definition of projects in education

What is PBL?

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

In Project Based Learning, teachers make learning come alive for students.

Students work on a project over an extended period of time – from a week up to a semester – that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience.

As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. Project Based Learning unleashes a contagious, creative energy among students and teachers.

And in case you were looking for a more formal definition...

Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge.

Watch Project Based Learning in Action

These 7-10 minute videos show the Gold Standard PBL model in action, capturing the nuts and bolts of a PBL unit from beginning to end.

VIDEO: The Water Quality Project

VIDEO: March Through Nashville

VIDEO: The Tiny House Project

How does pbl differ from “doing a project”.

PBL is becoming widely used in schools and other educational settings, with different varieties being practiced. However, there are key characteristics that differentiate "doing a project" from engaging in rigorous Project Based Learning.

We find it helpful to distinguish a "dessert project" -  a short, intellectually-light project served up after the teacher covers the content of a unit in the usual way - from a "main course" project, in which the project is the unit. In Project Based Learning, the project is the vehicle for teaching the important knowledge and skills student need to learn. The project contains and frames curriculum and instruction.

In contrast to dessert projects, PBL requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication. To answer a driving question and create high-quality work, students need to do much more than remember information. They need to use higher-order thinking skills and learn to work as a team.

Learn more about "dessert" projects vs PBL

The gold standard for high-quality PBL

To help ensure your students are getting the main course and are engaging in quality Project Based Learning, PBLWorks promotes a research-informed model for “Gold Standard PBL.” 

The Gold Standard PBL model encompasses two useful guides for educators: 

1)  Seven Essential Project Design Elements  provide a framework for developing high quality projects for your classroom, and

2)  Seven Project Based Teaching Practices   help teachers, schools, and organizations improve, calibrate, and assess their practice.

The Gold Standard PBL model aligns with the High Quality PBL Framework . This framework describes what students should be doing, learning, and experiencing in a good project. Learn more at HQPBL.org .

Yes, we provide PBL training for educators! PBLWorks offers a variety of workshops, courses and services for teachers, school and district leaders, and instructional coaches to get started and advance their practice with Project Based Learning. Learn more

See Sample Projects

Explore our expanding library of project ideas, with over 80 projects that are standards-aligned, and cover a range of grade levels and subject areas.

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Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning refers to any programmatic or instructional approach that utilizes multifaceted projects as a central organizing strategy for educating students. When engaged in project-based learning, students will typically be assigned a project or series of projects that require them to use diverse skills—such as researching, writing, interviewing, collaborating, or public speaking—to produce various work products, such as research papers, scientific studies, public-policy proposals, multimedia presentations, video documentaries, art installations, or musical and theatrical performances, for example. Unlike many tests, homework assignments, and other more traditional forms of academic coursework, the execution and completion of a project may take several weeks or months, or it may even unfold over the course of a semester or year.

Closely related to the concept of authentic learning , project-based-learning experiences are often designed to address real-world problems and issues, which requires students to investigate and analyze their complexities, interconnections, and ambiguities (i.e., there may be no “right” or “wrong” answers in a project-based-learning assignment). For this reason, project-based learning may be called inquiry-based learning or learning by doing , since the learning process is integral to the knowledge and skills students acquire. Students also typically learn about topics or produce work that integrates multiple academic subjects and skill areas. For example, students may be assigned to complete a project on a local natural ecosystem and produce work that investigates its history, species diversity, and social, economic, and environmental implications for the community. In this case, even if the project is assigned in a science course, students may be required to read and write extensively (English); research local history using texts, news stories, archival photos, and public records (history and social studies); conduct and record first-hand scientific observations, including the analysis and tabulation of data (science and math); and develop a public-policy proposal for the conservation of the ecosystem (civics and government) that will be presented to the city council utilizing multimedia technologies and software applications (technology).

In project-based learning, students are usually given a general question to answer, a concrete problem to solve, or an in-depth issue to explore. Teachers may then encourage students to choose specific topics that interest or inspire them, such as projects related to their personal interests or career aspirations. For example, a typical project may begin with an open-ended question (often called an “essential question” by educators): How is the principle of buoyancy important in the design and construction of a boat? What type of public-service announcement will be most effective in encouraging our community to conserve water? How can our school serve healthier school lunches? In these cases, students may be given the opportunity to address the question by proposing a project that reflects their interests. For example, a student interested in farming may explore the creation of a school garden that produces food and doubles as a learning opportunity for students, while another student may choose to research health concerns related to specific food items served in the cafeteria, and then create posters or a video to raise awareness among students and staff in the school.

In public schools, the projects, including the work products created by students and the assessments they complete, will be based on the same state learning standards that apply to other methods of instruction—i.e., the projects will be specifically designed to ensure that students meet expected learning standards. While students work on a project, teachers typically assess student learning progress—including the achievement of specific learning standards—using a variety of methods, such as portfolios , demonstrations of learning , or rubrics , for example. While the learning process may be more student-directed than some traditional learning experiences, such as lectures or quizzes, teachers still provide ongoing instruction, guidance, and academic support to students. In many cases, adult mentors, advisers, or experts from the local community—such as scientists, elected officials, or business leaders—may be involved in the design of project-based experiences, mentor students throughout the process, or participate on panels that review and evaluate the final projects in collaboration with teachers.

As a reform strategy, project-based learning may become an object of debate both within a school or in the larger community. Schools that decide to adopt project-based learning as their primary method of instruction, as opposed to schools that are founded on the philosophy and use the method from their inception, are more likely to encounter criticism or resistance. The instructional nuances of project-based learning can also become a source of confusion and misunderstanding, given that the approach represents a fairly significant departure from more familiar conceptions of schooling.

In addition, there may be debate among educators about what specifically does and doesn’t constitute “project-based learning.” For example, some teachers may already be doing “projects” in their courses, and they might consider these activities to be a form of project-based learning, but others may dispute such claims because the projects do not conform to their more specific and demanding definition—i.e., they are not “authentic” forms of project-based learning since they don’t meet the requisite instructional criteria (such as the features described above).

The following are a few representative examples of the kinds of arguments typically made by advocates of project-based learning:

• Project-based learning gives students a more “integrated” understanding of the concepts and knowledge they learn, while also equipping them with practical skills they can apply throughout their lives. The interdisciplinary nature of project-based learning helps students make connections across different subjects, rather than perceiving, for example, math and science as discrete subjects with little in common.
• Because project-based learning mirrors the real-world situations students will encounter after they leave school, it can provide stronger and more relevant preparation for college and work. Student not only acquire important knowledge and skills, they also learn how to research complex issues, solve problems, develop plans, manage time, organize their work, collaborate with others, and persevere and overcome challenges, for example.
• Project-based learning reflects the ways in which today’s students learn. It can improve student engagement in school, increase their interest in what is being taught, strengthen their motivation to learn, and make learning experiences more relevant and meaningful.
• Since project-based learning represents a more flexible approach to instruction, it allows teachers to tailor assignments and projects for students with a diverse variety of interests, career aspirations, learning styles, abilities, and personal backgrounds. For related discussions, see differentiation and personalized learning .
• Project-based learning allows teachers and students to address multiple learning standards simultaneously. Rather than only meeting math standards in math classes and science standards in science classes, students can work progressively toward demonstrating proficiency in a variety of standards while working on a single project or series of projects. For a related discussion, see proficiency-based learning .

The following are few representative examples of the kinds of arguments that may be made by critics of project-based learning:

• Project-based learning may not ensure that students learn all the required material and standards they are expected to learn in a course, subject area, or grade level. When a variety of subjects are lumped together, it’s more difficult for teachers to monitor and assess what students have learned in specific academic subjects.
• Many teachers will not have the time or specialized training required to use project-based learning effectively. The approach places greater demands on teachers—from course preparation to instructional methods to the evaluation of learning progress—and schools may not have the funding, resources, and capacity they need to adopt a project-based-learning model.
• The projects that students select and design may vary widely in academic rigor and quality. Project-based learning could open the door to watered-down learning expectations and low-quality coursework.
• Project-based learning is not well suited to students who lack self-motivation or who struggle in less-structured learning environments .
• Project-based learning raises a variety of logistical concerns, since students are more likely to learn outside of school or in unsupervised settings, or to work with adults who are not trained educators.

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The Comprehensive Guide to Project-Based Learning: Empowering Student Choice through an Effective Teaching Method

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Resources and Tools

In K-12 education, project-based learning (PBL) has gained momentum as an effective inquiry-based, teaching strategy that encourages students to take ownership of their learning journey. 

By integrating authentic projects into the curriculum, project-based learning fosters active engagement, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. This comprehensive guide explores the principles, benefits, implementation strategies, and evaluation techniques associated with project-based instruction, highlighting its emphasis on student choice and its potential to revolutionize education.

What is Project-Based Learning?

Project-based learning (PBL) is a inquiry-based and learner-centered instructional approach that immerses students in real-world projects that foster deep learning and critical thinking skills. Project-based learning can be implemented in a classroom as single or multiple units or it can be implemented across various subject areas and school-wide. 

In contrast to teacher led instruction, project-based learning encourages student engagement, collaboration, and problem-solving, empowering students to become active participants in their own learning. Students collaborate to solve a real world problem that requires content knowledge, critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills.

Students aren’t only assessed on their understanding of academic content but on their ability to successfully apply that content when solving authentic problems. Through this process, project-based learning gives students the opportunity to develop the real-life skills required for success in today’s world. 

Positive Impacts of Project-Based Learning

By integrating project-based learning into the classroom, educators can unlock a multitude of benefits for students. The research evidence overwhelmingly supports the positive impact of PBL on students, teachers, and school communities. According to numerous studies (see  Deutscher et al, 2021 ;  Duke et al, 2020 ;  Krajick et al, 2022 ;  Harris et al, 2015 ) students in PBL classrooms not only outperform non-PBL classrooms academically, such as on state tests and AP exams, but also the benefits of PBL extend beyond academic achievement, as students develop essential skills, including creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. Additional studies documenting the impact of PBL on K-12 learning are available in the  PBL research annotated bibliography  on the New Tech Network website.

New Tech Network Project-Based Learning Impacts

Established in 1996, New Tech Network NTN is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming teaching and learning through innovative instructional practices, with project-based learning at its core.

NTN has an extensive network of schools across the United States that have embraced the power of PBL to engage students in meaningful, relevant, and challenging projects, with professional development to support teachers in deepening understanding of “What is project-based learning?” and “How can we deliver high quality project-based learning to all students?”

With over 20 years of experience in project-based learning, NTN schools have achieved impactful results. Several research studies documented that students in New Tech Network schools outperform their peers in non-NTN schools on SAT/ACT tests and state exams in both math and reading (see  Hinnant-Crawford & Virtue, 2019 ;  Lynch et al, 2018 ;  Stocks et al, 2019 ).  Additionally, students in NTN schools are more engaged and more likely to develop skills in collaboration, agency, critical thinking, and communication—skills highly valued in today’s workforce (see  Ancess & Kafka, 2020 ;  Muller & Hiller, 2020 ;  Zeiser, Taylor, et al, 2019 ). 

NTN provides comprehensive support to educators, including training, resources, and ongoing coaching, to ensure the effective implementation of problem-based learning and project-based learning. Through their collaborative network, NTN continuously shares best practices, fosters innovation, enables replication across districts, and empowers educators to create transformative learning experiences for their students (see  Barnett et al, 2020 ;  Hernández et al, 2019 ).

Key Concepts of Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is rooted in several key principles that distinguish it from other teaching methods. The pedagogical theories that underpin project-based learning and problem-based learning draw from constructivism and socio-cultural learning. Constructivism posits that learners construct knowledge through active learning and real world applications. Project-based learning aligns with this theory by providing students with opportunities to actively construct knowledge through inquiry, hands-on projects, real-world contexts, and collaboration.

Students as active participants

Project-based learning is characterized by learner-centered, inquiry-based, real world learning, which encourages students to take an active role in their own learning. Instead of rote memorization of information, students engage in meaningful learning opportunities, exercise voice and choice, and develop student agency skills. This empowers students to explore their interests, make choices, and take ownership of their learning process, with teachers acting as facilitators rather than the center of instruction.

Real-world and authentic contexts

Project-based learning emphasizes real-world problems that encourage students to connect academic content to meaningful contexts, enabling students to see the practical application of what they are learning. By tackling personally meaningful projects and engaging in hands-on tasks, students develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter and its relevance in their lives.

Collaboration and teamwork

Another essential element of project-based learning is collaborative work. Students collaborating with their peers towards the culmination of a project, mirrors real-world scenarios where teamwork and effective communication are crucial. Through collaboration, students develop essential social and emotional skills, learn from diverse perspectives, and engage in constructive dialogue.

Project-based learning embodies student-centered learning, real-world relevance, and collaborative work. These principles, rooted in pedagogical theories like constructivism, socio-cultural learning, and experiential learning, create a powerful learning environment, across multiple academic domains, that foster active engagement, thinking critically, and the development of essential skills for success in college or career or life beyond school.

A Unique Approach to Project-Based Learning: New Tech Network

New Tech Network schools are committed to these key focus areas: college and career ready outcomes, supportive and inclusive culture, meaningful and equitable instruction, and purposeful assessment.

In the New Tech Network Model, rigorous project-based learning allows students to engage with material in creative, culturally relevant ways, experience it in context, and share their learning with peers.

Why Undertake this Work?

Teachers, administrators, and district leaders undertake this work because it produces critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and collaborators who are vital to the long-term health and wellbeing of our communities.

Reynoldsburg City Schools (RCS) Superintendent Dr. Melvin J. Brown observed that “Prior to (our partnership with New Tech Network) we were just doing the things we’ve always done, while at the same time, our local industry was evolving and changing— and we were not changing with it. We recognized we had to do better to prepare kids for the reality they were going to walk into after high school and beyond.

Students embrace the Model because they feel a sense of belonging. They are challenged to learn in relevant, meaningful ways that shape the way they interact with the world, like  these students from Owensboro Innovation Academy in Owensboro, Kentucky . 

When change is collectively held and supported rather than siloed, and all stakeholders are engaged rather than alienated, schools and districts build their own capacity to sustain innovation and continuously improve. New Tech Network’s approach to change provides teachers, administrators, and district leaders with clear roles in adopting and adapting student-centered learning. 

Part of NTN’s process for equipping schools with the data they need to serve their students involves conducting research surveys about their student’s experiences. 

“The information we received back from our NTN surveys about our kids’ experiences was so powerful,” said Amanda Ziaer, Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives for Frisco ISD. “It’s so helpful to be reminded about these types of tactics when you’re trying to develop an authentic student-centered learning experience. It’s just simple things you might skip because we live in such a traditional adult-centered world.” 

NTN’s experienced staff lead professional development activities that enable educators to adapt to student needs and strengths, and amplify those strengths while adjusting what is needed to address challenges.

Meaningful and Equitable Instruction

The New Tech Network model is centered on a PBL instructional core. PBL as an instructional method overlaps with key features of equitable pedagogical approaches including student voice, student choice, and authentic contexts. The New Tech Network model extends the power of PBL as a tool for creating more equitable learning by building asset-based equity pedagogical practices into the the design using key practices drawn from the literature on culturally sustaining teaching methods so that PBL instruction leverages the assets of diverse students, supports teachers as warm demanders, and develops critically conscious students in PBL classrooms (see  Good teaching, warm and demanding classrooms, and critically conscious students: Measuring student perceptions of asset-based equity pedagogy in the classroom ).

Examples of Project-Based Learning

New Tech Network schools across the country create relevant projects and interdisciplinary learning that bring a learner-centered approach to their school.  Examples of NTN Model PBL Projects  are available in the NTN Help and Learning Center and enable educators to preview projects and gather project ideas from various grade levels and content areas.

The NTN Project Planning Toolkit is used as a guide in the planning and design of PBL. The Project-based learning examples linked above include a third grade Social Studies/ELA project, a seventh grade Science project, and a high school American Studies project (11th grade English Language Arts/American History).

The Role of Technology in Project-Based Learning

A tool for creativity

Technology plays a vital role in enhancing PBL in schools, facilitating student  engagement, collaboration, and access to information. At the forefront, technology provides students with tools and resources to research, analyze data, and create multimedia content for their projects.

A tool for collaboration

Technology tools enable students to express their understanding creatively through digital media, such as videos, presentations, vlogs, blogs and interactive websites, enhancing their communication and presentation skills.

A tool for feedback

Technology offers opportunities for authentic audiences and feedback. Students can showcase their projects to a global audience through online platforms, blogs, or social media, receiving feedback and perspectives from beyond the classroom. This authentic audience keeps students engaged and striving for high-quality work and encourages them to take pride in their accomplishments.

By integrating technology into project-based learning, educators can enhance student engagement, deepen learning, and prepare students for a digitally interconnected world.

Interactive PBL Resources

New Tech Network offers a wealth of resources to support educators in gaining a deeper understanding of project-based learning. One valuable tool is the NTN Help Center, which provides comprehensive articles and resources on the principles and practices of implementing project-based learning.

Educators can explore project examples in the NTN Help Center to gain inspiration and practical insights into designing and implementing PBL projects that align with their curriculum and student needs.

Educators can start with the article “ What are the basic principles and practices of Project-Based Learning? Doing Projects vs. PBL . ” The image within the article clarifies the difference between the traditional education approach of “doing projects” and true project-based learning.

Project Launch

Students are introduced to a project by an Entry Event in the Project Launch (designated in purple on the image) this project component typically requires students to take on a role beyond that of ‘student’ or ‘learner’. This occurs either by placing students in a scenario that has real world applications, in which they simulate tasks performed by adults and/or by requiring learners to address a challenge or problem facing a particular community group.

The Entry Event not only introduces students to a project but also serves as the “hook” that purposefully engages students in the launch of a project. The Entry Event is followed by the Need to Know process in which students name what they already know about a topic and the project ask and what they “need to know” in order to solve the problem named in the project. Next steps are created which support students as they complete the Project Launch phase of a project.

Scaffolding

Shown in the image in red, facilitators ensure students gain content knowledge and skills through ‘scaffolding’. Scaffolding is defined as temporary supports for students to build the skills and knowledge needed to create the final product. Similar to scaffolding in building construction, it is removed when these supports are no longer needed by students.

Scaffolding can take the form of a teacher providing support by hosting small group workshops, students engaging in independent research or groups completing learner-centered activities, lab investigations, formative assessments and more.

Benchmarks (seen in orange in the image) can be checks for understanding that allow educators to give feedback on student work and/or checks to ensure students are progressing in the project as a team. After each benchmark, students should be given time to reflect on their individual goals as well as their team goals. Benchmarks are designed to build on each other to support project teams towards the culminating product at the end of the project.

NTN’s Help Center also provides resources on what effective teaching and learning look like within the context of project-based learning. The article “ What does effective teaching and learning look like? ” outlines the key elements of a successful project-based learning classroom, emphasizing learner-centered learning, collaborative work, and authentic assessments. 

Educators can refer to this resource to gain insights into best practices, instructional strategies, and classroom management techniques that foster an engaging and effective project-based learning environment.

From understanding the principles and practices of PBL to accessing examples of a particular project, evaluating project quality, and exploring effective teaching and learning strategies, educators can leverage these resources to enhance their PBL instruction and create meaningful learning experiences for their students.

Preparing Students for the Future with PBL

The power of PBL is the way in which it encourages students to think critically, collaborate, and sharpen communication skills, which are all highly sought-after in today’s rapidly evolving workforce. By engaging in authentic, real-world projects, and collaborating with business and community leaders and community members, students develop the ability to tackle complex problems, think creatively, and adapt to changing circumstances.

These skills are essential in preparing students for the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the future job market, where flexibility, innovation, and adaptability are paramount. 

“Joining New Tech Network provides us an opportunity to reframe many things about the school, not just PBL,” said Bay City Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Patrick Malley. “Eliminating the deficit mindset about kids is the first step to establishing a culture that makes sure everyone in that school is focused on next-level readiness for these kids.”

The New Tech Network Learning Outcomes align with the qualities companies are looking for in new hires: Knowledge and Thinking, Oral Communication, Written Communication, Collaboration and Agency.

NTN schools prioritize equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge to pursue postsecondary education or training successfully. By integrating college readiness and career readiness into the fabric of PBL, NTN ensures that students develop the academic, technical, and professional skills needed for future success. 

Through authentic projects, students learn to engage in research, analysis, and presentation of their work, mirroring the expectations and demands of postsecondary education and the workplace. NTN’s commitment to college and career readiness ensures that students are well-prepared to transition seamlessly into higher education or enter the workforce with the skills and confidence to excel in their chosen paths.

The Impact of PBL on College and Career Readiness

PBL has a profound impact on college and career readiness. Numerous studies document the academic benefits for students, including performance in AP courses, SAT/ACT tests, and state exams (see  Deutscher et al, 2021 ;  Duke et al, 2020 ;  Krajick et al, 2022 ;  Harris et al, 2015 ). New Tech Network schools demonstrate higher graduation rates and college persistence rates than the national average as outlined in the  New Tech Network 2022 Impact Report . Over 95% of NTN graduates reported feeling prepared for the expectations and demands of college. 

Practices that Support Equitable College Access and Readiness

According to  a literature review conducted by New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools  ( Perez et al, 2021 ) classroom level, school level, and district level practices can be implemented to create more equitable college access and readiness and these recommendations align with many of the practices built into the the NTN model, including culturally sustaining instructional approaches, foundational literacy, positive student-teacher relationships, and developing shared asset-based mindsets.

About New Tech Network

New Tech Network is committed to meeting schools and districts where they are and helping them achieve their vision of student success. For a full list of our additional paths to impact or to speak with someone about how the NTN Model can make an impact in your district, please send an email to  [email protected] .

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What is Project-Based Learning? A Complete Guide For Educators

Published on: 12/04/2023

By Julia Bashore

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Project-based learning is a hands-on educational approach where students gain knowledge and skills by working for an ongoing, extended project to investigate and respond to a complex question, problem, or challenge.

In today’s educational world, it’s easy to feel like standardized tests have all the power.  From elementary to high school, multiple-choice tests carry a great deal of weight concerning everything from district funding to college admissions. Despite this, though, standardized tests aren’t exactly exciting, nor are they especially empowering for students.

As a teacher myself, I can tell that many of us lament the relentless drilling of skills to prepare students for a test they probably won’t even remember a few months later, but without standardized tests, how can we engage students in learning and applying important content?

The answer lies in Project-Based Learning. Researchers discovered that almost 50% of students in project-based learning environments successfully passed their AP exams, surpassing their peers in conventional classrooms by a margin of 8 percentage points. Let’s find out why…

What is Project Based Learning?

Project-Based Learning, or PBL, is rooted in action .  Students work on an ongoing project related to their grade level standards and receive scores and feedback for each milestone they accomplish.

Rather than focusing on teacher-led discussions, Project-Based Learning lets students make discoveries on their own.  By working on a project for an extended period of time, students gradually build their problem-solving and critical thinking skills while acquiring and applying new knowledge.

This approach puts learning directly in the hands of the students. Instead of simply memorizing facts or plugging in numbers, they must collaborate with one another to grow in their abilities to reason, revise, and reflect on solutions for an ongoing educational question or challenge. This active engagement fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills, encouraging students to take ownership of their learning journey and apply their knowledge in practical, real-world contexts.

How is Project Based Learning Different From “Normal” Classroom Projects?

Project Based Learning may sound familiar to anyone who recalls throwing together a science fair project or crafting a book report diorama back in the day.  Authentic PBL, however, is a far deeper dive into knowledge and learning than the classroom projects we remember from yesteryear.

In order to fit the criteria of Project Based Learning, the assignment students are working on cannot merely be an accessory to a unit of study.  Instead, the project is the unit of study.

Consider a second-grade reading class learning about different story genres.  In a traditional classroom setting, students might complete several quizzes and tests on each type of story, then put together a simple report or poster highlighting their favorite at the end of the unit.  While this is a perfectly viable way to teach this content, it’s not Project-Based Learning.

Project Based Learning might achieve the same goal by giving students a challenging question to work towards over the semester, such as: How can we make different types of stories come alive for young readers in the community?

Students would then be placed into teams or groups and given time to brainstorm their ideas.  They would work together to closely read several examples of each genre and map out storyboards and scripts to make them “come alive.”

Students would then revise and edit together before finalizing video performances of their favorite stories.  Each video might include a rubric of important plot elements, as well as a summary of the story’s main idea or theme.

Students could publish their completed video projects to a schoolwide channel or play them for other classes to share their finished work.  They might then reflect with one another on how and why it’s important to keep stories engaging and exciting for future readers.

This project, adapted from The Storytime Channel example offered by MyPBLWorks , is an example of an ongoing, meaningful project that comprises an entire in-depth unit of study.

The project itself is multi-faceted and requires thorough knowledge and understanding of the topic, as well as the capacity for critical thinking and self-reflection.

Instead of merely being the “cherry on top,” the project in a PBL classroom is the entire main dish.

How to Go for the Gold with Project Based Learning

To reach that main dish level of impact, Project Based Learning assignments should ideally incorporate seven project design elements.  Take a look at each below to get a better understanding of why they work together to form meaningful, successful projects.

• Challenging Problem or Question. In order for a project to help students grow academically, it needs to spark curiosity.  PBL projects are centered around solving meaningful problems or answering impactful questions, rather than simply following directions. Again, consider the difference between “How can we make different types of stories come alive for young readers?” versus “Describe and give examples of your three favorite story genres.”  A meaningful question creates a more empowering goal for students to work towards.
• Sustained Inquiry. Students should go through several rigorous cycles of asking questions, researching answers, and applying new skills as they work to complete their projects.  There should be ongoing growth as students wonder, learn, and then continue to wonder and learn at a more sophisticated level. If the assignment or activity does not prompt sustained inquiry over the course of time it takes to reach completion, then the project is not in-depth enough for real Project-Based Learning.
• Authenticity. Just as the project’s central question or problem should be meaningful, every step along the way should also be rooted in real-world skills that matter to students’ everyday lives.  The project should be based in an authentic context and have a clear impact on students’ personal concerns and interests. By keeping authentic issues at the crux of the project, students are able to widen their focus, think more deeply, and, ultimately, get more out of their learning.
• Student Voice & Choice.   Projects should also be structured to allow all of the contributors to express themselves.  Students should have a say in decisions related to the project, and each group member should be able to make choices on the roles they will play throughout the experience. As students get more confident in voicing their strengths and ideas, they will not only submit better work, but will also become better advocates for themselves.  Allowing students to have a measure of control over the work they do creates more personal investment and engagement in the process, and helps each individual tap into their own potential.
• Reflection.   Making time for genuine reflection is often an overlooked part of today’s educational world, but I’ve found it’s one of the most essential steps in actually growing as a learner.  PBL classrooms factor in time for students and teachers to review the effectiveness of each project-based activity. Teachers can offer praise and guidance as students continue to progress, and students can identify areas where they have done well and where they might wish to improve.  This results in a clearer understanding of expectations and a more thoughtful approach to each element of the project.
• Critique & Revision. Following a period of reflection, students are also expected to give and receive meaningful feedback throughout each unit’s project.  By collaborating on and revising their work, students create a more polished final product and learn to be comfortable with criticism. Learning to carefully and kindly critique a teammate’s work can build a student’s own thinking and learning potential.  On the other hand, practicing how to gracefully respond to others’ suggestions is an important skill both in and out of the academic world.
• Public Product.   In PBL classrooms, students celebrate the completion of their hard work by presenting or displaying it to folks outside of the classroom itself. Whether it’s a performance, a presentation, a published booklet, a video, a speech, or a display at a local library or community center, making a finished product public is a huge part of PBL.  By taking finished projects outside the classroom, students can take ownership and feel proud of the real work they’ve accomplished.

Make PBL Work For Your Class

These seven gold-standard criteria are easy to implement across a variety of classroom levels.  From Kindergarten to high school, meaningful projects are always an important way to engage students and teach them to grow as classmates, researchers, and citizens.

Students in first grade may work in teams to design their ideal playground as they learn about force, motion, and simple machines.  They can practice simple math facts as they calculate the height of slides and swings, and work on their writing and reading skills as they record and diagram their ideas.  Finished ideas could be shared with the principal or displayed around local parks.

Students in fifth grade, meanwhile, might work to raise awareness about endangered animals by researching and writing about their habitats, predators, and defenses.  They could then design nonfiction books to distribute to their community and film campaigns suggesting ways to protect these animals in the future.

Middle schoolers, on the other hand, could team up to create an app that would benefit young people’s learning.  They could brainstorm, practice writing pitches, and ultimately learn about coding as they create an app in the field of their choosing.  Completed apps could be shared online or in a school-wide demo or fair.

Down the line, high schoolers might be involved in projects centered around local or international issues, such as promoting clean water quality, conserving natural resources, or solving issues like homelessness in the community.  These projects could be presented to the school board or local officials, as well as displayed on social media, to create authentic buy-in.

Moving Forward with Project Based Learning

Clearly, there are no limits to the potential of Project Based Learning.  If you can dream it, your students can do it.

Whether you’re teaching how to read ,  how to code , math, science, or something else, there are plenty of ways to incorporate PBL.

By adapting your vision to encompass the seven gold-standard criteria, you can guarantee that your project will promote collaboration, growth, and academic rigor for all the members of your class.

While PBL may take a bit more effort than grading those fill-in-the-blank worksheets, I truly believe that implementing it effectively will give your students the chance to achieve thorough, meaningful knowledge about a topic that genuinely interests them and contributes to their society.

Not a lot of standardized tests can boast the same.

Other Useful Resources

• What is Adaptive Learning?
• What is Inquiry Based Learning?
• What is Just in Time Learning?
• What is Microlearning?
• What is Problem Based Learning?
• What is Service Learning?

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What is Inquiry-Based Learning? A Complete Guide for Educators

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Project-Based Learning

This teaching guide explores the different types of project-based learning (PBL), its benefits, and tips for implementation in your classes.

Introduction

Project-based learning (PBL) involves students designing, developing, and constructing hands-on solutions to a problem. The educational value of PBL is that it aims to build students’ creative capacity to work through difficult or ill-structured problems, commonly in small teams. Typically, PBL takes students through the following phases or steps:

• Identifying a problem
• Agreeing on or devising a solution and potential solution path to the problem (i.e., how to achieve the solution)
• Designing and developing a prototype of the solution
• Refining the solution based on feedback from experts, instructors, and/or peers

Depending on the goals of the instructor, the size and scope of the project can vary greatly. Students may complete the four phases listed above over the course of many weeks, or even several times within a single class period.

Because of its focus on creativity and collaboration, PBL is enhanced when students experience opportunities to work across disciplines, employ technologies to make communication and product realization more efficient, or to design solutions to real-world problems posed by outside organizations or corporations. Projects do not need to be highly complex for students to benefit from PBL techniques. Often times, quick and simple projects are enough to provide students with valuable opportunities to make connections across content and practice.

Implementing project-based learning

As a pedagogical approach, PBL entails several key processes:

• Defining problems in terms of given constraints or challenges
• Generating multiple ideas to solve a  given problem
• Prototyping — often in rapid iteration — potential solutions to a problem
• Testing the developed solution products or services in a “live” or authentic setting.

Defining the problem

PBL projects should start with students asking questions about a problem. What is the nature of problem they are trying to solve? What assumptions can they make about why the problem exists? Asking such questions will help students frame the problem in an appropriate context. If students are working on a real-world problem, it is important to consider how an end user will benefit from a solution.

Generating ideas

Next, students should be given the opportunity to brainstorm and discuss their ideas for solving the problem. The emphasis here is not to generate necessarily good ideas, but to generate many ideas. As such, brainstorming should encourage students to think wildly, but to stay focused on the problem. Setting guidelines for brainstorming sessions, such as giving everyone a chance to voice an idea, suspending judgement of others’ ideas, and building on the ideas of others will help make brainstorming a productive and generative exercise.

Prototyping solutions

Designing and prototyping a solution are typically the next phase of the PBL process. A prototype might take many forms: a mock-up, a storyboard, a role-play, or even an object made out of readily available materials such as pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, and rubber bands. The purpose of prototyping is to expand upon the ideas generated during the brainstorming phase, and to quickly convey a how a solution to the problem might look and feel. Prototypes can often expose learners’ assumptions, as well as uncover unforeseen challenges that an end user of the solution might encounter. The focus on creating simple prototypes also means that students can iterate on their designs quickly and easily, incorporate feedback into their designs, and continually hone their problem solutions.

Students may then go about taking their prototypes to the next level of design: testing. Ideally, testing takes place in a “live” setting. Testing allows students to glean how well their products or services work in a real setting. The results of testing can provide students with important feedback on the their solutions, and generate new questions to consider. Did the solution work as planned? If not, what needs to be tweaked? In this way, testing engages students in critical thinking and reflection processes.

Unstructured versus structured projects

Research suggests that students learn more from working on unstructured or ill-structured projects than they do on highly structured ones. Unstructured projects are sometimes referred to as “open ended,” because they have no predictable or prescribed solution. In this way, open ended projects require students to consider assumptions and constraints, as well as to frame the problem they are trying to solve. Unstructured projects thus require students to do their own “structuring” of the problem at hand – a process that has been shown to enhance students’ abilities to transfer learning to other problem solving contexts.

Using Design Thinking in Higher Education (Educause)

Design Thinking and Innovation (GSM SI 839)

Project Based Learning through a Maker’s Lens (Edutopia)

You may also be interested in:

Case-based learning, game-based learning & gamification, assessment for experiential learning, designing experiential learning projects, creativity/innovation hub guide, partnerships in experiential learning: faq, experiential learning resources for faculty: introduction, reflection for experiential learning.

Project-Based Learning

What is project-based learning.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is more than just a teaching method. It is a revitalization of education for students so that they can develop intellectually and emotionally. By using real-world scenarios, challenges, and problems, students gain useful knowledge and skills that increase during their designated project periods. The goal of using complex questions or problems is to develop and enhance student learning by encouraging critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, and self-management. The project’s proposed question drives students to make their own decisions, perform their own research, and review their own and fellow students’ processes and projects.

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Why Project-Based Learning?

We believe that PBL is an integral key to increasing student success and long-term growth. The combination of collaboration, reflection, and individual decision-making gives the students an applicable scenario to real-world situations that they will face as they mature. Moreover, we believe that the authenticity of PBL allows students to voice their personal interests, concerns, or issues that are significant parts of their lives. Instead of a pre-determined project or assignment, students can witness the issues or concerns in their community, discover one that they find particularly interesting, and brainstorm ways to address or solve the problem.

Allowing students to have this control, we believe that PBL can develop deeper learning proficiencies necessary for tertiary education, careers, and life in society. School becomes much more engaging through active participation in projects that focus on real-world issues rather than passively attending classes. Furthermore, PBL provides content and skills that students can actively apply in future life events and situations.

Using PBL is not only beneficial to students; it also makes teaching much more gratifying and pleasurable. Teachers have the chance to engage with students on a higher personal level by discovering their interests and concerns and then performing important, high-quality work alongside them. Through this, teachers and students alike can revive their passion for learning.

In addition to finding resources, developing project timelines, and learning to overcome obstacles, students have the opportunity to publicly display their work. Displaying their completed projects in public gives the students the chance to grow their public speaking and presentation skills while explaining their project’s outcome to individuals outside of the classroom.

At Educators of America, we believe that PBL is one of the best ways to connect students and their schools to their surrounding communities and the real world. We believe that projects developed by PBL methods are empowering students and teachers to make a real difference. Whether that be developing a sustainable school garden or investigating cell phone service providers to analyze the best plan for them and their families; the opportunities with PBL are endless.

Technology and PBL

Students and teachers today are very familiar with new technology and technological tools. When deploying PBL, students can perform better research, collect outside information, and collaborate easier and faster with fellow students, teachers, and industry experts.

Presentations are no longer tri-folds and printed datasheets, with technology, students can display presentations that better visualize their results and development process to audiences both in and outside of the classroom. When speaking of audiences and how the students present to them, technology becomes an avenue of authenticity whereby students can connect with members of an audience via video or telecommunications during the middle or at the end of a project.

Furthermore, by using technology in conjunction with PBL, students can use the technological tools available to them most effectively and how they can use them with an intentional purpose. By gaining a deeper understanding of why technology exists and how it can be used, students develop an advanced literacy of the technology they use. The creation of this knowledge can lead to future habits or practices of project management and collaboration in students’ education, career, and civic participation. As students collaborate on a project, technology such as Evernote, Edmodo, and Wikis, becomes essential for storing data and information. Teachers can also use these technologies to send out the necessary material and files to learners and students.

As mentioned previously, the concept of technology literacy is a skill that in the 21st century seems standard. However, how is it measured? How do teachers and students assess themselves in terms of proficiency? Teachers can use quality indicators from ISTE NETS for measuring their students’ use of technology. It not only provides rubrics but also allows students to reflect on what they have learned and seek opportunities to gain more technology information from classmates or educators.

There are a plethora of avenues and means to adopt PBL into your classroom, school, or community. At Educators of America, our goal is to help you do just that .

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What Is Project-Based Learning?

Project-based learning is the student-centered process of learning through the design, development, and completion of projects.

Project-Based Learning? A Definition.

by Terry Heick

In one sentence, project-based learning (PBL) is the process of learning through projects.

To be a bit more specific, PBL is the process of learning through the design, development, and completion of projects.

It can be useful to think of it in terms of what it’s not– The Difference Between Projects And Project-Based Learning , for example. PBL is not completing projects or it’d be called ‘Learning-Based Projects’–or just ‘projects.’ In quality PBL, the goal is learning and the projects help facilitate that learning. That is, projects act as vehicles.

PBL depends on background knowledge, learner choice, technology tools, support from others, and dozens of other factors that result in a process of learning that produces very different results and ‘projects’

In 3 Types Of Project-Based Learning , we gave a definition for project-based learning that we’re using as a basis to push the idea a bit further.

Characteristics Of Project-Based Learning

What are the characteristics of PBL? According to Joseph S. Krajcik and Phyllis C. Blumenfeld in The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (2006)–who quote the research of Blumenfeld et al., 1991; Krajcik, et al., 1994; Krajcik, Czerniak, & Berger, 2002)–PBL experiences:

“They start with a driving question, a problem to be solved.

Students explore the driving question by participating in authentic, situated inquiry – processes of problem-solving that are central to expert performance in the discipline. As students explore the driving question, they learn and apply important ideas in the discipline.

Students, teachers, and community members engage in collaborative activities to find solutions to the driving question. This mirrors the complex social situation of expert problem-solving.

While engaged in the inquiry process, students are scaffolding with learning technologies that help them participate in activities normally beyond their ability.

Students create a set of tangible products that address the driving question. These are shared artifacts, publicly accessible external representations of the class’s learning.”

Benefits Of Project-Based Learning

• Requires critical thinking (e.g., design, evaluation, analysis, judgment, prioritizing, etc.). This is in contrast to other forms of learning that hope to ‘promote’ critical thinking but can be accomplished without it.
• Driven by inquiry
• Combines knowledge and competencies/skills
• Illuminates learning as iterative and recursive (as opposed to learn–>study–>assess–>move on)
• Student-Centered
• Unifies other disparate skills
• Easy to align with standards

Teaching Through Project-Based Learning

From a teacher’s perspective, Project-Based Learning is a method of structuring curriculum around projects to promote learning of prioritized academic content. These projects highlight the process of learning itself by offering authentic, inquiry-based activities for learners to access content, share ideas, and revisit their own thinking.

At the risk of becoming redundant, return again to the difference between projects and project-based learning–primarily that Project-Based Learning is about the process , and projects are about the product that comes at the end. 

Project-Based Learning often requires students not simply to collect resources, organize work, and manage long-term activities, but also to collaborate, design, revise, and share their ideas and experiences with authentic audiences and supportive peer groups in the classroom, or within physical and digital communities the student is a member of and contributes to.

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Project-based learning: definition, benefits and ideas

Learning and Development

Table of contents

Project-based learning is a teaching method in which students apply an active inquiry approach to real-world challenges and problems.

Organizing and implementing the project-based learning method of teaching includes a commitment on the part of all those involved to carry out activities in which the investigation of authentic real-world problems, the development of solutions and discussion are key. 

To provide you with an approach to this type of teaching, in this article we will take you by the hand through the subject. We will start by explaining what project-based learning is , then we will show you its benefits and end by sharing with you a series of ideas related to the subject.  

What is project-based learning?

Project-based learning or PBL is a teaching method in which the curriculum takes the student as the center of reference to develop learning through research, questions and the resolution of non-fictional situations in the real world.

The teacher’s role is one of accompaniment and does not instruct the students, but rather it is the students who face a learning process that must be open, participatory and focused on critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.

PBL is such an attractive process as to encourage students to engage in it and develop their own approaches by delving deeper into answers and solutions to present a final resolute result. 

With the final presentation of the prototypes, students show the problems solved, the research processes and methods used, as well as the results obtained. 

From all this, they can receive feedback and undergo a review of the plans and the projects as if it were one in real life. 

9 benefits of project-based learning

Implementing a curriculum focused on project-based learning brings a number of benefits that we detail below:

Strengthens long-term retention of what is learned 

The direct research process to find solutions, measures and tools, as well as the practical involvement in the resolution of the project, make the learning more established and last longer in the student’s memory.  

On the other hand, the fact of being personally involved makes the concentration on learning to be more intense and the final performance also yields better results.

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It generates intrinsic motivation and engagement 

The student’s participation in this type of teaching is voluntary and is usually a response to a self-motivation to learn in a different way. 

Believing that this is the learning that best fits their expectations of study, leads the student to a greater commitment to the project. 

Improves technological skills

The irruption of ICTs in education has meant a wonderful discovery of the power of technology when it comes to improving learning processes. 

Among the tools to consult and use, the technological ones are especially relevant, helping the student to carry out research with a much wider range of sources consulted -always under the premise of respect for digital privacy – and with a saving of search times also to be taken into account. 

Enhances project management competence

Students are submitted to the resolutions by themselves -or in a team- of a project based on real problems. 

The achievement of the project is obtained by going through the whole management process from the beginning to the end. 

Project-based learning can be focused on large, long projects or on smaller projects. Also, as we have anticipated, it can correspond to a solo project or to collaborative projects with other students with whom to form a team. 

Encourages active and continuous learning

Tackling a possibly unfamiliar starting project involves a thorough investigation of topics and resources that perfectly symbolizes active learning . 

Students search for the resources and means that will help them create the prototype of the final project to be presented. 

Once students have discovered the benefits of research and documentation, their receptiveness to participate naturally in continuous learning processes is self-evident.

Develops communication skills

The learner must be able to communicate with others the needs, solutions or results they are obtaining as their work progresses.

Whether we focus on communication with other team members, when the project so requires, or if we talk about a solo project, in all cases the ability to communicate the aspects mentioned in the previous paragraph are key to a successful achievement. 

If communication fails, does not exist or is erroneous, the factors associated with it, such as the correct understanding of the project, can be compromised. 

In addition to presenting their impressions and views, learners must be able to listen to the opinions of others. 

Boosts collaborative and teamwork skills

Collaborative and teamwork skills are directly related to communication and engagement, and help the learner develop relationships that are key to their academic and personal growth.

These collaborative skills end up extending and creating a development of peers, professional networks and members of the industry. 

Reinforces creativity

Students enrolled in project-based learning programs are more predisposed to think innovatively and creatively. 

This is logical when you consider that they have total freedom to explore different approaches and methods, as well as being an excellent opportunity to express their personality and talent through their work. 

Enhances critical thinking and problem solving skills 

This benefit makes sense, since the student is confronted with the pragmatic resolution of problems that are not solved in textbooks. 

We are not talking about a traditional study, in this case thinking beyond the established and collected is the key to move the project forward. 

10 ideas for project-based learning

There is a multitude of options that fit in the project-based learning, so we will use a battery of 10 ideas so that from them you can think of a better development of those mentioned or so that having these references you can think of your own. 

• Design of a community garden. 
• Create prototypes of accessories for existing machinery. 
• Innovate recipes based on new cooking techniques.
• Design food programs for people with specific health problems.  
• Simulate trials on specific causes. 
• Create sustainable city plans. 
• Research new technological applications based on renewable energies. 
• Create interactive digital maps of specific regions. 
• Research specific artistic movements and create their own works inspired by these movements.
• Create reports with different statistics to identify patterns of behavior after analyzing the data. After that, develop strategies for prevention or problem solving. 

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Implementing the Project Approach in an Inclusive Classroom: A Teacher’s First Attempt With Project-Based Learning (Voices)

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Thoughts on the Article | Barbara A. Henderson,  Voices  Executive Editor

Stacey Alfonso was teaching in an inclusion preschool in New York City, serving children with a range of special learning and developmental differences when she conducted this research. As she strove to embrace the child-centered inquiry that is at the heart of the project approach, she struggled with general expectations within her school culture that curriculum and instruction be teacher directed instead of cocreated with the children. Her teacher research makes a valuable contribution to the literature because she provides clear and believable examples of how the project approach worked for the children with special needs and examples of the challenges she faced due to the newness of her approach, her lack of mentors, and the varied learning strengths of the children. Stacey is especially effective in communicating the voices and work products of the children, showing how they are fully capable and eager to undertake inquiry and direct their own learning. Her trust in the children and her joy at their discoveries provided a turning point in her career that informs her current teaching in a forest school.

One of the biggest challenges I faced during my years teaching in an inclusive prekindergarten classroom was differentiating instruction. I was constantly searching for methods to engage all children because their wide range of abilities and needs required me to offer varied outlets for learning. My school held to a theme-based curriculum with a strong backbone of structure that guided classroom activities and children’s learning. I held to this approach as well, until, as I gained experience as an educator and learned more about child development, I began to question what I was doing and to seek alternative methods.

I wanted the children in my classroom to be motivated, authentically engaged, and excited to learn. I wanted them to take hold of their learning and drive their own experiences. The children were learning; still, I felt that their experiences should be more personal than I had been able to provide using a teacher-derived curriculum. I thought this could be best accomplished in an open-ended environment where children are free to explore and follow their interests. But how could this be done within my school’s current approach? I found my answer when I discovered the project approach.

The literature I read presented a pedagogy that would motivate and engage children with a diverse range of abilities, allowing them the freedom to explore their own interests, yet still provide enough structure to fit into my school’s current culture (Harris & Gleim 2008; Beneke & Ostrosky 2009; Katz, Chard, & Kogen 2014). My research question for this study was, How can I implement the project approach in my inclusive classroom in a preschool that has a history of structured, teacher-driven curriculum?

Review of literature

John Dewey was among the first to suggest that an ideal way for children to learn is by planning their own activities and implementing those plans, thereby providing opportunities for multilevel instruction, cooperative learning, peer support, and individualized learning (Harris & Gleim 2008). Today, many teachers find that project-based learning meets Dewey’s goals (Beneke & Ostrosky 2009; Yuen 2009; Brewer 2010). Overall, the project approach is viewed as empowering to children because they are active participants in shaping their own learning (Harris & Gleim 2008; Harte 2010; Helm & Katz 2011)

The project approach: A brief overview

The project approach seemed to be a good fit with my goal of finding a new way to engage and intrinsically motivate the children in my classroom, while meeting a wide range of needs. My research also suggested this approach would produce a well-organized curriculum that was straightforward to implement. The project approach involves children’s in-depth investigation of a worthwhile topic developed through authentic questions (Mitchell et al. 2009; Katz & Chard 2013). The teacher’s role is to support children through their inquiry. Teachers help children become responsible for their work, guide them to document and report their findings, and provide opportunities for choice (Katz & Chard 2013; Katz, Chard, & Kogen 2014).

I was encouraged that the project approach uses a specific three-phase design, because this structure seemed compatible with my school’s culture. During phase one,  selecting a topic , teachers build common experiences by talking with children about their personal experiences to determine interests and helping children articulate specific questions as a topic emerges (Mitchell et al. 2009; Yuen 2010; Helm & Katz 2011; Katz & Chard 2013).

Phase two,  data collection , emphasizes meaningful hands-on experiences. Children are researchers, gaining new information as they collect data to answer their questions. This phase is the bulk of the project investigation and takes place through direct and authentic experiences such as field trips, events, and interviews with visiting experts (Harte 2010; Katz & Chard 2013). Children can also gather data through secondary sources, including books, photos, videos, and websites.

Phase three,  the culminating event , is a time to conclude the experience, usually through a summarizing event or activity (Mitchell et al. 2009). The children’s role continues to be central and the class often holds discussions on what they have learned to create a plan to share their insights (Harte 2010).

Methodology and research design

After reading extensively about the project approach, I felt ready to implement it in my classroom.

Setting and participants

I conducted my study in a small private preschool on the Upper West Side in New York City. The school has a decades-long history in the neighborhood, and families have come to trust and love the educators there. The school’s traditional curricular model of teacher-driven, thematic-based learning is well established and, as far as I know, had not been previously challenged or adapted.

Study participants included 13 pre-K children, my two coteachers, and myself. The children had a diverse range of abilities. Seven children had significant sensory processing issues, two had severe cognitive and language delays, and four had mild language delays and/or mild sensory processing issues. Most children who enroll at the school can attend and participate independently, although some require one-on-one support with a therapist.

Data collection and analysis

Throughout the study, I collected and analyzed data through field notes, a reflective journal, children’s work, and anecdotal records that included photos, videos, and audio recordings. My primary source of data was field notes, which I used to provide a day-to-day recollection of how the project-based curriculum affected the children. The Teacher Notes app on the iPad and iPhone helped me collect and analyze the field notes. I kept project planning journals using a notebook and the Evernote app on my iPad. The software provided me with flexibility because it was accessible via iPad, iPhone, and computer; therefore, I was able to take ample notes and continually reflect upon my plans and implementation.

Helping children understand that they could find answers to their questions made a difference.

I collected work samples from the children—their writing, drawing, and artwork. The samples helped me assess children’s progress, and they became an additional source for documenting the growth in children’s participation throughout the project. Finally, I used videos, audio recordings, and photographs to document children in the process of working.

At least weekly, I read and reflected on my field notes to identify emerging themes. At least twice a week during prep time, I reflected on my Evernote journal to help with planning. Additionally, I continually reviewed and organized children’s work using Teacher Notes and listened to and watched audio and video recordings as they accrued, noting themes such as children using research terms or working independently to find answers to their questions.

Organizing and maintaining this ongoing analysis helped tremendously with my summative data analysis. Using Teacher Notes ,  I pulled up applicable field notes and data sources in many different arrangements. I then printed and sorted the notes by hand, which provided me with a means of discovering the themes that best captured the scope of my findings.

As I had hoped, I saw the children happily engaged and enthusiastic about learning as we developed our project—a study of the neighborhood. However, the journey also came with challenges and surprises not recorded in the literature I had reviewed. My findings are organized into three themes: (1) children as researchers, (2) learning and growing through research, and (3) challenges with the culminating event.

Children as researchers

To allow the children to get to know their new school and to provide some practice with research skills, we began the school year with a mini teacher-initiated project about the school before starting our child-initiated project. My coteachers and I introduced the words  research  and  investigate . Soon, the children adopted this new vocabulary. For example, a question about our school kitchen led a child to excitedly report, “I investigated the kitchen, and I found ice cream!”

The children responded well to my intentional efforts to honor their questions, including those that were not directly related to the project content. For example, shortly after starting our neighborhood project, a group was working on a craft using glue sticks. One girl asked, “Why are there lines on this glue stick?” I took her question seriously and responded, “I don’t know, let’s find out.” She was completely engaged from that moment, and we made a plan to research her question. We decided to open her glue stick and look inside. She hadn’t expected me to embrace her question, much less suggest a firsthand experience of discovery in which I allowed the destruction of the glue stick to honor her curiosity.

After a couple weeks, I found that children started to use the research vocabulary and inquiry approaches more independently. For example, we read a book and then discussed the similarities and differences between our neighborhood and the one in the story. One girl stated, “We don’t have a Laundromat, I think. We don’t have it here because my mommy does it at home.” Another girl disagreed. Then a third child said, “We can take a walk and look.” I was elated to find the children’s independent conversations included a foundation of inquiry. The emphasis we had placed on helping children understand that they themselves could find answers to their questions had already made a difference.

In addition to finding answers from firsthand experience, the children learned that they could find answers from books. They initially needed guidance and leading questions to help them locate secondary sources, but their abilities developed over time. For example, the children wondered what vehicles were in the neighborhood. So in mid-September, a group of children sat in a park and tallied vehicles, including cars, taxis, buses, bicycles, trucks, and ambulances. Upon returning from this research endeavor, a child wanted to build a bus from clay. Without teacher prompting, a friend went to the bookshelf to get a book that depicted a bus. They looked at the book together to understand the parts of a bus and then recreated them with clay. This shift was important, as it was becoming clear that children were conducting a form of research and doing so independently. Indeed, beginning in September, research had already become an important part of our classroom, and the children’s skills and range of approaches grew throughout the fall. 

Learning and growing through research

One instance in which this inquiry was evident occurred when two girls independently extended an activity to create a large drawing of our neighborhood. The children’s initial goal was to determine whether the neighborhood contained things like signs, fire hydrants, specific businesses, and trees, and we were able to verify those questions on one of our walks. After the walk, the class collectively summarized what we had found by completing our previously created checklist. When I made the list available so the children could add drawings of things they had seen on our walk that were not included on their list, the two girls took this activity to the next level. They began making little drawings on the chart, and then, realizing they were going for something bigger, they turned the paper over to “draw our neighborhood.”

Another example came from the children’s growing interest in the metal scaffolding they observed around buildings. After an earlier walk during which we saw a building surrounded with scaffolding, one boy returned to the classroom and enthusiastically drew a picture of the “worker building.” On our next walk, we paid close attention to the scaffolding and encouraged the children to touch and explore it closely. The next day, the same child who had drawn the worker building created buildings with scaffolding all around themin the block area. He talked with a peer as they built collaboratively, and they both incorporated the new word  scaffolding  correctly. They balanced the blocks and talked about symmetry as they completed their structure. Weeks later, when we discussed how to make a model of our neighborhood for our culminating event to showcase what we had learned, the children noted that we would need scaffolding because “we have a lot of it.”

I found that the active, hands-on experiences common to the project approach also helped some children stay on task. One child had a great deal of enthusiasm and eagerness to participate, but it was challenging for him to contribute successfully and stay focused in the classroom. This boy loved our research walks through the neighborhood; he was able to stay on topic as we discussed the buildings while he was touching and looking at them. For example, he made many on-topic contributions to conversations as we peered into store windows. Later, he was even able to produce a drawing of the school, saying, “This is our school. There is a top and a door and a window.” The drawing was one of the most detailed he had ever created, and he completed it right after we had investigated the building in which our school is located.

Challenges with the culminating event

Throughout our study, the children showed excitement as we went on our research walks, and they were consistently focused and serious when working in the classroom. It became clear, however, that we should begin to wrap up the neighborhood study when, in late October, the children’s interests shifted toward leaves and a nearby field where they could run through the accumulating piles. They were less excited about investigating our neighborhood, and I knew that to keep true to the project approach, we needed to conclude our study and share what the class had collectively learned (phase three). However, the culminating event presented some major difficulties I had not anticipated.

When I suggested to the children that we conclude our project, they showed little to no interest. Forging onward, I began a class discussion by saying, “We learned so much about our neighborhood, it would be wonderful to share this with the other class, the administration, and even your parents.” When I asked for ideas, I received a carpet full of blank stares. One girl responded, “I don’t know.” When I mentioned that parents would love to learn what we had been doing, another child responded by talking about his family. Finally, after much teacher prompting, we decided to build a model of our neighborhood and have the children’s families come in to see it.

The next day I held a short planning meeting with the children to figure out how we could build our neighborhood. I brought out materials for them to consider, including pipe cleaners, paper plates, straws, streamers, boxes, and drawing materials. I hoped that the variety would give them something concrete to work with to ignite their ideas, but the lesson felt forced, and the children were not authentically engaged. One child said, “We need a lot of buildings,” yet could not generate suggestions for how to make them. A girl noted we needed to make bicycles, which we had seen and talked about during discussions about vehicles in the neighborhood. When I asked her how we should make them, she said that we should draw them, and this then became her default response for how we should represent all aspects of the neighborhood. It was also hard for the children to focus on the idea of the culminating plan. For example, one boy spoke only about the dinosaur bones we had seen at the American Museum of Natural History.

Later in the week, I began working one-on-one and in small groups with the children to expand on and execute some of their admittedly sketchy plans for our neighborhood display. One boy told us we needed trees in the neighborhood. After talking one-on-one about trees, we made a plan to create trees by using paper towel rolls for the trunks and tissue paper for the leaves. With support, he was able to successfully and proudly participate in constructing the trees.

Working mostly in small groups throughout the week, we ended up with a complete and attractive neighborhood model built inside one of the sensory tables. Our end product was nice, but the process was not authentic because it required so much teacher direction.

According to project approach literature, the culmination is a time for the children to be creative and involved in the planning process (Harte 2010; Katz & Chard 2013). I had read about many successful culminating events, so why was the conclusion of the project so difficult for us? Perhaps I had waited too long. By the time I realized we should plan our culminating activity, the children’s interest in the neighborhood project had already faded. Maybe the idea of a culminating event was too abstract for this group, particularly since I was the first in the school to try the project approach. We were without examples—either as displays or as events that the children might have experienced. Although my underlying assumption is that these children are competent and capable, I wondered how the mix of children’s abilities in this inclusion class might have made the student-initiated planning of a coordinated final event harder than I expected.

Ultimately, I realized that they had accomplished many complex tasks during the project. Between the group of children I taught that year, myself as a novice with the project approach, and whatever other factors played into our difficulty at the end of the project, the planning and execution of the project’s culmination was challenging and a bit frustrating.

Discussion and recommendations

This teacher research study provides an example of a teacher attempting the project approach independently in a small pre-K inclusion setting, without formal training or support. I faced some resistance from the administration and doubt from colleagues because they were unsure whether this approach would be appropriate for some of the children with special needs in our care. The experience revealed to me that moving from a completely teacher-derived curriculum to an emergent curriculum such as the project approach is a big shift. The project approach can be very engaging for children, but it would have been helpful to have a mentor guide me through the difficulties and questions I faced.

Most of my experiences mirrored what I had come to understand about the topic. As the literature suggests (Beneke & Ostrosky 2009; Yuen 2009; Harte 2010), I saw the children get excited about learning, based on questions they were asking and topics that interested them. Also in line with the literature, the children showed strong motivation to conduct their own investigations to find answers. Further, I felt the project was an empowering experience for the children. When we used the children’s questions to ignite a study, or when we simply followed through on their questions and helped them find answers, they felt respected and proud. The children now know they have the power to find answers and conduct research. They know that not just teachers and other adults can answer real questions; they can, too.

Beneke, S., & M.M. Ostrosky. 2009. “Teachers’ Views of the Efficacy of Incorporating the Project Approach Into Classroom Practice With Diverse Learners.”  Early Childhood Research & Practice 11 (1).

Brewer, R.A. 2010. “The Canada Goose Project: A First Project With Children Under 3.”  Early Childhood Research & Practice  12 (1).

Harris, K.I., & L. Gleim. 2008. “The Light Fantastic: Making Learning Visible for All Children Through the Project Approach.”  Young Exceptional Children  11 (3): 27–40.

Harte, H.A. 2010. “The Project Approach: A Strategy for Inclusive Classrooms.”  Young Exceptional Children  13 (3): 15–27.

Helm, J.H., & L.G. Katz. 2011.  Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years.  2nd ed. Early Childhood Education Series. New York: Teachers College Press; Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Katz, L.G., & S.C. Chard. 2013. “The Project Approach: An Overview.” In  Approaches to Early Childhood Education , 6th ed., eds. J. Roopnarine & J.E. Johnson, 268–84. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Katz, L.G., S.C. Chard, & Y. Kogen. 2014.  Engaging Children’s Minds: The Project Approach . 3rd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Mitchell, S., T.S. Foulger, K. Wetzel, & C. Rathkey. 2009. “The Negotiated Project Approach: Project-Based Learning Without Leaving the Standards Behind.”  Early Childhood   Education Journal  36 (4): 339–46.

Yuen, L.H. 2009. “From Foot to Shoes: Kindergartners’, Families’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of the Project Approach.”  Early Childhood Education Journal  37 (1): 23–33.

Yuen, L.H. 2010. “A Valuable Experience for Children: The Dim Sum and Chinese Restaurant Project.”  Early Childhood Research & Practice  12 (1): 23–31.

Voices of Practitioners: Teacher Research in Early Childhood Education , NAEYC’s online journal, is a vehicle for publishing teacher research.

Visit NAEYC.org/publications/vop to learn more about teacher research and to peruse an archive of Voice of Practitioners articles.

Photographs: 1 © iStock; 2, 3, courtesy of the author

Stacey Alfonso, MSEd, is a lead teacher at Fiddleheads Forest School, a completely outdoor nature-based preschool program in Seattle, Washington. Stacey continues to search for inquiry-based methods to teach young children and help them develop a love for learning.

Vol. 72, No. 1

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How to Use Project Management in Education?

Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and disorganized in school? Do you wish there was a way to manage your time and assignments better?

Look no further because I have an exciting framework for you! In this blog post, we will explore the concept of project management and how it can be applied to education.

Project management skills are useful not only in the business or professional world but can also greatly benefit students in their academic journey. So whether you’re a high school student struggling with multiple classes or a college student balancing coursework and extracurriculars, this article is for you.

Get ready to learn some valuable tips and tricks on using project management skills to excel in your education!

What is Project Management?

Project management in business involves organizing, project planning, and carrying out projects to meet certain organizational goals. When applied to education, these tasks could include implementing new technology in classes, preparing for big events like graduations, or introducing new lessons.

Simply put, project management helps ensure that project planning is completed quickly, correctly, and within the allocated funds. It involves breaking down larger tasks into smaller manageable ones, setting deadlines and milestones, assigning project management roles and responsibilities, and tracking progress.

What Do Project Managers Look Like in Educational Settings?

In an educational setting, a project manager coordinates a project’s different parts and ensures they all fit with the overall educational goals. This job might include talking to stakeholders, allocating resources, and keeping track of deadlines. 

Through careful planning and organization, the project manager ensures that the different needs of the students, teachers, and administrative staff are met.

How Does Effective Project Management Benefit You in Education?

Some of the most important benefits of project management in education are the following:

• Enhanced Efficiency : Through structured planning and execution, schools can maximize resource use and reduce waste.
• Better Accountability: Everyone knows what they are supposed to do when roles and tasks are clear. This makes it easier to keep track of performance and progress.
• Better Use of Resources : Knowing the requirements and scope of a job helps make better use of time, money, and materials.
• More adaptability: good project management includes planning for what could go wrong, which helps schools be ready to deal with changes or problems that come up out of the blue.

How Do You Apply Project Management Skills in Education?

Project-based learning is a common way to teach where students gain knowledge and skills by working on difficult questions, problems, or tasks for a long time. Here are some project management rules that can help make sure that student projects are successful:

Planning and Goal Setting

Picture yourself as an educator: you have exciting ideas, whether it’s a new lesson series, a field trip, or a broader curriculum change.  The key to translating those ideas into reality is solid planning and setting clear goals. Here’s how a project management approach makes this happen:

• Start with the big picture: What’s the ultimate outcome you want to achieve? Get specific!
• Break it down: Instead of one overwhelming task, create a series of smaller, more manageable steps.
• Set deadlines: When must you accomplish each step to meet your overall goal?

Additionally, it’s crucial to adapt your plans based on your class’s unique needs and pacing. This flexibility allows you to adjust timelines or instructional strategies to maximize learning outcomes. 

In this way, project management isn’t just about sticking to an entire project plan but also about responding to the classroom dynamics and ensuring that all students can successfully reach their educational goals.

Resource Management

Just like project managers in any field, educators need to be resourceful! This means knowing how to identify, allocate, and manage the things you need to make your projects successful. This could include physical materials, funding, time, technology, or even the knowledge and skills of those around you.

How to Manage Resources as an Educator

Risk Management

Teaching students to anticipate potential risks and devise strategies to mitigate them prepares them for unpredictable scenarios, both in and out of academic settings.

Here are key questions to guide your risk management approach in educational projects and how to approach them:

• What could go wrong? Brainstorm a comprehensive list of potential issues, from minor setbacks to major disruptions.
• How likely is each risk to occur? Rate each risk as low, medium, or high probability.
• What would the impact be if a risk became a reality? Consider how it would affect your timeline, budget, student outcomes, or overall project success.
• How can you prevent or minimize each risk? Are there proactive steps you can take to reduce the likelihood or impact?
• What’s your contingency plan? If a risk does occur, what specific actions will you take to address it?
• Who is responsible for monitoring each risk? Assign individuals or multiple team members to track potential problems and implement contingency plans.
• When will you review and update your risk assessment? Schedule regular check-ins to adjust your plan as circumstances change.

Being Resourceful and Getting Expert Help

Students undertaking complex educational projects can greatly benefit from external expertise when applying project management principles to education. Papersowl, a professional essay writing service, provides a critical resource.

This platform employs top-rated writers who contribute not only by crafting high-quality papers but also by imparting essential project management techniques that students can apply to their complex projects. Accessing online help through an essay service at critical stages of a project can decisively improve the quality of a student’s work, ensuring adherence to academic standards and project timelines.

This integration of professional support helps students manage their academic projects more effectively, thereby boosting their productivity and educational outcomes.

How to Integrate Technology in Project Management Education?

Technology is an important part of modern schooling. Software made just for schools that manage projects can help teachers and managers better plan, carry out, and monitor projects.

Students and teachers can communicate and work together better using project management tools . These tools often offer places to talk, share files, and get feedback in real-time, all of which are necessary for flexible educational projects. 

Here’s a list of tools that help deliver discussions, instructions, and information:

1) Google Workspace for Education

This suite of tools, previously known as G-Suite for Education, is designed specifically for classroom collaboration. It includes essential applications such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, allowing students and teachers to share files and collaborate in real-time.

Google Drive facilitates easy file storage and sharing, while Google Classroom integrates these tools to streamline the management of assignments and feedback. This platform is particularly useful for schools that need a comprehensive set of collaborative tools that are easy to use and manage.

2) Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a robust platform that integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It offers features like chat, video calls, and organizing classes and assignments within the platform for all project team members.

Teams are ideal for educational institutions already using Microsoft products and looking for a solution that supports communication and collaboration within the same ecosystem.

Known primarily for its video conferencing capabilities, Zoom has become an essential tool in education, especially for remote learning. It supports video calls, screen sharing, and breakout rooms, making it suitable for lectures, group discussions, and collaborative meetings.

Its ease of use and reliable performance make it a preferred choice for real-time communication in academic settings.

Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) that integrates various educational tools into a single platform. It supports assignments, grading, and discussions and includes features for file sharing and collaborative workspaces.

Educational institutions favor Canvas for its comprehensive approach to course management and its ability to facilitate both teaching and learning in a cohesive environment.

Moodle is an open-source LMS known for its flexibility and the wide range of plug-ins available. It supports online learning through features such as forums, databases, and wikis, which encourage collaborative work among students.

Moodle’s adaptability makes it a popular choice for institutions that require a customizable platform that can be tailored to specific educational needs.

Notion is an all-in-one workspace where users can write, plan, collaborate, and organize. It integrates notes, tasks, databases, and calendars into a single platform, making it an excellent AI project management tool for managing extensive notes, future projects, and collaborative tasks. 

Notion’s flexibility and comprehensive features make it ideal for students and educators who require a versatile tool for individual and collaborative work.

Tracking and Evaluation

Using technology, teachers can monitor project progress and judge success based on set criteria. This constant evaluation helps improve project plans and results.

Here’s a concise overview of how technology aids in tracking and evaluating educational projects:

• Real-Time Monitoring and Feedback: Tools like Google Classroom and Trello allow teachers to track submissions and progress, offering immediate feedback to students, which can guide timely adjustments and improvements.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Learning management systems (LMS) such as Canvas and Blackboard provide analytics that help teachers understand student engagement and performance, allowing for targeted instructional changes.
• Collaborative Tools for Peer Review: Platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack enable peer collaboration and feedback, fostering a supportive learning environment and encouraging peer-to-peer learning.
• Rubrics and Standardized Assessment: Educational technologies often include features to create and apply rubrics, helping standardize assessments and clarify expectations, which makes grading transparent and consistent.
• Adaptive Learning Technologies: Some LMS platforms adjust the difficulty of content based on individual student performance, ensuring personalized learning experiences that are challenging yet accessible.
• Portfolio and Progress Tracking: Digital portfolios, supported by platforms like Notion, help students and teachers track long-term progress and reflect on learning outcomes over time.
• Automated Testing and Quizzes: Automated assessments within LMS platforms provide quick insights into student understanding, offering immediate feedback and helping teachers identify areas that need further instruction.

These technological tools streamline the process of project tracking and evaluation, enhancing educational outcomes through structured support and comprehensive data analysis.

Challenges of Implementing Project Management in Education

There are clear benefits to applying project management skills in school , but it’s not always easy.

First, there is a lack of awareness and training among students and educators. Many students are not aware of project management techniques and their importance in academic work, which can lead to disorganized and inefficient project completion.

Additionally, there may be resistance from educators who are accustomed to traditional project management methodologies in a school setting and may not see the value in incorporating project management into their curriculum.

Another challenge is the limited resources available for students to access professional support. While essay services can provide valuable assistance, not all students have access to them or may not be able to afford them.

However, despite these challenges, it’s important for educators to recognize the benefits of project management and strive to incorporate it into their teaching and project management methods.

Final Thoughts on Project Management

Project management in education offers a structured approach to managing educational projects, enhancing learning outcomes, and preparing students for future challenges. By adopting project management principles, educational institutions can operate more efficiently and responsively, fostering an environment where administrative goals and educational strategies align seamlessly.

Embracing these practices, educators, and administrators can ensure that they are not just teaching students but also providing them with a framework for success in their academic and professional futures.

Dev is a fractional COO, operations consultant, and productivity junkie at the Process Hacker !

I help you scale by optimizing and automating your operations and systems through simple, proven, and practical tools.

To get help, Book a Call or take my Free Business Assessment !

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How does social class affect education attainment, when did education become compulsory, what are alternative forms of education, do school vouchers offer students access to better education.

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What does education mean?

Education refers to the discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like environments, as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of socialization .

Beginning approximately at the end of the 7th or during the 6th century, Athens became the first city-state in ancient Greece to renounce education that was oriented toward the future duties of soldiers. The evolution of Athenian education reflected that of the city itself, which was moving toward increasing democratization.

Research has found that education is the strongest determinant of individuals’ occupational status and chances of success in adult life. However, the correlation between family socioeconomic status and school success or failure appears to have increased worldwide. Long-term trends suggest that as societies industrialize and modernize, social class becomes increasingly important in determining educational outcomes and occupational attainment.

While education is not compulsory in practice everywhere in the world, the right of individuals to an educational program that respects their personality, talents, abilities, and cultural heritage has been upheld in various international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948; the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959; and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.

Alternative forms of education have developed since the late 20th century, such as distance learning , homeschooling , and many parallel or supplementary systems of education often designated as “nonformal” and “popular.” Religious institutions also instruct the young and old alike in sacred knowledge as well as in the values and skills required for participation in local, national, and transnational societies.

School vouchers have been a hotly debated topic in the United States. Some parents of voucher recipients reported high levels of satisfaction, and studies have found increased voucher student graduation rates. Some studies have found, however, that students using vouchers to attend private schools instead of public ones did not show significantly higher levels of academic achievement. Learn more at ProCon.org.

Should corporal punishment be used in elementary education settings?

Whether corporal punishment should be used in elementary education settings is widely debated. Some say it is the appropriate discipline for certain children when used in moderation because it sets clear boundaries and motivates children to behave in school. Others say can inflict long-lasting physical and mental harm on students while creating an unsafe and violent school environment. For more on the corporal punishment debate, visit ProCon.org .

Should dress codes be implemented and enforced in education settings?

Whether dress codes should be implemented and enforced in education settings is hotly debated. Some argue dress codes enforce decorum and a serious, professional atmosphere conducive to success, as well as promote safety. Others argue dress codes reinforce racist standards of beauty and dress and are are seldom uniformly mandated, often discriminating against women and marginalized groups. For more on the dress code debate, visit ProCon.org .

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education , discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like environments as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of socialization (e.g., rural development projects and education through parent-child relationships).

(Read Arne Duncan’s Britannica essay on “Education: The Great Equalizer.”)

Education can be thought of as the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of a society. In this sense, it is equivalent to what social scientists term socialization or enculturation. Children—whether conceived among New Guinea tribespeople, the Renaissance Florentines, or the middle classes of Manhattan—are born without culture . Education is designed to guide them in learning a culture , molding their behaviour in the ways of adulthood , and directing them toward their eventual role in society. In the most primitive cultures , there is often little formal learning—little of what one would ordinarily call school or classes or teachers . Instead, the entire environment and all activities are frequently viewed as school and classes, and many or all adults act as teachers. As societies grow more complex, however, the quantity of knowledge to be passed on from one generation to the next becomes more than any one person can know, and, hence, there must evolve more selective and efficient means of cultural transmission. The outcome is formal education—the school and the specialist called the teacher.

As society becomes ever more complex and schools become ever more institutionalized, educational experience becomes less directly related to daily life, less a matter of showing and learning in the context of the workaday world, and more abstracted from practice, more a matter of distilling, telling, and learning things out of context. This concentration of learning in a formal atmosphere allows children to learn far more of their culture than they are able to do by merely observing and imitating. As society gradually attaches more and more importance to education, it also tries to formulate the overall objectives, content, organization, and strategies of education. Literature becomes laden with advice on the rearing of the younger generation. In short, there develop philosophies and theories of education.

This article discusses the history of education, tracing the evolution of the formal teaching of knowledge and skills from prehistoric and ancient times to the present, and considering the various philosophies that have inspired the resulting systems. Other aspects of education are treated in a number of articles. For a treatment of education as a discipline, including educational organization, teaching methods, and the functions and training of teachers, see teaching ; pedagogy ; and teacher education . For a description of education in various specialized fields, see historiography ; legal education ; medical education ; science, history of . For an analysis of educational philosophy , see education, philosophy of . For an examination of some of the more important aids in education and the dissemination of knowledge, see dictionary ; encyclopaedia ; library ; museum ; printing ; publishing, history of . Some restrictions on educational freedom are discussed in censorship . For an analysis of pupil attributes, see intelligence, human ; learning theory ; psychological testing .

Education in primitive and early civilized cultures

The term education can be applied to primitive cultures only in the sense of enculturation , which is the process of cultural transmission. A primitive person, whose culture is the totality of his universe, has a relatively fixed sense of cultural continuity and timelessness. The model of life is relatively static and absolute, and it is transmitted from one generation to another with little deviation. As for prehistoric education, it can only be inferred from educational practices in surviving primitive cultures.

The purpose of primitive education is thus to guide children to becoming good members of their tribe or band. There is a marked emphasis upon training for citizenship , because primitive people are highly concerned with the growth of individuals as tribal members and the thorough comprehension of their way of life during passage from prepuberty to postpuberty.

Because of the variety in the countless thousands of primitive cultures, it is difficult to describe any standard and uniform characteristics of prepuberty education. Nevertheless, certain things are practiced commonly within cultures. Children actually participate in the social processes of adult activities, and their participatory learning is based upon what the American anthropologist Margaret Mead called empathy , identification, and imitation . Primitive children, before reaching puberty, learn by doing and observing basic technical practices. Their teachers are not strangers but rather their immediate community .

In contrast to the spontaneous and rather unregulated imitations in prepuberty education, postpuberty education in some cultures is strictly standardized and regulated. The teaching personnel may consist of fully initiated men, often unknown to the initiate though they are his relatives in other clans. The initiation may begin with the initiate being abruptly separated from his familial group and sent to a secluded camp where he joins other initiates. The purpose of this separation is to deflect the initiate’s deep attachment away from his family and to establish his emotional and social anchorage in the wider web of his culture.

The initiation “curriculum” does not usually include practical subjects. Instead, it consists of a whole set of cultural values, tribal religion, myths , philosophy, history, rituals, and other knowledge. Primitive people in some cultures regard the body of knowledge constituting the initiation curriculum as most essential to their tribal membership. Within this essential curriculum, religious instruction takes the most prominent place.

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Project 2025 and education: A lot of bad ideas, some more actionable than others

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, rachel m. perera , rachel m. perera fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy jon valant , and jon valant director - brown center on education policy , senior fellow - governance studies katharine meyer katharine meyer fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy.

August 12, 2024

• Project 2025 is rife with bad ideas that, if enacted, would inflict harm on students and schools across the country.
• Many proposals would require an unlikely degree of cooperation from Congress, though others could be enacted unilaterally by a second Trump administration.
• Parts of Project 2025 are more closely aligned with a white Christian nationalist worldview than a traditional, conservative education policy agenda.

Project 2025 outlines a radical policy agenda that would dramatically reshape the federal government. The report was spearheaded by the right-wing Heritage Foundation and represents the policy aims of a large coalition of conservative activists. While former President Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, many of the report’s authors worked in the previous Trump administration and could return for a second round. Trump, himself, said in 2022 , “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”

In other words, Project 2025 warrants a close look, even if the Trump campaign would like Americans to avert their gaze.

Project 2025’s education agenda proposes a drastic overhaul of federal education policy, from early childhood through higher education. Here’s just a sample of the Project 2025 education-related recommendations:

• Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (ED)
• Eliminate the Head Start program for young children in poverty
• Discontinue the Title I program that provides federal funding to schools serving low-income children
• Rescind federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students
• Undercut federal capacity to enforce civil rights law
• Reduce federal funding for students with disabilities and remove guardrails designed to ensure these children are adequately served by schools
• Promote universal private school choice
• Privatize the federal student loan portfolio

It’s an outrageous list, and that’s just the start of it.

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We’ve reviewed the Project 2025 chapter on education (Chapter 11), along with other chapters with implications for students. We’ve come away with four main observations:

1. Most of the major policy proposals in Project 2025 would require an unlikely amount of congressional cooperation

Project 2025 is presented as a to-do list for an incoming Trump administration. However, most of its big-ticket education items would require a great deal of cooperation from Congress.

Proposals to create controversial, new laws or programs would require majority support in the House and, very likely, a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority in the Senate. Ideas like a Parents’ Bill of Rights, the Department of Education Reorganization Act, and a federal tax-credit scholarship program fall into this category. Even if Republicans outperform expectations in this fall’s Senate races , they’d have to attract several Democratic votes to get to 60. That’s not happening for these types of proposals.  

The same goes for major changes to existing legislation. This includes, for example, a proposal to convert funding associated with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to no-strings-attached block grants and education savings accounts (with, presumably, much less accountability for spending those funds appropriately). It also includes a proposal to end the “ negotiated rulemaking ” (“neg-reg”) process that ED follows when developing regulations related to programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The neg-reg requirement is written into HEA itself, which means that unwinding neg-reg would require Congress to amend the HEA. That’s unlikely given that HEA reauthorization is already more than a decade overdue—and that’s without the political baggage of Project 2025 weighing down the process.

The prospect of changing funding levels for existing programs is a little more complicated. Programs like Title I are permanently authorized. Eliminating Title I or changing the formulas it uses to allocate funds to local educational agencies would require new and unlikely legislation. Year-to-year funding levels can and do change , but the vast majority of ED’s budget consists of discretionary funding that’s provided through the regular, annual appropriations process and subject to a filibuster. This limits the ability of one party to make major, unilateral changes. (ED’s mandatory funding is more vulnerable.)

In sum, one limiting factor on what an incoming Trump administration could realistically enact from Project 2025 is that many of these proposals are too unpopular with Democrats to overcome their legislative hurdles.

2. Some Project 2025 proposals would disproportionately harm conservative, rural areas and likely encounter Republican opposition

Another limiting factor is that some of Project 2025’s most substantive proposals probably wouldn’t be all that popular with Republicans either.

Let’s take, for example, the proposed sunsetting of the Title I program. Project 2025 proposes to phase out federal spending on Title I over a 10-year period, with states left to decide whether and how to continue that funding. It justifies this with misleading suggestions that persistent test score gaps between wealthy and poor students indicate that investments like Title I funding aren’t paying off. (In fact, evidence from school finance reforms suggests real benefits from education spending, especially for students from low-income families.)

The phrase “Title I schools” might conjure up images of under-resourced schools in urban areas that predominantly serve students of color, and it’s true that these schools are major beneficiaries of Title I. However, many types of schools, across many types of communities, receive critical support through Title I. In fact, schools in Republican-leaning areas could be hit the hardest by major cuts or changes to Title I. In the map below, we show the share of total per-pupil funding coming from Title I by state. Note that many of the states that rely the most on Title I funds (darkest blue) are politically conservative.

Of course, the impact of shifting from federal to state control of Title I would depend on how states choose to handle their newfound decision-making power. Given that several red states are among the lowest spenders on education —and have skimped on programs like Summer EBT and Medicaid expansion —it’s hard to believe that low-income students in red states would benefit from a shift to state control.

What does that mean for the type of support that Project 2025 proposals might get from red-state Republicans in Congress? It’s hard to know. It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that the GOP’s push for universal private school voucher programs has encountered some of its fiercest resistance from rural Republicans across several states .

3. Project 2025 also has significant proposals that a second Trump administration could enact unilaterally

While a second Trump administration couldn’t enact everything outlined in Project 2025 even if it wanted to, several consequential proposals wouldn’t require cooperation from Congress. This includes some actions that ED took during the first Trump administration and certainly could take again.

Here are a few of the Project 2025 proposals that the Trump administration could enact with the authority of the executive branch alone:

• Roll back civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students
• Roll back Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination
• Dismantle the federal civil rights enforcement apparatus
• Eliminate current income-driven repayment plans and require higher monthly payments for low-income borrowers
• Remove protections from predatory colleges that leave students with excessive debt

Federal education policy has suffered from regulatory whiplash over the last decade, with presidential administrations launching counter-regulations to undo the executive actions of the prior administration. Take, for example, “gainful employment” regulations that Democratic administrations have used to limit eligibility for federal financial aid for colleges that leave students with excessive loan debt. A second Trump administration would likely seek to reverse the Biden administration’s “gainful employment” regulations like the first Trump administration did to the Obama administration’s rules . (Then again, with the Supreme Court striking down Chevron , which provided deference to agency expertise in setting regulations, the Trump administration might not even need to formally undo regulations.)

Other Project 2025 proposals, not explicitly about education, also could wreak havoc. This includes a major overhaul of the federal civil service. Specifically, Project 2025 seeks to reinstate Schedule F, an executive order that Trump signed during his final weeks in office. Schedule F would reclassify thousands of civil service positions in the federal government to policy roles—a shift that would empower the president to fire civil servants and fill their positions with political appointees. Much has been written about the consequences of decimating the civil service, and the U.S. Department of Education, along with other federal agencies that serve students, would feel its effects.

4. Project 2025 reflects a white Christian nationalist agenda as much as it reflects a traditional conservative education policy agenda

If one were to read Project 2025’s appeals to principles such as local control and parental choice, they might think this is a standard conservative agenda for education policy. Republicans, after all, have been calling for the dismantling of ED since the Reagan administration, and every administration since has supported some types of school choice reforms.

But in many ways, Project 2025’s proposals really don’t look conservative at all. For example, a large-scale, tax-credit scholarship program would substantially increase the federal government’s role in K-12 education. A Parents’ Bill of Rights would require the construction of a massive federal oversight and enforcement function that does not currently exist. And a proposal that “states should require schools to post classroom materials online to provide maximum transparency to parents” would impose an enormous compliance burden on schools, districts, and teachers.

Much of Project 2025 is more easily interpretable through the lens of white Christian nationalism than traditional political conservatism. Scholars Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry describe white Christian nationalism as being “about ethno-traditionalism and protecting the freedoms of a very narrowly defined ‘us’.” The Project 2025 chapter on education is loaded with proposals fitting this description. That includes a stunning number of proposals focused on gender identity, with transgender students as a frequent target. Project 2025 seeks to secure rights for certain people (e.g., parents who support a particular vision of parental rights) while removing protections for many others (e.g., LGBTQ+ and racially minoritized children). Case in point, its proposal for “Safeguarding civil rights” says only, “Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory.”

These types of proposals don’t come from the traditional conservative playbook for education policy reform. They come from a white Christian nationalist playbook that has gained prominence in far-right politics in recent years.

At this point, it’s clear that the Trump campaign sees Project 2025 as a political liability that requires distance through the election season. Let’s not confuse that with what might happen during a second Trump administration.

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• Our Mission

What Does Successful Project-Based Learning Look Like?

The end of the school year presents us with an opportunity for reflection at Envision Schools . We take a final measure of students' progress throughout the school year, celebrate the many Envision graduates that will be heading off to college in the fall, and consider how we can incorporate those lessons into improving our own work to best enable, encourage, and ensure student learning.

And so last week, I joined our principals, vice principals, and lead teachers at our annual three-day leadership institute to take stock of the past year: We analyzed data; made plans for the new school year based on both our experience and data, and explored essential questions that had arisen during the school year. This year, we tackled the questions, what is a project? and, what makes a well-designed project? We used these two questions to confirm and reaffirm why we believe in the use of project-based learning at Envision Schools.

In order to get grounded, we looked at student work together and listened to teachers describe their projects. After each, we asked, "is this a project?" and then, if yes, "is it a well-designed project?"

One project that we interrogated was called the BP Oil Spill Project, used in twelfth-grade AP Environmental Science and AP Government (many of our projects are cross-disciplinary). Students were asked to explore the question, "Who was responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf in 2010?" In order to answer that question and demonstrate their knowledge, students studied the ecological effects of the spill and conducted labs on possible dispersants in their science course. In their government classes, they explored the policy and the bureaucracy related to the disaster.

To culminate, they prepared and conducted a simulated congressional hearing to demonstrate their knowledge of the government standards, and had to write and perform a speech (in character!) at the hearing. After investigating several projects like this project, we began to define what I call "PBL, Envision-Style."

Our Working Definition

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching approach, a mindset, and a framework for teaching skills and content. (Both our working definition and criteria are derived from our own work, as well as the work of, Adria Steinberg's 6 A's of PBL , The Buck Institute for Education , and Expeditionary Learning .)

High-quality, PBL "Envision-Style" includes:

• A timeline that is short or long , ranging from a few days to several weeks, so students learn how to benchmark and manage projects of different sizes.
• An engaging launch to hook students into taking on the project.
• Academic rigor and alignment with standards allowing students to master content knowledge and skills, and to demonstrate or apply that knowledge.
• An inquiry into a student-friendly, provocative essential question that drives the learning. This question often drives the unit or is one of the larger questions in the discipline. For example, "Who am I?"
• A demonstration of key knowledge and skills in which students show evidence through the product that they have mastered the standards outlined in the course map (state standards).
• Applied learning so that students think and do something new with their knowledge or skills.
• An authentic audience that ensures the students take the project, learning, and results seriously and present it professionally (e.g. the class, students from another class, staff, parents, or professionals).
• High-quality products or performance at the end that show the results of inquiry into a question through applied knowledge and skills (presentation, artistic representation, written and performed speeches, poster or video documentation of: simulation, Socratic, debate, defense). A non-traditional product might be an added layer to a traditional product such as an essay or test e.g., students might debate after writing a research paper.

What do you think of our definition and our characteristics? What would you add or delete? Where have you seen these characteristics in action? Help us refine and evolve our work with your comments, suggestions, and examples.

Youth Today

How could Project 2025 change education?

This story  was produced by  The Hechinger Report ,  a nonprofit,   nonpartisan news outlet focused on education.

The proposals in the 2025 Presidential Transition Project — known as Project 2025  and designed for Donald Trump — would reshape the American education system, early education through college, from start to finish.

The conservative  Heritage Foundation  is the primary force behind the sprawling blueprint, which is separate from the much less detailed  Republican National Committee 2024 platform , though they share some common themes.

Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage and its lobbying arm, Heritage Action, said  in an interview with USA TODAY  that Project 2025 should be seen “like a menu from the Cheesecake Factory.” No one president could take on all these changes, he said. “It’s a manual for conservative policy thought.”

From Head Start to student loans: Conservative proposals for a new Trump administration have wide reach

The fast-changing political landscape makes it difficult to say which of these proposals might be taken up by Trump if he wins reelection. He has claimed to know nothing about it, though  many of his allies were involved in drafting it . The exit of President Joe Biden from the presidential race may have an impact on Project 2025 that is still unknown. Finally, many of the broadest proposals in the document, such as changes to Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, would require congressional action, not just an order from the White House.

However, it remains a useful document for outlining the priorities of those who would likely play a part in a new Trump administration. The Hechinger Report created this reference guide that digs into the Project 2025 wish list for education.

Early education

Child care for military families

Project 2025 calls for expanding child care for military families, who have access to programs that are often upheld as  premier examples of high-quality care  in America.  – Jackie Mader

Head Start and child care  

Project 2025 calls for eliminating the Office of Head Start, which would lead to the closure of Head Start child care programs that serve about  833,000  low-income children each year. Most Head Start children are served in center-based programs, which have an  outsized role in rural areas  and prioritize enrolling a certain percentage of young children with disabilities who often struggle to find child care elsewhere. Head Start also provides a critical funding and resource stream to other private child care programs that meet Head Start standards, including home-based programs.  – J. M.

Home-based child care

A conservative administration should also prioritize funding for home-based child care rather than “universal day care” in programs outside the home, Project 2025 says. That funding would include money for parents to stay home with a child or to pay for “familial, in-home” care, proposals that could be appealing to some early childhood advocates who have long called for more resources for  informal care  and  stay-at-home parents .  – J. M.

[Related: Parents tote toddlers to D.C. to press for expanded child tax credit, child care fund]

On-site child care

If out-of-home child care is necessary, Congress should offer incentives for on-site child care, Project 2025 says, because it “puts the least stress on the parent-child bond.” Early childhood advocates have been wary of such proposals because they tie  child care access to a specific job . It also calls on Congress to clarify within the Fair Labor Standards Act that an employer’s expenses for providing such care are not part of the employee’s pay. – J. M.

K-12 education

Data collection   

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” should release student performance data based on “family structure”  —  in addition to existing categories such as race and socioeconomic status  —  Project 2025 argues. Family structure, the document says, is “one of the most important  —  if not the most important  —  factor influencing student educational achievement and attainment.” The document goes on to endorse “natural family structure” of a heterosexual, two-parent household, “because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.”  — Sarah Butrymowicz 

LGBTQ students  

Project 2025 advocates a rollback of regulations that protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It calls for agencies to “focus their enforcement of sex discrimination laws on the biological binary meaning of ‘sex.’”

[Related: Don’t let conservatives fool you: Anti-trans laws don’t protect youth and families, they endanger them]

The plan also calls on Congress and state lawmakers to require schools to refer to students by the names on their birth certificates and the pronouns associated with their biological sex, unless they have written permission from parents to refer to them otherwise.

[Related: New Title IX rules offer ‘comprehensive coverage’ for LGBTQ+ students and sexual violence survivors]

The plan also equates transgender issues with child abuse and pornography, and proposes that school libraries with books deemed offensive be punished.  — Ariel Gilreath

Privatization  

In place of a federal Education Department, the blueprint calls for widespread public education funding that goes directly to families, as part of its overarching goal of “advancing education freedom.”

The document specifically highlights the  education savings account program  in Arizona, the first state to open school vouchers up to all families. Programs like Arizona’s have few, if any, restrictions on who can access the funding. Project 2025 also calls for education savings accounts for schools under federal jurisdiction, such as those run by the Department of Defense or the Bureau of Indian Education.

[Related: As Oklahoma adds virtual charter schools — including nation’s first religious one — some wonder if there’s a ‘saturation point’]

In addition, Project 2025 calls on Congress to look into creating a federal scholarship tax credit to “incentivize donors to contribute” to nonprofit groups that grant scholarships for private school tuition or education materials. —  Ariel Gilreath and Neal Morton

School meals  

The federal school meals program should be scaled back to ensure that only children from low-income families are receiving the benefit, the document says. Policy changes under the Obama administration have made it easier for entire schools or districts to provide free meals to students without families needing to submit individual eligibility paperwork. —  Christina A. Samuels

Special education 

Project 2025 says that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which provides $14.2 billion in federal money for the education of school-aged children with disabilities, should be mostly converted to “no-strings” block grants to individual states. Lawmakers should also consider making a portion of the federal money payable directly to parents of children with disabilities, it says, so they can use it for tutoring, therapies or other educational materials. This would be similar to education savings accounts in place  in Arizona  and  Florida .

The blueprint also calls for rescinding a policy called “ Equity in IDEA .” Under that policy, districts are required to evaluate if schools are disproportionately enrolling Black, Native American and other ethnic minority students in special education. Districts must also track how these students are disciplined, and if they are more likely than other students in special education to be placed in classrooms separate from their general education peers. Current rules, which Project 2025 would eliminate, require that districts that have significant disparities in this area must use 15 percent of their federal funding to address those problems. —  C.A.S.

Teaching about race 

Project 2025 elevates concerns among members of the political right that educating students about race and racism risks promoting bias against white people. The document discusses the legal concept of critical race theory, and argues that when it is used in teacher training and school activities such as “mandatory affinity groups,” it disrupts “the values that hold communities together such as equality under the law and colorblindness.”

[Related: Walking on eggshells: Teachers’ responses to classroom limitations on race- or gender-related topics]

The document calls for legislation requiring schools to adopt proposals “that say no individual should receive punishment or benefits based on the color of their skin,” among other recommendations. It also calls for a federal Parents’ Bill of Rights that would give families a “fair hearing in court” if they believed the federal government had enforced policies undermining their right to raise their children. — Caroline Preston

This program, funded at a little over $18 billion for fiscal 2024, is the largest federal program for K-12 schools and is designed to help children from low-income families. The conservative blueprint would encourage lawmakers to make the program a block grant to states, with few restrictions on how it can be used — and, over 10 years, to phase it out entirely.

[Related: 2024 race for results: Building a pathway to opportunity for all children]

Additionally, it says, lawmakers should allow parents in Title I schools to use part of that funding for educational savings accounts that could be spent on private tutoring or other services. —  C.A.S.

Higher education

Affirmative action and diversity, equity and inclusion  

The document calls for prosecuting “all state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers” that maintain affirmative action or DEI policies. That position matches the views expressed by Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, about the use of race in college admissions and beyond.  —  Liz Willen

Data collection  

In higher education, the proposal argues that college graduation and earnings data need a “risk adjustment” that factors in the types of students served by a particular institution. While selective colleges tend to post the highest graduation rates and student earnings, they also tend to enroll the least-“risky” students. A risk adjustment methodology could benefit community colleges, which often have low graduation rates but enroll many nontraditional students who face obstacles to earning a degree. It would also likely benefit for-profit colleges, which similarly tend to accept most applicants. Historically, for-profit schools have received scrutiny under Democratic administrations for poor outcomes and for allegedly misleading students about the value of the education they provide. Republican administrations typically have supported less regulation of for-profit institutions.  — S.B. 

[Related: State laws threaten to erode academic freedom in US higher education]  

Parent PLUS loans and Pell grants  

The blueprint calls for the elimination of the Parent PLUS loan program, arguing that it is redundant “because there are many privately provided alternatives available.” Originally created for relatively affluent families, the PLUS loan program has become a crucial way for lower- and middle-income families to pay for college. In recent years, it has sparked criticism due to rising default rates and fewer protections than are afforded to other student loan borrowers.

At present, interest rates for private loans are significantly lower than Parent PLUS rates, but they come with fewer protections, and it is more difficult to get approved for a private-bank loan. Project 2025 would also get rid of PLUS loans for graduate students.

If the federal PLUS programs were eliminated, it could stem one portion of the rising tide of families’ education debt, but it would also make the path to paying for college more difficult for some families.

Project 2025 does not call for a change to the Pell grant program, which provides federal funding for students from low-income families to attend college. Some advocates have called for doubling the annual maximum allotment, which is $7,395 for the 2024-25 school year, far below the cost to attend many colleges.  — Meredith Kolodner and Olivia Sanchez

Student loan forgiveness  

Project 2025 would end the prospect of student loan forgiveness, which has already been largely blocked by federal courts; the Biden administration, in a sort of game of Whac-a-Mole, has proposed still more forgiveness programs that  are being fought by Republican state attorneys general  and others. Project 2025 would also dramatically restrict what’s known as “borrower defense to repayment,” which forgives loans borrowed to pay for colleges that closed or have been found to use illegal or deceptive marketing. Largely restricting the Education Department to collecting statistics, Project 2025 would shift responsibility for student loans to the Treasury Department. —  Jon Marcus

 For The Hechinger Report:

• Jackie Mader, senior reporter
• Christina A. Samuels, deputy managing editor
• Sarah Butrymowicz, senior editor for investigations
• Ariel Gilreath, southern education reporter
• Neal Morton, western education reporter
• Caroline Preston, managing editor
• Liz Willen, editor in chief
• Olivia Sanchez, higher education reporter
• Meredith Kolodner, senior investigations reporter
• Jon Marcus , senior higher education reporter

This story about  Project 2025  was produced by  The Hechinger Report , a national, nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter .

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Education for All works to counteract anti-immigrant policy proposals that limit educating undocumented children.

How colleges can become ‘living labs’ for combating climate change

The approach simultaneously educates students on climate change and reduces the campus carbon footprint.

Advocates fear Minnesota students will again be subject to restraint used on George Floyd

Some say task force is shutting down discussion of guidelines for cops in schools.

School vouchers were supposed to save taxpayer money. Instead they blew a massive hole in Arizona’s budget.

In a lesson for other states, Arizona’s voucher experiment has precipitated a budget meltdown.

What aspects of teaching should remain human?

Where is AI most effective and what aspects of teaching should remain indelibly human?

Vaping: These Colorado schools will get $11.7 million of Juul lawsuit settlement money for education and prevention

The money comes from a $31.7 million settlement between Colorado and the e-cigarette manufacturer.

It takes a village: A Brooklyn high school and NYC nonprofits team up to enroll older immigrants

Under state law, immigrant students are allowed to attend public school through age 21.

These researchers study the legacy of the segregation academies they grew up around

Did these mostly white private schools contribute to the persistent racial division in schools?