Having just carried an extensive review of recent research on personalised and differentiated learning I have been asked to highlight what I believe are the most promising practices. With so much research being published – it is not always easy to judge! We know that in order to maximise learning, teachers should modify the content, processes, and products of learning in correspondence to their students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles(Tomlinson (2017) But there are many personalised and differentiated practices, including the use of tiered assignments, homogeneous or heterogeneous subgroups based on students’ performance, readiness or interests, tutoring systems, staggered nonverbal material such as helping cards, and open education practices, such as station-based work, project-based learning, or portfolios (Tomlinson 2017). Among this variety of personalised and differentiated practices, a highly promising, innovative instructional activity is project-based learning. This practice has been successfully implemented across different educational settings, such as general education, vocational education training and higher education.
Project-based learning requires learners to confront authentic real-world issues and problems that they find meaningful, to decide how to address them, and proceed in a collaborative manner to create solutions (Barell, 2010; Bender, 2012). Thus, project-based learning can be considered as an important way of providing learners with choices and with a personalised path through content that results in high levels of learner engagement and achievement (Laboy-Rush, 2011). Project-based learning is an instructional model that helps to foster high levels of personalised and differentiated.
Bender (2012, p. 1) argues that project-based learning could become “the primary model of instruction in the next century, and educators are well advised to get on board with this innovative approach to teaching”. Drake and Long (2009) identified three essential aspects of problem-based learning: (1) curriculum must be built around problem with a focus in cognitive skills and knowledge, (2) develop a student-centred learning environment that established small groups and active learning in which teachers serve as facilitators, and (3) learner outcomes are focused on the development of skills, motivation, and a love for life-long learning.
How is problem-based learning carried out in practice? First, teachers must develop project assignments that focused on authentic problems or issues from the real world (Bender, 2012). Project-based learning projects can be focused on one subject, or they might be interdisciplinary. In an interdisciplinary context, this would require teachers to collaborate with each other to establish the learning goals, content, rules, guidelines, grading system, deadlines, and responsibilities. If teachers decide to develop such project only in their own subject they may decide to teachers from their own branch or discipline or work alone. Teachers should experiment with different approaches to find out what works best for them. Although collaborating with other colleagues is sometimes considered as an extra workload, it actually supports successful and effective implementation of such personalised and differentiated practices (Gaitas & Martins, 2017; Pozas & Letzel, 2019).
Once the project and its goals are established, students should collaboratively plan their group’s actions. Negotiating and agreeing this plan is itself an important source of learning. Bender (2012) points out that the outputs from problem-based learning can be in the form of multimedia presentations, hands-on demonstrations (a working model), a portfolio, a podcast, a digital video, or an artefact. Project-based learning can be adapted to different learning environments and to different technologies, to low-tech and to high tech. scenarios, such as alternative reality gaming. This flexibility makes it particularly relevant to our CoVid19 times!
And what is the impact of project-based learning on learners’ achievement and other learning outcomes? A recent study by Darnon, Buchs and Desbar (2012), where vocational education learners were examined before and after the development of their project, demonstrated that learners significantly improved their self-efficacy. Overall, project-based learning fosters learner motivation, high levels of engagement with the contents as well as higher levels of academic achievement.
Taken together, project-based learning can be considered as an innovative and promising personalised and differentiated practice that can be implemented across different educational settings, including those where there are extremely limited budgets and those with extensive access to instructional technologies.
References
Barell, J. (2010). Problem-based learning: The foundation for 21st Century skills. In J. Bellanca, & R. Brandt (Eds.), 21st Century skills: Rethinking how students learn (pp. 175-200). Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.
Bender, W.N. (2012). Project-based learning: Differentiating instruction for the 21st century. United States of America: Corwin A SAGE Company
Darnon, C., Buchs, C., & Desbar, D. (2012). The jigsaw technique and self-efficacy of vocational training students: A practice report. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 27, 439– 449.
Drake, K. N. & Long, D. (2009). Rebecca's in the dark: A comparative study of problem-based learning and direct instruction/experiential learning in two fourth-grade classrooms. Journal of Elementary Science Education, 21(1), p 1-16.
Gaitas, S., & Martins, M. A. (2017). Teacher perceived difficulty in implementing differentiated instructional strategies in primary school. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 21(5), 544–556. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2016.1223180
Pozas, M. und Letzel, V. (2019). “I think they need to rethink their concept!”: Examining teachers’ sense of preparedness to deal with student heterogeneity. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 35(3), p. 366-381. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2019.1689717
Tomlinson, C. (2017). How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms (3nd ed.). Virgina: ASCD.
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