Teaching Today: Projects, Policy, and School Change

In this episode
Project-based learning isn’t just a vocabulary term or a buzzword — it’s a way of approaching the entire process of teaching and learning. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Liza Bearman, who serves as the Director of the Wildwood Institute for Social Leadership at Wildwood School in Los Angeles, CA, about how students at Wildwood (referred to as members) develop and execute real life projects in response to community needs. 

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Final thoughts
What advice would you offer to a teacher or school leader who is looking to introduce project-based learning to their students? 

Dr. Cristina Romeo Compton
Center for Professional Education of Teachers
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Project-based learning is about connecting with your teaching and your students — understanding what kind of learning experiences you want them to have, which topics they're curious about, and how you can use that curiosity to motivate and inspire them in the classroom. Are you feeling bored or disengaged with what you're teaching? Start there, addressing and revising the content that's causing these feelings to surface. Chances are, if you're feeling disengaged with your content, your students are, too. 
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Dr. Liza Bearman
Wildwood School; Los Angeles, CA

Start with your students. Listen to them, ask them what they care about, ask them what they are curious about. If they had a choice, how they would go about answering big questions that they have about themselves, about the world around them, about the structures of their school or community? These questions can help create a starting point for your next steps.

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Dr. Sherrish Holloman
Center for Professional Education of Teachers
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Teach from a place of strength and student interest. If we can identify the things that our students do well, that can create a good entrypoint for our instruction. Students will be more open to the collaborative nature of project-based learning if they're invested in the topic, and can capitalize on the strengths they already possess. 

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INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS

PROJECT-BASED WRITING INSTRUCTION

PUTTING PROBLEMS INTO PRACTICE

TAGS: PROJECT-BASED LEARNING, TEACHING TODAY