Questions that will allow teachers to take the next big steps toward preparing our students for anything in the future:
- What can we do better to prepare our students for a changing and unknown future?
- Are we doing enough?
- Who can we look at for guidance and inspiration?
- What does learning look like this year? Next year? 10 years from now?
One way to explore these questions is by looking at future work opportunities. Lathram, Lenz & Vander (2016) argue, "Due to technological and economic change, students in high school now face a very different job market and life on planet Earth than
previous generations." The authors suggest that project-based learning is the best way to prepare students for the many different jobs and projects they will engage with throughout their careers.
In project-based learning students learn how to collaborate with their peers. Collaboration will undoubtedly be a skill that employers look for in the future.
In what ways are you teaching collaboration through project-based learning in your classroom? Please comment and share.
Reference
Lathram, B., Lenz, B., & Vander Ark, T. (2016). Preparing Students for a Project-Based World. Getting Smart. August, 23. Available at http://www.gettingsmart.com/publication/preparing-students-project-based-world/
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ReplyDeleteI wonder how I can build in the time and flexibility for a PBL experience in my classroom while balancing a rigorous, valuable curriculum and a packed schedule. I am always open to making connections and weaving themes in throughout the day. Today was all about kindness and respect for peers. We focused on this theme through math, reading, writing and science and watched two short video clips about acts of kindness (one over snack and one in the last 10 minutes of the day), identifying what we noticed and asking questions. See the videos "Life Vest Inside - Kindness Boomerang - "One Day"" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU and "Kindness Boomerang - Third Grade" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiM9LcXG7cI. Students were inspired by the clips and by each other's kind words. By the end of the day they were begging me to make our own kindness video. I'm excited to facilitate this project but I wonder if it is a true PBL experience. Is it open ended? Will it demand their collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking? What defines a PBL experience and how big/time intensive does it need to be to be valuable at an elementary school level? I head to Google scholar to search for answers.
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