The goal of education is to prepare children for future careers and to become productive members of society. However, the current U.S. education system, organized into subject silos, often fails to connect concepts across different areas of study, unlike in the real world where information is blended.
Most Of What We Do In Life Is A Project
Most activities and processes we face in our lives are essentially projects. From weekend chores and work presentations to organizing fundraising events, projects are a pervasive part of our daily lives. When we allow students to have authentic experiences, we equip them for the real-world challenges they will encounter. PBL aims to develop students into self-sufficient, creative, and critical thinkers capable of tackling any challenge. In the modern world, careers are often a series of projects rather than long-term employment in a specific organization, which is why solving real-world issues is as vital for students as it is for adults.
PBL Dates Back To Primitive Times
Project-based learning is probably the most ancient type of learning used by humans. It started with the prehistoric and primitive cultures as they were transmitting daily survival skills to the younger generation. The entire goal of their education was to ensure that the younger generation could confidently perform the chores necessary for daily survival. Daily repetition of those chores led the children to an adult-level proficiency necessary to become equal contributors to their family’s survival and a stepping stone for later establishing their own families.
Education Is Life Itself
Fast-forward to John Dewey, 20th-century American educational theorist and philosopher, who believed in learning that’s grounded in experience and driven by student interest. By stating that “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself,” John Dewey not only ties education back to its prehistoric and primitive roots, but also clearly states the goal of education should be to train students to become capable active participants in daily life. Students need to perform tasks in real-life projects to help them develop the necessary skills to step confidently into those roles as adults.
How Do You Learn By Doing a Project?
The question that needs to be asked is: what does this type of learning entail? How do you learn by doing a project? Projects can be different things to different people. Some consider a project to be a summary of a topic they investigate, others feel a project to be building something, and some believe a project to be a problem they need to solve in real life. The best way to answer these questions is to determine the goal of learning.
Learning in the everyday world, where people live and work, is common and essential to survival, let alone progress. In homes, businesses, organizations, and societies in every culture, learning is driven by problems that need solving. How do I pay for a new car? Which schools should my children attend? How do we design a marketing campaign What is wrong with the computer? How do we raise funds to support municipal services?
Modern life presents a deluge of problems that demand solutions, which is why learning to solve problems is the most essential skill students can learn in any setting. In professional contexts, people are paid to solve problems, not to complete exams. That is why the types of projects that students should be engaged in are those that solve a problem they or their community are struggling with, preparing them to assume their life roles with confidence.
A Magical Recipe For Success
When we train students to assume activities that solve real life problems that suits their needs, we have a magical recipe for success that more closely mimics the way information is utilized in the real world.