I think project-based learning is a great tool for teaching, and for students to learn more easily. When they have to physically work on a project, I personally believe it makes them more passionate about what they are doing, and they are also more likely to pay attention to their work. They will be more focused on what they are learning. When I have participated in project based learning, I have found that it has helped me. It makes me appreciate what I am doing more because I become passionate about it. It gets me more involved, and once I am involved and connected to things, it personally gives me more of a reason to do the work.
From a student’s perspective, I think there can be many pros and cons to project-based learning. First of all, I think most students can agree that project-based learning can be very time-consuming. This is a con because most students don’t want to put in extra time and effort. However, there are the slight few that do, and that makes the projects very different. Another con would be that project-based learning may be one-sided. However, I think most students would agree that project-based learning has more pros than cons, and most students enjoy working on projects in the classroom. It allows them to dig deeper and get their creative juices flowing, which is something a lot of students thrive off of.
From a teacher’s perspective, there can also be pros and cons to project-based learning. One big con would be that the teacher is much less in control when it comes to this type of learning. The teacher gives them the materials, but really it’s in the students hands if they want to learn it. This can lead to the con of some students doing the work and learning the material and some students blowing it off, and the teacher can’t do much about it until after the assignment. This would be past the time when the student’s needed to learn it, which means there is not time to go back and teach the material again. A pro would be that it would give the teacher a chance to see the creative sides of her students, which is something I think is very important. Creative learning leads to critical thinking in students, which will get them far in life.
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Emily Burgett 
I also find it much easier to pay attention the material I’m learning with project-based learning. I think it’s because you see how the material can be applied to real-life situations rather than just learning it to pass a test. You mentioned that teachers have less control over project-based learning and that some students may tend to slack off with their projects. What kind of incentives do you think teachers could create to encourage students to do their best on projects besides grades? Maybe a competition between students could be effective?
I think a competition between students would be a great idea. Maybe the winner could get a free HW pass or something like that. Or, maybe the students could help grade each others’ projects to get some feedback from their peers. Thanks for the comment!
There are quite a few pros and cons to project-based learning, but overall I think it’s better to use within the classrooms then not to just due to the fact that it’s one of the very few times that children can participate and get involved in the learning process.
I think so too!