Focus on Audience for Better Project-Based Learning Results

Posted by on March 10, 2014

Focus on Audience for Better PBL Results

At the end of a project-based learning (PBL) experience, students typically share what they have learned or discovered with an audience. Depending on the project, students might publish their work online, make presentations at a public event, or pitch their ideas to a panel of judges.

For veteran PBL teacher Don Wettrick, “nothing is better than a project that gets community buy-in.” Connecting students with an authentic audience is key, he says, to driving engagement and helping students relate what they are learning to the real world. “My top two goals are to help students find great opportunities [for real-world problem solving], and then cheerlead them to a great audience.”

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/focus-on-audience-for-better-pbl-results-suzie-boss

[ed note: Some of us would call PBL that focuses on “real world problems,” service-learning.]