Every cloud has a silver lining

Ever since we are children, we are told to look at the sunny side, disregard the negative and focus on the positive. Well, at least that is exactly what I heard growing up.

When we are students, we face plenty of difficulties such as not liking the subject, not getting along with our classmates or not getting the hang of the teacher. These obstacles can make it hard for us to focus and achieve our goals, hence diminishing our strength and motivation. However, we can try to make the hard decision of seeing the glass half full. This is where Project Based Learning enters the game. You might not enjoy the teacher, the subject, or the teammates, but when working on projects, you can grasp freedom and not let it go. How? Easy peasy, by providing students with a broader spectrum of responsibility, they can make decisions in terms of what they want to focus on. Imagine, for example, that 2nd of ESO C must build a hierarchy of all living beings' families and their characteristics. Ana might detest Biology class, but as any other child would, she loves dogs, therefore, she makes the conscious decision of working in the "canis" genus. This way, she will work on dogs but she will also learn about similar species, which can awaken her curiosity to later explore that which she didn't find as interesting in the first place. Nevertheless, she must reach an agreement with the rest of the class so that nobody else chooses that specific field. This way, PBL enhances social skills as well as management, time organizing and research skills, which are crucial in everyday life. In addition to that, PBL allows teachers to prove to their students that they can work on their own, self-sufficiently, while adhering to an external schedule. The fact that a project covers individual, as well as group work, is extremely enriching to everybody.

I see PBL as the future of teaching. In this century students already have the necessary tools to read up on any subject that they want, unlimitedly and free. They only need a guide who helps them work on their own and who sparks the motivation to do so. On that same page, the internet, apart from being an incredible resource to learn and to communicate, can also be socially harmful. A computer provides everything but human contact, making teenagers more and more socially inept and unable to work together. Therefore, PBL also strengthens teamwork, communicative skills and humanity.

PBL requires a huge effort on the teacher's part but its benefits are unmatched, so it's worth trying. I hope that in case you're not very fond of PBL, this has opened your eyes. Thanks for reading!