We've been embarking on a PBL journey at my school. Focussing on improving the quality of tasks (re: Elizabeth City's work out of Harvard on Instructional Rounds) that are happening in the classroom has really provided a clear focus for improvement. And we're seeing real improvement. Teachers are working hard to teach 21st Century Skills to students while immersing them in rich inquiry work; the goal of which is to increase the intellectual engagement of our kids. To have them enjoy learning again, as they once did on elementary (by the way, hats off to elementary teachers...I think we could all learn a lot from them). A great study by the Canadian Education Association (www.cea-ace.org) titled What Did You Do In School Today really helps guide our work. To have 45,000 students across our country surveyed, and to see that only 42% of middle-school-aged students are intellectually engaged in their studies is alarming (compared to 70% being socially engaged). It's a moral imperative that educators do a better job with what we do with kids every day in the classroom. And as much as how social/emotional connection to school is important, the study shows that schools are already doing a good job there; it's the lack of engaging lessons, and poor teaching pedagogy that is boring the heck out of our students, and putting their learning at risk.
Anyway, I better rest up if I am going to get back, doing good work, in my school. And on a side note, if you haven't read the CEA study above, I can't recommend it highly enough.
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