Opinion Story

Project Based Learning

Ever since late elementary school, there has been one thing that I have hated above all else. The thing I dread the absolute most about school, is doing projects.

I hate having to do projects more than anything and I definitely think that schools should not use project based learning.

Personally, I am not a visual learner. All projects do for me, is waste my time and cause me unnecessary stress.

One major thing that project based learning will affect is students’ performance on tests. If students are always doing projects, they aren’t going to know what to do when they are given a multiple choice or short answer fact based test.

A majority of the times, projects in school are done with groups. However, there is no way for the teacher to know how much work each student actually put into the project.

A student could easily do nothing while the rest of their group does all the work. Since there’s no way for the teacher to know that, all of the students will receive the same grade, regardless of whether or not they contributed to the project.

If students are only ever exposed to project based learning throughout all of their schooling, they likely won’t know how to do anything but projects.

However, in the real world, things typically are not project based. Students may especially struggle in college.

In college, students are expected to be mature and responsible. There aren’t usually a lot of projects.

Students who grew up only doing projects might have a hard time doing things like essays and reports in college.

People who prefer project based learning will obviously feel differently about this topic than I do.

Some people believe that project based learning is very beneficial, especially to students with growing minds.

Supporters of project based learning say that doing projects helps build teamwork skills, discipline and deeper level thinking.

However, those people are only looking at the possible benefits of project based learning, not the possible consequences.

Students need to learn how to use factual information and not just make projects.

I do think, however, that there are many solutions that can make both sides of the debate happy.

The simplest solution is to just blend projects with fact based learning. Having students do both will give them all the benefits and eliminate the consequences.

Especially in electives or art based classes, having projects makes sense. Those classes are optional and students usually take them knowing what they will have to do.

I think the best thing to do is keep projects out of academic classes and have them only in electives. That way students can have a choice and will be able to learn both ways.

However, I still stand with my side that project based learning in bad. Given all the facts above, I think that schools should use little to no project based learning.