One of the school's middle states goals it to improve student achievement through project based learning. Some teachers at MSJ claim to currently use this teaching methods, some claim to dislike it. But what is PBL? Does anyone know? Can we create a form of PBL to suit all the teaching styles at our school?
In our action research project, our group will study what the perceptions of PBL are at MSJ and what will it look like in at our school in the near future. Specifically, our action research teams is looking to investigate the following questions:
1. What are teacher-perceptions of PBL at MSJ?
2. How are teachers currently using "PBL" in their classroom?
3. What is the vision of PBL at MSJ
By investigating these questions, we will suggest a clarifying, school-wide definition of PBL.
I suggest a third question: What is the MSJ vision of PBL at MSJ? And think about considering people, time, and money as parts of your vision. BTW, you'll need to align PBL as part of your "Differentiated Instruction" concept in your blog heading.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteHere are some excerpts from a reflection I did on a recent professional day at MSJ. The professional day happened on Friday, February 17th, 2012. I hope they help the conversation and respond to some of the questions posed above.
That day, I met with an MSJ grad who is now in the education consulting business. Our conversation led me to this reflection:
"... education is at a crossroads and, as a school, St. Joe must move forward or perish, as parents will no longer consider the school worth the investment as we are no longer preparing students for 'the professions'. Following the lead of teachers like Dan Peightel and Ryan Folmer, St. Joe must continue to eliminate ineffective and outdated teaching practices and strategies."
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I attended two workshops that day. Here are some observations:
"...an interesting split began to emerge between teachers who think that students should do everything on their own, with minimal instruction (the 'sage on the stage') and teachers who believe that teaching is a more interactive and collaborative situation where the students’ learning differences should be accounted for (the 'guide on the side') . They also expressed exasperation at the demands of a differentiated classroom.
This theme continued (in) my second workshop, 'Reading Strategies' with Sarah Slingluff. Some teachers seemed to want to be able to say 'read this' and have students do what the teachers’ trained and cultivated minds would do with that material. They also expressed anger at how students can’t 'see' in a pure way when they read something and how much students dislike traditional reading. The postmodern idea (that) all materials processed by humans (can be) considered texts and can be 'read' was rejected by some. Some believed that students are a product of their age, living in a continual 'now,' others believed that students can read in the 'old way' are too lazy to do so."
I tried to resist my "English Teacher" urge to edit the excerpts. If I made changed to my original sentences, I put them in parenthesis.
Thanks,
Tim Kabara
DePaul/English
MSJ