PBL: Where Rigor Meets Relevance

Learning by doing is more than an idea — it's key to fostering creativity and critical thinking. 

DR. JEN GOWERS
Instructional Specialist

I wasn’t surprised two years ago when my daughter, Glory, then only 4 years old, came home saying she had spent the afternoon with other classmates advocating to her principal for more preschool-sized equipment in their elementary school playground. (In fact, she had come home the week prior with a clipboard and a picture of Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, telling me we needed to collect public signatures to advocate for change in representation.) Why was it that her preschool experience was so remarkably rigorous, real-world, and relevant? Because her teacher (and her whole school) believes in project-based learning.
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Almost a decade ago, I had the great pleasure of being a founding leader at a charter school in the Bronx. We established the school on a foundation of project-based learning. Every course would have, at minimum, a Fall and Spring opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning in rigorous, real-world, relevant ways. Teachers and students created projects beyond our wildest imaginations. Aliyah had editors from Penguin/Random House present in person, critiquing 9th grade writing and speaking with them on a panel. Amrita had students visit a farm to discuss genetically engineered food, then invited the farmers to sit in on students’ socratic seminars and evaluate how robustly they understood the biology behind it.

​Students would talk about their work, their classes, their ideas in the hallways, outside of school, and probably for years to come. Projects stay with students and imbue their brains with powerful experiences of having demonstrated learning in engaging and elevated ways.

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PBL in policy and practice

Now, I know that project-based learning brings out a range of reactions in educators, from wide smiles to furrowed brows. Folks argue that it’s too fluffy, or there isn’t time for it alongside the needed curricula, or it isn’t a reasonable, realistic lift with everything else to accomplish. But I would like to argue just the opposite: that PBL is rigorous, real-world, relevant (and doable!) learning. And we have innovative scholars, robust organizations, and even state education departments that agree. 

In the early 1900s, John Dewey advocated for learning by doing, saying that we need to give students “something to do, not something to learn” because “the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” His constructivist approach resonates today as we facilitate students grappling with real-world dilemmas and promote their active engagement, learning from each other, and reflection on experiential learning.

​For the last 30 years, PBLWorks (The Buck Institute for Education) has promoted and supported learning by doing via high-quality project-based learning as a transformational experience for young people. Project-based learning is “deep, long-lasting, and relevant to the challenges of their lives.” To distinguish between “dessert projects” and robust PBL, these good folks have been kind enough to create seven essential project design elements (sustained inquiry, authenticity, student voice and choice, a challenging problem or question, a public project, critique and revision, and reflection) and seven project-based teaching practices (design and plan, alignment to standards, build the culture, manage activities, scaffold student learning, engage and coach, and assess student learning). PBLWorks provides a range of free tools and a range of quality workshops to support PBL in schools. 

Most recently, in 2024, the New York State Board of Regents noted it is moving toward expansive new ways to demonstrate learning, as shown by transformational shifts in demonstrating learning through their portrait of a graduate. One way students can show mastery in a subject area is through a project or presentation, in lieu of completing an exam. ​ 

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Student perspectives on PBL

These three thoughts alone — Dewey’s timeless theory that learning by doing is the best way to learn; the accessible, high-quality tools that PBLWorks provides to make it possible for any school or classroom to enact exceptional project-based learning; and the knowledge that policymakers are moving toward opening up graduation requirements to be met with projects and presentations demonstrate how rich and robust and real project-based learning can be.

​It’s beyond time to make it part of everyone’s experience. 

But don’t take my word for it. Young people are those most impacted by school and learning, and listening to them is the best way to know what’s working and what’s in need of adjustment.

​Reflecting on project-based learning in their schools, Tanique, a then-high school student, said, “these are the things that are going to change people’s ways of thinking, teaching people to think out of the box and into real life.” Tiffany, a then-high school student, said, “we have to change the way certain things are taught. Doing things differently puts the joy back in education.” And Glory, my now-first grader, says, “school is where we learn how to make good changes.” May it be so for every young person. Consider the impact of incorporating PBL for increased authentic, uplifting, meaningful learning in your school.