Project Based Instruction

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Project Based Instruction

• A UTeach Conference Course Overview
• Flávio Azevedo
• Jill Marshall
• flavio_at_austin.utexas.edu
• STEM Education
• University of Texas at Austin

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Project Based Instruction

• What do you know?
• What do you want/need to know?

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What is PBI?

• In project-based science classrooms, students
  investigate and collaborate with others to find
  solutions to real-world questions. Using
  technology make products to show what they have
  learned. This method of teaching science
  motivates young learners to learn and explore,
  and it meets the national goals for and standards
  of science education. Because project-based
  science parallels what scientists do, it
  represents the essence of inquiry and the nature
  of science. (Krajcik Czerniak, 2007, p. 25)

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Why PBI?

• In PBI, students are prepared to do things they
  might actually do in life.
• Research has demonstrated that students in
  project-based learning classrooms get higher
  scores than students in traditional classrooms
• (Krajcik Blumenfeld, 2006, p. 318)

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Essential elements of PBI

• Some sort of driving question or problem, for
  which the answer is not readily known.
• Complex, extended, collaborative, situated
  inquiry.
• Data gathering from multiple sources required for
  solution.
• Scaffolding in the form of benchmark lessons,
  opportunities for assessment, social structure
• Use of cognitive tools

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History of PBI

• Originates in home project movement beginning in
  vocational agricultural ed in the early 20th
  Century.
• Looked to the immediate needs and interests of
  students in order to engage them in the hearty
  purposeful act (Kilpatrick, 1918, p.320).
• But did not teach future citizens what they
  needed to know (Charters, 1922 cited in
  Kliebard, 1995, p.141) and that learning limited
  to this method was too discontinuous, too random,
  and too haphazard, too immediate in its function
  (Bode, 1927, cited in Kliebard, 1995, p.152).
  Vanished by the 1950s.

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The new PBI

• Undergoing a resurgence with student-centered
  reforms
• Outcomes-driven, theoretically-grounded design
  process addresses main objections (lack of focus
  cognitive overload)
• Tied to appropriate learning goals, scaffolding
  (Barron, B., Schwartz, D. L., Vye, N. J., Moore,
  A., Petrosino, A. J., Zech, L., Bransford,
  J.D.1998).

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Overview

• Course originally developed by Tony Petrosino
• Housed in Dept of Curriculum Instruction
• Field-based course 3 4 day field experience,
  plus several classroom observations.
• Master teacher sets up field experience
• Mentor teachers paid stipends

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Capstone course

• Prerequisites STEP 1-2, Knowing and Learning,
  Classroom Interactions
• Last course before Apprentice Teaching
• Preliminary portfolio due during PBI

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Course Goals

• 1) To support the UTeach students development by
  building a deep understanding of PBL, including
  differentiating between strong and weak
  theoretical approaches to PBL, and between PBL
  and other inquiry-based approaches.

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Course Goals

• 2) To enhance UTeach students ability to design
  or adapt activities, lesson plans and a complete
  project-based unit following theoretical
  frameworks of PBL

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Course Goals

• 3) To build UTeach students capacity to
  critically reflect on their own and others
  lesson plans and enactment.

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Course Goals

• 4) To increase UTeach students ability to
  measure student learning through the appropriate
  use of formative and summative assessment, and
  respond instructionally to the assessment
  information.

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Course Goals

• 5) To incorporate and synthesize work from
  Knowing and Learning, Classroom Interactions, and
  STEP courses into a meaningful capstone
  experience integrating theory and practice.

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Course goals

• Students experience an engineering design
  challenge and evaluate this mode of instruction.

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PBI and equity

• Contextualized around your own students
  experiences
• Everyone gets to do high-level thinking, develop
  21st century skills
• Need-to-know created for facts and skills
• Addressing the other 90

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Major components

• Read and discuss literature on PBI
• Experience and/or learn about several PB units
  (Design challenge)
• Create and implement a project-based unit at a
  local high school (groups of 2-3)
• Analyze the implementation and suggest
  improvement (individual, written assignmt)
• Design a 2-4 week unit based on topics in state
  standards in their AT semester

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Components of PBI
Field Experience
Theory
Unit Development
Reflective Analysis
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Semester Flow Spring 2012
Weeks 1-4 Weeks 5-9 Weeks 10-15
Presentation and analysis of PB units (including experiencing one as learners) Plan, create, and implement field experience unit in close collaboration with teacher Analysis and reflections on field experience ----------------------- Portfolio
Engagement with literature (including creating and critiquing examples) Design of final project 2-4 week unit, additional literature planned for AT
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Logistics and Classroom Practices Policies

• Class meetings 3 hours weekly
• Outside preparation (7-10 hours, some during
  class)
• Class Agenda and Activities displayed in
  PowerPoint and archived on Blackboard/Canvas
• Course assignments (guidelines, rubrics),
  resources posted on Blackboard/Canvas
• Online discussion board for reading
  accountability, input to discussion

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Field experience

• Format has varied historically
• Master teacher arranges placement
• Does it have to be a PB school? No, but students
  should have access to PB instruction to observe
• Meeting between students, mentor teachers
  observations
• Spring 14
• one 90-min class period, field trip (school day),
  two 90-min class periods
• Student groups identified sites for their field
  trip
• E.g, natural history museum local caverns, F1
  track

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Components of unit design process (Krajcik,
McNeill, Reiser, 2008)

• Identify and unpack standards
• Generate learning performances
• Create concept maps showing relationships
• Craft driving question
• Iteratively, define anchor activity and final
  product
• Craft assessment and learning activities to reach
  learning performances and scaffold final product
• Create calendar
• ----------------------
• Upload all to webpage

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Driving Questions

• feasible
• worthwhile (aligns with standards)
• contextualized (real-world)
• meaningful (interesting)
• Ethical (Krajcik Blumenfeld, 2006)
• Sustainable (Krajcik Czerniak, 2007)
• How can I smell things at a distance?
• How can machines help me build big things?
• Anchoring experience can make the D Q more
  meaningful

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Anchoring experience

• Bransford et al., 1990 Kumar, 2010
• A story (video) of a situation that puts a
  problem in real-world context
• Scaffolds students, embedded information, models
  approaches
• Great resource Petrosino and Dickinson website
  (http//www.edb.utexas.edu/anchorvideo/howto.php)

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Final product

• Performance (presentation) or product (wildlife
  sanctuary plan, physical or computer model,
  report, video, etc.)
• Addresses driving question
• Embodies students learning
• Supports students in developing understanding
• Encourages connections between ideas, disciplines
• Realistic

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Resources

• Example projects at http//www.uteach.utexas.edu/P
  BI
• Blog at http//pbispring2012.wordpress.com/
• Legacy cycle webpage at http//www.edb.utexas.edu/
  visionawards/petrosino/
• Anchor video (Petrosino) http//www.edb.utexas.edu
  /anchorvideo/theory.php