By Juan Carlos Ramirez ’18
THE ROUNDUP
Although traditional teaching style has been a norm in the classroom for at least decades, it should definitely progress into a more realistic and preparative phase to better prepare students for the real-world.
When I observe some of the professions out in the world today whether it’s construction, project management, or something in the technological field, teamwork is an essential virtue in these work spaces.
According to article from Getting Smart, it said that everything is becoming more project-based.
“Projects are how leading organizations develop new products, bring things to market, approach customers in different ways, and reduce costs,” said Chris Gagnon, who oversees McKinsey’s organizational health research.
The archaic style of teaching of a teacher lecturing from the front of a room causes students to jade in class and only hinder themselves to watch the clock until the next period rolls along.
Technology within the classroom has provided a great break from textbooks, but it still has more potential for incorporation of project-based learning.
The old style of teaching which should be lessened is the cycle of learning a certain topic in a subject and then taking an exam without putting it into practice.
Project-based is the process that students work for an extended period of time and respond to an engaging, complex and authentic problem.
For example, math teachers have the opportunity of using its core material and applying it to realistic problem like taxes, mortgages, loans and stocks.
Project-based learning engages the class and allow teachers to dig deeper into subjects being taught in class.
A teacher has two perspectives that they have to take into account for the benefit of the student.
The first and most obvious one is the clarity of the information presented to the student:
If the content of the subject isn’t being understood, the student has no way to achieve mastery of that particular subject.
The second is the creativity in the classroom to exercise the material.
According to Buck Institute for Education, project-based learning has been successful in areas such as engaging students more, building success skills for college, life and career, making teaching more enjoyable and creating a connection to the real world.
Although this seems very promising, there should be a good balance between this style of teaching and the traditional style of teaching.
Total domination of project-based learning could result in the loss of learning a breadth material.
A free-minded student would feel liberated with pure project-based learning; however they could also lose direction and ultimately the essence of education without guidance an balance.
Education should be a mixture of enjoyment and concentration. When you begin to have one element more than needed, the final product will suffer and ultimately wasted.
Project-based learning is a necessary implementation to the the mixture of curriculum so it can create a well-balanced environment in the classroom.
