Combining traditional classroom knowledge with real-world expertise

We are to prepare our learners to face the challenges of the 21st century. So, the old-school model of passively learning facts and reciting them out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare them to survive in today's world. Today students need to acquire both fundamental as well as 21st century skills to solve   highly complex problems. Fundamental skills are reading, writing, and math and 21st century skills include (i) personal and social responsibility (ii) planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity (iii) strong communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation needs (iv) cross-cultural understanding (v) visualising and decision making (vi) knowing how and when to use technology and choosing the most appropriate tool for the task. With this combination of skills, students become directors and managers of their learning process, being guided and mentored by a skilled teacher.  Project based learning encourages students to become independent workers, critical thinkers, and lifelong learners by brining real-life context and technology to the curriculum. It is not just a way of learning; it is a way of working together. If students learn to take responsibility for their own learning, they will form the basis for the way they will work with others in their adult lives.
Children have various learning styles. They build their knowledge on varying backgrounds and experiences. It is also recognised that children have a broader range of capabilities than they have been permitted to show in regular classrooms with the traditional text-based focus. Project Based Learning  addresses these differences, because students must use all modalities in the process of researching and solving a problem, then communicating the solutions. When children are interested in what they are doing and are able to use their areas of strength, they achieve a higher level.
It lets the teacher have multiple assessment opportunities and allows a child to demonstrate his or her capabilities while working independently. It shows the child's ability to apply desired skills such as doing research. It develops the child's ability to work with his or her peers, building teamwork and group skills. It allows the teacher to learn more about the child as a person. It helps the teacher communicate in progressive and meaningful ways with the child or a group of children. The use of technology enables students, teachers, and administrators to reach out beyond the school building. It teaches children to take control of their learning which is the first step as lifelong learners.
A project should give students opportunities to build such 21st century skills as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology, which will serve them well in the workplace and life. A teacher in a project-based learning environment explicitly teaches and assesses these skills and provides frequent opportunities for students to assess themselves.
Students find project work more meaningful if they conduct real inquiry, which does not mean finding information in books or websites and pasting it onto a poster. In real inquiry, students follow a trail that begins with their own questions, leads to a search for resources and the discovery of answers, and often ultimately leads to generating new questions, testing ideas, and drawing their own conclusions. With real inquiry comes innovation-a new answer to a driving question, a new product, or an individually generated solution to a problem. The teacher does not ask students to simply reproduce teachers, or textbook-provided information in a pretty format.
To guide students in real inquiry, refer students to the list of questions they generated after the entry event. The teacher should coach them to add to this list as they discover new insights. The classroom culture should value questioning, hypothesizing, and openness to new ideas and perspectives.
How do students specifically derive benefits from project based learning? Teachers set parameters for each project and the students are free to propose their own ideas, depending on their teacher's approval. Students feel a sense of educational ownership because they have greater control over what and how they learn, students often feel more invested and responsible for their work. Project-based learning also makes it easier for students to learn at a pace that is comfortable for them. Students get the opportunity to acquire complex and real world skills. Project-based learning teaches students about teamwork, critical thinking, communication, decision-making, time management, public speaking, organisation, social behavior and more. The traditional classroom lecture model is all about listening. The teacher lectures and the students absorb. A key advantage of project-based learning is that each student has more one-on-one time with their instructors to ask questions and share ideas.
How do teachers get benefit from it? Traditional classroom learning involves a teacher more or less speaking to his or her students with little interaction other than to ask or answer a periodic question. Project-based learning puts the teacher into more of a facilitator role that allows for greater dialogue with each individual student. With each new project that is proposed and presented, teachers receive a glimpse of interests and passions of the students. Everything about a given project - the topic that is selected, how it is presented, how students works with others, where they pull their research from - gives teachers crucial information about the learning habits of their class. The assessment process in a project-based learning setting usually involves more than just the opinion of the teacher and often includes other instructors and even peers of the student. Another benefit of project-based learning is the ability to draw in resources from the entire school and even the community. Learning is no longer confined to the walls of the classroom, but rather is conducted on a more  beyond boundary scale, giving teachers an even greater pool of assets to work with.
With the ever-increasing pressure to raise performance standards in school, Project Based Learning helps to engage students' intrinsic motivation to learn and, in turn, increase performance. School leaders are also able to tout curriculum that incorporate school-wide learning. Parents can see information on their child's educational progress that a traditional report card cannot provide. It  often takes students outside of the classroom; a school's surrounding community quickly becomes an educational resource. Community leaders and places of interest can be tremendous resources for various student projects, and can also be beneficiaries of student work.
Project-based learning focuses on real-world problems, issues, and contexts. It promotes use of all four language modalities namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It engages learners in authentic communication with team members and is learner-centred and teacher-facilitated. Completion of projects typically requires learners to use language in a variety of ways to collaborate on a plan, negotiate tasks, contribute ideas and constructive criticism, assess progress, and achieve consensus on various issues that are important to the learners' lives. Unlike problem-based learning, which focuses on discussing and solving a problem, project-based learning focuses on developing a product, such as a group presentation, class newspaper, or cookbook of recipes from each student's native culture (Starr, 2005). Other projects to use with adults learning English may include creating oral histories, designing books for children in the family, writing short plays, skits, or poetry, surveying students in the programme (or the community) about an issue of interest or concern, analysing the survey, displaying the data and using it for next steps, listing tips on how to apply to a school or training programme, or producing mock TV news broadcasts or talk shows, complete with commercials and focused on issues of personal significance or of significance in the community.
Students gain a deeper understanding of the concepts and standards at the heart of a project. Projects also build vital workplace skills and lifelong habits of learning. Projects can allow students to address community issues, explore careers, interact with adult mentors, use technology and present their work to audiences beyond the classroom. Project Based Learning can improve students who might otherwise find schools boring or meaningless. It combines traditional classroom knowledge with real-world expertise and skills to better prepare students for success. Many changes are taking place around the world to make teaching-learning more life-oriented, more meaningful and interesting. Shouldn't we join them?
Masum Billah is Program Manager at BRAC Education Programme and Vice-president of Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA),
email: [email protected]