If there is one goal of contemporary education it’s to prepare students for the real world. They will be entering a world that’s hands-on, in need of problem solvers, and rewarding to those who can develop creative solutions. It’s not as kind to those who only possess book smarts. It’s a challenge, but teachers, starting as early as middle school, need to facilitate learning that mirrors the real world. Whether it’s a renewed commitment to STEM, tech, or, most importantly, project-based learning, students need the practice.
Connecting PBL to the Real World
The best way to prepare students for the real world is to encourage them to explore project-based learning from a young age. PBL has many distinct benefits in this day and age, including its hands-on nature, relatability to authentic problem solving, and emphasis on teamwork. In order for PBL to truly prepare students for their futures, it should be as “real world” as possible. This means that not only should students be using technology in their learning, they should be using it to solve problems. And, not just made-up problems—problems that actually exist whether in their own personal lives or, more importantly, in their school or community. Getting to a point where this is possible takes some planning, but it’s worth the effort.
To create meaningful PBL, teachers should focus on finding out what it is that their students care about. In this case, student voice is a very valuable asset to creating learning that’s real-world relevant. Since the best PBL occurs when students are able to apply certain skills in active learning, they need to be interested in what they are being taught. Sometimes, this means leaving behind traditional measures of student success, like test scores, and letting them go out into the real world and carve their own success. How will they know when they’ve achieved their goal if they don’t have a paper with a letter grade on it? Well, ideally, they will be able to clearly see some form of change.
In order to buy into the projects they are assigned, students must also be able to clearly see the connection between that project and its value in the real world. Real community problems, as we touched on, are perhaps the best basis for creating PBL that’s engaging and important to kids. When students are met with the challenge of working together to solve a real-world issue, their learning becomes much more tangible. It’s even better when that problem is in their own community. Sure, it’s great when they come up with a creative solution together, but they also need to keep in mind that this is how they will be expected to solve problems in the future. PBL is a practice field for preparing students for the real world.
PBL Lessons Teach Kids Real-world Skills
If you think about it, what are the main things we want students to get out of their education? We want higher test scores, better graduation rates, and the opportunity for them to earn more over their lifetime. So, we hammer home the fact that they have to show up, study, show what they know, and then they’ll be ready to succeed. What teachers are preparing students for these days, however, is a bit different from what they’ve been doing in the past. After they graduate, students are going to be entering an economy that rewards creativity, problem-solving abilities, and efficiency rather than just large amounts of book smarts. They will be relied on to bring innovative solutions to the table, which is why project-based learning and hands-on opportunities are a beneficial and necessary part of contemporary schooling.
Research shows that there is a pretty legitimate connection between teaching life skills in school and eventual student outcomes. Life skills like collaboration, problem solving, good judgment, and time management are crucial for students who are looking to build success in the 21st century. Each of these can also be incorporated into existing curricula. Since teachers, of course, place a high amount of value on them as well, it generally goes without saying that they can find a place for them. And, among the main reasons it’s good to teach these skills is because employers value them a great deal. So, not only are students coming out of school more prepared, they’re able to jump into better economic opportunities when they have this kind of a strong background.
Sometimes, this type of learning is referred to as ‘character education.’ Though it may not seem like it to everyone, building these kinds of skills is more important for students than rushing to finish worksheets and cramming for exams. Why? Because they will actually be using these skills in the real world almost every day. Without authentic projects to help them, most students won’t be able to become informed global citizens, effective members of a team, or ready to take on the dynamic developments of the real world. Project-based learning teaches more than just intellectual skills. It teaches kids how to succeed at whatever life throws at them—even though there’s a good chance they won’t know what that is until the time comes.
Solving Real-world Problems Teaches Real-world Skills
The title of this section makes a lot of sense. You probably don’t need us to explain that, but how can teachers use technology to simulate real-world learning and help make this a reality? Out of all the emerging technologies to grace K-12 classrooms, 3D printers are among some of the most beneficial for students who are looking for a real-world feel during the school day. We talked about PBL that solves actual problems being the ideal form of real-world learning and 3D printing is perhaps one way to get there. And, yes, this is a great way to create some exceptional outcomes. In education, however, it takes a bit more for 3D printing to reach its full potential—not only teaching tech skills, but other skills kids will need in the workforce.
When students are 3D printing in their courses, they’re also learning skills like design thinking, collaboration, and engineering. The idea is to have students work in conjunction with a group from outside the school (or within the school if necessary) to dissect a problem and determine how they can use 3D printing to literally manufacture a solution. Teachers could even work with other members of the community to create a system in which they submit problems to school leaders for students to finagle a solution using 3D printing. This presumably would work better in a semester- or year-long class devoted to these types of service-learning projects rather than teachers just spending a few weeks on a specific project. In any case, it gives students the chance to learn about what it’s like to recognize a problem, look at it from all sides, and use what they know to create a custom solution.
The reason that 3D printing is such a great tool to replicate real-world problem solving is that there are so many customized ways in which students can use it. Say a city official is struggling with a leaky portion of a dam that runs through the center of town (an unlikely example, I know). Maybe there’s one small piece of it that can’t quite withstand the pressure it’s faced with. Students could 3D print a customized part that could prevent this leakage (it would be more involved than this simple solution I’m outlining, but you get the point). Since 3D printing offers so many potential solutions that are customizable and affordable, it’s become a must-have tool for schools that want to mimic real-world conditions and use innovation to prepare students for life.
How to Make Classrooms Mirror the Real World
It’s not all that often that you walk down the street or enter an office building and see people working vigorously with a pencil and a piece of paper. That’s because most real-world careers don’t involve taking copious amounts of notes every day. Why, then, does education? Students spend hundreds of hours each school year writing things down after a teacher spews thoughts out in their general direction. Sure, this is helping them remember more than they would if they tried to take a test simply from memory, but what skills are they actually learning during this process? Wouldn’t their time be better spent learning by doing and engaging in hands-on activities that will help them build more useful skills than the ability to take notes?
We think that would be correct. In fact, the whole premise of Eduporium is based on finding ways to help educators replace the pen-and-paper way of learning with technology that sparks active engagement, and creative discussion. This is what leads to students discovering a connection between what they are studying and the real world. It doesn’t have to be a huge and sudden transformation to incredibly complex and expensive technology, either. Sometimes, simpler is better and, when it comes to student engagement, this is definitely the case. All this is what helps schools move from worksheet-based classes (where most of what goes on is note taking) to inquiry-driven classrooms, which enable hands-on discovery and let creativity fly.
It’s technology that transforms ordinary learning into authentic, real-world PBL. Technology allows students to see things that they would ordinarily miss and encourages them to attempt solutions they otherwise would be unable to attain. More importantly, they are going to be using technology when they’re counted on to develop solutions to real problems. They’re going to need to rely on a creative process and know what to do if one method does not work for them. In the real world, failure is constant, but productive failure is a must. Students need the chance to explore a similar way of learning from the time they start elementary school. In real-world classrooms, failures and successes aren’t defined by letters and numbers on a piece of paper—nor should they be.
How PBL Transforms the Classroom into the ‘Real World’
Some schools have got modern teaching and learning figured out. For whatever reason, however, many school systems still struggle with creating curricula that engage students, encourage collaboration, and promote critical thinking. Sometimes, this is because they don’t have the resources to achieve this effectively whether it’s money to spend on supplies or a lack of qualified teachers. Unfortunately, this is going to happen. What shouldn’t happen, however, is students attending a school led by educators who refuse to try new ways of reaching them. Students should never be left to aimlessly fill in worksheets or suffer through grade after grade in an environment that is in no way helping them grow into somebody who’s real-world ready.
Despite many of today’s teachers being put through classrooms like the one described above, they have to do all they can to create environments that are different for their students today—opposite even. Students are constantly judged solely by their abilities to perform on tests. Tests, however, fail to measure some of the most important attributes they will need in the future. In the real world, nobody is judged by their ability to answer a multiple-choice question or think out a somewhat adequate response to a short-answer question. In project-based learning classrooms, this problem is greatly reduced if not eliminated entirely. Students have the chance to show what they have learned with demonstrations and presentations that highlight specific skills and how they will apply them in real-world examples.
One of the best ways, especially in PBL, to prepare students for the real world is to use their class work to simulate the solving of legitimate problems. And, of course, any time they can use technology to do so, it certainly helps. PBL simulations, like any PBL endeavor, can last for an entire school year or encompass just a couple of months or weeks. Depending on how teachers construct their PBL, they should focus on enabling students to experience real-world situations and gain insights into how the world actually works, how they should communicate with others, and how they can take initiative to create efficient solutions. It may seem like this kind of PBL is a bit too “real world,” but any time students aren’t challenged with the kinds of problems they’ll be expected to solve in the future, they’re becoming that much closer to guaranteeing success.
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