In the last decade, educational institutions are grappling with a big, hairy, existential question. What is the purpose of an education? Once students leave that educational institution, what sorts of people should they be? And what should their education allow them to ‘do’?

With the prospect of schools being closed (or largely de-populated) for some time now, teachers around the world are grappling with how to deliver content to students

A criticism which is occasionally directed at project-based learning is that it lacks structure. The approach to PBL which suggests providing students with an ambiguous, unstructured problem to make sense of and work through can instead leave them uncertain and stagnant, unsure of what to do

A key pillar of project-based learning is the inquiry process through which students explore a problem and the content which they are required to learn as part of the project

Student engagement is perhaps one of the most discussed topics within education and is one of the few perennial yardsticks against which schools benchmark their progress and the effectiveness of teaching strategies

In these articles, we’ve mainly focused on how to design a unit and what to do in the classroom to ensure the project stays on the rails. However, the challenge for many schools often comes long before they even get to this point

Whenever PBL is spoken about, the term collaboration generally follows closely. Whilst nobody doubts its importance to students being able to navigate a project successfully, there is much less clarity on exactly what good collaboration is

These skills are widely recognised as being the knowledge that students need to possess after completing their education and, should they have developed them, they will be better able to navigate a complex and rapidly-changing world

One common reason why teams fail is that team members do not fully understand each other and don’t communicate what they want from the team and each other as teammates

Team conflict is a source of frustration for students and teachers alike within PBL projects. It can sour the interpersonal dynamics within a team and derail the team’s productivity