Project-based Learning

‟The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

Herbert Spencer

In an emergent –or negotiated– curriculum the child's interest is the key focus. The child's motivations (or “sparks”) are intrinsic, from deep within, meaningful and compelling, and provide an authentic and ultimately very powerful experience. This intrinsic motivation is what triggers a child (or adult) to want to know more, to keep on investigating.

Sparks can occur at any time. They can be as simple as finding a snail in the garden, grabbing an idea from a book, or counting the money in a piggy-bank. Young children have these sparks of interest all day long, and through observation and conversation, facilitators can draw on the children's curiosity to help them make connections and deepen their understanding.

Sparks will often develop into projects of varying length and scope which are carried out in small groups, activating the most intense learning and exchange of ideas. Each child at Kaleide International School will be involved with a group of peers in a number of projects at any one time, and from this comes the breadth of our educational offer.

We do not have separate “lessons” for subject areas –unless required by the children themselves or considered necessary by the pedagogical team– and rely instead on cross-curricular project-based learning. Art and design, computing, design and technology, geography, history, music, etc. are all embedded in projects, and there will be a fluctuating emphasis on any of these which evolves with the children's own interests and developmental needs.

‟Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

John Dewey

We see a good project as having these characteristics:

• interesting and authentic: children will take an interest, the project will make sense, make connections with their lives and those of their community;

• transparent: the intention or meaning of activities associated with the project are readily apparent, children will be able to become deeply involved, at their own level of complexity, over long periods of time;

• challenging: children will be encouraged to engage and persist with challenge, difficulty, uncertainty and puzzlement; in long-term projects children will become familiar with different kinds of problems and their possible solutions, and will return to problems of previous days;

• multi-faceted: children can incorporate and improve their particular talents and “languages”: for colour, design, technology, three-dimensional modelling, reasoning, drawing, social interaction, number and measure, etc.;

• collaborative/accessible: children will collaborate and “bounce ideas off each other”, and will be keen to share their knowledge with their peers within an open culture that values mutual inspiration.

While it is often the children who lead and learn to propose these projects, facilitators assume the responsibility to sustain the cognitive and social dynamics of the group during their progress, and to provide at all moments suitable learning resources for the children. These resources include not only the space and materials for learning, but also the organisation of specific interactions, including the participation of families and the wider community.

Facilitators can also provoke children's thinking by suggesting ideas through stories, events or experiences, or by introducing a new and unexpected element or activity. They have, first and foremost, the responsibility of establishing a genuine personal and pedagogical relationship with each child in addition to documenting the efforts of the project group.

Project-based learning is dependent on social and emotional learning.

The active culture of learning that is promoted by project-based learning relies on children's capacity to drive the process of growth and discovery around self-chosen challenging content: alternative ways of thinking are encouraged, and there's an emphasis on student voice, collaboration, and public presentations. All of these elements can be difficult for children, unless they have been able to enjoy opportunities for self-direction and ownership within a safe culture provided by the school.

A consistently respectful school culture is necessary to help children feel safe about taking risks, making mistakes, and providing feedback to help improve the work of others. It is a safe, communal learning environment that best helps children to think for themselves, produce work that matters, feel like they belong and support the learning of their peers. Trusting relationships have a vital role in helping children feel comfortable contributing to a community of learners, and opportunities to collaborate must be purposeful and spring from children's own perceived needs.

The qualities present in project-based learning –such as clear goals, collaboration, authenticity, and balance between challenge and skills– help children enter a creative “flow state”, acquire deep-level learning, and build a culture of agency. But to establish this culture of agency, project-based learning needs to be grounded in a growth-mindset friendly environment which does not foster the stereotypes and assumptions that limit children's capacity and self-image.