Project Based Learning in History
Implementation
At the end of the last academic year, the History department built on it’s existing model of project based learning, drew inspiration from the announcement of the SEED curriculum and took a bold step into the concept of project based learning. As Jennifer Gonzalez writes, ‘the easiest way to explain PBL is to compare it to what we think of as traditonal instruction’ (https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/project-based-learning/). Where traditional classrooms can dictate that teachers deliver content to students, and students take a summative assessment, PBL teaches content ‘inside of a long-term project, a real-world problem students need to solve in a creative and authentic way.’
In light of this, the department has drastically cut down the amount of assessments that students complete across the middle school curriculum, and has focused each bimester on one Historical era, studied through the lense of one ‘“big question’ which forms the basis of student’s projects. Students have been given complete autonomy to choose a medium with which they present their project. We want them to play to their strengths, and to hand in a project which has allowed them to be creative. Of course, this has involved careful elements of design within the planning of the SoW, such as project ‘pit-stop’ lessons where we check how students are progressing, and suggested formats for students who are struggling.
Examples of our curriculum and student’s work.
At the beginning of this academic year we introduced project based learning in the middle school. Each bimester students will investigate one ‘big question’ and they need to demonstrate this using the key skill for the bimester. The S2 students researched the inter-war period in Germany and the United States and needed to answer the big question; ‘which country had a greater golden era?’. The skill they needed to demonstrate was comparing and contrasting. The medium for the project was theirs to choose, and students delivered their final work in a range of mediums from podcasts to posters to essays. The thought behind this is that students would choose and have greater success if they could choose the format of their assessment. This task involved a lot of independent research with classes focussing on critical analysis of the broader questions using PESC (politics, economic, social and cultural) to compare the two societies.
The P6 students also had to choose their own means of assessment. Their topic of study was the Romans and basic historical skills. Students needed to demonstrate one skill, which was chronology linked with their chosen topic in Rome, an example of this was the life of Julius Caesar. Students would need to explain how chronology worked in a way that P5 students would understand. Students were given autonomy in choosing their assessment and topic within Rome.
This Bimester the students will be investigating 3 ‘big questions’. In P6 ‘What continuity and change has there been in the Islamic world?’, in S1 ‘Cause and Consequence in the American Revolution’ and in S2 ‘ Perspectives: How should the Holocaust be remembered?’. Students are given the assessment in their first lesson and so have 7 weeks to work on the task. In addition, they need to track their progress by getting signatures from their guardians to confirm that they are working on the project independently. This is valuable as each student should be researching something that interests them. The students are also all focusing on a particular skill each bimester and therefore the department has shifted from content focus to skill based learning.
How effective is project based learning?
After one bimester the results and implications of project based learning are unclear. Some students, who might not have been successful in an exam environment have excelled with the chance to choose their own assessment format, whilst others remained the same. There was a mixture in results, S2 students overall did better having the chance to investigate their own topic and returned some high-quality work. Whereas, P6 and S1 had a large differentiation in quality of their projects. This may simply require greater emphasis about the importance of the task, and that it should reflect 6 weeks worth of work. The measure in place to assure students do submit quality work is that parents sign at various stages in the students copy book that work is taking place at home. The culture of this should develop over time but it is apparent that some parents are simply signing without knowing why. What would be good to see is an increase in the quality of work from P6 and S1 in bimester 2. This has been facilitated by having reviews of students progress before the deadline. However, The full implications of project based learning will have to be reviewed at the end of the year. Overall, the department is pleased with the current progress and confident that all the historical skills being focused on will be able to be demonstrated by the majority of the students at the end of the academic year.