Are your students using technology to be consumers for information and knowledge or are they using technology to be producers of knowledge?
Research reveals that the term Project Based Learning is a model that engages students in learning important knowledge and 21st Century skills by creating an object or artifact to present evidence of learning. Project based learning is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge. This model of learning helps students develop skills for living in a knowledge-based and highly technological society. The old-school model of passively learning facts and reciting them out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare students to survive in today’s world. Solving highly complex problems requires that students have both fundamental skills (reading, writing, and math) and 21st century skills (teamwork, problem solving, research gathering, time management and utilizing high tech tools). With this combination of skills, students become directors and managers of their learning process, guided and mentored by a skilled teacher. By bringing real-life context and technology to the curriculum through a PBL approach, students are encouraged to become independent workers, critical thinkers, and lifelong learners.
All students with disabilities need motivation at home and at school to learn how to socialize and collaborate with other typical children. Project Based Learning (PBL), is not just a way of learning; it’s a way of working together. If atypical students learn to take responsibility for their own learning, they will form the basis for the way they will work with others in their adult lives. The U.S. Department of Labor highlights the trends and challenges for Work in the 21st Century and states the following: “We are living in a new economy powered by technology, fueled by information, and driven by knowledge.”
Students with disabilities stand to face these challenges and therefore need to be prepared through PBL activities to ensure success in inclusive classroom settings. In the U.S, a growing body of research supports the use of Project Based Learning (PBL). Schools where PBL is practiced find a decline in absenteeism, an increase in cooperative learning skills, and improvement in student achievement. Project Based Learning is a powerful tool for the inclusive classroom. Even if a student or students spend part of their day in a resource or self-contained classroom, the time they spend in project-based collaboration will be a time when typically developing peers will model both good classroom and academic behavior. Project Based Learning is an excellent way to differentiate instruction in a full inclusion classroom especially when that class includes students of widely different abilities, from the cognitively or developmental disabled to the gifted children.
Many children with disabilities benefit from sensory input, and students who have Autism or are Dyslexic benefit from being able to move as they process information with their peers. When students are excited about what they are doing in school, they will behave better, participate more fully and benefit the most.
Project Based Learning is a powerful tool for the inclusive classroom. This model of learning has proven, in research, to improve concept retention in a range of students. Students, not just students with disabilities, all come with different learning styles. Some are strongly visual learners, auditory and kinetic who all collaborate to learn best when they can move.PBL approach suits children with learning difficulties because it allows them to work at their own levels of differentiated learning.
For collaborative projects, teachers can pair higher and lower functioning students, who will then work together to accomplish a common goal that is often bigger or better than what they could have done on their own.
Although this may be a new model of learning for public and private schools in some parts of Africa especially Nigeria, PBL can be fun. It promotes collaboration and allows all students to have the opportunity to work and learn with their friends and share final project at the end. I have come to realise as an education specialist in the United States that Project Based Learning is the future of special education. All children, including those with disabilities need 21st-century skills to succeed in school and in life. The widespread adoption of Project Based Learning in inclusive classrooms will no doubt hasten the learning process of individuals with disabilities. In addition, teachers and administrators will have the opportunity to use computer technology for progress monitoring, projects assessment and inclusive online classroom engagement.
Isaac Osae-Brown
Isaac Osae-Brown works for the Compton Unified School District in California as an Education Specialist and a beginning Teacher Mentor. He is a resource person, an advocate and a speaker for Special Education services in the United States and abroad. www.facebook.com/inclusivemindset/
