What are the advantages to teaching units as these teachers do?
Project base instruction allows students to use their critical thinking skills. The students communicate and collaborate, resulting in conflict, debates, and problem solving. In other words students are presented with a real world experience hands-on activities. The students will develop teamwork, creativity and exploratory as well as investigative skills. Also, it allows teachers to build bridges with community leaders for the growth of the student. In other words, the collaboration with the community exists.
What are some disadvantages that you can see to teaching this way?
Disadvantages may include finding community members to cooperate with you. In group projects it is important to maintain high levels of motivation by each member. All students have to participate and cooperate equally. For teachers it is important to understand that project base learning is more demanding than the traditional system. It will require extra effort from the teacher to implement.
What are some challenges you will face as you attempt to develop this type of lesson?
The two main challenges I foresee is assessing student learning in the course of the project and finding a way to incorporate the state standards. Other challenges include time and planning.
What types of resistance will you face in developing lessons like those in the videos (yours, other teachers, and administrators?
I have experienced firsthand the resistance of administrators in project base learning. What I have seen is the lack in confidence in the instructional strategy. I feel administrators are enthralled in TAKS test scores, they do not allow educators implement PBL. Another personal experience was the lack of support with field trips. The reason I was given was because the field trips take time away their “real studies” thus affecting TAKS scores. If I want to implement a field trip, I have to make sure all students are passing TAKS if not, they cannot go.
In developing a project-based lesson, how can you adapt it to meet state standards?
One way of doing this is by making sure other concepts are being incorporated in your lesson such as English, math, biology, history, social studies, etc.