Did You Know?: PBL & PYP

I had the privilege of chatting with Grayson McKinney, one of the authors of the Expert Effect, to guide me through process of Project-based learning (PBL).  I wanted to know more about PBL, so I could compare and contrast it with the PYP program.  

Here are some of the highlights of our collaboration and  my aha moments.  It's always nice to engage in meaningful dialogue that expands your perspective. 

Where do we begin?  It's always with a driving question.  Both the PYP and PBL begin research with a driving question that is conceptual in nature and can't easily be answered on Google.  It requires learners to think and make connections beyond what is on the page.  

The PYP focuses on leanrer agency through voice, choice, and ownership.  To make this come alive, we lean into the language of the learner profile attributes to make agency more practical.  

While PBL shapes learners through voice, choice and creativity.  The skill development comes through the 21st century 6C's competencies. 

Yet, we both join together is providing a targeted learning outcome, a time frame and are based on content and process standards.  

Our process is different in how we achieve it, which is okay.  We might have a different purpose for materials and the products that we create.  This is okay too. 

The key difference between the PYP and PBL is the learning focus.  The PYP is centered on transdisciplinary learning where we teach all subjects to create a comprehensive view on learning.  While PBL is looking at the merits of collaborative learning and how it helps learners to come up with innovative new ideas. 

Both approaches are centered on developing a learner who can see beyond the content to make real-world applications.  We do this through regular feedback of how we are doing at a moment in time, give feedforward to move toward the next steps, provide opportunities to reflect and revise the thinking. 

The PYP is now more balanced in approach to assessment.  There is less emphasis on a summative project, where PBL has a public product for each unit.  The PYP has gone away from this approach towards more frequent formative assessments and a minor summative of the central idea.

As I review these two programs, we can see that there are more similarities than differences.  The key factor is that it is learner-driven and focused on developing young people who can think beyond the required content.