Getting Smart
The world is increasingly project-based. In fact, some predict that within the next couple of years, around 40% of the American workforce will be freelancers. Even for those who are not chasing gigs, many existing employees already work on project teams. Students in classrooms today not only need to know how to manage projects, but they need really high-quality project-based experiences in school so that they will stand out amongst their peers in the competitive job market.
Educators have taken note, and there is a corresponding movement in schools to shift to project-based learning (PBL). At the core of this shift should be clear purposes for implementing PBL. The changing demand in the workforce and economy certainly are two of those purposes, but what are other driving goals behind striving for the implementation of high quality PBL?
In Does Your Teaching Have the 4 Categories of High Quality PBL, we shared a draft of the Framework for High Quality PBL. The draft includes the following purposes for high-quality PBL: