Blog 13: Project or Problem Based Learning

Nicholas Matuszewski

Blog 13

Educ. 361

11/2/2011

Project or Problem Based Learning

            When I was in Phuture Phoenix I spent most of my time at the Phantom Knights Charter School in West De Pere. I mostly helped the students with their math but also had many opportunities to help the students with some of the projects they were working on. I helped with research and I even helped them work on their projects. I mostly guided them with their projects but most of the time the student did the work. At first I wasn’t sure how well a project based school would be at teaching students but soon found that it was a pretty good place for certain students to learn. The students do lots of research and hands on work giving them lots of experience on finding information about their project and how many of them relate to the real world. In this aspect of what they do at this school the students learn a lot. They do learn more this way than what they are supposed to learn doing computer based lessons.

            There are a few things about the Phantom Knights Charter School that kind of bugged me about how the students learn. Besides the hands on projects the students do most of the core subjects are done on computers. The subjects aren’t really taught, they are explained on the computer and then the students do the work or math problems after the introduction. There are two people who work with the students when they need help but there is only so much a student can learn from a computer lesson and assignment. The math done on the computers really bugs me. The thing that really bugs me about this is that the problems given after an explanation of how to do it is done in multiple choice answers. Many of the students didn’t even look at how to do the problems and just guessed at the answer. They can do this because they have to get better than a 70% to move on to the next chapter/assignment and they can keep guessing till they do so. The only time it really matters is when they take the chapter test because the people running the place see the scores and can’t let them move on until they pass the test. The students come up with all kinds of excuses on why they didn’t do so good.

            From what I have observed there are many good things that come out of charter schools. There are also some questionable things as well. I can see why there isn’t much data to show how well charter schools are for the students who attend them. The project based learning helps the students out tremendously while the subject work they do on the computers can be nothing but going through the motions. To me this kind of evens things out on how well students learn making the data inaccurate and tough to compile. I have seen some situations where one student was a plaque to the other students with his bad attitude and unwillingness to learn anything. There are some students where there isn’t much you can do but I do feel that a charter school environment gives troubled or struggling students a chance to succeed in school and in life.