#4 Project-based learning and the benefits

Five-Year-Olds Pilot Their Own Project-Based Learning

Student-driven class activities, enhanced by technology, launch kindergarteners on a journey of lifelong learning.

Edutopia

Given what we know how we learn, what makes project based learning work?

"Through many studies it showed that students who engage in authentic and inquiry based learning do just as well in standardised assessments and even do better in real tasks of critical thinking and problem solving, which will make an even bigger difference for them in the long run in school and in life." says Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond( President and CEO of The Learning Policy Institute)

My team and I are constantly developing new strategies to be able to aid our tamariki in their learning. When we see a that they have an interest - we will follow that and give them the provocation to learn more and extend their oral language as well.

"There are many aspects of what goes on in a well-designed project that deepen understanding, that open up the brain for learning, and also create connections that will allow that learning to be transferred to new situations."

What we know is that curiosity wakes up the brain. Through authentic learning experiences, language experiences and provocations we create an engaging learning environment where the students can learn and make connections into the wider world. Learning will then become more motivating and enjoyable.

"When a student is deeply engaged in a project, their brain is awake and alert, because they are engaged and they are interested. That engaged brain operates on connections, connecting what we know to what we are now learning. Connecting what we experience today to what we experienced yesterday."

We know that we learn in social relationships with other much more effectively, more than what we learn from one-way communication. While being engaged in authentic learning experiences, students will use their oral language and learn from each other. Most project based learning is collaborative. Students learn effectively how to collaborate, as well as look at each other to find ideas. 

She also says "Project-based learning also has the opportunity for kids to enter in different places. Different pathways into the problem will allow kids to find a way to hook in from their own knowledge and experience base. It will also give multiple ways for the group to understand the problem, as they share those with each other. And so that really enables a classroom that is of necessity full of variation, to take advantage of that diversity, rather than trying to sort of avoid it, or stomp it out, as we would have to do if we were trying to do a standardised curriculum."

I am excited to continue my journey to explore new authentic ways to aid students in their own learning journey. I am building very important relationships with the ECE centres and learning from their teachers how to do project-based learning/authentic learning experiences and how to bring that into primary school classes.