June 2018 – PBL: Project-Based Learning & Problem-Based Learning

[Steven Herder]

This month we will explore project work in the EFL classroom. Come and share your thoughts and experiences with us!

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Although I’d not appreciated the subtle differences between Problem-Based Learning and Project-Based Learning until this week, I have been using PBL in a number of different ways and in different contexts, from teaching kindergarten to university students and business people.

Besides providing opportunities for students to communicate and collaborate whilst developing both creative and critical thinking skills, students seem to take better ‘ownership’ of lessons and really learn the vocabulary they are using, especially with projects typically extended over a month with weekly 60- or 90-minute classes.

[Anne Hendler]

I don’t know much about PBL at all. Which PBL have you been using? And what are the differences as you see it?
Do you think it has any relevance in a once a week eikaiwa context?

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Here’s the helpful slideshare summarising the key similarities and differences between project-based learning and problem-based learning.

I have used both project-based and problem-based learning with different types of students. Here are 3 examples:

At a Japanese publishing company I used to teach at, they wished to have an editorial meeting in English to consider what kind of English books they should be looking to develop and publish. This involved brainstorming, sharing and discussing ideas, developing creative ideas and thinking about them critically.

In Japanese university classes with English majors as well as classes with law, economics, politics and international studies students, I’ve also introduced de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats as a tool to facilitate research and discussion. Students chose social, political and/or legal issues they were interested in, shared and discussed their research, developing their understanding of the issues over a few weeks, and finally produced poster presentations. We did two 6-week cycles in the first 14-15-week semester then also used Six Thinking Hats to help students prepare for debates in the second semester.

For private eikaiwa (English conversation) classes with the same (adult) students each week [where I used a negotiated curriculum], we also did a Christmas project where they first brainstormed ideas for the month and decided to do Christmas card-making then have a Christmas party. The students are working professionals and there are no assignments out of class usually, but they did decide themselves to look up some useful expressions for Christmas cards before the 2nd lesson. In the 3rd lesson, they wanted to learn useful language for hanging Christmas decorations and socialising at a Christmas party. We had a Christmas quiz in the 4th week and then went out for a Christmas dinner where they mostly used English and we also had a Secret Santa.

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

In Week 2 (Fri 8th), we reviewed our understanding of PBL and explored some of the frameworks and steps that can be taken to help ensure quality projects.

Definitions
1. Project-Based vs Problem-Based Learning

2. What the heck is PBL?

3. 8 Basic Steps of PBL to Get You Started

As an optional assignment before the next session on Fri 22nd June, we invite you to

share a project that you have done or would like to do. Use the 8 Basic Steps of PBL To Get You Started as a framework to help you either reflect on what you’ve done and/or plan for what you’re going to do.

Feel free to post here in the Forum and/or share your project(s) next time in The Teachers’ Room.

We also welcomed newcomers Sue (Sweden) and Victor (Peru) and look forward to seeing you all again soon!

[Anne Hendler]

I want to make an attempt at this week’s assignment here.
Last year my sixth-grade students ended the year with final projects. I don’t think we developed the project in the order of the 8 basic steps, but here are some of the things that came out.

Step one: Thinking and Learning. We wanted the students to synthesize the language they’d learned and practiced from the previous stories in the textbook into a story of their own. We also wanted them to learn the elements of a story in the process of writing their own.

Step two: Product, Purpose, and Audience. We asked the students to write a new story using the same characters we’ve been developing all year. (The main character is the same very unlucky kid in each story they’ve already read.) The purpose of the project (from the teachers’ point of view) is to practice language (past tense in particular) and show understanding of the elements of a story. *From the kids’ point of view, the purpose was to write and illustrate their own story. The audience was the other sixth grade classes as well as their parents.

Step three: Driving Question. To be really super honest, it was “How can we synthesize all these stories into a final project/product so that the kids to feel like they learned something this year?” But for the kids it was more “How can we use the story elements we’ve discovered to create an interesting story so that the other sixth graders will laugh and have fun?”

Step four: What will students need to know? This is really what we used to design the project. They need language learned from the previous stories (review) and they need to notice story elements and use those to plan out a new story. They need metalanguage for working in groups to talk about and plan their stories.

Step five: Build your “Need to Know” list. We allowed the group conversation to be bilingual, but the project had to be done in English. Once students decided what they needed to know, they asked a teacher.

Step six: Teach their “needs to know”. We mostly did this on the spot when students asked, but questions that were pretty common we dealt with at the beginning or end of a lesson.

Step seven: Formative assessment. This went on constantly as teachers monitored group work. We let them ask, and reminded them when they forgot the feedback we gave. We were pretty pressed for time, though, so there wasn’t any re-teaching and their final products were not perfect (language-wise), but they were great and funny stories.

Step eight: Share with their authentic audience. We “published” the stories (photocopied them) and shared them with all the teachers, some parents, and the other sixth grade classes. Success was measured in smiles more than anything else.

There is a lot I will change this year about how we do this project, but maybe that’s something I’ll save for the discussion hour if it comes up.

See y’all soon!
anne

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Hi Anne!

Thank you for sharing your 6th-graders’ final project while reflecting and analysing it thought the 8 Basic Steps of PBL. Nicely done!

The purpose of the project (from the teachers’ point of view) is to practice language (past tense in particular) and show understanding of the elements of a story. *From the kids’ point of view, the purpose was to write and illustrate their own story. The audience was the other sixth grade classes as well as their parents.

Step three: Driving Question. To be really super honest, it was “How can we synthesize all these stories into a final project/product so that the kids to feel like they learned something this year?” But for the kids it was more “How can we use the story elements we’ve discovered to create an interesting story so that the other sixth graders will laugh and have fun?”

I thought it was really good that you shared the perspective of both teachers and learners. Sometimes we can forget one or the other and yet they are very often completely different. I wonder if this is also why students often learn things that are quite different to what we teach, i.e. Teaching does not equal learning (although it can lead to it).

Step eight: Share with their authentic audience. We “published” the stories (photocopied them) and shared them with all the teachers, some parents, and the other sixth grade classes. Success was measured in smiles more than anything else.

When I was on Peace Boat, some students got involved in a children’s storybook project which they then also made a video narration of and uploaded to YouTube, although I’m afraid I can’t track the link down. Anyway, would your school or students be interested in doing that? It might also work well for developing ‘Readers’ Theatre’, a good precursor for drama 🙂

[Steven Herder]

I found this from years ago!

Making Original Picture Books (高II 4-6 lessons, plus homework)
After achieving a set reading goal, as a reward, second-year high school students become authors of their own handmade picture book, which upon completion, would join the graded readers’ library in my classroom and would be read by other students during allocated ER time.

Students are given initial guidelines such as more than 400 words and 16 pages, and then have relatively free-reign over the genre and content of their book. First, they sketch out a 16 box storyboard and make notes in Japanese or English as to what happens on each page and a very rough idea of the illustration. Eight pages of folded card are handed out to each pair on the completion of half of the story. At that stage, they may start the cover page and illustrations. The students copy their corrected story on each page, being reminded to be careful to make sure the meaning (grammar) was clear because many people would be enjoying their book.

Week 1 – Introduce the idea, create interest by showing previous original books (if available)
– Make teams of 3-4 students
– Step 1 Brainstorm ideas for genre, characters, and plot
– Get approval for ideas
– Homework – Finalize genre, characters, and plot

Week 2 – Pages 1-8: write, edit, teacher check, illustrate
– Meet pages 1-8 deadline

Week 3 – Pages 9-16: write, edit, teacher check, illustrate
– Meet pages 9-16 deadline
– Homework: Cover and binding book

Week 4 – Present your story to the class, make comments and reflect on the process.

Why it works: 1) pride in one’s own work, 2) grammar becomes meaningful, 3) accessible to everyone because creativity, artistic sense, production quality count as much as English ability, 4) younger students anticipate their turn and enjoy reading their senior’s books, and 5) Giving clear weekly goals and deadlines was key to the project’s success.

Troubleshooting: Beware of students planning illustrations in great detail before the story has been written; Use thick, white A4 card as it gives the best size and durability; Note that the project didn’t work so well with younger students, lack of ideas seeming to be the stumbling block.

[Steven Herder]

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

English through the Internet – an elective one-semester course for 2nd-4th year students (90-minute classes, 15 weeks)

You will go on a journey through the Internet, exploring and experimenting with a number of online resources. You will be encouraged to think more about your online presence, use, and access to information on the worldwide web, and consider how it can be used to empower you and other people.

Aims
– To construct an online identity and Internet presence in English
– To deepen your understanding & improve your language skills using the Internet in English
– To become more comfortable, confident, and communicative in English
– To improve critical and creative thinking skills

Assessment
40% Participation & Attendance
40% Coursework Assignments
20% Special Project (4 weeks)

Step 1: Thinking and Learning (Content & Skills)
The 4-week special project gives students an opportunity to implement what they have learned in the course to help address a real-life or real-world issue of concern/importance.

Skills include
– Researching and understanding an issue of importance (e.g. Animal rescue, Earthquake Relief, Public Speaking (in English as a future teacher, etc)
– Use of social media (e.g. Creating and promoting a FB-page in English, creating/sharing/hosting an event)
– Use of media values to general newsworthy content

Step 2: Product, Purpose, and Audience
– Projects are driven by student-choice
– The importance is to (try to) make a difference by doing something for real, not just studying about and discussing it.
– Students present their projects and/or the outcome of their project to their classmates at the end of the semester but they also have a wider audience – the community outside class.

Step 3: Driving Question (How & Why)
– These differ from student to student depending on their personal project. Formulating a plan to deal with real-life issues is a real challenge but using frameworks, e.g. SMART goals, can help them to break down ‘big issues’ into manageable ones and move forward.

Step 4: What Will Students Need to Know? (Do they Match Step 1?)
– Mostly, they need to implement the Internet search skills we developed, using keywords, synonyms, and ‘Advanced Search’ options as needed.
– They need to be able to critically evaluate their findings, too.

Step 5: Build Your “Need to Know” List (How to help students identify & uncover them?)
– Students mostly ask for help with researching in English but also do their own research in Japanese or other L1.

Step 6: Teach Their “Needs to Know” (How & When will you teach?)
– This is mostly covered by the syllabus I developed.

Step 7: Formative Assessment (Check understanding & re-teach?)
– The 20% is broken down in 5% for their plan, 10% for what they actually create and do, then 5% for their final presentation.

Step 8: Share with Their Authentic Audience (How will assess individuals/groups?)
– Students are also given a project checklist to help them develop their presentations

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

SPECIAL PROJECT OVERVIEW

Project Week 1
1. Choose an issue you FEEL is important or interesting for you.- What do you really care about? What makes you frustrated or angry?
2. IMAGINE what the world would be like if it was different – IMAGINE what you could change! Search the internet and find out what are people doing already to ‘BE THE CHANGE’.
3.Make a plan to share in class next week. Tell people about the issue and SHARE why it is important to you and other people. What are you going to do to BE PART OF THE SOLUTION during the next two weeks? When? Where? Who with?

Project Week 2
In class, SHARE your issues and your action plans
Then JUST DO IT! Remember to take photos to SHARE 🙂

Project Week 3
Prepare your presentations on your issue and what you did about it!- You can make videos, power point, powers, a slideshow.

Project Week 4
Presentations in class
Reflection and evaluation

[Anne Hendler]

Hi Phil,

Thank you for your response.
I would love to know about the children’s storybook project you mentioned (and, if you ever find the link, I bet my students would be curious to see an example…). I normally don’t have time to do projects in class, but our school is restarting special Monday classes and those focus mainly on projects. I can make a proposal to the teacher in charge of those.

[Anne Hendler]

This is amazing. How did you support students who said, “I don’t really have anything I feel strongly about…” or something along those lines? What kinds of projects did they end up doing? How did they evaluate the experience? How did you assess the projects? Did you ever find out what impact it made on any of them beyond those four weeks?

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Thanks for your thoughtful questions, Anne:

This is amazing. How did you support students who said, “I don’t really have anything I feel strongly about…” or something along those lines? What kinds of projects did they end up doing? How did they evaluate the experience? How did you assess the projects? Did you ever find out what impact it made on any of them beyond those four weeks?

After getting students to settle, I ask them to think about times when they have felt upset about something they’ve seen in public or watched on TV, etc. Something that annoyed them or made them angry. It can be something that made them feel strongly just one time or something that irritates them repeatedly.

That’s basically always been enough to generate enough ideas. Some students will have several things – train manners, notably eating on trains, talking (loudly) on mobile phones and even littering or not giving up seats have come up a number of times. Once students have shared their ideas with others, those that couldn’t think of stuff are quite often ‘reminded’ of things that trouble them.

Often the bigger challenge is getting them to think about what they can do about it. Quite often, it seems that young people feel helpless to change the world and are bothered by issues that they feel adults have caused and not solved, despite all the good ideas they were encouraged to have and perhaps more easily had when they were in elementary school.

So, I tell them the story about how I was frustrated about a lot of things, from smaller issues like littering to bigger ones, like war. But one of the things I learned while travelling around the world as a volunteer on Peace Boat for 3.5 months is that once you start doing something about those issues, however big or small, it changes you and those frustrations gradually start to melt away BECAUSE you’re doing something, changing your self and gradually influencing those around you, one pair of My Hashi and one My Cup at a time – being the change you wish to see in the world.

When I was 18-19 and had my first job, I cared about the environment but besides reducing what I used, reusing and recycling, what could I do. To be honest, I was typically a bit too lazy to find out more but decided that since I was working and wasting money on cigarettes, I would set up a monthly donation to Green Peace for the same price as a pack of cigarettes – aiming to give up one bad habit and replace it with something more positive. I still have that subscription to this day (and finally quit smoking the day my first child was born).

Sometimes, we don’t money but we have time. Other times we have money, but no time. So volunteering and fund-raising works well when we have time, and donating works well when we have the money.

Some students didn’t know what to do about the Great Tohoku Earthquake which had just happened. A few wanted to volunteer but weren’t sure how to go about it. So, it was an ideal opportunity, I told them, to find out what other people were doing and what some possibilities might be. Later, I shared a story about my friend Chris who didn’t have much money as he’d just returned to England and had no job after working in Japan for Peace Boat. He used to live and work up there so felt he had to do something. So, he decided to ‘donate’ his birthday. He asked all his family and friends who would’ve given him a present to instead give a donation. And then he auctioned off all the interesting a rare stuff he’d collected from travelling around the world. Some things were quite rare and his parents were a bit saddened but he told them, “It’s only stuff. And those people have lost all theirs.” (His story ended up on BBC so I was able to share a clip but I can’t for the life of me find it despite numerous Google Searches.) In addition, he had a ‘virtual 35th birthday party’: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/chris-massey-birthday

Another student wanted to help the homeless and found out the school did an annual collection so she got involved in that and used social media and word of mouth to raise more awareness, plus of course classmates ended up donating a few items, including myself. And I told them about a late friend of mine who had set up an onigiri-making project for feeding the homeless in Osaka. After he passed away, some of his former students and other volunteers kept it going and a buddy and I volunteered when we could:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/91308278951/?fref=nf

I also have another story about one of my late best friends who passed away from a rare form of leukaemia when we were just 30. (This one is a bit harder to tell in class as it still chokes me up.) Anyway, like Chris, he never really celebrated his birthday as he didn’t think it was important and there were bigger issues in the world. After he passed away, I wanted to mark his birthday, respect that he didn’t celebrate it and do something meaningful. By chance, when I was about to chop off my long hair, another friend told me about the possibility of donating it to help kids with cancer. So I put them together in a fundraiser here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/philip-shigeo-brown

I ended up re-growing my hair twice for donation until I had too many grey and white hairs – lol! However, I’ve always been a bit disappointed not to have reached the original target in my fundraising campaign.

However, one of my students came back to me to tell me that she ended up donating her hair, too, and another student found a Japanese charity which they then shared on Facebook. A few other friends have also donated and shared with others since finding out, and a couple of years after graduating, my student told me that her mum had also cut and donated her hair.

So, stories like these remind us that we never know what the future may hold or how we might influence others. And if it changes you or just one other person, then that’s still a positive step in the right direction.

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

One important point I also tell my students is that they don’t have to donate, volunteer or do charitable work. That’s up to them. And they should feel free to work on whatever is important to them because that is their choice and there is (almost?) always someone else that you will end up helping by working on things you care about, like Nana, who wanted to overcome her fear of public speaking so that she could become an English teacher.

When she first asked if she could do that for a project, she was a bit uncertain because she felt it was just about her. So I asked her if she thought other people might have the same or similar problems. She accepted yes, but not as bad (as she had experienced by being the one student who broke into tears when she did her first presentation in her first year). I told her that she might be surprised to know that most people are afraid of public speaking and that I used to get stage fright, ‘turn all colours of the rainbow’ (as my friend told me), and forget what I was mean to talk about! So, her research involved surveying other students’ thoughts and feelings about public speaking (SurveyMonkey), setting up a special lunchtime event in “English Cafe” to talk about it (which then resulted in a second event), and finding out and sharing ideas on how to overcome nerves and get better at public speaking.

In terms of evaluation, since it’s supposed to be an English language course, they get evaluated on their plan (in English), the research they share in English (although it may have come from Japanese sources, too), how they used social media in English (as well as Japanese), and their final presentation (in English).

To be honest, I don’t think this really assesses the value of their experience or impact of their projects and is a classic example of when there is no way to grade them. Sometimes, the giving them a grade just degrades what they have done so in future, I think I will emphasise this more in the qualitative feedback I give students.

[Anne Hendler]

Thanks for your long response to my comment. I’m really impressed and inspired by all you’ve done and inspired your students to do. Thank you for sharing all these stories. And I see what you mean about assessment. I imagine it’s hard when you have to “grade” a project, but the real value can’t be measured by a number, and it might be too soon to measure it at all.

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Useful links

Project-Based and Problem-Based Learning

Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements (by BIE)

BlippAR

Google Cardboard

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