Project Based Learning seems to be a great way to teach. Of course, everyone has their opinions about how and when we are supposed to use it, but it seems to help with modeling how we need to take care of real life situations. Of course a lot of people are complaining or are upset about the switch to Common Core or the College and Career Readiness Standards. As a future teacher I have a year until I have to deal with it, but Project Based Learning seems to be a great way to align with these standards. The only down side I see to PBL is that it is a group effort. Group projects can always be beneficial but, not all students will put in as much effort as their peers. As teachers, we have to take notice of this and somehow get students feedback on their group members to give the students who worked hard a good grade and possibly deduct from the others who did not work as hard.
My understanding of Common Core is that the students take a lot of the responsibility for their own learning so they can be better prepared to go to college and their future careers without depending on others. This makes things a little harder for the students because it takes things up a notch. While students before Common Core were depending on the teacher to directly tell them what is going on students will have to come up with the answers by reasoning. This is why PBL is a good way to teach under Common Core because they have to come up with solutions on their own.
Project Based Learning seems to be more practical than more work for the teacher. With PBL, students pick how they want to present the information that they found so it would be up to them on how to present it. The teacher would have to set aside valuable instruction time for the students to coordinate and he or she may have to guide the groups in the right directions, but overall she can be a facilitator to her class as they work on their findings and the conclusion of their project.
I do think that students would find PBL engaging. When students have to work towards something it makes them remember it. I know this from personal experience. If students have to work on something that is challenging for them they seems to always remember why they did it and how. I do not think that PBL is more engaging than other strategies that we will use in the classroom. Depending on the standard and the way that our class responds will determine if we need to use PBL again or try another strategy to help our students learn to the best of their ability.
In Elementary School I am not sure how I would/did react to PBL. I liked group projects a lot more then because my group members were willing to put the work in. In High School, I despised anything close to PBL because high schoolers are more lazy than elementary school students in some cases. Overall I feel that Project Based Learning is good for every level according on what is being taught.
kcausby 