Announcements

AERA: Elevating Student Agency to Promote Equity and Authenticity in Student-Led Projects

8:00 AM - 9:30 AM PDT on Monday, April 25

Chair: David Kidd, Harvard University Graduate School of Education

Discussant: Vanessa Svihla, University of New Mexico

Authors: Alison Boardman, University of Colorado - Boulder; Emily Miller, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Chaebong Nam, Harvard University; Gavin Tierney, California State University - Fullerton; Benjamin Walsh, University of Colorado - Boulder

Researchers and educators informed by sociocultural theories continue to pursue pedagogies that re-imagine students as active learners and co-constructors of disciplines of study. Paradigm shifts are seldom simple, and efforts to prioritize student agency may push students and teachers into unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable roles. As educators work to expand powerful, student-centered pedagogies like project-based learning (PjBL) into more classrooms and disciplines, it is critical to understand the challenges these approaches may pose for all learners, but especially those often marginalized or traditionally underserved by schools. The five papers in this symposium address these challenges directly from different angles, together revealing a multi-dimensional picture of the role of student agency in project-based learning in language arts, science, and civics classrooms.

NARST 2022- March 29th

Socioemotional Factors in Science Teaching and Learning Date: March 29, 3:40 – 5:10 PM Curriculum-Aligned Instruction and Formative Assessments: Promote Students’ Academic and Social-Emotional Learning Speakers: I-Chien Chen, Tingting Li, Selin Akgun, Emily C. Miller, Joseph Krajcik, Barbara Schneider (MSU) Using ML-PBL Teaching Practices to Support Student Sensemaking and Social-Emotional Learning in Elementary Science Classrooms […]

NARST 2022- March 30th, Morning

Teacher change of practice during Project-based science learning enactment: Case Studies across diverse contexts Date: March 30, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Discussant: Sam Severance, UC, Santa Cruz Presider: Joseph S. Krajcik, MSU Panelists: Miranda Fitzgerald, Tingting Li, Cory Miller, Emily Miller, Selin Akgun, Katy Easley, Susan Codere SESSION DESCRIPTION This poster session uses case […]

NARST 2022- March 30th, Afternoon

Project-based Learning Contexts for Developing Adaptation Design Principles that Promote Engagement and Equity Date: March 30, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Discussant: Sam Severance, UC, Santa Cruz Presider: Joseph S. Krajcik, MSU Using Adaptation Principles to Support Teacher Agency in Professional Learning Speakers: Emily Miller and Susan Codere (MSU) PBL Adaptation Principles to Support Equitable […]

Better Together: Connecting Project-Based Learning & Competency-Based Education

Conference Date/Time: March 30th, 2022 1:00pm EST

Speakers: Telsa Comunale, Kristin De Vivo, Heather Harlen, Christy Kingham, Ayris Sanders, Rochelle Urban

SESSION DESCRIPTION

As we seek to shift the U.S. system of education toward competency-based education (CBE), project-based learning (PBL) offers a powerful, complementary strategy for greater student engagement and more authentic learning inside and outside the classroom, and vice versa. But how do CBE and PBL connect in actual implementation?

Please join a presentation and panel discussion on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 from 1:00 – 2:00 PM (ET); 10:00 – 11:00 AM (PT) to hear from experts at Lucas Education Research and Springpoint Schools, as well as a principal, teacher, network leader, and student from a high school that is implementing PBL and CBE together. Gain insights to advance project-based learning practices in your CBE-focused school, district, or other setting—as well as to support your PBL initiatives with competency-based education practices. The presentation will be immediately followed by a 30-minute optional breakout discussion to go deeper into classroom and school implementation of PBL and CBE.

California Science Education Experience

Diving into SFUSD’s FREE NGSS-aligned curriculum for Middle School

Conference Date/Time: October 10th, 2021 10:15am PST

Speakers: Eric Lewis and Priscilla Perez

SESSION DESCRIPTION
Project-based learning is a long-standing approach to education, but it has never seemed more well-suited to preparing students for the future. In this presentation, Duke will share examples of project-based units that have In this workshop, participants will learn about the SFUSD Science Core Curriculum. This curriculum integrates a project-based curriculum with the 5E instructional model. The curriculum is free and can be adapted as needed for any classroom in any district.

Anne Frank Project 2021

Believe, Inspire, and Achieve through Project-Based Learning

Conference Date/Time: October 15, 2021 12:00pm EST, Social Justice Festival — The Anne Frank Project

Speaker: Nell K. Duke, University of Michigan

SESSION DESCRIPTION
Project-based learning is a long-standing approach to education, but it has never seemed more well-suited to preparing students for the future. In this presentation, Duke will share examples of project-based units that have been shown to foster achievement, inspire community engagement, and help us believe that students can contribute to creating a more socially just world. 

2021 ASU+GSV Summit

Where Does The Need to Know Come From? How Project-based Learning Wakes Up the Brain and Boosts Student Achievement and Equity

Watch the recorded session here.

Conference Date: August 10th, 2021 2:00pm PST

Moderator: Linda Darling-Hammond
Speakers: Steve Arnold, Deborah Peek-Brown, Amber Graeber, Gil Leal

SESSION DESCRIPTION
With all the concerns about “Covid slide” and pandemic “learning loss” educators are actively seeking ways to engage, motivate and accelerate students this school year. Consider a typical third grade science class where a teacher might ask: “Who can tell me two reasons why dinosaurs are extinct?” Now consider a project-based learning classroom where the question is: “Why do I see so many squirrels but can’t find any stegosauruses?” Which approach spurs the need to know? In this panel, you will hear from teachers, researchers and a student about rigorous PBL curricula and learn about new PBL studies that make a powerful case that K-12 students in all settings from all backgrounds make significant learning gains when offered active, challenging, authentic and relevant learning experiences.

2021 International Society of the Learning Sciences Annual Meeting

Aggregating Learning Sciences Knowledge Through Collaboratories (Tutorial)

Conference Dates: June 8-11, 2021

Organizers: Britte Haugan Cheng, Tiffany Lee Clark, Ann Edwards, Timothy Podkul

TUTORIAL DESCRIPTION
This half-day tutorial will share insights about collaboratories and their value as an innovative structure to support learning sciences challenges. Collaboratories foster a better understanding of how implementation contexts and designs of tools and practices interact, how to share this design knowledge, how to aggregate insights from researcher and practitioner partnerships, and how to use these insights to support scaling of tools and practices.

Core Practices for Project-Based Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Leaders

Publication Date: June, 2021
Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Leading effective Project-Based Learning classrooms is complex and challenging work. In Core Practices for Project Based Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Leaders, Pam Grossman, Zachary Herrmann, Sarah Kavanagh, and Christopher Pupik Dean identify and describe four primary goals of PBL teachers and the core teaching practices that support students in achieving those goals. Through vignettes and rich descriptions of teaching the authors illustrate how teachers can refine their practice to more effectively lead PBL classrooms that support deep disciplinary content learning, engage students in authentic work, support student collaboration, and build an iterative culture where students are always prototyping, reflecting, redesigning, editing, and trying again.