A course on project-based learning for Mexican university lecturers
In the Netherlands I worked at a university that was well-known for its expertise in project-based learning. As academic advisors at the educational support centre we were often asked to develop and facilitate tailor-made professional development courses for other tertiary education institutions.
In one such course lecturers from a large multi-campus university in Mexico came to the Netherlands for two to three weeks to learn about developing project-based curriculum. The power of project-based learning is that it encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning, and when projects are created within an authentic context project-based learning gives a meaningful purpose to learning. In addition, students develop many other interpersonal and communication skills that are highly relevant in everyday life and work.
Two colleagues and I were faced with two challenges: 1) Engaging the Mexican lecturers with the idea and the implications of project-based curriculum; and, 2) Helping the lecturers develop curriculum that would engage their students. To catch these two birds with one stone, we developed a course that would require the lecturers to experience project-based learning while they were developing project-based curriculum for their own university. We called it ‘practise as you preach’. This method allowed us to showcase a range of activities and approaches for these lecturers to incorporate in the design of their project-based curriculum, including, but not limited to, assessment design, the roles of the teacher, the structure of a project, coaching strategies, using a learning management system for project-based learning. However, instead of talking about these activities and approaches we let the lecturers experience them, just as a student would. On this basis they were able to decide on the appropriateness of the activities and approaches for their own students. In addition to this being loads of fun for us as facilitators, the lecturers were very positive about the approach we had taken. They had all redesigned one of their own courses into a project-based course and indicated they had learned a lot about project-based learning. The reference below points to a paper we published about our method.
Reference
Weenk, W., Govers, E., & Vlas, H. (2004). Training in project-based education: Practise as you preach. European Journal of Engineering Education, 29(4), 465-475. doi: 10.1080/03043790410001716301