By Robert E. Sutton
This past summer, a distinguished group of AMIT principals, teachers, and administrators attended PBL World in Napa, California. PBL World is the prestigious annual conference presented by the Buck Institute for Education. The conference is devoted exclusively to Project Based Learning (PBL), an innovative approach for teaching and learning in the 21st century.
What is Project Based Learning?
In Project Based Learning, students go through an extended process of inquiry in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. Rigorous projects help students learn key academic content and practice 21st Century skills, such as collaboration, communication and critical thinking.
Proponents of Project Based Learning cite numerous benefits to the implementation of these strategies in the classroom, including a greater depth of understanding of concepts, broader knowledge base, improved communication and interpersonal/social skills, enhanced leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing skills.
Project Based Learning emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary, and student-centered. Incorporated with the traditional teacher-led classroom program, project based learning infuses real-world problems that capture students’ interest and provoke serious thinking as they acquire and apply new knowledge in a problem solving context.
The teacher plays the role of facilitator, working with students to frame worthwhile questions, structuring meaningful tasks, coaching both knowledge development and social skills, and carefully assessing what students have learned from the experience. Typical projects present a problem to solve, phenomenon to investigate or the development of a product or service.
Projects vary in length, from several days to several weeks or even a semester. PBL can be effective at all grade levels and subjects, and in career/technical education, afterschool and alternative programs.
The Buck Institute For Education
Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Novata, California, The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is dedicated to improving 21st Century teaching and learning throughout the world by creating and disseminating products, practices and knowledge for effective Project Based Learning. BIE contributes to Project Based Learning through product development, services, research, and online learning. The 2014 PBL World, presented by BIE, will be held June 23-27, 2014.
Two AMIT educators – their thoughts, experiences and what they gained from attending PBL World
Michal Walter, physics teacher at AMIT Atidim in Or Akiva
Q. What was your overall impression of the PBL World conference?
A. It was very well organized and very thorough when it came to the programs and lectures. I especially liked the breakfast meetings where we met with teachers from around the world and discussed our diverse teaching methods.
Q. Which of the workshops was the most helpful/educational?
A. PBL 101. The Central Workshop. I learned how a student responds when first being told of Project Based Learning. The additional information and the hands-on classes I attended at the workshop offered me a glimpse of what my students should anticipate during the implementation of a project.
Q. Which keynote speaker did you find most interesting?
A. Steven Ritz. He’s a teacher from South Bronx, New York, who believes that students shouldn’t have to leave their community to live, learn and earn in a better one. He showed numerous examples of students who were academic success stories – via Project Based Learning – and returned to live in their communities and be a positive force for change. His performance impressed me to such an extent that I hope to establish a similar mind-set at AMIT Atidim.
Michal Jacob, head of excellence in math and science for the AMIT Reshet
Q. What was your overall impression of the PBL World conference?
A. The conference was great. They didn’t just talk about Project Based Learning but actually demonstrated how it is done. They made sure that we experienced how it would feel to be in class.
Q. What did you learn from the conference?
A. The conference gave me many tools and methods to teach using the PBL method. It also taught me how to build a project and assess students’ work. It strengthened my belief in PBL and showed me that the change is possible. The conference also gave me ideas for new projects, and the tools and methods to help me become a better teacher.
AMIT adds Project Based Learning to the Curriculum
Mor Deshen, deputy director of R&D and assessment
Q. When and in which AMIT schools will Project Based Learning be implemented?
A. Project Based Learning has been implemented at AMIT Atidim Junior and Senior High School in Or Akiva, Yeshivat AMIT Amichai in Rehovot, Ulpanat AMIT Bellows Noga in Beit Shemesh, and AMIT Wasserman Junior and Senior High School in Beersheva. Project Based Learning will initially be implemented in the sciences, and then expanded to other subjects.
AMIT Atidim also participates in the AMIT Network’s Innovation in Education project, which compliments PBL. And, at AMIT Bellows Noga, Project Based Learning is utilized in conjunction with the Trump Foundation Project that promotes excellence in mathematics and sciences.
Q. How will the teachers at AMIT be trained?
A. Currently, there is PBL teacher-training at AMIT Amichai and at AMIT Modi’in. A group of elementary school principals are also participating in PBL training so that PBL can be instituted in elementary schools as well as high schools. The teachers who attended PBL World are training other teachers and continuing their own PBL professional development – virtually – through the Buck Institute for Education website and remote conferencing.
Q. Will Project Based Learning be a central part of the AMIT curriculum?
A. AMIT strongly believes that PBL is one of the key disciplines to change the way students learn. We want to go from a “teacher speaks, students listen” to one in which students are actively engaged.
Q. How do the teachers benefit from Project Based Learning and how did the Buck institute of education help AMIT?
A. PBL allows teachers to change their roles. They go from being the people who give information to being mentors who support the learning process.
The benefit of learning Project Based Learning from the Buck Institute for Education is that B.I.E. has the expertise in teaching Project Based Learning to teachers who come from traditional classrooms. This is what we liked about Project Based Learning, as well as their methods, organization, and structured practice sessions and materials (which have been translated into Hebrew).
Q. How has the Ministry of education reacted to AMIT’s Project Based Learning program?
A. There are those in the Ministry who claim that PBL takes a lot of time and thus teachers do not cover sufficient material. However, the Minister of Education is already speaking about flexibility and educational innovation. As the vanguard for Project Based Learning in Israel, AMIT and its schools will be a showcase for the success of PBL and, hopefully, it will be implemented as part of national curriculum.
Robert E. Sutton is the editor in chief and creative director for AMIT magazine.
