Questions From Our Community: Project Based Learning

Q: How is Project-Based Learning different from what I experienced in school?

I’ll have to answer with some generalizations about schools over the past 30 years or so, but maybe your experience was different. In the 90’s, the push toward high-stakes testing and No Child Left Behind really created a lot of schools that were very oriented toward test results. As we know and even celebrate with our Graduate Profile, most learning doesn’t look like something that can be answered with a multiple-choice test question.

Project-Based Learning strives to create projects where students need to collaborate, grapple with challenging problems, receive feedback and critique during their process, and then showcase their work to a wider audience. We value that process just as much as the product.

I personally had experiences in school that involved projects, but I can see that now more as project-oriented learning. Project-oriented learning focuses on the final product versus the process. PBL inspires students to make connections to their world, sparking curiosity; they remember what they learn because the path is meaningful to them. When we have students who graduate from CCDS knowing how to learn, how to work with others, and how to communicate effectively, we know they will be able to navigate so much of what comes their way.