Project Based Learning: Real Questions. Real Answers. How to Unpack PBL and Inquiry

Countless educators from across the globe would love to leverage project based learning to create learner-centered opportunities for their students.

Nonetheless, project based learning has yet to go mainstream. If so many educators believe in project based learning, and if project based learning can benefit so many students, why isn’t this approach the norm?

Because educators have questions.

Since the release of their first book, Hacking Project Based Learning, Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy, PBL experts, have connected with thousands of PBL practitioners. This book is Cooper and Murphy’s response to the most common questions educators ask about PBL and inquiry, including:

• Why project based learning?
• How do I structure a PBL experience?
• How do I get grades?
• How do I conference with students?
• How do I include direct instruction?
• How do I build a PBL culture?
• How do I manage the chaos?
• How does inquiry relate to PBL?
• How do I get started with PBL?

Each question (and its answer) represents a chapter in the book. All of the answers strung together detail project based learning in its entirety, pieced together through the chapters.

Answers are based on Cooper and Murphy’s often hard-earned experiences and approachable solutions, which they have practiced and recommended to educators with whom they work. Project based learning implementation exists along a continuum, and as such, it comes with multiple entry points. The goal, always, is to offer practitioners what they need to feel successful in their work regardless of where they begin.

While this book answers questions and dives into the thick of project based learning, an ongoing theme is the idea that project based learning isn’t presented in isolation or as the silver bullet for meeting students’ needs. In this sense, this book reads more like a progressive educator toolkit that can serve as a resource for those who want or need to make their practices more relevant, while adding value for those already moving forward.

The most powerful books aren’t just the books that shift our thinking, but those that shift our thinking and our actions. Project Based Learning is one of these books.

Foreword by Thomas C. Murray, Director of Innovation, Future Ready Schools.