Project Based Learning - Hengky Kusniar

SCIENCE TEACHING & LEARNING

PROJECT BASED LEARNING

A.   Theory 

Project Based Learning, or PBL, is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeper knowledge and built upon learning activities and real tasks that have brought challenges for students to solve. These activities generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom. PBL is generally done by groups of students working together toward a common goal

PBL teaches students not just content, but also important skills in ways students have to be able to function like adults in our society. These skills include communication and presentation skills, organization and time management skills, research and inquiry skills, self-assessment and reflection skills, group participation and leadership skills, and critical thinking.

Performance is assessed on an individual basis, and takes into account the quality of the product produced, the depth of content understanding demonstrated, and the contributions made to the ongoing process of project realization.

PBL allows students to reflect upon their own ideas and opinions, and make decisions that affect project outcomes and the learning process in general. The final product results in highquality, authentic products and presentations. 

B.    Characteristics

Project-Based Learning varise from Classroom to clasroom, But is often Characterized by the following attributes:

·         Organized around  a problem or challange  with out a predetermined solution

·         creates a need to  know of essential content and skills

·         students design the process  for reaching solution

·         requires  critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration , and various forms of communication

·         provides the opportunity for student to examine the task different – perspectives using variety of resources, separate relevant from irrelevant information, and manage the information they gather  

·         Students learn to work independently take responsibility when they are asked to make choice

·         Students regularly reflection what they are doing

·         A final product is produce and is evaluate for quality

·         The classroom has an a atmosphere that tolerates error and change

·         The teacher takes on another role of a facilitator rather than leader

C.    Characteristics of Project Based Learning in Indonesia

PBL in Indonesia can be said as the operationalization of the concept of "Production-Based Education" which was developed in Vocational High School . Vocational High School as an institution whose function is to prepare graduates to work in the business world and industry should be able to equip students with "standardized competencies" needed to work in the field respectively. By learning "production based" students in vocational high school are introduced to the atmosphere and the true meaning of work in the world of work. States that the PBL is a learning environment that is congruent with the principles of the new education.

Characteristics of PBL focuses on learning that involves students in investigations, problem solving, and other meaningful task activities, gives students the opportunity to work autonomously in constructing their own knowledge, and reaches the peak to produce real products. Given that each student has a different learning style, then the PBL provides an opportunity for students to explore the content (material) using a variety of ways that are meaningful to them and conducted experiments collaboratively. PBL is an in-depth investigation on a topic of the real world; it would be valuable for the attention and effort of students. PBL is a comprehensive study involving students in collaborative investigation. PBL helps students to learn strong knowledge and skills built through tasks and authentic works. Learning situations, environments, content, and relevant tasks, realistic, authentic, and provides natural complexity of the real world can give self

Generally, PBL has some steps such as Planning, Creating, and Processing . PBL approach is the approach that has syntax: (1) Starts With the Essential Question, (2) Design a Plan for the Project, (3) Creates a Schedule, (4) Monitor the Students and the Progress of the Project, (5) Assess the Outcome, (6) Evaluate the Experiences. The principle combination of project based learning, meaningful learning and learning with technology influences students‟ success and creativity, and improves students‟ motivation. Students' mentoring and coaching are very effective in developing students' skills and talents in project based learning environment. Teachers can also get feedback on their own teaching and learning.

D.   Strength of Project Based Learning

·         Puts students in a position to use the knowledge that they get.

·         Effective in helping students understand, apply, and retain information.

·         Can give students an opportunity to work with professional experts who enrich and support the teachers knowledge and how it connects to the real world

·         can be more effective than traditional instruction, and increase academic achievement.

·         benefits include building skills such as critical thinking, communication and collaboration.

·         Students who work on projects show increased motivation and engagement in their studies

·         Students Increase they learning motivation

E.    Weakness of Project Based Learning

·         PBL requires a lot of time that must be provided to solve complex problems.

·         Many parents of students who feel aggrieved, because it adds to the cost of entering the new system.

·         Many instructors/teachers feel comfortable with traditional classroom, where the instructor/ teacher play a central role in the classroom. This is a difficult transition, especially for instructors/teachers who have little or no control of the technology

·         Applying project based learning in the classroom may be intimidating for some experienced teachers and will be even worse for beginners.

·         The amount of equipment to be provided, so that the demand for electricity increases.

·         Almost all examples of successful project based learning capitalize on the success of cooperative or collaborative learning. Students who have a weakness in the experiment and the collection of information will have trouble

·         Students who are not experienced with working in groups may have difficulty in negotiation and compromise. If this method has not been used before, it may be necessary to teach students how to interact in a group and manage conflict within the group. There is a possibility of students who are less active in group work.

·         When the topic given to each group is different, it is feared that students cannot understand the topic entirely.

For a self-assessment survey, the data may have been influenced by a slight inconsistency.

10. Lack of student interest in the subject, including methods of teaching.

F.     Example of Implementation of Project Based Learning

Examples of PBL in Mathematics

There is a wide variety of the type of project that teachers use in math class projects.

Some teachers present a scenario for the project and have students take the role of a person in the workplace.

1.                  STATISTICAL REPORT OF A STATE

In a middle school mathematics class, students work together preparing a statistical report on the state, choosing a topic such as education. The end product can be a presentation with graphs and written descriptions of significant findings. Consider collaborating with a language arts or social studies teacher for this project.

2.            DESIGN OF A SHOPPING MALL

In a high school geometry class, students work as architects and design a shopping mall. Students research the design of malls and the feasible sizes for various types of stores. The end product can be a brochure, poster, or webpage presenting the design to a panel of adults or students serving as a city-planning board.

G.   Conclusion

Project Based Learning which is applied has the following characteristics: cooperative learning, have a facilitator with the characteristics and psychological motives, and have other elements of lifelong learning, and student-centered. However, seeing the of self-directed learning elements in this program, to increase creativity among students, then in implementing the PBL, the teacher should give more freedom to the students to explore their own learning and construct their own meaning. This program will pay more attention up to the end of the process in producing innovative products rather than just concentrating on knowing the facts.

In order to implement the PBL, it is highly required lecturers/teachers who are also creative. The ability to solve problems and to improve the content knowledge and skills is a challenge, especially to deal with students with low ability, lack of motivation and lack of focus, the lecturers/teachers should be more patient and should try to improve the lecturer-student relationship. PBL is an approach that has these three characteristics, they should be evident in the verbal interactions of students in the process of PBL

With PBL, then the ability of students has increased in those things as follows: (1) Making a combination of several parts to form a new thing; (2) Using the random characteristics of an object resulting in a change of the existing design into a new design; (3) Eliminating a part of something so that something new is obtained; (4) Thinking about alternative uses of something in order to obtain new uses; (5) Developing ideas which are contrary to the ideas that are commonly used by people in order to obtain new ideas; (6) Determining the usefulness of an extreme form of an object that is found a new use for the object. From these PBL activities, four components, namely: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration will be increased. Fluency characteristics are: (1) sparked many ideas, many answers, many troubleshooting, many questions smoothly; (2) Provide many ways or suggestions of doing things; (3) Always think of more than one answer. The characteristics of flexibility are: (1) Generate ideas, answers, or various questions, can look at a problem from different perspectives; (2) Look for many alternatives or different directions; (4) Able to change the approach or way of thinking. Originality traits are: (1) Able to give birth to a new and unique expression; (2) Think of unusual ways for self-expression; (3) Able to create unusual combinations of parts or elements. Elaboration traits are: (1) Able to enrich and develop an idea or a product; (2) Increase or specifies the details of an object, idea, or situation so that it becomes more attractive.

H.   Resource

·         Markham, T. (2011). Project Based Learning. Teacher Librarian, 39(2), 38-42.

·          Miller, Andrew. "Edutopia". © 2013 The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Retrieved 22 October 2013.

·         Sawyer, R. K. (2006) The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press.

·         Downing, K., Kwong, T., Chan, S., Lam, T., & Downing, W. (2009). Problem-based learning and the development of metacognition. Higher Education

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