View Content #21532

by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

A key element of project-based language learning (PBLL) is learning through the creation of a project that is meaningful for learning and shared with a public audience. This key characteristic adds to the experience by making the learning process relevant beyond the classroom space and extending the experience to others. However, as with any well-designed activity, if the experience itself is not authenticated by the learner, it does not matter how amazing the design is. Some students might relish the opportunity to share with the wider community, while others might be stifled by the idea their work will be seen by others. As teachers, we are designers of learning experiences.  Sometimes our favorite activities don’t work as we intended and other times the projects we are guessing might be more challenging are taken on by learners and made their own.  A key factor in this variability is learner authentication – or the perception by learners that the task itself is meaningful.  The motivating factors impacting why and how learners decide what is valuable is complex and variable, sometimes shifting one day to the next.  However, one way to tackle this challenge is through differentiation and the facilitation of learner agency – that is, student choice throughout the learning process.  Learner agency can be enhanced in small, yet meaningful ways.

1. Offer a number of possible final products or formats.  Without straying from your learning objectives, a project can be designed to have a variety of possible final products.  For example, in a canonical example of a project-based learning project around a political campaign, learners could be offered the choice to create a video or radio campaign advertisement or a print or digital advertisement.  In offering multiple final outcomes, learners are given the opportunity to choose what meets their interests.
2. Allow for multiple pathways to the same outcome. Another technique for facilitating learner choice is by making the goal clear and offer a variety of ways the learner might reach that goal.  This can include offering three or four instructional resources to choose from or multiple pathways within the same learning process.  For example, if working with the aforementioned political campaign project, one learning objective would be to describe key characteristics of a variety of types of campaign advertisements. Instead of the teacher offering one model of each, learners could be given a template of what to look for and then sent to find advertisements of each type related to the issues in which they are interested.

Regardless of the way learner agency is addressed, offering learner choice increases buy-in and can greatly enhance the classroom environment through variety and personalization by the students themselves. This week’s Activity of the Week offers an additional means for personalization through differentiation based on a variety of individual motivating factors.