Project-based learning is student-centered, around a real problem or series of themes, providing some key materials to build an environment in which students form their own teams and learn to learn by solving open-ended problems.
In the school curriculum system, when the project-based curriculum is not an embellishment, nor is it a subject platter, but through the development of the project-based learning curriculum, it can finally pry the change of students' learning style.
So, when a school decides to implement full-grade, full-curriculum, interdisciplinary project-based learning, what key nodes can be dredged to make the change happen smoothly and the vision be truly implemented?
If you want the project-based learning curriculum to be successfully implemented, it is fundamental to update the concept of teachers. School-based training can be carried out through two channels: training and reading, and a teacher project-based learning and training community can be built.
In the early stage of the implementation of the project-based curriculum, the school should first carry out the training activities of project-based learning among all teachers, and the training activities need to break the traditional way of lectures by trainers and teachers' listening, and adopt the method of "project-based learning" to involve all employees, so that teachers can experience how project-based learning is going on.
The training activities are divided into four stages: preparation, start, cooperation and summary.
In the preparatory stage, the trainers and teachers jointly design the activity plan and discuss the fun, challenge and novelty of the activity. At this stage, the trainer listens to the teacher's demands, and the "friendly" planning of the teacher in the cooperation with the teacher from its own professional point of view does not deviate from the training goal, and can play the teacher's initiative activity plan, which sets the tone for active participation in the development of the later training activities.
By participating in the design of training activities, teachers realize that task design can be difficult and require cooperation to complete, prompting every member of the group to participate. This is an important idea in the design of the project-based learning curriculum.
At the beginning, the trainer will guide the teacher, the teacher will jointly agree on the rules of the activity, and randomly divide the group to prepare for the cooperative completion of the activity task.
In the cooperation stage, the teachers in the group cooperate with each other to complete the task, the activity task is only the final goal, the process is open-ended, and the teacher feels the power of cooperative learning when exerting his own enthusiasm to solve the problem.
During the summary phase, the trainer guides each group to report the results of the activity separately, and guides the teacher to conduct a multi-faceted assessment from the aspects of activity objectives, cooperation process, task challenges, and problem-solving methods, and select the winning group.
It is more important to reiterate the intention of the activity design, sort out the entire training activity process, guide each teacher to reflect on their own classroom teaching, and summarize the project-based learning design framework.
In the "project-based learning" school-based training, only when the teacher becomes a "student" and experiences the birth, design, implementation, summary and reflection of the project-based curriculum, can the training play a role in simulating the whole process of project-based learning.
In addition, all staff should read and share related theoretical books closely behind.
If the "project-based learning" training model involved throughout the process allows teachers to know what they are, then reading sharing allows teachers to consciously remove the ideological obstacles to the development of project-based learning courses and achieve the goal of knowing why they are so.
After the co-reading list is selected, the academic committee of the school initiates the co-reading initiative, and each subject group proposes a number of co-reading themes according to the characteristics of the discipline and formulates a co-reading plan.
Each teacher first carries out a reading topic for a month of free and independent reading.
Subsequently, it entered the stage of co-reading and sharing, and the teachers of the subject group carried out four levels of co-reading and sharing activities for one month under the organization of the subject group leader.
The first level: repeat the ideas in the book in your own words
The first level of co-reading sharing is that the teacher personally freely chooses one of the several co-reading themes, refines the views in the book in the sharing meeting of the teachers of the whole subject group, and repeats the views in the book with his own words, expounds his understanding, and after personal sharing, other teachers add, question, and ask questions, clarify the views in the book in the full interaction, and reach a consensus.
Level 2: Give a project example to illustrate the theory
The second level of co-reading and sharing is randomly divided into several groups according to the subject group teachers, each group on the spot to select a lesson example about project-based learning prepared by the academic committee in advance, and then the group cooperates and communicates, using this example to explain which ideas in the book are used, how they are used, and why they are used.
After 30 minutes, each group took turns to report using the fish tank sharing method, and after each group sharing, they randomly raised the doubts that the group did not solve in the communication to other group members, and the group asked needed to answer on the spot. Brainstorming between groups, the United States and the United States.
Level 3: Use theory to design project examples
The third level of co-reading and sharing is the stage of theoretical guidance design. In advance, the academic committee formulates a number of project-based learning driving problems, and the subject group teachers are randomly divided into several groups, each group selects a driving problem, and the group cooperates to complete the design of the project-based learning curriculum for this driving problem.
The fourth level: expert comments, repeated revision
This is the highest level of co-reading and sharing, the project examples designed by the group need to be preached one by one at the expert diagnosis meeting, commented by experts, suggested by academic committees, and repeatedly revised after internalized reflection by teachers, forming a complete project-based learning example with theoretical support, feasible path and specific evaluation.
The spiraling four co-reading and sharing activities have prompted teachers to move from theory to design, and have helped teachers to use theory to guide design and do their homework for the next step of teaching practice.
After learning the relevant theories, the next step is to practice down-to-earth. The practice of the project-based learning course is a slow and gradual process, which has undergone three steps: micro-project testing, full-course project promotion, and large-scale project integration.
1. Micro-projects test the waters
The practice of the project-based learning curriculum should begin with teachers of each subject trying to carry out subject micro-project learning within their respective teaching disciplines. Micro-project learning is limited to students in this class and has a small scope of implementation. The project design process is linear, the design task content is relatively single, and it is easier for teachers to identify the core concepts of the project. The testing of micro-projects is the embryonic state of students' transformation of learning styles, and it is also the stage for teachers to sort out the elements of project-based learning and reshape the classroom concept.
The teaching content of "Understanding rmb" in first-grade mathematics is very life-like, driven by simulated shopping tasks, and it is a good learning path to design the "Little Shop" micro-project course to implement teaching. Before the implementation, mathematics teachers cooperated in the discussion to determine the following micro-project implementation methods, and the seminar process was a collective lesson preparation and project development process.
The "Little Shop" micro-project course sets up a combination of doubts and interests in the task section, each plate is deeply hidden in the corresponding mathematical knowledge, students continue to have a variety of questions in the completion of tasks, in the process of solving the problem consciously learn mathematical knowledge, experience the challenge of thinking, get the fun of thinking, but also learn how to learn in the project.
2. Promote the whole curriculum project
With the change of the amount of single-discipline micro-project learning, teachers and students have accumulated rich practical experience in project-based learning, students are full of interest in project-based learning, and teachers are full of confidence in the research and development of project-based learning courses. At this time, it is natural to implement interdisciplinary project-based learning throughout the grade.
The whole course project goes through the following steps:
First of all, based on the needs of education and teaching and academic conditions, led by the teachers of a certain discipline in the grade, the director of the grade department organizes the teachers of various disciplines to carry out collective teaching and research of the grade teachers, and jointly formulates the driving issues of the whole curriculum project.
Then, the teachers of each subject in each class work together to design the whole curriculum project around the driving issues, and submit it to the academic committee for consideration, adjustment and approval.
Finally, under the organization of the director of the department, the project is run by grade level, and the academic committee participates in the process evaluation and supervises the implementation of the whole curriculum project.
There are many traditional festivals in China, and the research and development of the whole curriculum project "Creating Class Festivals" can better bring children into a traditional cultural field - this project involves all subject teachers in the class, and the teachers of each subject are organized by the class teacher to carry out "whole classroom teaching and research" around the driving problem "how to create a class festival", and develop an interdisciplinary class whole curriculum project implementation plan.
The whole course project is regularly promoted in the whole classroom, the knowledge of different disciplines is logically and structurally integrated according to the project theme, and is related to the cognitive experience and external world of students, breaking the boundaries of disciplines, and extending with students' inquiry as the center, so that students are more likely to be stimulated by curiosity and curiosity, consciously build a knowledge network of different disciplines, and cultivate interdisciplinary thinking qualities.
3. Integration of large projects
The large project curriculum is interdisciplinary and cross-grade, and is suitable for school-wide implementation. Its difficulty in academic teaching and research, integrated design, and organizational operation is greater than that of the whole curriculum project, and it needs a good organizational mechanism to provide guarantees. As a result, the school project system organization came into being.
The project system is characterized by "self-organization around the project". That is, the organization is set up because of the project, and the person follows the project. Experienced in initiating projects, academic committee demonstration, establishing project teams, academic seminars, and operation of grade departments.
According to the actual needs of students' periodic learning, any teacher can initiate a project, and declare to the school according to the procedure, the school academic committee will demonstrate the project, the approved project will set up a project team, the project sponsor will automatically become the top leader of the project, and the project sponsor will recruit the main members, according to the scope of the project theme, the main members include teachers, students and even community professionals of various disciplines.
After the establishment of the project team, regular seminars are carried out with the academic support of various discipline groups, the project implementation plan is formulated, the project process is designed, and the project is operated under the orderly organization of the level department. When the project is completed, the project team is automatically dissolved.
For example, the big project "Life Education". The project is first initiated by a teacher, recruiting backbone teachers of Chinese, mathematics, art, science, information technology, psychology and other disciplines to form a project team, in the process of curriculum development, the academic committee organizes teachers of related disciplines at different stages to give technical support. After many discussions, the teachers of the project team determined the training objectives, inquiry steps and evaluation system of the "Life Education" curriculum, formulated the project implementation plan and carried out the whole school under the coordination of the ministries at all levels.
After the end of the project, the project team entered the final stage, and teachers and students of each grade held a summary meeting in different grades, teachers shared their gains and reflected on the areas that needed to be improved, and students shared the successful experience of participating in the project. After completing the closing process, the course project team was announced to be dissolved.
The implementation of the project-based curriculum, from the beginning to the end, involves students under the guidance of teachers, including how to plan the project, how to implement the project, how to acquire knowledge, how to strengthen group cooperation and communication, etc. In the discussion of real and meaningful problems, students integrate the learning situation with the living world, think like experts, participate in problem solving like cognitive apprentices, and finally realize the transformation of learning styles.
Author | Sun Daoming (Discipline Leader of Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, Backbone Teacher of Guangdong Province, Principal of Songshan Lake No. 2 Primary School)