Premier’s Harvey Norman Information and
Communication Technologies Scholarship
Infusing technology in Australian
teaching and learning through
the use of project-based learning
Kathryn Burke
Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School, Waitara
Sponsored by
Schooling is an 18th Century institution using 19th Century structures teaching 20th
Century curriculum to 21st Century students.
—Mark McCrindle, social trend researcher, 2005
A current challenge for many educators in Australia is to find ways to engage and educate
our 21st century students and prepare them for the 21st century world. A key part of this
involves finding ways to use technology appropriately, in meaningful situations and in
ways that infuse technology into an already crowded curriculum.
Australian educators have seen the rise of webquests, information or knowledge quests,
online learning games and educational CD-ROMs, yet, as an educator, I found many of
these resources lacked a real-world use of technology in which children were expected to
apply skills and knowledge to genuine problems for genuine uses. In building upon and
moving beyond these resources and strategies in my classroom, I have tried to find
realistic uses of technology for students’ learning, where technology is infused into a ‘just
in time’ learning environment similar to that of real life. Through postgraduate work and
action research, I began to use project-based learning (PBL) as a way to meet the
challenge. I have found that PBL allowed for the integrated technology outcomes of the
NSW Board of Studies K–6 Syllabus to be addressed, while ensuring that the teaching
and learning remained focused just as importantly on learning outcomes and 21st century
skills.
PBL is more than a webquest or Internet research task. When used effectively, research
has shown that PBL helps teachers create a high-performing classroom in which teachers
and students form a powerful learning community. The aim is for real-life context and
technology to meet and achieve outcomes in the curriculum through an inquiry-based
approach. A PBL approach is designed to encourage students to become independent
workers, critical thinkers, and lifelong learners. Many teachers and researches involved in
PBL believe it makes school more meaningful as it provides in-depth investigations of
real-world topics and significant issues worthy of each individual student’s attention and
investigation. Over the last few years I have seen evidence to various extents of this in
my own classroom when I use project-based learning with my students.
While PBL is not a new concept, I felt that awareness of the possibilities of project-based
learning are only beginning to disseminate through the Australian teaching community.
While a wealth of PBL resources, research and information can be found on the Internet,
I have found that these are usually based in countries other than Australia (mainly the
United States and the United Kingdom) and are geared towards different syllabuses. The
United States has been exploring possibilities of PBL for at least the last decade and has
invested in many school-based programs, as well as creating two world renowned
institutes, the Buck Institute for Education and the Rutgers Center for Education.
As a classroom teacher who has been implementing features of PBL in my own school
setting, I have become aware of both the obvious strengths of PBL, and also areas in
which I felt inadequately trained to implement it well. While digitally recording the PBL
process in my classroom and communicating with lecturers from Australian Catholic
University who use PBL in their online postgraduate education courses has been one way
to combat this, I felt that I was still lacking in my depth of experience and knowledge of
how to best implement PBL in a school setting. Without any concrete working school
models in Australia to build upon, I decided to observe possibilities being trialled in the
United States in order to gain the practical understandings that would then allow better
implementation of PBL in my own classroom setting, as well as a more refined approach
to help achieve technology syllabus outcomes, which could then be shared with the wider
teaching community so more teachers could consider how best to infuse technology into
Australian teaching and learning.
Study focus
Over the course of four weeks, I visited a variety of schools in the United States. These
schools were in different geographical parts of the United States, and the students were
of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Several of the schools included on
the itinerary were in inner city environments, while some where in urban and even semirural areas. Some of the schools were newly established (within the last five years), while
some have been part of their communities for decades. Schools visited included
preschool, elementary, middle and high school levels of education.
The thing that all of these schools had in common was that they purported themselves as
schools of innovation that used PBL as a way to educate their 21st century students. I
developed a set of key questions to aid in the gathering of data from each school. An aim
of gathering this common information was to aid in the comparison between schools to
better gain an understanding of what was working and if any commonalities were found
in the successful use of PBL.
These key questions were as follows:
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The big ideas behind the school—What philosophy has the school built its programs
and innovation around? What led the school to this philosophy/program (the
journey undertaken)? How long has this innovation been going on?
Specific observations about teaching and learning—What specific strategies have
been seen in use by teachers and students? How do the children react to this type of
learning and how do they engage in their learning?
Validity and assessment of results—What evidence is there that this philosophy and
these strategies are adding value? What indicators of success does the school refer to?
How does the school succeed with this innovation, while still meeting state
requirements?
Professional development of staff—How have the staff been professionally
developed and supported?
Community reaction and interactions—What interaction with wider community and
other professionals have taken place as a part of or a result of this innovation? What
are parent reactions and interactions to this innovation?
By gathering data and anecdotal evidence through classroom observations and meetings
that answered this set of questions, a snapshot of learning and teaching within the school
was established and insights gained into how schools were trying to cater to these 21st
century learners through the use of technology and PBL. The schools were very generous
in the sharing of their documents and policies which further explained their work.
Talking to students, teachers and administrators as well as members of the parent
community formed a part of the study focus to try to evaluate how different stakeholders
viewed the use of technology and PBL. A variety of different views and responses where
gathered from different schools that presented some consolidating and some conflicting
views. This presented an opportunity for more focused questioning about the role of
technology and projects as a viable method.
Significant learnings
Many of the schools using PBL chose to do so because they recognised that there was a
need to change the way students were taught, to heighten engagement in learning and so
improve learning outcomes, as well as other outcomes such as pro-social behaviour,
work ethics and responsibility
PBL computer classroom at
Mount Diablo High School,
San Francisco, CA.
Technology coordinator small
group teaching at Harrison
Middle School, Yarmouth,
MA.
for self. These schools had a philosophy that focused on infusing technology into
learning, which has been a vitally important part of their success as it showed students
they were recognised by their school, families and local community as 21st century
learners who are part of the ‘digital age’. The most successful school innovations also
tended to be placed within the broader context of their focus on the questions: ‘What is
powerful learning?’, ‘What is powerful to learn in the 21st century?’ and ‘What are
powerful ways to teach in the 21st century?’ As part of this, the most successful schools
also made cooperative learning a part of their philosophy.
Students in these effective PBL schools saw themselves as successful learners who were
competent, cooperative and responsible. At Mount Diablo High School, the teachers in
charge of coordinating the PBL program talked about how the rooms are opened early
and stay open till late, and that students are always working on their projects in their own
time, going the extra mile. They talked of students borrowing equipment so that they
could do more work on weekends.
Within this school the teachers themselves were great models of passionate and
cooperative people for the students. The founding teacher actually returns to work in the
classroom for free with the lead teacher even though he retired five years ago. Within this
room students were helping each other to complete tasks by deadline, calling on students
with different specialities. The use of cooperative learning and time for collaboration was
an essential part of PBL as it allowed students and teachers to help disseminate
knowledge and learning through the learning community.
At Harrison Middle School, cooperative learning was also observed to be a powerful
tool, not only between students but between teachers. The full-time technology
coordinator explained how a lot of professional development work was conducted oneon-one, as well as a lot of modelling and teaching inside the classroom. Even though
Yarmouth is part of the Maine 1 to 1 laptop program, students still regularly work
together on different tasks and projects, sharing skills and ideas.
The 1 to 1 laptop program in itself was a powerful thing to observe. Enabling students to
simultaneously develop their projects with the data projector in every classroom made it
very simple for the teacher to display different pieces of work for inspiration and
constructive feedback by peers. In one social studies class, the laptops enabled students
to have autonomy over their learning and contributions to a discussion on current
events, as students accessed a multitude of news sites simultaneously, drawing on
different sources and comparing them to discuss different issues.
At Sir Francis Drake High School, students had a fair degree of autonomy about their
learning; however, this was achieved through careful scaffolding by teachers. This
autonomy begins with
Collaboration rubric used by
students at Sir Francis Drake
High School, San Anselmo,
CA.
CAD-CAM design for a
machinery project
investigating the use of motors
at Sir Francis Drake High
School.
the students and parents choosing what sort of schooling they would like to receive, as
this school operates on a ‘schools within schools’ model, in which different academies
focus on different skills and uses of technology. Of great interest was the Media
Academy, where the students had to investigate, interview and create a researched and
quality documentary of collaboration rubric used by students a local historical issue,
which was eventually presented to the community at a film festival. It was also at this
school that students discussed how grading works, with the possibility of students
negotiating scores between team-mates until all members feel that individual effort has
been fairly accounted for. In addition, a common philosophy across these successful
schools was the belief in smaller class sizes, and the value of students feeling part of a
group, not just another face in a crowd. This seemed integral to the successful running of
projects where students are working as part of a team.
It was at Sir Francis Drake that the importance and, in fact, the power of goal-setting,
self-assessment, feedback and reflection to improve learning also made clear. Rubrics
were the major strategy for making clear to teachers and students how work and learning
was valued and assessed. Goal-setting important as it enabled individuals teams to keep
to a time line and to achieve the completion of a quality project illustrating their learning
within set time frames. It also facilitated better cooperative learning, as each team
member was aware of what they were responsible for achieving. Assessment by each
student and their peers was in some cases even more sought after and valuable than that
given by the teacher. Reflection on how the project had gone, and what could be done
differently was not only part of the learning process of the students, but that of the
teachers, who then modified and improved projects for future use, or discarded them as
not suitable for use again.
Throughout the schools using PBL, different students were found using tools such as
word processors, spreadsheets, databases and specialised software to perform tasks and
create records of their learning. In many cases students were competently using industry
standard software, such as Adobe Photoshop. At Sir Francis Drake High School, Year 9
students were using Computer Aided Design and Computer Assisted Manufacturing
(CAD-CAM) to create and make their own motors. Special relationships with the wider
business community, in this case the Autodesk Foundation, enabled the school to
maintain and upgrade software as necessary, while Autodesk developed partnerships with
future engineers. This is a great example of how technology and PBL is helping to bridge
the gap between life learning and school learning.
Students at many schools used applications to facilitate communication and collaboration
with the world outside the classroom to help them gain further understanding and to
elicit expert responses to their research, which are criteria for PBL. The Internet
provided students with
Teacher pedagogy is just as important as the
presence of technology at West Bronx Academy for
the Future:
access to virtual simulations and excursions, libraries, and remote physical locations for
research without which they would have been unable to gain a deeper understanding of
their content. Technology also played a role in the assessment and evaluation of student
work, as it was used to help share work with other stakeholders, and in some instances
work was even published on the Internet for a real purpose and for review by real
audiences. All of these skills are listed in various syllabus documents as those skills we
want our students to develop to succeed in the 21st century.
An invaluable focus observed in several schools was providing and maintaining varied
opportunities for parents to access information, to provide feedback and to be involved
in the educational experience. The power of technology in making their children’s
learning visible through multimedia presentations created by the students, as well as the
possibilities of connectivity enabling anytime anywhere learning has also increased
communication between home and school. An example of this is at the West Bronx
Academy in New York, where and parents use Moodle (an open source e-learning
platform) to enable them to access grades, assignments and work from anywhere.
In addition to the parent community, the best examples of PBL in action placed great
importance on finding ways to involve the wider community in order to make the
learning of these children as ‘real world’ as possible. Many businesses and advisors have
taken part in these projects, giving advice and donating materials and to the student’s
artefacts. Mount Diablo’s Annual Business Fair involved not only a judging panel of real
local business people and entrepreneurs, but a night-time presentation where hundreds
of local community members and businesses were welcomed to a trade fair to ‘invest’ in
the different marketing companies established by the Year 11 and 12 students based
upon their business plans, marketing and product quality. To give an indication of the
standard of this project-based learning, several teams were advised by the judges to take
out patents before presenting at the trade fair.
Through the project process, students at this PBL School demonstrated team skills, and
in particular better conflict resolution skills. Many students were observed by the teacher
to be relying on a wider repertoire of strategies to solve problems before seeking teacher
intervention. The ability to paraphrase and to ‘piggyback’ on each other’s ideas was a
feature of classroom discussions. In some schools, students also independently used
team strategies to structure their time and tasks.
The students’ remarkable ability to articulate what they are learning and what they are
thinking was a clear distinction in the schools that were effectively using PBL. The
project presentations days seemed to be the perfect example of the students’ ability to
articulate their thinking, learning and reflecting on the process. The presentation days
appeared to be a definite highlight for the whole community, involving not only the
students and teachers, but the parents and local community.
Some schools who thought they were PBL schools in reality proved to be disappointing
when compared to the criteria that establish authentic project-based learning. Mistaking
the use of projects as a part of learning with PBL as a pedagogical approach seemed to
be the major confusion these schools had.
Projects versus project-based learning: ensuring rigour and relevance
Projects
Loose set of activities
Supplements the curriculum
Thematic
Broad assessments
No management structure
Project-based learning
Inquiry based, use driving question as a focus
Part of the curriculum
Focused
Aligns specified outcomes with assessments
Uses strategies and project management to
structure learning
Newsome Park Elementary used to be a lighthouse school for PBL. Unfortunately, the
current political climate and the ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy, which introduced new
assessing and reporting requirements, has resulted in the loss of authentic project-based
learning at this school. With the threat of school closure if standards are not reached,
teachers are too busy constantly assessing and preparing students for testing to be able to
devote time needed to deeply explore concepts and to develop deep understandings.
How to engage students in PBL while meeting state requirements is something this
school is struggling with. The unfortunate result seems to be the slipping of powerful
learning into mere projects and teacher-directed lessons. Technology as a true tool for
learning is lost as there simply is no time to allow students self-directed inquiry.
As explained by the principal, the state-wide and district testing does not test the skills
and deeper understandings gained by students by completing project-based learning. The
tests are heavily content orientated, and more concerned with breadth than depth of
understanding. Teachers comment regularly on how much children learn, then forget,
and how much time they spend reteaching content in this current environment, yet no
solution is apparent. Luckily, in Australia, our current assessing and reporting allows for
schools to use pedagogy like PBL to develop skills and deeper understandings. State-wide
testing is more focused on skills like understanding, interpreting and problem-solving,
which is a strong encouragement for using something like PBL in our classrooms.
Another issue that was present in the less successful schools, and even in some instances
the more successful, was that the driving question, which is so essential to the PBL
process was constructed solely by teachers, with many constraints being placed upon the
scope of the question. Regardless of who generates the question, it can’t be so
constrained that outcomes are predetermined, as it was obvious in these schools that it
left little scope for the students to develop their own investigative process and artefacts.
Successful examples of PBL always included a powerful and driving question that
engaged the hearts and minds of the students and teachers. The question was big enough
to allow scope for all students and to reach across different key learning areas. The best
questions encouraged students to generate even more questions. At Sir Francis Drake
High School, one academy made the generation of these questions the basis for their
whole teaching and learning program by selecting a moral question such as ‘What does it
mean to live a good life?’ This umbrella question then helped in the generation of smaller
PBL experiences across all the key learning areas.
In the West Bronx, New York City, a new school has been established which prides itself
on learning as action and the infusing of technology in learning. Following one cohort of
students between classes provided an interesting insight into how the use of technology
and its success is heavily dependent upon the pedagogy behind the use of technology.
The high level of student engagement when learning experiences rich, real and relevant
for them was very clear, but this didn’t occur in every class. Although the students had
technology in both classes, the effect of teacher pedagogy was the more deciding factor.
In one class the students were investigating a question based in the real world, using
technology to support their thinking. Because of its real-world appeal, students were
motivated to investigate, record, and report their findings. The teacher had established a
good relationship with the students based on mutual respect, and insisted upon high
standards of work and encouraged the use of goal-setting to help them work. Students
were well behaved, attentive and constantly busy thinking and working. In comparison,
this same group of students were unrecognisable in their next class. Although this
teacher also used technology, the question and answer format of the class produced
students who were disruptive, rude and not engaging in their learning at all. While the
topic of the class itself was not boring, this class lacked the real-world appeal of the first
as well as a lack of hands-on experience, resulting in a group of children with little
motivation and engagement and displaying very disrespectful behaviour.
This example makes clear the importance of quality professional development for
teachers in all schools and especially those that are trying to implement PBL. An
understanding of motivation, questioning, goal-setting, cooperative learning strategies
and pedagogy when using technology are essential for implementing PBL with more ease
and success. All of the schools visited in the United States had a large amount of time for
professional development and planning available to teachers. In fact, the standard
practice for many school districts in the United States is a short day which finishes by
1pm every fortnight. What differed was how the schools used this time. In less successful
schools, teachers used the time to sit alone or in groups and do lessons plans. More
innovative use of this time at other schools saw teachers forming teams from across
different key learning areas, developing new questions and project focuses, and reflecting
upon and evaluating how current projects are going. At West Bronx Academy for the
Future, the school has a ‘developer’ who works with a teacher for 45 minutes a day,
observing and then coaching the teacher in ways to infuse technology. This is part of a
US program called Teaching Matters.
Conclusion
This trip gave some very interesting insights into how other teachers are using
technology to enhance teaching and learning. This scholarship opportunity was indeed a
valuable one that would be of great benefit for any teacher who would like to better their
own teaching practises in a given area. Some major disappointments were also seen that
could be indicative of the directions schools in NSW may head with new reporting
requirements. Currently, I believe Australia is headed in the right direction by embracing
new technology while encouraging its mindful use, supported by quality professional
development for teachers. Including PBL or even some from of social inquiry in
Australian classrooms is a way for us to cater to our 21st century learners even more. The
real strength of technology and multimedia in PBL lies in its infusion with the subject
curriculum and its genuine use in the production process.
It would seem that PBL is not without its problems. Many teachers have tried to
implement PBL only to feel frustrated and out of control. I believe that success with
PBL greatly depends on the degree to which teachers are prepared to take time to think
and plan in a different way and to what extent teachers feel comfortable to release
control of knowledge and classroom learning time, taking on a new role as co-learner.
Using PBL means teachers not having all the answers and often relying on students and
others to have the answer instead. Not being able to know what exactly will happen in
every class is something that many teachers have found hard to accept.
Success of PBL also seems to depend not on the teacher’s view of a project, but whether
the students regard the project as interesting and worthwhile. Other factors include
making sure that students have the necessary skills to complete the project or the
opportunity to develop the skills during the project. Teachers also need to embrace
instructional strategies that are more conducive to PBL (hypothesis generation,
prediction-making, problem-solving). PBL also seems to work better in a classroom
environment when students are focused on learning as opposed to grades and
competition, which considering the pressure to assess and report, can be difficult.
Introducing and implementing PBL in more traditional school settings will be a challenge
requiring a change in teachers’ approaches to teaching and students’ approaches to
learning. These changes will require support and resources designed for Australian
education settings that provide some of the theory, thinking and structures necessary to
help with the successful implementation of PBL.
Resources
Blumenfeld, P., Soloway, E., Marx, R.A., et al. ‘Motivating Project Based Learning:
Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learner,’ Educational Psychologist, vol. 26, 3–4,
369–398, 1991.
Houghton Mifflin College, Project Based Learning Space,
http://college.hmco.com/education/pbl/index.html
The 2learn.ca Education Society,
http://www.2learn.ca/projects/together/KWORDS/projecta.html
Schools mentioned in report
Harrison Middle School, Yarmouth, MA, http://hms.yarmouth.k12.me.us/Pages/index
Mount Diablo High School, Concord, CA,
http://www.mdusd.k12.ca.us/mountdiablohigh/
Newsome Park Elementary School, Newport News, VA, http://npes.nn.k12.va.us/
Sir Francis Drake High School, San Anselmo, CA, http://drake.marin.k12.ca.us/
West Bronx Academy for the Future, Bronx, NY,
http://www.bronxacademy.org/west/cms/
Endnote
If you wish to know more about the focus of this study or to ask a question, please
contact Kathryn Burke by phone during school hours at (02) 9489 7000, or by email at
kburke@olorwaitara.dbb.catholic.edu.au
For more information about project-based learning and its implication for teaching and
learning in 21st century Australian schools, visit www.pblaustralia.com where a collection
of ideas, articles and links are being constructed as a result of this scholarship.