Towards Project Based Learning - The Long and Winding Road

Bringing down walls

I went on an Academy Principals trip last week, visiting Academys around the M25.    In one of the Academys the Principal, gave us a tour and told us how bad the building was and how many extra walls she had to ask the builders to put up as the building neared completion.   Maybe I'm naive, but if we put up walls to stop student movement or reduce noise, we are giving a subliminal message to the students:  We don't trust you to walk around this building in an appropriate way and we certainly don't trust you not to disturb others.  

If we are to instill good habits of learning in our students we should give them the chance to aspire to behaving appropriately and be there to pick them up when they are struggling to do this.   Just another job for the teacher I believe.

Issues Part 5 - Seminars

Seminars should cover the difficult concepts in subject areas and also allow the student an opportunity to explore topics at a deeper level with a teacher.    Some of these should be mandatory attendance, but some should have an element of choice.  

 

At present seminars tend to focus too much on just Maths and English and tend to be very instructional.   This is fine if the seminars are synchronised roughly with the work students are doing, but it is missing out on opportunities to explore the wider richness of the driving question the students are focussing on.   It is fine to have instructional seminars if the quality of facilitation in focus sessions and tutorials is such that students have opportunities to discuss or analyse things in a wider context.

 

A possible solution to the above issues might be to divide our seminars into three types:

• Compulsory seminars.   All students would do these seminars at the same time.   (When we timetable for next year if students are doing different projects we would have to synchronise the times of this type of seminar).   These Seminars could be taught in the normal Sets and differentiated in the normal way.  If the seminar is shorter than 50 mins then students continue with focus time activities
• Optional seminars.   Some students will be directed to go to these.   Others may be given the option, but only if the Learning Facilitator agrees.   Normally at least someone from the team needs to go.   These seminars are an opportunity to delve deeper into the subject and discuss the subject matter/issues more fully.   During these seminars, it will be helpful to have bigger classrooms in operation to allow larger groups working in focus sessions.
• Enrichment seminars.  These seminars are voluntary, giving the students the opportunity to develop their projects further.   Again we will have to timetable focus sessions on at these times in big classrooms.   These seminars would be more sporadic in terms of frequency.  

Issues Part 4 - Tutorial Sessions

Tutorial sessions

Tutorial time is time put aside to allow Learning Facilitators (tutors) time to meet with individual students or teams in their Learning families.    This is taking place, but it is infrequent.   The original plan was to have two Facilitators timetabled at the same time.   Between them they would have approx 28 students.   These students would be distributed between the other focus sessions 9there are 8 groups on at any one time.   The two facilitators would then see their students individually; perhaps four or five during a 50min session.    Facilitators have two sessions per week in which to carry this out.

In reality we have a number of issues and questions raised:

• Only one facilitator at a time is seeing students while the other takes the whole group.   In other words groups are not being distributed.   The most likely reason for this is the setting arrangements. 
• The quality of these sessions will vary due to some facilitators not being timetabled enough on the PBL programme, therefore becoming out of touch with day to day progression
• As sets change, as a Learning Facilitator it is difficult to meet with/keep up with student progress in your Learning Family
• To what extent are students having the opportunity to discuss their learning?

If we are to resolve these issues we must consider the following:

• Creating more time for Facilitators to meet with students.
• Only two tutorial sessions (both from the same joint Learning family) should take place at the same time.   The rest of the group will be distributed between the other focus activity groups, therefore we will need to timetable focus groups in big classrooms.  
• Facilitators need to be timetabled for at least half their load on the PBL programme
• Consider the possibility of creating Academic Learning Facilitators who have responsibility for tutoring a group which is set.   This group may change as sets change.   (Pastoral Learning Facilitators would be separate from this and have independent Learning Families).
• During tutor time the following should be considered with the student:
  • Understanding of project; overall expectations and driving question.
  • To what extent is project plan on schedule (is their a plan in the first place?)
  • What has prevented student from achieving milestones in project and associated products?
  • What is the quality of work produced?
  • To what extent is the student organised?  Do they know what they are going to do next?  
  • To what extent is the student recording the development of good habits of learning (how aware are they of this?)?

The nature and length of tutorials will vary according to the graduation stage of the student. 

 

At the risk of the joke becoming boring - my wife is out collecting my daughter from Guides.  

Issues Part 3 - Focus sessions

Focus Sessions

Focus sessions are time put aside to allow students to plan, carry out research, work on and reflect on their projects.   At present we appear to setting dead lines for students to complete certain tasks in each focus session.   This is fine at the first graduation stage (Asteroid), but we appear to have fallen into creating very task driven projects that end up losing site of the driving question and supplementary questions which support it.   The students become less analytical and less reflective, focusing on completing a task at all cost, resulting in the driving question not being at the centre of everyone’s attention especially the Facilitators

The question this begs is the extent to which Facilitators are aware of how important it is to draw the students back to this question; to what extent does the work the students are carrying out at any given time, take them a step closer to answering the question?

 

The role of the facilitator during focus sessions is crucial.   At present the teachers involved tend to view the sessions in the traditional sense, in that the students arrive at their class.  The expectation is that the students will be working on roughly the same things and a traditional lesson plan can be prepared for the session.   This perception by the teachers has been difficult to dispel.   It is safer and easier for the teachers to have their students nicely controled in "boxes", doing what is expected of them.   Allowing students the freedom to work at their own pace with perhaps 5 or more different tasks or activities taking place is taking the secondary teacher out of their comfort zone.    

 

Facilitators of Focus sessions should:

• Be aware of the project and it's milestones and products
• Be prepared to have students workign at different rates
• know where to access information to help students
• At the beginning or during a session remind students of the driving question (similar to returning to objectives).
• Systematically work with teams or individuals in order to check quality, progress and understanding.
• Keeping track of progress so that the next teacher taking over is aware of progress.

Perhaps at the Asteroid stage we need to be getting the students into good habits by being driven less by the content.   We could lengthen the project and be more didactic in our approach so that in addition to seminars and individual tutorials,  students have to do the following at set times during some focus sessions:

·        to reflect individually on  progress (in terms of literacy or numeracy attainment and developing good habits of learning)

·        share progress with each other – how close are they to answering the driving question? 

·        Draw out and discuss supplementary questions or new concepts that arise during the project

·        Review plan and revise if necessary

 

Obviously students will still require time to actually produce products for their projects, and carry out research and team organisation, but the above points need to be included on a regular basis.   It is especially important that the driving question is returned to frequently so that students (and facilitators) don’t lose site of this.  

 

My wife is on the phone to someone - probably another man

Issues part 2 - Use of ICT

Use of ICT

All our students in Year 7 have netbooks for use in school (we are currently looking at a lease scheme to offer our parents), but we should be exploiting the potential of ICT more fully.   Obviously there are training issues here and some of the possibilities listed below will need to form part of an ICT development plan.  

The list can be endless, but  below are some possible ways we can use ICT:

• Projects on the VLE (we use Fronter) – work could also be handed in via Fronter.   Students on higher graduation stages can be monitored more easily.   
• e-portfolios for students to record and monitor progress.   Could be linked to graduations stages and easily monitored if students become accustomed to tagging
• Blogging linked to their e-portfolio again very useful if students use tagging technology
• Seminar booking system allows an element of choice for some seminars
• Audio and visual technology for communication,/presentation purposes

We are a bit behind with our development of ICT, but we have recently appointed an excellent thinker in this area who I'm sure will contribute to this page in the near future.

 

My wife is putting our youngest one to bed.  

Issues Part 1 - Project planning

Project Planning

To some extent there is a sequence to the order we plan projects

Overall planning:

·        What are the essential driving questions we want to cover?  

·        Will these driving questions cover the identified concepts we want to cover?

·        What are the key concepts for the year we want to cover?   Literacy and Numeracy first, followed by other subjects

·        What additional driving questions do we need to ensure we cover all the concepts?   Or do we need to tweak those we have?

·        What habits of learning will we focus on in each project?

·        What are the assessment opportunities?

·        What resources?

·        How can we differentiate these?

 

How we brief staff

• The more staff are involved in the planning the better.   At present staff don’t have enough ownership of the projects which are too complex to assume you can walk in and “wing it”.
• Staff need to be clear on milestones and products.  It is the Tutors responsibility to follow up any student who does not achieve the milestone.  
• The driving question should be explored by all staff taking part in delivering the project

How we brief students

• At the beginning of a project, students should be given the opportunity to explore the driving question.   Mind maps are the ideal way to do this.   When ideas for the direction of the project are given by students, the skilled facilitator will be able to guide (manipulate dare I say) the students towards the desired direction.
• Milestones and Products should be given out (or developed collectively, depending on graduation stage
• Teams formed
• Students should be given the opportunity to plan their projects (depending on graduation stage)

My wife is currently making jellies for party tomorrow

How have we timetabled PBL

As mentioned The Year 7 PBL programme we have begun this year is the first year of a programme which will develop in every Year group in the Academy.   Currently 72% of the curriculum for Year 7 is PBL, 9% PE, 7% Languages and 12% Enrichment.  

The Enrichment time is made up of 2 100 sessions per week where the students on rotation participate in programmes of study which cover some of the more practical traditional subject areas, such as: Science, Technology, Music, Drama, Art, ICT.   This is an opportunity for the students to gain more practical experience in these areas.   there is an element of choice for the students as they progress through the year.  

Languages and PE are discrete because we felt they would not appear often enough in projects with out making the projects too contrived.  

For the remaining 72% of the time the students work on either a Literacy or Numeracy project.   Personal Learning Facilitators usually begin the day with their "Learning Family".   This is where they ensure the students know what they are doing, organise them into teams if necessary and generally set them on their way.   For the rest of the day students either:

• Spend time in "focus groups" where the  work in their teams, either researching, carrying out work on their project, developing ideas with a facilitator (teacher) or blogging (reflecting on their work).   This time is staffed by a variety of teachers and learning support assistants, sometimes in large rooms where two classes can be combined into one.
• Attend an individual or team tutorial with their Personal Learning Facilitator. 

• Attend a seminar, where they learn "difficult concepts" which will help them with their projects.  (I heard read a good quote somewhere - I think on the Edutopia site -, which stated: "Why do we teach maths first then engineering?  It should be the other way around; develop a need for maths through teaching engineering.").   These are usually staffed by maths and English teachers, who sometimes relieve other teachers to deliver  an area of expertise.

Our day for the rest of the Academy is split up into three 100 learning blocks plus a 40min Learning Family time at the end of the day.   On a Thursday we also have an enrichment session at the nd of the day where students do a variety of activities, from pottery to board games, to archery.   On a Friday there is no Learning Family time and they go home early.  

Enough for now.   Next time I'll describe some of the issues we've had since beginning the programme.

My wife is baby sitting next door, for those who want to know.  

Learning in phases

My wife doesn't mind me writing if I give her a mention . . . tonight she is at a book group.

Okay with that out the way, I can continue my seemingly sad life, by writing about our phased curriculum structure in the Academy.  

If you don't want to read my rambling intro, please go to the "point" from the 3rd paragraph below.

At the moment, in an inner city school such as ours, a large minority, possibly majority, don't access the curriculum effectively enough.   The government has set a bench mark of 30% 5 A - Cs including English and Maths.   I guess it's pretty fair to say that if 70% of the students are not gaining an A - C in Maths or English (a level 2 qualification), then they will not have really accessed the richness or depth different subjects offer.    We would love to aim for at least 80% of our students gaining English and Maths Grade C.    I think this is possible, but to do it we to accept that until the students are ready to fully access discrete disciplines/subjects, they need to develop good English/literacy and Maths/numeracy skills and develop really good habits of learning.  

Before I go on further let me take time to boast a little - This Year I'm pleased to say we doubled the results of the predecessor school going from 30% to 62% A - Cs and from 19% to 35% with English and maths.   Quite a jump in one year.   It has encouraged the community to believe in us (our admission figures have shot up)  and the government are our best friends.    But it's still 65% without English or Maths and of those who have succeeded, how many have the aspirations and wherewithal to really flourish in life; especially when we have systematically worked with many students, spoon-feeding where necessary to ensure they achieved their targets?    I don't mean to demean the effort of our students, it is our fault that we have not given them the opportunity earlier on in their education to become more independent learners.   The secondary model of education really does seem to create a dependency culture in our students, when it comes to learning.   This has not been helped by the pressure on us through league tables and OFSTED

And now to the point

This is why we have introduced PBL to our Year 7s and more specifically only Literacy and Numeracy projects (along with discrete PE and languages).   It allows us to focus on what matters and enable students to access the curriculum in a more effective way later on.

Phase 1 - The students begin in Year 7 at this phase.   and do not move onto the next phase until they have achieved a Level 1 (grade D equivalent) qualification in English and Maths and exhibit good habits of learning (will talk about htis in another blog).   The students follow the PBL Literacy and numeracy programmes.   When they have attained Level 1 they will be ready to move to

Transition 1 -This is a half a year programme which gives the students the opportunity to sample discrete subject taster programmes in order to enable them to make informed choices for Phase 2.   They will also continue to study maths and English and take part in an extended project.   The aim is to re-timetable the whole school twice a year.   This meeans some students by Feruary Year 8 will be ready to progress to the transition stage.   There will also be some Year 9 and 10s.  

Phase 2 - At this phase the sttudents (now working in mixed age groups) will begin the more traditional GCSE, BTEC and new Diploma programmes of study.   We still intend to teach these in a PBL fashion.   By now the student should have t he necessary literacy and numeracy skills to easily access the curriculum.   And hopefully gain their Level 2 qualifications, especially in English and Maths.   For those students who have struggled with mainstream education we will have alternative pathways from Year 10.  

Transition 2 -At this stage some students from Year 10 and some in Year 11 will begin a half year transition to Phase 3 course.   This is much needed where the gap between GCSE and A Level is a shock to most students.   This stage will involve taster programmes and study skills.   It is hoped that by doing this we will also reduce drop out rates at this level

Phase 3 - This involves Level three qualifications.

Will it work?   Will we achieve 80% 5 A - Cs including English and maths?   Come back in 5 Years and find out (providing I'm still in a job and not run out of town).  

11.00pm and my wife is still not back from her book group - must be a dead interesting book, or is it my turn to be suspicious?

A year on . . .

Okay a whole year has passed and I know I haven't been very good at keeping up to date, but I have been busy - honest. 

A quick update - We have now launched our PBL curriculum in Year 7.   Their whole curriculum is PBL apart from discrete PE and Languages.  The students work on two projects; a literacy one and a numeracy one.   Each project lasts roughly 3 - 4 weeks.    I appointed two excellent Assistant Heads who are responsible for literacy and numeracy.   Their job is to lead the development of projects with the aim of creating maths and English projects in which the students don't realise they are doing maths and English.   The emphasis is on developing good habits of learning and excellent literacy & numeracy skills.   It seems to be working, but we have a long way to go to really see it becoming effective. 

The following link is a presentation which summarises the rationale and philosophy underpinning what we are aiming to do in the Academy.   It is important to note that we apply the same philosophy to our curriculum as we do to our ethos/behaviour management as we do to our staff development.   Download Schools of tomorrow for the students of today

For my own organisation rather than your reading pleasure: below is a list of topics I intend to cover over the coming week:

• A new way to organise the whole curriculum "Phase Learning"
• How PBL is timetabled
• A review of PBL at the Academy to date - some of the issues we have encountered
• Staff development

• Use of technology

Now if I manage to do all of these topics, will someone please explain to my wife why I'm spending all this extra time shut away in a room on the computer.   She's beginning to get suspicious. 

When is a Georaphy teacher not a Geography teacher

I was going to start talking about what we're doing to in preparation for our new curriculum in September, but I had an interesting experience this week which I'd like to explore. 

I was invited into a school earlier this week to talk to the staff about PBL and the proposed curriculum changes we are going to make at my school.   I only had 30 mins including questions so it was difficult to really get the rationale across.   People often want to skip the philosophy and rationale and go straight to the systems and structure.   Anyway, at the end I was given a real dressing down by a Geography teacher who accused me of dumbing down Geography and the rest of the curriculum.   He went on to tell me that he had a Geography degree, his teachers qualification was to teach Geography and that he had taught Geography for X years. 

This raises a number of points:

• This is a different world to the one we knew and loved 20 years ago, in fact 5 Years ago for that matter.   Alvin Toffler wrote about Future Shock back in the sixties (I think), warning that our minds would wake up one day and suddenly realise that they're not coping with the rapid changes the world is going through.  In the last 5 - 7 years the world has changed beyond recognition and yet on a day to day basis most of us (including myself) don't notice it (do we subconsciously choose to ignore it or are our past interpretations of the worlds too ingrained in our psyche?   Have you read "The World is Flat" by T L Friedman?   Or have you watched "Shift Happens" (You'll find it on You Tube).   After reading or watching these you'll be in no doubt that we have to radically change schools.   It's often quoted that unlike every other organisation or institution, schools have remained largely unchanged in the last 50 - 100 years.   As educators we are ignoring our duty to prepare young people to flourish in society.   Teaching discrete subjects and focusing on the acquisition of subject knowledge is more or less irrelevant and pointless in an information driven, plugged in society.   And much as I applaud the moves QCA (British Government qualifications body responsible for the National Curriculum) is trying to make in reducing the National Curriculum and introducing requirements to develop certain skills in young people, it is no where near enough.   
• The Geography teacher is a victim of our inability to move forward as a profession.   I tried to explain to the teacher that our professionalism should come from our understanding and application of pedagogical theory, not in how much of an expert he is in the field of Geography.   If I wanted to employ experts, I'd employ a nuclear physicist rather than a Science teacher.   Why aren't the teacher training organisations and the General Teaching Council drumming this into all of us and all the trainee teachers??   That change in emphasis (subtle as it is) would have massive and beneficial effects on the teaching profession.   Unfortunately almost every newly qualified teacher I interview wants to talk about their subject expertise and their ability to teach at higher levels rather.    Obviously Primary teachers don't have the same problem or at least not as much.   My daughter who is in Year 6 has had English Maths and Science rammed down her throat at her school for the past twelve months in preparation for her SATs in a couple of months.   She has separate Maths, English and Science teachers.   (Stop me from going down this path - I'll have a rant about that in another post).    Teachers should have a subject area of expertise; it is important that we are able to pass on the richness in our world as accurately as research tells us.   There are times when we can and should become an extra "learning tool" for our students, but in todays world where information is the main currency, it is vital that we become facilitators of learning primarily.   (I don't think I've said that strongly enough!)
• Finally, I certainly don't think I can be accused of dumbing down the curriculum.   Realigning it maybe, but certainly not making it any less rich.   The curriculum we intend to introduce will still have high expectations and will certainly produce high attainers.   And as for Geography - well find me a project that doesn't require some geographical understanding.   

The school I visited are making real moves to change their curriculum.   The majority want the change, I wish them all the best in driving forward.   It's certainly out of the comfort zone and a lot don't like that, but it will be worth it in the end - I'm sure of it.