How can teachers improve their PBL experience through reflection?
Launch PBL Series
EP1: How can we create an impactful PBL experience?
EP2:What is project-based learning?
EP3: What are the benefits of project-based learning?
EP4: How can we write a quality driving question for a PBL unit?
EP5: How can we foster academic risk-taking during PBL?
EP6: How can we assess students during project-based learning?
EP7: How can we use milestones to track students’ progress during PBL?
EP8: How can we choose an engaging project-based learning topic?
EP9: What is the teachers’ role during project-based learning?
EP10: How can we plan a project showcase without feeling overwhelmed?
EP11: How can we use effective feedback strategies to enhance students’ public products?
EP 12: How can teachers improve their PBL experience through reflection?
EP 13: How can we shift students from presentations to presentations of learning?
Philosopher John Dewey, in the first chapter of his book “How We Think" published in 1910 stated that:
“Reflection involves not simply a sequence of ideas, but a consequence—a consecutive ordering in such a way that each determines the next as its proper outcome, while each, in turn, leans back on its predecessors. The successive portions of the reflective thought grow out of one another and support one another; they do not come and go in a medley. Each phase is a step from something to something—technically speaking, it is a term of thought. Each term leaves a deposit which is utilized in the next term. The stream or flow becomes a train, chain, or thread.”
While the language in this quote might seem daunting at first, the main point is that reflection is a recursive process that leads us to new insights over time. To reflect means to think deeply or carefully about something. Reflections can be thoughts, ideas, or opinions that arise from meditation. Typically, when you reflect on a situation, you link previous actions, feelings, or thoughts to your current actions.
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Reflection occurs in everyday life when you think of what you should have done differently in a situation to achieve an alternate outcome. For example, have you ever had a disagreement or conflict with someone and afterward thought about what happened? You might replay the conversation in your head and analyze why you responded the way you did, leading you to recognize how you would act differently the next time you’re in a similar situation.
That's the power of reflective thought. It engages you in the critical thinking process, allowing you to understand why you did what you did and to investigate the significance of your actions. Teachers can use reflection both as a part of project-based learning units and as a means of figuring out how to improve their instruction.
Benefits of student reflection
When students reflect, they discover the importance of their own learning process. They can identify what they did well, what they need to change, and brainstorm solutions and strategies to improve their learning. Reflection also gives students a reason to learn, showing them why they need to know a particular set of skills or concepts. Finding meaning in learning fosters enjoyment in the learning process because students can explore the connections between their thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Just as student reflections are an essential part of learning, teachers must reflect on their PBL unit plan to improve their teaching craft.
During my first year of teaching, I made notes at the end of each day about what went well with the lesson and what didn't to adjust it. I was a math teacher, who taught the same lesson multiple times per day to different students, enabling me to reflect on one lesson several times. As a professional development facilitator, I now do the same thing.
After each professional development session, I record what I think went well and what I could have done better. I also jot down the questions that teachers asked to determine how to explain a concept better next time. Teachers also complete a survey after each professional learning session so that I can gain insight into their experience with the training.
Likewise, teachers need to reflect on their learning as they progress as project-based educators for many of the same reasons mentioned above. The benefits of self-reflection for students apply to educators as well because we are learners in our own right. Furthermore, we need to understand students’ abilities and needs to help them develop and become reflective learners themselves. More importantly, practicing reflection is vital to our professional growth.
Building a reflective practice
Reflective practice for educators involves learning from experiences to gain new insights about yourself and your practice. How often do you take time to reflect on an experience? By that, I don’t just mean negative self-talk. If you finish a task and think, "Oh, that was horrible," without investigating what made it feel horrible or what you can do better next time, it's difficult to grow from the experience.
If you are not sure how to get started, there are many ways of creating a reflective practice. In her 25th year of teaching, I know a teacher who began blogging and interacting with other educators on Twitter to reflect on what she was learning. She started this practice not because her principal suggested it but because she genuinely wanted to reflect on her craft as an educator. Blogging or social media is one means of reflection, but certainly not the only means. When you’re establishing a form of reflective practice, find what works for you.
While it’s essential for teachers to reflect throughout the PBL unit, reflecting at the end of the unit is key to improving the unit and instructional practices in the future. One way to reflect on the unit is to examine the project itself. To do this use a Framework for High-Quality Project-based Learning, which consists of six criteria:
Intellectual challenge and accomplishment
Authenticity
Public product
Collaboration
Project management
Reflection
Of course, school culture and other factors beyond the project-based learning unit play a role in implementing high-quality PBL. But the criteria above will help you reflect on how to improve project plans. Using the guiding questions for each criterion, you can analyze how the projects your students created match this framework.
When I lead a reflection session, I encourage teachers to bring three samples of student work to analyze. Using your project rubric, you can select student work from each level of your rating scale to analyze. For example, if the levels on your rubric are exemplary, accomplished, developing, and beginning, you would pull an example public product from a student that represents each level. Attempt to select a sample from each level, although sometimes you might not have a public product that matches each of these levels.
Using the guiding questions for each criterion, analyze student work samples, student reflections on the unit, and your recollection of the PBL experience to determine how well you achieved each of the six components of the framework.
High-Quality PBL Criteria
Intellectual challenge and accomplishment
Intellectual challenge and accomplishment involve students learning deeply, thinking critically, and striving for excellence. PBL experiences are not designed to be hands-on activities that require minimal intellectual effort. A high-quality PBL unit requires students to answer complex problems and think critically throughout the process. It also requires dedication since students work on the project over days, weeks, or even months.
Authenticity
Authenticity requires students to work on meaningful and relevant projects related to their school, home, or possible life in the future. The project should reflect what’s happening in the real world, such as exploring how students can impact their community or school. Moreover, students should have some voice and choice in their learning journey.
Public product
Students’ work should be publicly displayed, discussed, and critiqued. A public product allows students to share ideas with the public, not just their teachers and peers. Ideally, their audience would include experts, community members, or others beyond the classroom.
Collaboration
Project-based learning experiences should involve student collaboration with peers in person or online. Students could also receive guidance from adult mentors and experts. While students’ projects could be created individually, learning to work in a team is essential for today's workplace, so collaboration skills need to be emphasized.
However, collaboration must go beyond simply dividing the project into separate roles so that each student is completing one piece of the assignment. For true collaboration, students must work together and discuss their ideas to contribute their voices, skills, and talents while respecting the contributions of others.
Project management
Project management processes enable students to proceed efficiently from project initiation to completion. In our current world, project management is part of the workforce and our personal lives. People work on projects often, and we must understand how to efficiently manage time, tasks, and resources. During a PBL unit, we want to ensure that students use project management processes and strategies similar to what they would be using in the real world.
Reflection
Students must reflect on their work and their learning throughout the project. One component of student reflection is self-assessment because students need to assess the quality of their work. They also must think about how to improve it by reflecting on what went well and what did not go well with their project. Here are some example questions for sparking student reflection:
What challenges did I explore?
How can I overcome these challenges during the next PBL unit?
What problem-solving skills did I learn that I can use in situations outside of the classroom?
Using the High-Quality PBL Framework for reflection
Teachers can use the Framework for High-Quality PBL guiding questions to determine how well the PBL unit met each of these criteria. Reviewing each criterion, ask yourself whether the action described occurred often, sometimes, rarely, or never during your unit, and then write a quick reflection.
For example, let's examine the criterion of public products. One of the questions states, “To what extent do students share their work in progress with peers, teachers, and others for feedback?”
If students were able to share their work in progress with multiple groups, including their peers and a parent or caring adult, you would pick “often” as your answer. For the guiding criterion of reflection, one of the guiding questions states, “To what extent do students reflect on, write about, and discuss the academic content, concepts, and success skills they are learning?” If students only reflected at the end of the PBL unit, you would answer “rarely.” Of course, there is some subjectivity in the rating, but that is expected. Going through the reflection process is more important than the actual rating you assign.
When you finish answering the guiding questions for all six criteria, revisit each rating you assigned. Then award points to yourself based on the ratings.
Often = 3 points
Sometimes = 2 points
Rarely = 1 point
Never = 0 points
Total the points for each category to see how well you did. Be honest in your responses because they are just for you to see your own growth. If you do the same reflection process with the next PBL unit, you can compare your new score to your previous score to measure your progress. Since there are 19 questions, the maximum number of points you can receive is 57. You can divide the total number of points you gave yourself by 57 to determine a percentage if you want a concrete measure for future comparison.
Giving yourself a score is not necessary for reflection, but it gamifies learning so you can motivate yourself to continue your professional growth and achieve your goals. While calculating the points is optional, writing your next steps of what you learn from the reflection is necessary. Jot down quick thoughts about why you rated each guiding question the way you did.
For example, if you rated the guiding question, “To what extent do students reflect on, write about, and discuss the academic content, concepts and success skills they are learning?” as “rarely,” you would then write why you answered, “rarely” and think about how you could incorporate more reflection into your PBL unit next time. If you follow this process, you will see that your score in that category will move up to another level or two after your next unit.
Tracking your reflection using the process of rating yourself is helpful because it will provide you with notes to reference for next year when you implement a PBL unit again with different students. It will help you remember what modifications you need to make. Additionally, if you decide to facilitate this project with a new colleague, you can use your notes to provide context about previous results from the project.
Analyzing public products
Take notes about students’ public products. When analyzing your student examples, you should jot down some quick notes about why the product received a particular rating on the project rubric. For example, you might explain why one solution received a developing rating and what prevented it from being at the accomplished level. You may have already written this information on the students’ rubric as a part of giving actionable feedback.
Improving your instructional practices through reflection
In addition to examining student work and rating the quality of your unit, you also want to reflect on your perception of the PBL unit outcome. Pay attention to your thoughts, emotions, decisions, and behaviors so that you can identify how these actions impacted your outcomes. Then answer the eight reflection questions below. You can write down your reflections below or record yourself answering these questions. It doesn’t matter how you answer the questions, but I suggest you have a way to document your responses.
Remember, this process is for you and your growth as an educator. No matter how well a project went, there is most likely something that you can do to improve, and no matter how badly you think it went, there is always something positive that came from it. Both instances are worth noting.
Here are eight questions you can ask yourself to reflect on your PBL unit:
What went well about the PBL experience? (Identify several positive components)
Why did these components of the PBL experience go well?
To what extent are these components strengths in your teaching?
What did not go so well during the PBL experience?
Why did these components of the PBL experience not go so well?
To what extent are these components weaknesses in your teaching?
What have you learned about your teaching and facilitation during PBL experiences?
After reflecting on the PBL experience, what will you do similarly, and what will you do differently next time?
Take Action:
Use the guiding questions above to record your thoughts on the eight reflection questions shared above.