Project-based learning (PBL) is a vehicle for teaching content and skills using student-centered practices and real-world contexts. PBL is typically designed around a problem or question posed by a teacher who acts more as a guide and facilitator than a content expert. This serves as the entry point to a learning process in which students are given choices about what to learn and how to learn based on their identities and interests. They are typically also given choices about what to produce as a demonstration of learning.
PBL embodies education schema that have existed throughout human history: complex questions provoked by curiosity about the world, learning that originates from direct experience and efficacy, and meaning generated through real-world contexts. As such, PBL exercises the higher-order cognitive processes defined at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy (see 2001 revision). These are the “any century” skills that students need to navigate the emerging world: PBL gives them the opportunity to develop these skills while doing work that is personally meaningful to them.
PBL is not a one-size-fits-all pedagogy; it is more than an end-of-unit project. Instead, it invites schools to be creative in designing expansive learning opportunities that inspire students to produce work they are intellectually and emotionally invested in. Doing this can create anxiety as students and teachers navigate the ambiguity of projects that do not follow recipes. However, understanding some common features of PBL can provide guidance for schools to use as they engage in design and implementation.
Features of project-based learning include:
While the features listed above are nearly always a part of PBL, PBL differs from context to context because teachers adopt features based on preferences and needs. Teachers can also combine PBL with other pedagogies, like social-emotional learning, place-based learning, service learning, and design thinking. The resulting differences may include:
Using a well-researched process to set up project-based learning is very important because there are many variables that can affect the success or failure of projects. School culture, time, how a teacher handles student autonomy, and project design are all factors that may impact outcomes. Following the expert guidance of organizations like PBLWorks or HQPBL can help teachers design an effective learning experience for students.
PBL promotes high expectations for learners by giving students more responsibility and accountability in their learning, as well as the support necessary to ensure that those expectations are attainable.
PBL enables students to engage with topics that interest them in ways that align with their identities and helps them solve real problems facing the world and their communities.
Based on what is developmentally appropriate, PBL incorporates some degree of autonomy by enabling learners to make choices around what, how, when, and with whom they learn.
The project-based learning models on The Innovative Models Exchange represent diverse approaches to facilitating accessible, deeper learning in schools.
The Big Picture Learning school design activates deeper student engagement in learning by using interest-driven, real-world contexts as its pedagogical foundation.
Big Picture Learning (BPL) was established to challenge traditional approaches to teaching and learning. Big Picture’s focus on student-interest-driven, real-world learning reflects the knowledge that students often learn best when school is relevant to their lives, builds relationships with adult mentors and peers who share their interests, and entails genuinely authentic and rigorous work that is situated in the community and workplace.
The BPL school design is based on three core principles: 1) relationships – schools are designed to support student-centered experiences, one learner at a time; 2) relevance – student interests and real-world learning experiences shape the curriculum; and 3) rigor – assessment criteria for exhibitions of learning are aligned to professional standards. More broadly, 10 Distinguishers serve as BPL’s signature in the world of deeper learning and work-based learning. 10 Distinguishers Relationship Indicators Relevance Indicators Rigor Indicators
BPL works directly with schools to activate the potential of its students. It does not govern or operate schools but instead collaborates to transform existing schools or to establish new schools as a part of the BPL Network. Through collaboration with families and communities, each BPL school seeks to produce learning environments that are unique to local contexts. To support this, BPL offers deep partnerships, stand-alone professional development, and customized support. Today, there are over 80 Big Picture network schools in the United States and more than 100 schools around the world that utilize BPL’s design.
Building 21’s competency-based education model replaces traditional time-based, age-based, and course-based structures with those that focus on readiness, growth, and demonstrations of learning through authentic performance-based assessments.
Building 21’s competency-based education (CBE) model is an equitable, student-centered approach to learning that allows students to earn credit at their own pace and across contexts through authentic, performance-based assessments. CBE takes traditional structures of the factory design model (e.g., age and grade-based groupings; credits based on seat-time) and replaces them with structures that privilege feedback, growth, and multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning. In this model, students engage with problem- and project-based learning in Studios that allow them to pursue their interests and passions, while progressing at their own pace along a competency-based learning continuum.
Building 21 currently partners with 44 schools and programs across 15 states to support them in their journey toward creating a personalized and competency-based model that meets the needs of their unique learners and local context. Over the past 8 years, thousands of users have accessed their free resources. They also offer week-long design institutes and personalized coaching. Getting Started with Competency-based Education
EL Education’s comprehensive school model builds student capacity for three Dimensions of high achievement—character, mastery of skills and content, and high-quality student work—through the application of Core Practices centered on real-world learning and teamwork.
EL Education’s comprehensive improvement model transforms schools into hubs of opportunity where all students are able to reach their unique potential. The model redefines student achievement to align with what is most celebrated in adulthood—mastery of knowledge and skills, high-quality work, and character—and outlines a set of Core Practices that help bring these to life. Grounded in the belief that greater engagement leads to achievement, EL Education’s Core Practices support students in becoming self-directed learners as they grapple with complex, real-world issues like professionals. The model positions students as active and collaborative learners alongside their teachers, or as part of a crew rather than just as passengers.
The full EL Education model requires intensive in-person training and coaching over multiple years, and 152 schools spanning 35 states currently employ the full model. EL Education also has an open-source K-8 Language Arts Curriculum and a menu of professional development opportunities to support its implementation.
The Embark Education model supports students to courageously inquire, engage, and discover a sense of self in an environment that is learner-centered, integrated, and embedded in real-world contexts.
Embark Education serves as a launchpad for adolescents’ inherent intellectual curiosity, prepares them for high school, and supports them to understand who they are and how they fit into the world. The model achieves its goals by creating a learning experience that is learner-centered, integrated, and embedded. Learning at Embark’s flagship school is embedded into two North Denver businesses, which grounds students’ academics in real-world situations. Learners benefit from a truly integrated curriculum in which math, English, science, and history are artfully woven together so that no content or skill is learned in isolation. At Embark, learners are at the center and, therefore, are able to capitalize on their strengths while also receiving the guidance needed to meet their academic, social, and emotional needs.
Embark is committed to sharing their unique model as well as learner-centered education more broadly. They offer site visits and 1:1 coaching to schools interested in their model. Additionally, they offer a signature residency that provides education professionals with the time, space, and resources to surface their brilliance while building community with others.
Environmental Action Civics positions youth to work in partnership with adults to identify a local environmental issue and engage with community members to take action by advocating for systemic changes to policies and practices.
Environmental Action Civics was developed by Earth Force to engage young people as active citizens who address environmental issues in their communities, both now and in the future. It is a research-based approach that focuses on project-based learning and civic action to empower students to identify environmental problems, investigate their root causes, and design and implement solutions through civics. Through this process, students develop important civic skills that will help them make a real impact in their communities, particularly those that have been historically marginalized.
Environmental Action Civics embodies the belief that participation in local environmental decision-making is critical to equitable processes, innovative solutions, and enduring democratic and civic skills. It gives more people a voice in local environmental decision-making, particularly youth who are likely to bring fresh perspectives to problems. It also helps young people build a civic toolkit to solve problems as they develop a sense of social responsibility that fosters environmental stewardship and community engagement.
Each year, Earth Force works with approximately 67 schools and organizations in 28 states to engage students in Environmental Action Civics. Earth Force offers resources, professional development, consulting, and a community of practice for schools and organizations interested in implementing the model. What is Environmental Action Civics? Young People Reflect on Community Resilience to Natural Hazards Environmental Action Civics Overview
The Essential Questions of Sustainability (EQS) model empowers students to apply and demonstrate their learning in real-world contexts through interdisciplinary project-based learning.
The EQS model is an interdisciplinary, project-based course that empowers students to apply their learning in real-world contexts and examine complex sustainability issues. Essential questions are relevant, timeless, and broad, and enable students to explore new avenues of inquiry and apply knowledge from all content areas. These courses, which connect students with local experts and the broader community and are fueled by passionate teachers with deep content expertise, help students develop relevant background knowledge while simultaneously exploring their own interests and learning in a real-world context.
Each EQS course:
At the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability (SEEQS), where the EQS model and course were developed, EQS is combined with rigorous core learning in English, math, science, social studies, and the arts, as well as deliberate community-building and community maintenance, to enable students to apply their learnings to real-world situations and build critical sustainability skills. SEEQS Model SEEQS Overview
The Design Tech Innovation Diploma uses the design thinking process to equip students with the tools and mindsets they need to explore personal purpose and address real-world challenges.
The Innovation Diploma created by Design Tech High School (d.tech) is a unique opportunity for students to earn a specialized credential that represents their ability to apply design thinking skills to real-world challenges with efficacy. Design thinking is a problem-solving methodology used by designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs. In the Innovation Diploma (ID) model, design thinking helps students think about the future and use their imagination and intelligence to find a way to make the world better.
The focus of the ID model is an independent year-long project that addresses a significant challenge students see in their own community. Students choose the topic of their project based on personal interests. As they work on their projects, students gain hands-on experiences that help them become proficient with innovation mindsets, skills, and responsibilities such as initiative and persistence, project management and collaboration, and storytelling and self-awareness. Earning an ID prepares students to be innovative problem-solvers with a sense of social responsibility.
d.tech offers professional development and school visits for educators as a part of a growing network of schools offering an ID. They also offer direct programming for non-d.tech students who want to earn an Innovation Certificate. Innovation Diploma Program
In the Iowa BIG model, students choose a project-based initiative to address problems in the community and develop solutions while earning academic credits.
The Iowa BIG model allows students to learn standards, gain 21st-century skills, and earn credits in English, social studies, and business through community-driven passion projects focused on topics and initiatives students are interested in. Students get to experience what core subject areas look like in real-life situations by conducting research and giving presentations to community or business partners. The projects are tied to rigorous academic standards that prepare students to succeed.
Iowa BIG is designed to give students agency to manage the time, space, assessment, and curriculum they need to learn. They are responsible for scheduling and managing their work time. They learn the most effective places for them to work, think, and play. Standards are addressed through seminars and by demonstrating content knowledge within projects. In conjunction with their teachers, students assess themselves and make steps towards ongoing improvement.
To date, Iowa BIG has had 1,300 students participate in the program across four districts and one affiliate site. Student testimonials featured in Iowa BIG’s blogs and podcasts demonstrate the impact it has had on their learning experience. Additionally, a study found that students who participated in Iowa BIG were more likely to report that they were focused and engaged in their learning during the community projects as opposed to traditional school. The Iowa Big Podcast: S2E3
The liberatory project-based learning model at High Tech High consists of authentic, collaborative, hands-on experiences that help students develop the deeper learning competencies needed in life.
The liberatory project-based learning (LPBL) model at High Tech High (HTH) evolved from the belief that students should be actively engaged with ideas and creating new knowledge versus being passive consumers of information. By positioning students as the central agents in their education, LPBL serves as a vehicle for deeper learning that hones relevant academic, civic, and life skills and dispositions. The deeper learning experiences are intentionally created for and with students, so they can develop an expanding sense of identity and an expanded ability to pursue questions of importance with others.
As an equity-driven organization, HTH believes that students should have access to meaningful learning and engage in projects that matter to them in a context of a loving community. Equal Opportunity for Deeper LearningThe engagement in projects driven by questions that students generate is liberatory PBL—a liberation from constructs about school where learning only happens with books and the primary source of information is the teacher. Instead, it challenges the roles of teacher and student and thinks of disciplines as lenses to see the world. This work is driven by Paulo Freire’s philosophy that one needs to understand the full truth of one’s own reality, resist dominant narratives, and reclaim one’s true identity.
As an organization that is constantly reflecting and learning, the transformation of HTH has grown to include a network of charter schools, a teacher certification program, and a graduate school of education. This allows HTH insights into emerging questions about its unique approach to Liberatory PBL and the impact on the lives of its students.
Living in Beta is One Stone’s innovative wayfinding program designed to empower high school students to explore their passions and discover their purpose, while helping them develop the tools and mindset to live and learn with intention.
Inspired by the technical term “beta testing,” which describes the process of piloting and improving a product through continuous iteration, Living in Beta means that no one is ever finished growing, learning, or adding to themselves. Through a four-phase program, students design experiences that bring relevance and meaning to their learning and lives. Activities include scaffolded activities that help them understand and navigate their interests, goals, and futures; real-world experiences; and supportive mentorship from a certified adult. These transformative experiences empower students to develop a greater sense of identity, belonging, purpose, and direction as they test and iterate on their passions, explore their personal values, and discover their purpose, or “why.”
The Living in Beta model has been implemented in 25 organizations in 15 states and 5 countries, in addition to the flagship, One Stone. Learners in those schools have reported increases in classroom engagement, passion for learning, relevance, and connectedness. They also felt more prepared for life outside of high school. Through its certification program, school visits, and professional development opportunities, One Stone supports school communities looking to implement the Living in Beta model.
The New Tech Network Model is a K-12 systemic approach to creating scalable and sustainable change so that all students are college and career ready.
The New Tech Network (NTN) Model is guided by four Focus Areas. NTN developed the focus areas to align the work of whole school transformation and to help school communities understand the overarching goals that impact the work through all phases of our school development process.
The NTN Model has been implemented in over 200 schools and has reached more than 80,000 students. NTN students consistently outperform non-NTN students on standardized assessments and make significant gains in critical thinking skills. NTN offers one-on-one coaching and consultation, professional development, resource toolkits, and more to schools interested in implementing the model.
The Place-Based Education model connects learning with the ecological, cultural, and economic context and community that surround it to increase student engagement, boost academic outcomes, and impact communities.
Place-based education (PBE) is anytime, anywhere learning that leverages the power of place and connects learners to communities and the world around them. Teton Science Schools’ Place Network defines “place” as the ecological, cultural, and economic aspects that make up a community. Research in PBE indicates that a student’s sense of self, motivation to learn, and community engagement are enhanced through meaningful interactions with immediate physical and cultural environments. This is because students learn best when they are able to situate their learning in a relevant context. The Place Network brings Teton Science Schools’ innovative teaching practices, enduring relationships, integrated curriculum, and global awareness to students and teachers anywhere in the world.
The PBE model reaches over 4000 students and 100 educators in 21 schools in rural communities across the country and worldwide, in such places as Bhutan, where students experience greater engagement, academic outcomes, and sense of belonging. The Place Network offers a variety of resources and supports, including cohort learning communities, one-on-one coaching and consulting, professional development, and resource toolkits to schools interested in implementing the PBE model.
Project Invent uses design thinking to empower students with future-ready mindsets and STEM skills to become creative problem-solvers.
Project Invent engages students in real-world problem-solving by creating transformative learning opportunities. The program leverages project-based learning incorporating design thinking, engineering, and social impact. In their projects, students identify and address pressing issues in local or global contexts and then use the design thinking process to invent solutions. Design thinking is a problem-solving methodology that emphasizes empathy, creativity, and collaboration and is used by designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
The ultimate goal of Project Invent is for students to create meaningful projects that have the potential to improve the lives of individuals, enhance communities, and address pressing global challenges. This goal is based on Project Invent’s effort to democratize changemaking because it believes that every student can invent, engineer, and make a difference. This belief empowers students to learn the problem-solving skills and innovation mindsets needed to be effective agents of change. It also empowers them to take ownership of their learning and find purpose in it.
Through Project Invent, students from diverse backgrounds become proactive, socially responsible citizens who are better prepared for the workforce and the future. In 2022–2023, Project Invent worked with 890 students from 23 states. Of those students, 83% were from a Title 1 school. As it continues to train educators and share its resources, Project Invent seeks to inspire and support a generation of fearless, compassionate problem-solvers. Project Invent Overview
Quests are an interdisciplinary, challenge-based opportunity for students to research, investigate, and solve real-world problems and create authentic deliverables while building 21st-century skills.
Quests are interdisciplinary, authentic, and purposeful challenges that provide an opportunity to teach the skills and concepts that students will be able to use in everyday professional situations. Each Quest is designed around real-world challenges as a way to enhance a student’s understanding of big ideas and broad global concepts, as well as provide the space to develop and apply 21st-century skills. Quests are designed to meet the developmental needs of students from Kindergarten to grade 12.
Using content standards and 21st-century skills, Quests are framed around a central problem with a clearly defined final product that students work through while studying the issues over the course of a quarter. In a Quest, everything a student is learning, doing, practicing, and discussing is directly related to their successful delivery of their final product as a solution to the identified problem.
The Quest model is currently implemented at the Charlotte Lab School in Charlotte, NC, and NYC iSchool in New York City. Since this model was developed in 2008, over 13,000 students have participated in this challenge-based approach to learning. Quests Overview
NuVu’s studio learning model engages students and teachers in a hands-on, tool-rich environment where they work on complex real-world challenges using creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.
The centerpiece of the NuVu model is the studio. Inspired by the MIT Media Lab, the NuVu studio is an immersive, interdisciplinary learning experience built around four pillars: innovation, empathy, design, and impact. Each studio is structured by hands-on, real-world projects in a 6:1 student-to-coach ratio that ensures support for students as they work on open-ended problems. To create voice and purpose for students, studio topics always include relevant social issues.
NuVu students work on a single multidisciplinary studio for 3 to 4 weeks rather than attending multiple courses each day. Projects help students deepen their critical thinking skills, express their creativity, learn to collaborate, and develop deep technical skills. All learning in the NuVu model is hands-on, so students spend a lot of time in “the shop,” a multi-faceted fabrication space where students have access to a variety of materials, resources, and tools, both digital and analog. Students also have access to experts who serve as guest coaches and bring rigor to the learning process by providing feedback, provoking new ways of thinking, and encouraging iteration.
NuVu graduates have proven to be prepared to thrive in engineering, art, and design programs at highly selective colleges. As NuVu continues to empower its students with the technical skills to become designers, entrepreneurs, makers and inventors, it has developed NuVuX, an initiative that brings design, creativity and innovation to K-12 schools and organizations around the world. NuVu serves as the epicenter of the growing global NuVuX Partner Network. NuVu Brochure A Day in NuVu
The Summit Learning program is a research-based approach to teaching and learning designed to drive student engagement, more meaningful learning, and strong student–teacher relationships that prepare students for life beyond the classroom.
Summit Learning is a comprehensive program offered by educator-led nonprofit Gradient Learning. In Summit Learning classrooms, teachers deliver dynamic lessons to the whole class, small groups, or one-on-one. Recognizing that each child is unique, educators teach in ways that ensure each student gains knowledge and develops lifelong learning skills on the timeline and in the ways that they learn best, from small group support, to group projects, to mentoring. This comprehensive model includes a platform through which students can access hands-on, real-world tasks and activities, take assessments, monitor feedback, and track their learning progress. The model is grounded in learning science and is adaptable for grades 4 through 12 across all core disciplines.
Summit Learning is implemented in 400 schools reaching 85,000 students where they experience an increase in academic scores, cognitive skills, and relevance in learning, as well as positive personal and interpersonal skills. Gradient Learning offers resource toolkits, professional development, and one-on-one coaching and consulting to schools interested in implementing the model.
The following resources can help deepen your understanding of project-based learning and support the design and implementation of a high-quality model, whether it’s one from The Innovative Models Exchange or one your community designs.
A set of six criteria for high-quality PBL based on the accumulated experience and research of hundreds of educators. PBLWorks is a contributor.
A comprehensive, research-informed framework to help teachers, schools, and organizations improve, calibrate, and assess their practice of PBL.
A large collection of articles and resources produced by educators who use PBL in their classrooms.
A searchable repository of dozens of videos about projects that students have done at High Tech High network schools.
Library of projects and resources that enable students to learn science standards, reading, writing, and social-emotional skills all through empowering projects that can be taught whole-group, small-group, or self-directed in in-person or remote settings.
A free website with full-year, coherent project-based learning courses for third grade through high school.
