Learning It by Doing: Project-based Learning
III. 1. Types of pedagogical projects
Pedagogical projects can be classified by their different characteristics. These are as follows:
- Choice of topic
- Project theme or content
- Complexity/interdisciplinarity of the project
- Its relationship to time spent at school
- Its length
- Number of participants
- End product
1. By choice of topic:
- School teachers call for participation in international- national or local projects and learners may apply.
- On the basis of their interests learners form SIGs (Special Interest Groups) and they choose a topic from the offer to work on, or, they find a new topic to investigate.
2. By project theme or content:
- Curriculum-related or teaching materials-related projects
- Projects, partially related to the curriculum or teaching material
- Projects, unrelated to the curriculum or teaching material
3. By complexity/interdisciplinarity:
- Single-subject projects
- Multidisciplinary projects
4. By its relationship to time spent at school:
- Projects done during lessons
- In epochal teaching
- In leisure-time
5. By length:
- short-term projects (to be implemented in one or in a few school lessons)
- medium-term projects (to be implemented from 1-several weeks)
- long-term projects (their lifecyle is several weeks, even one school year)
6. By the number of participants:
- individual
- small group-based projects
- projects involving a whole class or school (e.g. forest schools, eco-schools, Education for Sustainable Development Schools = ESD projects,bird-friendly schoolyard project. For further details see Unit VIII)
- international projects (e.g.: BEAGLE project. For further details see Unit VIII)
7. By end-product:
- an object, toy, or model
- written piece of work
- drama, film, exhibition, voice recording
- event
- public debate, forum, negotiations.