'I can't learn if I have no idea what to do'

Students need teacher-directed, explicit instruction before they can benefit from "student-centered" project-based learning, writes Jeremy Kaplan, a long-time teacher in New York City, in Chalkbeat.

"There is ample evidence that explicit instruction" is effective, especially for struggling learners," he writes. In the "I do, we do, you do" approach, "the teacher models a concept or skill, engages students in targeted practice, checks and corrects understanding, and then gives students more independent practice, with more checking for understanding and corrective feedback."

However, many teachers have been told that student will learn deeply if they "figure things out on their own, such as the meaning of a text or the rule for a set of problems," he writes. It's called "productive struggle." But often it produces frustration, especially for students who lack background knowledge, skills and motivation, Kaplan writes. It doesn't work for his daughter, who's dyslexic and dysgraphic. “I can’t learn if I have no idea what to do,” she told her parents.

Small, progressive schools in New York City often create project-based curriculums that focus on issues of social justice, both for educational and political reasons. But if you are not effectively teaching the students who struggle most, you are perpetuating educational inequity.

Kaplan taught ninth grade Global History last year to a class that mixed general education students and students with disabilities. He tried Harvard’s Project Zero’s “see-think-wonder” protocol, "where they look at an image and consider the ideas and questions it brings up for them." Many students "had trouble with thinking and wondering," he writes. "They needed modeling, practice, and feedback."

He still wants students to do projects that engage them "with authentic tasks and real-world problems, such as writing letters to elected officials about current issues of the world. But along the way, they also need explicit instruction on topics such as how to identify a policy goal and structure an email."

"Project-based learning helps ensure that learning is meaningful and long-lasting for students," he concludes. "Explicit instruction helps ensure that students learn at all."