Project Based Learning, and the Environment Needed for it to Work

I recently read an article commenting on the use (or, as could also be said, misuse) of Project Based Learning.

As always with matters like this, I revert back to my own experiences at Cowles Montessori, where Project Based Learning was the 'law of the land' as it were. One thing that stood out to me from this article, and something that I totally agree with, would be the fact that Project Based Learning is not only meant to affect the students, but the teachers as well. The person at the center of this article, Laura Thomas, director of the Antioch Center for School Renewal, says that teachers must also put aside their own biases. Just because is doing something differently from what the teacher expects, the teacher often discourages them from doing it 'wrong'. This is of course, a generalization, as not every teacher does this.

I can distinctly remember classes back at Cowles where the teachers allowed themselves to be pseudo-instructed by the students. After a class project, the teacher would go around and ask different students, "And how did you solve this problem/complete this assignment?" What would ensue would be a full out display of all the different strategies one could use to solve these problems.

But, of course, the most important element of Project Based Learning is the environment and community it needs to function. This is something I see in the classroom everyday at Counting Circle. The ENTIRE class comes together than to count up to the number of the day (we're in the 170s already!!!). The 'assessments' at Hubble also provide an excellent example of the 'free education' spoken of in the last paragraph. At least three different methods are noted for how to solve the problem when it is provided. If the student uses a different strategy, you can express that and count it equally.

I always honored the Montessori system for its philosophy of letting the students study 'on their own' for most of the school day, as what that facilitated was the opportunity for the students to form 'work groups', allowing them all to work together to solve a problem or complete an assignment, something which I have never been able to find even at Roosevelt, and only occasionally at Hubble.

Long story short, Project Based 'Free' education ought to provide an environment where students help not only each other, but the teacher (even if only as motivation) as well.