Important changes are taking place in all areas of society, and education cannot ignore these changes. These projects value the ability to solve problems, be creative, innovate, make decisions, work in teams, and a long list of other things that have little to do with knowing facts, dates, and other meaningless content for students.
What do we want to teach?
As teachers, we must carefully select content when designing a generative project or topic. It must be motivating, comprehensive, and connect with previous learning experiences, and, above all, be related to situations in students' everyday lives—something relatable.
Clearly, carefully selecting the content to work on is key, but it wouldn't make much sense to work on the content if we don't know what we really want students to develop, what competencies (learning to learn, initiative, communication in different languages, math and science, cultural expression, etc.), or what thinking skills we want them to acquire through that content.
How do we want to teach it?
The "how" is the part where students must put into practice everything we have previously designed. We moved from simple activities that only measured content to performances (activities that involve thinking). We were able to propose scenarios in which students were the ones who had to think and put their knowledge into practice in different contexts to advance in their learning process.
Project-Based Learning
When we talk about developing thinking skills, we may also be plagued by a question: How can I, as a teacher, know what my student is thinking and whether they are acquiring the thinking skills I have set out to develop? A culture of thinking is generated. This makes thinking visible, helping students become aware of it and, in turn, becoming a tool for teachers to assess their students' progress in the skills they develop.
To address diversity and taking into account multiple intelligences, this project ensures that the desired information reaches students through different channels, fostering their strongest intelligences and helping them develop their weakest ones.
Assessment consists of judging and grading something; assessment, on the other hand, evaluates something and offers feedback and suggestions for improvement, so that the student themselves can establish improvement plans and thus become aware of the areas in which they need to improve (they must be the protagonists of their own learning).
In this process, I propose various tools, including self-assessment rubrics, which are very useful, as they make it clear to students what goals and understandings they need to achieve and allow them to compare their achievements and establish improvement plans. Furthermore, the proposed teamwork is motivating and encourages creativity and reflection.
This project is so interesting. You are a crack!
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