Key Factors in Successful Project-Based Learning

This summary is reprinted with permission from Kim Marshall, Marshall Memo #957, (October 17, 2022). 

In this article in Kappan, Steven Wolk (Northeastern Illinois University) says that as a new teacher, he was inspired by the seminal authors on project-based learning: William Heard Kilpatrick, John Dewey, Carl Rogers, John Holt, Sylvia Ashton-Warner, Nancie Atwell, and Frank Smith. “From my first day,” says Wolk, “I had a project-based classroom.”

There’s a great deal of online material on high-involvement teaching available to today’s educators, he says, but he’s noticed that project-based learning is often misunderstood. He sets out to clarify what it is – and isn’t.

Central characteristics – Wolk starts with a one-sentence definition: Project-based learning is long-term investigations driven by real questions connected to the real world that result in authentic projects that show student learning. Groups of students working in the classroom (versus at home) is an important part of the dynamic, says Wolk: “The PBL classroom is a collaborative workshop, thrumming with important work, productive talk, visible thinking, and exciting creativity. There is a degree of ‘messiness’ in these classrooms; a visitor may say it looks chaotic, but it is structured and purposeful chaos – sometimes even joyful chaos.” 

Duration and content – Shorter projects run 2-3 weeks, says Wolk, longer ones 4-10 weeks. He believes half the time should be spent on research, the other half on product design and creation, culminating in podcasts, surveys, interviews, oral histories, picture books, newspapers, magazines, websites, infographics, iMovies, artwork, brochures, comic books, graphs, interactive museum exhibits, games, plays, models, blueprints, gardens, murals.

How classroom time is used – In traditional teaching with projects, a fifth-grade teacher might teach five weeks of lessons on the Civil War and then give students three days to do their culminating project, perhaps a poster of a significant battle. Here’s a graphic of what that looks like, with each dash (-) a lesson and the underlining (___) representing students working on their project:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ___

In a project-based learning unit, the teacher might teach 3-4 lessons up front to build background knowledge and vocabulary, make connections to the real world, and help students care about the topic. The rest of the time students are working on researching, creating, and presenting their project, which looks like this:

- - - _________________

Upon completion, students present their product (perhaps an informational picture book or 15-minute podcast about the Civil War) to an outside audience. 

Grade span and demographics – Wolk believes project-based learning is not just for middle and high schools, and certainly not only for well-resourced schools (a phenomenon he’s noticed). Well-designed projects are just as effective in the elementary grades and schools in less-advantaged communities. “If we want students to be self-directed learners in the upper grades,” he says, “we need to show them how to be self-directed learners in the primary grades.” And he cites Martin Haberman’s advocacy in the early 1990s to move past the “pedagogy of poverty” characterized by rote instruction, teacher lectures, seatwork, and constant testing. 

A culture of inquiry – Project-based curriculum units should be framed around “authentic essential questions that students and teachers create together, and then students investigate,” says Wolk. “Some of these questions won’t have single correct answers and will require investigating different perspectives and taking ethical stances.” The teacher models curiosity and openness to new ideas, making the classroom “a think tank and a public square.” 

The role of whole-class instruction – “Project-based learning teachers teach lessons,” says Wolk; “they just teach far fewer of them to make time for project work.” Whole-class instruction might involve mini-lessons, analysis of documents, films, visiting speakers, and discussion. 

Learning outcomes – When Wolk’s university students design project-based curriculum units, they tend to focus on activities – what students will do – rather than the knowledge and skills that will result. It’s important to work with the end in mind, he says, building in deeper learning that links knowledge, skills, and understandings; makes connections across disciplines and to students’ lives; and applies what’s learned in authentic situations.

Lesson planning – “A different paradigm of teaching requires a different paradigm of planning,” says Wolk. Plans for mini-lessons and whole-class discussions will be conventional, he says, but for project time, when groups of students are working on their products, there’s a different kind of plan: notes on students to check in with; a mini-lesson that might be needed for some students; feedback on student work; a reminder for a student to use a particular resource; a brief class meeting about the project.

Standards – necessary but not sufficient – Of course projects should help students master relevant standards, says Wolk, but he believes doing just that “would be setting the bar far too low.” Standards are the floor, he says, and a project-based learning unit should aim higher, including collaboration, complex thinking skills, and habits of mind. 

Managing – Teaching a good PBL unit is like juggling 17 balls in the air, says Wolk. He has these suggestions for teachers:

• Give students a project sheet at the beginning of the unit that explains the project and lists specific requirements and due dates.
• Post a large project map on the wall that explains each step week by week and lists any items that are due.
• Use a clipboard or tablet during project time to take brief notes on students’ progress and reminders for the following day.
• Explicitly teach time management and organizational skills to students, perhaps in mini-lessons spread through the unit.

The result of all this should be that students are working harder than the teacher.

Feedback – A summative assessment is only one part of the process, says Wolk: “When PBL teachers are zipping around the classroom helping students with their projects, they are assessing as they teach.” To get the best projects, three elements need to be in place:

• The work is done in the classroom where it can be observed and tweaked.
• Students get teacher feedback throughout the project.
• The teacher shares examples of excellent work so students know what quality looks like. 

At the end of a project, students’ self-assessment and the comments of an outside audience are more important than the teacher’s assessment.

Wolk concludes with five opportunities offered by well-orchestrated project-based curriculum units:

• Students develop vital 21st-century skills, including critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, media literacy, and empathy.
• Students have agency as they choose and create their own projects.
• Students engage in close reading of books, texts, and online source material.
• Students work on real-world problems – for example, homelessness, access to fresh water around the world, the refugee crisis, and voter turnout.
• When a whole school is involved in project-based learning, students, educators, parents, and visitors are “surrounded by authentic, creative, beautiful, joyful, and world-changing student creations,” says Wolk. “You would see and feel this force all around you. The power and potential are limitless. It would be thrilling.”

“Clearing Up Misconceptions About Project-Based Learning” by Steven Wolk in Kappan, October 2022 (Vol. 104, #2, pp. 26-31); Wolk can be reached at s-wolk@neiu.edu. Accessed 10/1/2022 from Marshall Memo #957, October 17, 2022).