Project Based Learning

Shifts emphasis away from practices of isolated, short-term, teacher-centered lessons in favor of learning activities that are more long-term, interdisciplinary and centered on the student

The projects are complex, centered around challenging questions or problems, which involve students in investigative activities, problem-solving, design and decision-making

4 Important Design Principles

• Define learning appropriate goals that lead to deep understanding
• Provide support
• Include multiple opportunities for formative self-assessment
• Develop social structures that promote participation and revision

Important Benefits

• Engages and motivates bored or indifferent students
• Creates positive communication and collaborative relationships
• Meets the needs of diverse learners with varying skills levels
• Supports students in learning and practicing skills in problem-solving

Example
Have students design an app in class to solve a real-life problem

Inquiry Based Learning

Teachers model behavior and skills, support content learning, use multiple means of assessment and act as facilitators

Students view themselves as active participants in the process of learning, plan and carry out investigations, communicate using a variety of methods, propose explanations and solutions, raise questions, use observations and critique their practices

5 Cycle Model

• Engagement
• Exploration
• Explanation
• Elaboration
• Evaluation

Engagement

Exploration

Explanation

Elaboration

Evaluation

Example
Have students complete a science lesson on rocks, minerals, soil and erosion, then have the students discuss how they will observe the substances, and what types of information they might need to gather

Socratic Method

The primary goal of this method is to have students think critically about difficult issues, and not to try and have students answer unanswerable questions

Teachers start out leading the discussion, then students can have turns taking on the leadership role

Steps

• Start with an open-ended question
• Ask follow up questions
• Summarize everything together at the end with different thoughts and new learnings
• Pick a controversial topic and provide questions for students, then have them develop their own questions
• Create open-ended questions

Leader's Role

• Keep the topic focused
• Coax participants into the discussion
• Limit contributions from dominating students
• Have students elaborate and clarify their contributions
• Clarify, synthesize and restate opinions

Participant's Role

• Think and speak persuasively
• Use the discussion to support opinions
• Actively listen to the discussion to use for support later
• Demonstrate respect for different thoughts, values or ideas
• Don't interrupt other participants

Example
Cold call on a law student to brief a case that was assigned reading, then ask the student several open-ended questions about the case until eventually beginning to call on other students in the class to ask open-ended questions about dissenting or supporting opinions