Project-Based Learning
Project-based learning (PBL) is the use of in-depth and rigorous classroom projects using information technology to address real-world problems, issues, and challenges. It facilitates learning and student competence across multiple educational subjects.
The guiding principle behind project-based learning, is to learn by doing. Real-world problems capture students’ interest and provoke critical thinking as they acquire and apply new knowledge in relevant contexts. Teachers gain new roles as facilitators, working with students in groups to frame worthwhile questions, structure meaningful tasks, coach the development of knowledge and build teamwork skills, all while carefully assessing what students have learned from these experiences.
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL MODEL
At the founding of the ground-breaking New Technology High School in Napa in the 1996, project-based learning became more than an internet research task as the development of 21st century skills — a mix of critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation — was added to the overall approach.
The test scores that followed consistently outpaced expectations and prompted one independent group to develop more than a dozen similar schools around the United States in the past 14 years.
As years passed, administrators and staff throughout the Napa Valley Unified School District continued to explore and adopt promising new educational approaches in a far-sighted effort to meet the educational needs of a very rapidly changing student demographic. The successes of these efforts coincided with a commitment by the Board of Trustees to update the district’s mission into “Transforming lives by instilling 21st century skills and inspiring lifelong learning in every student.”
STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING CLASSROOMS
In 2007, visionary leaders and community supporters of New Tech High began working with district leadership to increase the scale of the proven New Tech High vision of project-based learning on a much wider basis for the first time within the County. Dubbed SC21, short for Student-Centered 21st-Century Classrooms, this initiative has made it possible to provide a nationally-recognized learning approach of our own to other students within our county for the first time. During the 2008-2009 school year, seniors at Napa High School and Vintage High School were the first recipients of this new form of learning; American Canyon High School and Valley Oak Alternative High School were added in 2010.
Project-based learning emphasizes a one-to-one student-to-computer ratio and learning in groups. Dual instructors generally teach two subjects simultaneously to double-sized classrooms of about 60 students. Today, both juniors and seniors have access to project-based learning classrooms at Vintage and Napa High, Valley Oak High School and the new American Canyon High School, which opened in Fall 2010.
As exemplified in our County’s International Baccalaureate and Project-Based Learning programs, a technology-enabled, inquiry-based system of learning is an important and effective way to educate our children for the 21st Century. NapaLearns is committed to expanding student access to these types of classrooms and innovative learning experiences.
