Authentic Project-Based Learning
100 Project-Based Learning Ideas | Unrulr
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/authentic-project-based-learning-john-larmer
Students learn about endangered species in their region and take action to protect them, including a public awareness campaign, habitat restoration fieldwork, and communication with local government officials.
Fully Authentic
PBL means students are doing work that is real to them—it is authentic to their lives—or the work has a direct impact on or use in the real world. The real world, by the way, could still be school, which is a very real place for students. In these projects, like choices A and B above, students might advocate for a cause, take action to improve their community, perform a service for someone, create a physical artifact to display or distribute, or express their own ideas about a topic in various media.
A project can be authentic in four ways, some of which may be combined in one project.
1. The project meets a real need in the world beyond the classroom, or the products that students create are used by real people. For example:
Students propose designs for a new play area in a nearby park.
Students plan and execute an environmental clean-up effort in their community.
Students create a website for young people about books they like.
Students write a guide and produce podcasts for visitors to historic sites in their county.
Students serve as consultants to local businesses, advising them on how to increase sales to young people.
Students develop a conflict resolution plan for their school.
2. The project focuses on a problem, issue or topic that is relevant to students’ lives—the more directly, the better—or on a problem or issue that is actually being faced by adults in the world students will soon enter. For example:
Students create multimedia presentations that explore the question: How do we make and lose friends?
Students learn physics by investigating the question: Why don’t I fall off my skateboard?
Students form task forces to study possible effects of climate change on their community and recommend actions that could be taken.
Students decide whether the U.S. should intervene in a conflict inside another country that is causing a humanitarian crisis.
3. The project sets up a scenario or simulation that is realistic, even if it is fictitious. For example:
Students are asked by the archbishop of Mexico in 1818 to recommend a location for the 22nd mission in California. (This happens to be a featured project on PBLU.org.)
Students act as architects who need to design a theatre that holds the maximum number of people, given constraints of available land, cost, safety, comfort, etc.
Students play the role of United Nations advisors to a country that has just overthrown a dictator and needs advice about how to start a democracy.
Students recommend which planet in our solar system ought to be explored by the next space probe as they compete for NASA funding.
Students are asked to propose ideas for a new TV reality show that educates viewers about science topics such as evolutionary biology and the geologic history of the earth.
4. The project involves tools, tasks or processes used by adults in real settings and by professionals in the workplace. (This criterion for authenticity could apply to any of the above examples of projects.) For example:
Students investigating the physics of skateboarding test various surfaces for speed, using the scientific method and tools scientists use.
Students exploring the issue of how we make and lose friends conduct surveys, analyze data, record video interviews, and use online editing tools to assemble their presentations.
Students acting as U.N advisors to an emerging democracy analyze existing constitutions, write formal reports, and present recommendations to a panel.
2. Promote Student Exploration of Problems and Questions
A complex problem, driving question, interesting puzzle, or perplexing dilemma drives PBL. When considering the authentic work of a historian, students may explore the question of what really happened in the past. For instance, students can examine primary sources to understand what happened in Tulsa in 1921 during the Tulsa Race Massacre.
When portraying the authentic role of an engineer, students can explore the problem of how to design a product that satisfies a need, such as how to create a compost bin to help their school deal with its organic-matter waste. If we want students to engage in real work, then we need to support them in exploring real problems and questions.
3. Ensure That Students Create Authentic Products
While many forms of education ask students to consume information and then share it back with the teacher, PBL empowers students to design, create, and produce—which develops their knowledge and skills along the way. A typical PBL project may culminate in a presentation as a final product; however, a traditional presentation may not be the most authentic product choice. Teachers can think more expansively about alternative products that are more authentic to the role and the problem that students are exploring.
When students take on the authentic practices of a scientist, they can produce an authentic scientific investigation with real scientific findings. As photojournalists, students can produce a photo essay that captures striking images that convey complex messages. As political activists, students can produce a real policy proposal for their student government.
4. Encourage Students to Make Personal Connections
Far from being disconnected from students’ lived experiences, project-based learning has the potential to allow them to bring their full selves to their work. Projects can create explicit opportunities for students to draw on their experiences, perspectives, and values. Even when students are exploring the same essential question and driving toward a common set of broad learning goals, PBL can create space and opportunities for them to explore how they are personally connected to the project.
