Prevailing U.S. pedagogy tends to focus on preparing students to score well on multiple choice tests. Yet there are a host of major problems with this “accumulation-based” pedagogy (a.k.a. factory model, banking model [Freire, 1970]), particularly for multilingual students: The tests are in English, and
His mohawk flopped side to side as he pointed rapidly at his scrawling mathematics work. My 6th grader was having a hard time explaining his thought process. “It’s like, I started with this idea, and tried this formula with these numbers, but then the math
The pandemic’s impact on teaching and learning environments has made us rethink our best teaching practices and adapt our traditional approaches to new digital-age learning options. As we enter the new year, I’d like to invite all educators to take a closer look at an
In previous posts I have made a case for why we need PBL now more than ever. And by PBL I don’t mean it in the traditional sense, rather I am referring to a modified version of PBL called PBL-lite, which is more realistic in
Many teachers and families are concerned that children staying at home for an extended period of time—whether due to an illness, a natural disaster, or another emergency situation—aren’t learning as much as they would if they were in their regularly scheduled classes, even when teachers
While real-time class time is often most familiar and preferred, it’s not always realistic given home circumstances. Rather than thinking about learning as something that always has to happen together in a classroom or even “together” online, virtual learning provides us with a wonderful opportunity
Have you read part I? You can check out Why We Need to Keep it Real with PBL here. The idea behind my two books on project-based learning, Keep It Real With PBL, was to hunker down in the trenches with the teachers who tackle the
People often ask me what the inspiration was behind the title of my two books on Project-based Learning: Keeping it Real with PBL. At the risk of trying to sound too hip, I believed the message at its core was essential. And I was committed
You may have seen the phrase “unapologetically me” across social media recently-these viral buzz words refer to a bold characteristic that is celebrated for being careless or perhaps unempathetic to what others may think or feel. Now when I say “PBL makes me unapologetic” I’m
I walked into a classroom and noticed an Albert Einstein poster on the wall. This wasn’t a particularly unique poster. It showed a headshot of Albert Einstein with the quote, “imagination is more important than knowledge.” I have seen this poster countless times, but on this