Page 92 - Spectrum March Edition -21

PROJECTS – A NEW WAY OF LEARNING

Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain

knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to
investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question,
problem, or challenge. It is an instructional approach designed to give
students the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills through
engaging projects set around challenges and problems they may face in

the real world. Project-Based Learning has gone from academic
study that yields end-of-unit projects, to highly complex methods of
creating and publishing student thinking. It is more closely associated with
21st century learning skills than perhaps any other form of learning, and
new technology in the classroom is improving its potential exponentially.
Project-Based Learning is a flexible method of anchoring curriculum
around authentic projects that can then support so many other promising
trends in learning, from Game-Based Learning and Blended Learning, to
gamification and the Flipped Classroom. This mode of education

st
empowers the students with the necessary 21 century skills which are:
•personal and social responsibility
•planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity
•strong communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation
needs
•cross-cultural understanding
•visualizing and decision making

•knowing how and when to use technology and choosing the most
appropriate tool for the task

Like any other object, this mode also has a few challenges which include
demanding workloads for teachers and students, superficial gain of
content knowledge, lack of clear implementation guidelines, lack of focus
on identified learning outcomes, a lack of trained personnel that can lead
Project based Learning.

Neelam Mathur