Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning

by John Larmer, John Mergendoller, Suzie Boss

Project based Learning (PBL) is gaining renewed attention with the current focus on college and career readiness and the performance-based emphases of Common Core Standards, but only high-quality versions can deliver the beneficial outcomes that schools want for their students. It's not enough to just "do projects." Today's projects need to be rigorous, engaging, and in-depth, and they need to have student voice and choice built in. Such projects require careful planning and pedagogical skill. The authors -- leaders at the respected Buck Institute for Education -- take readers through the step-by-step process of how to create, implement, and assess PBL using a classroom-tested framework.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Teachers, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2015

Reviews

[Temple · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a tough slog. My purpose for reading the book is that I want to implement PBL next year in my classroom. It did give an overview of PBL that briefly touched upon major components. Many broad generalities, few specifics. I wanted more examples to bring these abstract ideas to life. I liked their discussion of common mistakes. They clearly are experts on PBL. However it was very much an aerial view of this philosophy and I wanted something that would help me know where to start on day one. There were some case studies in the appendix, but these were also very brief. I found their website pblu.org (or .com?) more helpful because there were detailed lesson plans. As a newbie I need that level of support.

[Dave Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I anticipate this will be a great resource for me when I make my first foray into project-based learning. The early chapters do a quality job of describing what PBL is, as well as giving the theoretical and concrete reasons for embracing it. The middle chapters painstakingly lay out steps for designing and managing a project. Its lengthy appendix includes brief looks at numerous projects that have already been successfully executed. My only reservations about the book are that it contains too few artifacts of what assignments or handouts might look like and that it's strictly focused on K-12 education (not including higher ed). But I realize no one book can do everything. Strongly recommend.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for work and am leading a book club with it. It was a to the point read - not overly wordy - and good information for anyone teaching.

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most ACSD releases, John Larmer’s Setting The Standard for Project Based Learning takes an exhaustingly wordy and over-explained view of a concept that is relatively simple to understand and could be explained using less irrelevant information, less anecdotal information, and more examples and explorations into making it work.

The book has a few main portions – one is the exploration of what Project Based Learning is, and how to implement it in your classroom. Overall, a very helpful and reasonable approach to building units and courses around final projects that intend on students to collaborate and release into the world. The teacher is no longer the “sage on the stage” but rather the “guide on the side.” The buy in to a project like this, incorporating as many community members as possible into the execution of the work, is something that I have strived to do in my time in the classroom.

The other portions of the book involve showing anecdotal examples, in heavy summary, about places where entire schools have implemented it. Unnecessary, and unfortunately for any example, just one example. In fact I was surprised to read that this project based learning can be side loaded with all of the other initiatives that schools are rolling out all at the same time (such as Response to Intervention), and just reading about schools doing this was not only exhausting, but I know that the schools doing this sort of thing are doing all of the stuff at once very poorly and dictating to the professional educators they employ what they should be doing, rather than doing one thing really well and listening.

Finally, the last chapter of the book offers a lot of example units and execution strategies, as well as a wealth of outside resources that are helpful to professionals moving toward implementing this Project Based Learning strategy. I thought this was a very helpful part of the book.

I dislike when books like this explore something that could be summarized in a pamphlet – but unlike some of the other ones in the past, I see Lerner’s work here to be informative. He does include a lot of things in the book that are completely unnecessary, but the material is helpful... If administrators learned to support rather than micromanage their professionals in implementing this, and only implementing one thing at a time, I could see great success in the rollout of PBL in just about any community it is introduced to. Student leadership and ownership is crucial to success in the classroom, and in bringing the work done in the classroom out into the real world, collaboration and growth while hitting the frameworks of whatever subjects they are doing the work for would be inevitable.

[Sing Yee]

I read this book while I am practicing PBL in the classroom. So this book is also a book for me to pause and reflect whether I can do something better out of the course. Before I read into detail, I was quite anticipating what "Managing a Project" will tell me about. And the book did not fail me as it provided me some thoughts that I never came across, for example, there are plenty of activities in the "conducting an entry event" which could be useful for students. However, I still hope to get more answer in the "Scaffolding Student Learning", perhaps the author can provide more real examples. As PBL is very student-oriented, scaffolding and giving help to students become one of the most crucial parts in the implementation part. Overall, it is still a great book for PBL startup.

[Chanda Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It's not enough to just "do projects." Today's projects need to be rigorous, engaging, and in-depth, and they need to have student voice and choice built in.”

This was really informative, relevant, and helpful in regards to understanding the difference between projects and project-based learning. For librarians, educators, or anyone else working in education or with kids, this could be really beneficial. My argument with these types of ideas is that it creates a lot of pressure on teachers, who already lack support, compensation, respect, and time in their careers, and that’s just something I can’t overlook. We can train teachers to be innovative, progressive, and enlightened, but what they really need is support, advocation, adequate compensation, and respect.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information for someone (like me) new to PBL. Provides the framework. Broad strokes; no focus on any one grade or subject, so while informative about the basics, contains little instruction on practical application. Many good resources provided for further reading, though some of the URLs are out of date.

[Ms. C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information for someone (like me) new to PBL. Provides the framework. Broad strokes; no focus on any one grade or subject, so while informative about the basics, contains little instruction on practical application. Many good resources provided for further reading, though some of the URLs are out of date.

[Raisa Choudhury · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is great guide on the research and implementation of Project-Based Learning. It breaks down the steps on how to implement and monitor the success of Project-Based Learning in classrooms, and outlines the issues faced by teachers and students in embracing PBL.

[Jessica Swanson carcerano-wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have never done any PBL this would be a great starting resource. I felt that although there were some helpful take aways, they spent too much time on the “why” you should implement more PBLs that the “how”. There are some examples in the appendix but I would have liked more.

[Peggy Petronio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for teachers interested in beginning concepts in PBL. Some decent resources mentioned.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great professional development book on setting the standards and high expectations for project based learning.

[Jessica Hearne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book on PBL. I thought the chapter on Management was particularly useful, especially for someone like me who is just getting started with it.

[Karan Johnstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for people who are on the fence about teaching PBL.

[Juliani · Rating 5 out of 5]

best

[Andria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped shore up my basic understanding of pbl and gave some depth to my knowledge. Liked the practical project examples and resources for each element of a project.

[Brooke Keefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting ready for my summer class! Enjoyed learning about the different components of PBL. Looking forward to learning more next week!

[Gabriela Hutchinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

made PBL more confusing rather than enlightening.

[Richard Grebenc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am quite new to PBL, having done a sort of hybrid version of it the past year. I have had the book for a year or more and thought I would work through it in preparation for the upcoming academic year.

The authors do a fine job of covering Gold Standard PBL at a high level in an easily understandable way with lots of examples. They are certainly cheerleaders for PBL but do not shy away from talking about challenges to acceptance and implementation. Chapters on "Leading a PBL Implementation Effort" and "PBL in Informal Education and Summer Programs" were welcome, even for someone like me who is doing neither, to appreciate the challenges and possibilities of PBL An appendix with a bunch of projects for different grade levels and disciplines is helpful to understand possibilities and generate ideas.

It loses a star because it could use better charts. Also, more and better sample worksheets would be helpful. Components and steps to processes and procedures are much better served in table form. Also, referring to websites throughout using full URLs is fine, but there should be an appendix that lists them all as well. For more information referred to that can be found on the bie.org site (now pblworks.org), they would have been much better served setting up that site so that the info referred to is plain to someone accessing the site. (I see pblworks does have a Projects & Resources menu item that seems to be of value.)

Recommended for those unfamiliar with PBL or getting in on the ground floor. But if one is moving forward with PBL other resources will be needed.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(A work-related book.)

[Tyler Shafer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this a bit in spurts and was able to focus my attention on it the last few weeks. Project-based learning is an approach to teaching and learning that is meant to increase student voice and choice and to enhance their opportunity to engage in relevant, real-world learning and problem solving. This book outlines, clearly and relatively concisely, “Gold Standard” PBL, an approach developed by the Buck Institute for Education. The book provides just what it should (and what it advertises): a framework for why this approach is both needed and effective, and how one should going about implementing the approach in a manner that will be more beneficial to school stakeholders. It will be a valuable resource for my school moving forward.

[Caitlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall impression: Very informative; a highly organized and thought-provoking book seeking to determine and describe the ideal for teaching through project-based methods in the 21st Century classroom.

Strengths: Digestable rhetoric (it's easy to read), well organized, honest about strengths AND weaknesses of classroom practice.

Weaknesses: Does not include any input from other writers who have written on PBL; does not offer sufficient wisdom for implementation of "gold-standard PBL" in the area of Secondary English/Language Arts (which is of particular concern to me given that I teach English/Language Arts to a heavily tested grade: 8th).

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great starting point into the world of PBL. I love the foundation of the gold star PBL. It walks you through introducing a project, managing a project, research behind PBL, building and district rollout, and brief sample examples. I had a prior understanding of PBL, but this book will be a springboard into deeper exploration. Their site, BIE.org, has a plethora of resources to support your journey.

[Karen Arnesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as an introduction to project-based learning and got just what I wanted. The authors describe the history, rational, research, and process of project-based learning. The process is described in detail, and the book includes links to resources and instructions. The end of the book includes a description of different projects that teachers have used in their classrooms. A clever teacher could use this book to start his or her own projects in the classroom.
I am drawn to this type of teaching. I'd like to see a classroom that uses this type of instruction.