landone.pdf
Appendices
All these documents act as a useful complement to the projects. They supply a wide range of tools for
student and teacher, who can use them for various purposes, such as reflecting on their own work, organizing
and sequencing the tasks, or identifying their most powerful intelligences. Assessment documents and
rubrics to evaluate subjective aspects of learning are also provided.
They are referred to in the session of the project where they will be used.
Project Team Contract (filled by students)
This document is normally handed in the first or second session of the project. It raises students’ awareness
of the importance of being respectful and hard working if they want to achieve a common goal. As students
sign it and state face-to-face learning, they become personally committed to each other as well as to their
mutual objectives.
One copy of this document is expected to be filled by each group. The fact of signing the contract altogether
leads students to be engaged and motivated in their search for the solution of a real-world problem. It
contributes to enhance collaboration between members and prevents disconnection from the group.
Project Team Work Plan (filled by students)
Planning and organizing is crucial to accomplish a specific objective, especially when working in-group.
The teacher can give this document to the students in the first or second session so that they can set up a plan
for their project. The group works collaboratively in various essential issues that can be registered on this
Work Plan:
- Making decisions.
- Sequencing steps.
- Assigning roles.
- Setting the timing.
- Listing resources.
This document also offers the possibility to check if the planned tasks are completed how and when they
were expected. Groups monitor their own progress, re-formulate ideas, and straighten their work when
necessary.
Presentation Day Checklist (filled by students)
Many of the projects accompany their final product with an oral presentation. Students feel much more
comfortable and self-confident when they know how to prepare and rehearse what they are expected to say.
This document lets them check all the items to be taken into account.
The students receive this checklist when preparing their oral presentation. They can use it individually or in
groups, depending on the nature of the project.
Writing Checklist (filled by students or teacher)
This checklist is to help students with essay writing. Many projects suggest creative writing as an activity
that enriches knowledge and lets students elaborate a new and personal product. Writing this kind of texts
promotes higher forms of thinking, according to Bloom’s Taxonomy, and encourages students to develop
their creativity and imagination as they interpret what they are learning.
This list outlines a set of criteria intended for students to be used as reminders while they are revising their
texts. The aim is that they can easily check how they are working in spelling, capitalization or sequencing.
An epigraph for other comments and thoughts is also offered for students and/or teacher to add relevant
observations.
There are two models of Writing Checklist. The first one is for 3th and 4th grade, designed to be filled by
teacher. The second model, for 5th and 6th graders, is expected to be filled by them as they have complete
competence and autonomy to do it.
My Thoughts About The Project (filled by students)
This document can be used to help students reflect on their own work and on the project itself. It is a
powerful tool to identify their strengths and weaknesses and lets them improve and work in the correct
direction.
The teacher hands it out at the end of every project. In a first step, students express their ideas, feelings, and
thoughts individually. Then, the class can share their conclusions and discuss, for example, how well they
are achieving their goals and if they are maintaining effective working relationships. They can make
decisions about what can be changed about the individuals, the group, or the project itself to get even better
results.
Intelligence Meter (filled by students)
The Multiple Intelligence Meter pursues students’ knowledge about themselves. It is essential for learners to
know their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve their skills. With this document students can have
an overview of the intelligences that are the most dominant and the ones they need to work on.
The document consists of a bar graph. It must be completed by learners. At the beginning, the teacher must
guide them. Then, students can complete it on their own. Students must choose the activities they liked the
most or the ones that were easier for them. Then, they look up the Multiple Intelligence icon and color a
square for that intelligence in the bar graph. We suggest completing the graph at the end of each project or at
the end of the year during the assessment week.
Project Journal (filled by students)
The Project Journal is a document that is usually distributed to students in the first or second project’s
session; its main goal is to be used by students to register their progressions during the whole research
process. The teacher should make sure that students write down – in the appropriate session - their tasks
conclusions and their personal thoughts and opinions.
As the Project Journal is thought to be an individual and personal reflection on the student’s activities and
doings, the teacher will have to hand one to each student. In this way, once the Project is finished, the student
will have, not only a final product but a valuable document with all his/her tasks, activities, research,
findings, conclusions and thoughts on the process which will help the him reflect about his/her learning
progress. Moreover, in all sessions, the intelligence that will be worked on, the objectives, the tasks to be
developed, and the resources needed, are clearly defined.
In the Task Section, all the steps are clearly explained. Both students and teacher should take to complete the
proposed tasks successfully at the end of each session. Besides, although the teacher and students can decide
when to use the Project Journal and what to register in it, in the Task Section it is openly reported when the
teacher should ask students to complete their Project Journals and what to record.
The Project Journal is a one- session template; this means that the teacher should photocopy as many
templates as Project’s sessions there are and hand each student a set before starting the Project itself.
Speaking Rubric (used by teacher and students)
The Speaking Rubric is an assessment tool developed to evidence students’ performance in speaking
endeavors. Assessing speaking performances is difficult due to the bias of the matter. Using rubrics helps to
be consistent with grading. Furthermore, it acknowledges students of the tasks’ expectations and the key
concepts to achieve success.
The teacher and students need to have a copy of this document. The teacher uses the document during the
students’ performance to grade them. After grading, it is advisable to hand in the document to students as
feedback.
Cooperative Learning Rubric (used by teacher and students)
The Cooperative Learning Rubric assesses the performance as a team and evaluates the bonding in their
in-group work. Students need to do real work together. They promote each other’s success by sharing
resources and helping, supporting, encouraging and applauding each other’s efforts to achieve. Group
participation, responsibility, and the quality of interaction are some of the established criteria used in this
assessment tool.
The teacher and students need to have a copy of this document. The teacher uses the document during the
students’ performance to grade students. After grading, it is advisable to hand in the document to students as
feedback.
Group Co-assessment (filled by students)
The Group Co-assessment is a document that has been developed to give students the opportunity to reflect
about and evaluate individually their team’s work.
In the Project’s assessment section, it is clearly reported to the teacher in which session the Group
co-assessment document will be distributed; taking this information into account, the teacher will photocopy
as many Group Co-assessment samples as students he/she has before hand and will give enough time for
students to complete it. The teacher should remind them that their responses must be honest and fair and
there must be a previous self-reflection.
The Group Co-assessment document is divided into two different sections: first, each student must complete
his/her team’s details and the name of the team’s members. Then, in the second section, each student will
assess, from his/her point of view, the work and active participation of each team partner; following a very
simple and intuitive assessment system students will reflect and give ideas to help his/her partner improve
his/her teamwork.
Group Assessment (filled by students)
The Group Assessment is a document that has been developed to give elementary students (1st, 2nd and 3rd
grade) the opportunity to reflect about and evaluate their team’s work as a whole.
In the Project’s assessment section, it is clearly reported to the teacher in which session the Group
Assessment document will be distributed; taking this information into account, the teacher will photocopy as
many Group Assessment samples as teams before hand and will give enough time for students to complete it.
The teacher should remind pupils that their responses must be honest and fair and there must be a previous
self-reflection.
The Group Assessment document is divided into two different sections: first, each student must complete
his/her team’s name. Then, in the second section, the team will assess, from their point of view, the work and
active participation of team partners; following a very simple and intuitive assessment system students will
reflect about their teamwork and ways to improve it.
Group Self-assessment (filled by students)
The Group Self-assessment is a document that has been developed to give students the opportunity to reflect
about their personal work and doings within the team he/she is working with.
In the Project’s assessment section, it is clearly reported to the teacher in which session the Group
Self-assessment document will be distributed to students; taking this information into account, the teacher
will photocopy as many Group Self-assessment samples as students he/she has before hand and will give
enough time for students to complete it. The teacher should remind them that their responses must be honest
and fair and there must be a previous self-reflection.
The Group Self-assessment document is divided into three different sections: first, each student must
complete his/her team’s details and then, in the second section, write down 3 personal goals he/she wants to
accomplish. Finally, there is an evaluation where the student must evaluate his/her work and participation in
his/her team.
Cooperative Learning Rubric
Excellent Good Satisfactory Fair
Only one or two
All students are At least ¾ of Half of the
Group students are
involved and students are students are
participation involved in the
enthusiastic actively involved involved
activity
Always does Often needs
Usually does work Always or often
Shared work without reminding to do
and rarely needs relies on others to
responsibility having to be the assigned
reminding do the work
reminded work
High, lots of
interaction by
asking
Medium, some Medium, some
questions, Low, individual
interaction by interaction, lack
Quality of discussing work, lack of
asking questions, of listening to
interaction ideas, offering listening to each
discussing ideas, constructive
constructive other
and listening criticism
criticism and
summarizing
discoveries
All students
Most students Some students
carry out their
Team roles carry out their carry out their Ignore their roles
roles and are
roles roles
proactive.
Comments
Speaking Rubric
Fair 1 Good 2 Excellent 3 Outstanding 4
Some eye Eye contact
No eye contact contact with the with the Eye contact
Presentation: with the audience. audience most with the
Eye contact; audience. Often shares of the time. audience.
interaction with Shares ideas in ideas in a Usually shares Shares ideas in
audience a hesitant somewhat ideas in a a fluent
manner. hesitant somewhat manner.
manner. fluent manner.
Does not speak Sometimes Most of the Speaks very
clearly. speaks clearly. time speaks clearly. Very
Pronunciation
Difficult to Sometimes easy clearly. Easy to easy to
understand. to understand. understand. understand.
Vague
Demonstrates Analyzes the
knowledge of Shows full
Knowledge of some topic and
the topic. Does understanding
Content knowledge of elaborate new
not show of the topic.
the topic. ideas.
understanding.
Proper use of
Attempts to use
Mistakes grammar and
Vocabulary & Some errors or more complex
prevent vocabulary
Grammar incorrect usage. vocabulary or
understanding. according to
grammar.
their level.
Use of
Gives relevant
Examples and Few or no Many
Some relevant and new
Facts: examples relevant examples/facts
examples/facts examples that
are given to supporting given; most
given. illustrate his/her
support examples/facts. relevant.
conclusions.
reasons.
Project Team Contract
Project Name
Team Members:
Our Agreement
● We all promise to listen to each other’s ideas with respect.
● We all promise to do our work as best as we can.
● We all promise to do our work on time.
● We all promise to ask for help if we need it.
● We all promise to…
If someone in our team breaks one or more of our rules, the team may have a meeting and ask the person
to follow our agreement. If the person still breaks the rules, we will ask our teacher to help find a solution.
Date: _____________________________
Team Member Signatures
Name: Signature:
Name: Signature:
Name: Signature:
Name: Signature:
Name: Signature:
PROJECT TEAM WORK PLAN
Project Name
Team Members
Product Due
What needs to be done? Who will do this part? By Done
Adapted from Buck Institute for Education bie.org
PROJECT JOURNAL
Project Name
Team Members
Driving Question
Final Product
Subject & Grade
Session____
Date:
Objectives Resources
My thoughts
Presentation Day Checklist
(Filled by student)
Project
Team
Student
PRESENTATION DAY CHECKLIST
Schedule of presentations set
Guests/audience know when/where to attend
Guests/audience materials duplicated
Room arranged for presenters and audience
Equipment/students materials in place
Equipment tested
Teacher’s materials in place
Timekeeping device ready
Adapted from Buck Institute for Education bie.org
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PROJECT
Think about what you did in this project, and how well the project went.
Student’s Name
Project’s Name
Driving Question
About yourself
What is the most
important thing you
learned in this project?
What do you wish you
had spent more time
on, or done differently?
What part of the project
did you do your best
work on?
About the project
What was the most
enjoyable part of this
project?
What was the least
enjoyable part of this
project?
How could your
teacher(s) change this
project to make it better
next time?
