Project-based learning is making a real difference for Michigan students – The Oakland Press

By Anne Marie Palazzolo

Guest columnist

“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students don’t learn much just by listening to teachers in class, memorizing prepackaged assignments and spitting out answers.”

These well-known words from educational researchers Arthur W. Chickering and Stephen C. Ehrmann apply to many teachers, including myself. In fact, it’s the cornerstone of my adventures as an education entrepreneur: launching a microschool in Oakland County that offers parents a unique alternative for children of all backgrounds.

Learning is not an exact science, but as a veteran of education, I have seen what works best and what is less effective. Experience, feedback and results have taught me that project-based learning, or PBL, is the most valuable for students.

What is project-based learning?

If you’re unfamiliar with PBL, you’re not alone. While it is gaining traction in education circles both in Michigan and beyond, it is not a widespread part of public school curriculums and a foreign concept to the majority of parents.

So, what is it?

Project-based learning means that students learn during the course of the project. It starts with a guiding question and leads them down a learning path as a means to answer that question, solve that problem, or create that new invention.

Compared to traditional lecture-based education, project-based learning offers a number of clear advantages:

• PBL actively engages students by requiring them to investigate real-world problems, collaborate, and create tangible solutions. This encourages deeper learning and critical thinking compared to standard lecture-based learning.

• It emphasizes collaboration, communication, problem solving, creativity and critical thinking, all skills essential for the modern workforce. There is less attention to rote memorization than to traditional teaching.

• PBL can focus on real-world problems or simulations that better reflect students’ future lives and careers, making learning relevant and practical. It makes learning less abstract than traditional education.

• Projects tend to be more student-driven, allowing students to pursue topics of personal interest while working within a structured framework. This sense of ownership and motivation ensures that students are more involved in their work and are not just motivated by achieving a certain grade or test performance.

• Practice-oriented learning leads to long-term retention of knowledge thanks to greater involvement in the process. It also allows for more flexible/less rigid teaching styles for teachers.

The track record of the PBL

At my school, AMPed Hybrid Academy in Farmington Hills, I have seen students embrace education and thrive academically with project-based learning as a foundation. But it’s not just my personal observations; Independent research supports the positive impact of PBL.

A 2023 Frontiers in Psychology study found that “project-based learning, compared to the traditional educational model, significantly improved student learning outcomes and contributed positively to academic performance, affective attitudes, and thinking skills, especially academic achievement.”

Similarly, Janet B. Walton, senior research fellow at North Carolina State University’s College of Education, says: “Both education research and teachers’ firsthand experiences tell us that students are more engaged in learning when they can make connections between the learning content and their own experiences. . . . . These types of connections give students the feeling that learning is relevant – or recognizable and meaningful – to them.”

We see this every day at AMPed. Students who previously struggled to keep up with their homework and were unmotivated or bored at school now take the lead on projects, design their own experiments and encourage their peers to participate.

Unlike some traditional teaching methods with strict and structured guidelines, the boundaries for project-based learning are virtually limitless. My first-hand examples include:

• Start your own business as a 10-year-old, complete with a website, branding, a business plan and investors.

• Build a model of your city, complete with accurate highway systems and realistic scale, as a group of 6 and 7 year olds.

• Developing your own screen-free coding curriculum for 8 year olds, as a 12 year old.

While some elements of traditional education still have a place in general education to convey essential knowledge, the reality is that long-term student success is best achieved through a project-based learning environment – ​​which gives them greater ownership and connection with their own learning environment. education, and better prepare them for the real world.

With its cross-curricular exploration of a problem or concept, trial and error, deep dives, and connections to community, PBL is authentic learning at its core. It doesn’t fit into a box, it looks different for every student and it helps students see the world in a different way.

As someone who has been dealing with students and classrooms for a long time, I have seen the key to improving the way we educate our children, and its name is project-based learning.

Anne Marie Palazzolo is the founder and director of the AMPed Hybrid Academy in Farmington Hills, a small private school focused on project-based learning, customized education, and inclusive learning spaces.