PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL SETTING
Project-Based Learning in a Middle School Setting
Tyler Henry
October 1, 2014
Dr. Tracy Borup
Fall 2014
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Description
Sweetwater Middle School is a Title I middle school in Lawrenceville, GA
serving students in grades six through eight. Sweetwater Middle School is part of the
Gwinnett County Public Schools school district. 96% of the school receives free or
reduced lunch, 16% of students are labeled as gifted, 8% of the students receive services
through an Individual Education Plan, and 12% of students are direct English Language
Learners. Approximately 46% of the student body is Hispanic, 32% is African-American,
11% is Caucasian, 7% is Asian/Pacific Islander, and 4% is multi-racial or of another race.
A survey was sent to parents to determine the amount of families with Internet access at
home, however there was not a large enough response to be considered a valid sample,
however it is estimated that approximately 5% of families do not have Internet access at
home.
The Local School Plan for Improvement does not directly reference any
technology goals, but the school’s vision calls for the school to be “world-class for the
21st century.” Sweetwater Middle School is part of the district’s “eClass Initiative.”
eClass is Gwinnett County Public School’s program that has been designed to push the
district into the 21st century using a variety of digital tools and resources that make
learning a collaborative process through highly engaging learning experiences. The
eClass pilot calls for a new style of teaching and learning that is expected to ultimately
improve student engagement inside and outside of the classroom by utilizing an array of
new research-based technology resources. In an effort to improve technology integration,
eClass pilot schools have been given access to a new learning management system
(Desire 2 Learn) and several schools, including Sweetwater Middle, have implemented a
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“Bring Your Own Device” program that allows students to use their personal computers,
tablets, and cell phones to collaborate and conduct research to assist them with the task at
hand. Sweetwater Middle School’s technology team, which consists of a Technology
Support Technician, Media Specialist, Local School Technology Coordinator, and four
technology teacher-leaders, have developed a staff development program that will train
teachers on the different components of the eClass initiatives. This training includes
course design with the learning management system, “Desire 2 Learn,” and other
technology components that teachers have the ability to implement in the classroom
through the eClass initiative. The staff-development is voluntary and a small stipend is
paid to the teachers who attend and to the trainers who lead the sessions. The technology
team also supports teachers during the school day who struggle with hardware and
software issues.
The capstone project focused on the need of both students and teachers to better
utilize the digital tools and resources provided by the school district through eClass. It
was also needed for teachers to understand different ways that would allow them to better
utilize instructional time and ultimately boost student achievement throughout the school
population. Implementing project-based learning would greatly benefit both teachers and
students and would allow teachers to gain professional experience by using the district’s
eClass resources to develop their own project-based learning experiences.
The capstone project began by first holding optional professional development
sessions for teachers to better understand the district’s vision and purpose for eClass. The
professional development sessions were held after school for two hours and on Saturdays.
There were a grand total of six sessions offered: two Saturday sessions for four hours,
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and four weekday sessions for two hours. Faculty members were invited to attend as
many sessions as they wanted. The principal approved a professional development
stipend that paid the instructor $32.50/hour to teach the session and each participant
$15/hour to attend each session.
A total of twenty-six faculty took advantage of this professional development.
During the professional development, the learning management system, Desire 2 Learn,
was dissected into the six main parts of the system: News, Content, Assessments,
Discussions, Dropbox, and Calendar. The professional development was setup into
stations that allowed teachers to see how stations can be used in project-based learning. It
was suggested that teachers with little or no experience with Desire 2 Learn went to the
stations on News, Content, and Dropbox as these were the basic features that the school
district expects all teachers to be familiar with. The teachers who had previous
experience, or had experimented on their own to the point that they felt comfortable using
the basic components of Desire 2 Learn were asked to check out the Assessments,
Content, and Calendar stations.
Each station began with a self-guided tutorial of how to use the tool in Desire 2
Learn. The instructor rotated around the room and asked if there were any questions. The
participants had their laptops with them and were able to experiment on their own after
going through the self-guided module. Participants were at each station for a total of
twenty minutes, ten minutes was to walk through the module and ten minutes was to try
out the tool on their own. A training course was created on each participant’s Desire 2
Learn account. It was named the “Sandbox” so that teachers would have a place to
“play”. This allowed for all teachers to experiment without doing anything that students
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would be able to see. Each participant was asked to use their Sandbox course in Desire 2
Learn until they felt proficient enough to publish content that students would see.
Each participant attended three, twenty minute sessions and then was given thirty
minutes to “play” on their own using the resources that they learned in their stations. The
instructor rotated around the room and assisted when needed. Participants were
encouraged to work in groups so they could help each other out and learn from one
another. This was another collaboration tool that participants were able to see that could
be implemented in project-based learning. The final thirty minutes was used to “wrap-up”
the session with a closure exercise. The closure gave participants the ability to share what
they learned with one another and then provide a way that they could use the resource in
the classroom. Participants were given a set of sticky notes that they could write their
“takeaways” on and post to share. They were also encouraged to write down questions
they still had, areas that the professional development could be improved, and any
concerns or frustrations they had with using the eClass resources.
This data was compiled and put together for future eClass staff development
sessions. All participants were also sent a survey from the district’s professional
development office; however the responses from that survey were not able to be shared
with the instructors at the school level. This was in an effort to respect each of the
participants’ confidentiality because the sample size of those who completed the survey
was too small to make generalizations. It is the policy of the district’s staff development
office to not share feedback when less than fifteen participants completed the districtlevel professional development evaluation.
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Following the professional development on eClass, teachers were invited to view
a demo lesson that utilized the eClass resources to demonstrate project-based learning.
The project-based learning example featured students in an 8th grade physical science
class utilizing the eClass resources to complete a WebQuest on science project ideas. In
the learning experience, students collaborated with one or two others in an effort to
determine a question they would like to conduct research and use scientific
experimentation to answer. Each group was provided with a laptop to share while
researching ideas. Each observer was assigned a particular group to work with so they
could see how the project-based learning environment was completed using the eClass
resources. Following the observations, the participants completed a survey indicating
how enabled they felt to introduce project-based learning in their classrooms.
Results
As the candidate began to analyze the survey responses and began to look at the
implementation rates of the teachers who attended the training, he quickly realized that
the teachers who observed the eClass learning experience in action were 82% more likely
to design and implement their own learning experiences that utilized the eClass digital
tools and resources. This was most likely because they were able to see the positive
effects of project-based learning and the eClass digital tools and resources in action. Only
44% of the attendees that attended the training but did not observe the eClass learning
experience in action admitted that they had utilized the tools and resources within three
weeks of the training. Of the 44%, 67% of those teachers noted that they were only using
the basic news functions to post homework assignments or make announcements to their
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class. Those teachers were not designing and implementing the project-based learning
experiences that the eClass tools and resources were designed for.
Following observations of several teachers implementing project-based learning
experiences, the technology team was able to identify six teachers who were fully able to
grasp the key strengths of the project-based learning systems. Those teachers were asked
to model their learning experiences for their content areas in an effort to boost the amount
of teachers utilizing project-based learning and share the success that they have had with
project-based learning.
Unfortunately the 8th grade science unit where the project-based learning was first
implemented did not feature a common assessment at the end of the unit, so assessment
data was not able to be aggregated and compared with other non-project-based learning
classes because they did not complete the same assessment. Other language arts teachers
who implemented the project-based learning experiences did note that they saw a 10%15% increase in their students’ test scores compared to the students who did not receive
project-based learning, however data was not directly provided as evidence to those
percentages.
Among all other things, it was clear that students gained a broad understanding of
the skills and concepts necessary to be successful in the real-world through project-based
learning. Students now understand that in order to be successful in college or in a
profession, they need to understand how to work together and collaborate with one
another in an effort to successfully solve problems and make the world a better place.
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Reflection
This experience truly allowed the candidate to piece together every individual
component of what he had acquired at Kennesaw State University while studying
instructional technology. The candidate was able to put the professional pedagogy into
practice by utilizing the various skills needed to increase student achievement and
ultimately help achieve a school improvement plan goal of closing the achievement gap
between Asian students and students with disabilities. The candidate did this by changing
not only the way students obtain and acquire knowledge, but also the processes and
procedures that they follow in order to truly understand and comprehend what they have
learned. By setting students off on a quest to search for the answer to a problem, they
were much more likely to have a higher level of motivation towards completing the task.
In addition to creating an environment of collaborative inquiry, another goal for
the candidate’s project was to focus on alternative ways to assess whether or not students
have mastered a concept or standard. Rather than the traditional paper and pencil
assessments, the candidate allowed my students to complete portfolios that demonstrated
their knowledge of how well they understood what they were learning and how well they
were able to apply that concept to the real-world through problem solving. By offering
this experience, many students (especially students with disabilities) had much less testtaking anxiety and were easily able to recall the big concepts and apply them to a specific
task.
Finally, the candidate wanted to create an environment at his school where other
teachers were able to understand and replicate the learning experiences such as the ones
that the candidate provided to his students within 8th grade physical science. The
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candidate did this by offering professional development sessions that enabled faculty and
staff to learn about the new digital tools and resources that were available to them
through the district’s eClass initiative. Through these professional development sessions,
the candidate was able to feature the various tools and resources in application settings by
showing other faculty and staff how he used them in his science class. The candidate then
allowed teachers to break up into groups and study the concepts that they felt they needed
to know the most. By giving teachers a choice in what they wanted to learn, the candidate
was better able to receive buy-in from the teachers following the professional
development sessions. For the final component of professional development, the
candidate invited teachers to come and observe him facilitate a learning experience that
implemented all of the digital tools and resources that they had studied and gave them the
opportunity to truly see what project-based learning is like. After every component, the
candidate collected survey data to present to the technology team and the school
administration to show them the effectiveness of project-based learning and how the
eClass digital tools and resources could play a role in closing the achievement gap
through differentiation and alternative means of assessment.
The candidate felt that this experience made him a better teacher and technology
leader in his school. The candidate has gained the respect of many teachers and changed
the philosophy of many others to embrace technology rather than frown upon it or refuse
to use it. Teachers were able to see just how much technology can play a positive role in
their instruction and how it can ultimately benefit their students. As a technology leader,
it has never been the candidate’s mission to convince teachers to use as much technology
as humanly possible in all of their learning experiences. The candidate believes it is more
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important for students to grasp a concept or a standard than to spend an enormous amount
of time learning a specific software program or website.
The candidate wants all teachers to utilize the appropriate amount of technology
so that students are able to learn the standards that teachers are required to cover, but still
be prepared to embrace the 21st century with open arms. The candidate looks forward to
providing more opportunities to his students and fellow teachers so that all students get a
chance to be adequately prepared for college and the workforce following high school.
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References
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Bender, W. (2012). Project-based learning : differentiating instruction for the 21st
century. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.
Georgia Department of Education. (2014). College and Career Ready Performance Index.
Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.gadoe.org/ccrpi/Pages/default.aspx
Koskinen, K. U. (2012). Organizational Learning in Project-Based Companies: A Process
Thinking Approach. Project Management Journal, 43(3), 40-49.
doi:10.1002/pmj.21266
Zafirov, C. h. (2013). NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE PROJECT BASED LEARNING
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