How Does PBL Build 21st Century Skills?
Our philosophy emphasizes that how students learn is more important than what they learn. Thus we emphasize process over product and authentic assessment through the use of a performance rubric with consistent, high expectations for continuous improvement. With guidance from the advisors, students are able to discuss their work and the 21st century skills they are building.
As parents, we continue to hear a great deal about the importance of 21st century skills. Innovative school founders around the country understand that the very design of schools has to change to authentically foster these skills in our children. My own experience of co-running a teacher-led, student-driven school for nine years before returning to the traditional school model has been frustrating. Knowing there is a better way and not being able to affect large-scale change is discouraging to say the least. My hope is to share innovative ideas that help all schools improve. I see where we can keep students from becoming entirely dependent on grades, and instead focus on continuous improvement and strengths-based learning. PBL empowers students to speak well about what they know. We want them to stand out from the crowd, not to be cookie-cutter, carbon copies with no sense of self. We want to return to the original purpose of a liberal arts education and teach students to discover their purpose and the beauty of self-discovery. We want our children to be independent thinkers and change-makers.
Thankfully there has been an education revolution afoot for 20+ years. Those who have seen students thrive in small, innovative learning communities and go on to be highly effective adults who know who they are and how to follow their passions, are making a difference and influencing all schools in a positive way by sharing ideas. There’s no going back. There are micro-schools popping up all over the country encouraging all schools to be better.
We guide students to build 21st century skills daily. They gather twice a day to think critically, share, and speak in the Socratic circle. They utilize problem-solving skills each day as they solve math problems using a process that puts them in the driver’s seat. They may seek individual instruction from their advisor, they may find instruction they prefer online, they will most assuredly collaborate with their peers who may be solving the same problems, and they’ll backwards engineer problems to find the answer. Their learning and drive is much greater when given the freedom to find the answer in the way they know they’ll learn it the best. When they employ this self-driven process day after day, the confidence they build is exponential. It becomes a part of who they are, and no challenge is too great for them. They’ve been set free to problem-solve without interference in their learning process. They’re gaining deep understanding, examination, inquiry, critical thinking, reasoning, initiative, and autonomy. It changes how they learn and who they are.
During project time at our schools, students are guided by their advisors through the project process. Visitors might describe it as a low hum of productivity wherein some students are being guided and some have independently engaged in researching a topic of their choosing. Once students learn the project process, they’re excited to engage in their projects, knowing that once they’ve learned all they can about a topic, they’ll be able to present their findings and the product they’ve made to show the community what they’ve learned and how they learned it. When students present their projects to their advisors, they’re explaining, using metacognition, how they spent their time, how they contributed to our community over the course of their project, and what new skills they learned. Metacognition, the ability to understand how one learns, is currently reserved for college-age students but should be encouraged for children of all ages. Giving students the ability to evaluate their own work and skills gives them motivation to push themselves and find methods of improvement without spoon-fed information. Self-evaluation leads to self-motivation! The project process builds creativity, leadership, communication, information and media literacy, determination, self-reflection, flexibility, and productivity.
The physical space the students inhabit at our schools lends itself to these authentic learning experiences. An open studio space allows them the freedom to move about and find the tools they need to learn. It could be access to books or an ipad, maybe it’s drawing paper or art supplies they need, or perhaps a maker space, or guidance from their advisor. There are no bells ringing or hands raised. They’re not waiting for their question to be answered or feeling badly about themselves if they didn’t understand something the first time. They have the freedom to learn at their pace. Students who are self-driven, autonomous, and purposeful in their learning pursuits far exceed their peers in traditional schools who are held back or embarrassed to ask questions for fear that they’ve failed somehow. Students in open learning environments possess the keys to motivation: autonomy, purpose, and mastery. When they are given the freedom to drive their learning and choose topics they are drawn to, the mastery of content and skills naturally follows.
At our schools, because we’ve changed the design of our school to keep pace with our times, students are developing 21st century skills. They become excellent communicators because the project process requires that they read and write well, listen effectively, research in-depth, and discuss intelligently. At cutting edge schools around the country, we’ve flipped the traditional model of school on its head and created a school design that builds diverse learning across a broad range of subjects while developing passionate, responsible members of a respectful, caring learning community.
