Students Thrive on Cooperation and Problem Solving

The article emphasizes that learning- and schooling-must be totally transformed. 21st century students need to be critical thinkers, problems solvers, effective communicators and great collaborators. The increasingly globalized world with the new work environment also requires technology literary skills, life skills, as well as interpersonal and project- management skills that demand teamwork and leadership.
The article says that project base learning prepares today's students as successful citizens and workers as it teaches kids the collaborative and critical thinking skills they will need to compete.
The fundamentals of PBL are four fold:-
1. Create teams of three or more students to work on an in-depth project for three to eight weeks.
2. Introduce a complex entry question that establishes a student's need to know, and scaffold the project with activities and new information that deepens the work.
3. Calender the project through plans, drafts, timely benchmarks, and finally the team's presentation to an outside panel of experts drawn from parents and the community.
4. Provide timely assessments and/or feedback on the projects for content, oral and written communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and other important skills.
The "New Technology high school" in Napa, California is a thoroughly PBL school. This school's strategy is simple.
1. To learn collaboration, work in teams.
2. To learn critical thinking, take on complex problems.
3. To learn oral communication, present.
4. To learn written communication, present.
5. To learn technology, use technology.
6. To develop citizenship, take on civic and global issues.
7. To learn about careers, do internships.
8. To learn content, research and do all of the above.
The article also explains that project and problem based learning doesn't work unless learners obtain feedback. The continuous feedback is critical in helping students become self-directed learners. In the best PBL classrooms, students see the rubrics when they start the project and use them to self-evaluate their work in progress and direct their own learning.
Today's students need a lot more than core academic subjects. So give your students real world projects and then give them feedback on all the skills essential in this century. Also provide them workspace and technology tools to become successful citizens and knowledge workers.