Blogs on Education Reform

Editor's note: Today is the fifth in a series of posts from PBL World, a global gathering of educators interested in project-based learning. Join the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #pblworld.

Teachers and other "education change agents" who are advocates of project-based learning often find that they have to make the case for PBL to their communities. "They need backup," acknowledged Cindy Johanson, executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF) and Edutopia. In her keynote address to PBL World on Thursday, she shared highlights of new research that shows the effectiveness of PBL for achieving rigorous learning outcomes.

Agreeing on how to best establish what a learner understands isn't simple -- if for no other reason than understanding isn't simple.

As a junior in high school, I was finally able to enroll in the photography class. Offered only every other year, this was the only time the course was available to me (it was not open to freshman), and since there was only one section, the period three class was my only shot.

So, when my guidance counselor pulled me into his office on the second day of school to tell me I had to drop photography to take a more college-friendly Spanish class, I knew my opportunity was lost. This was in 1988, five years before Mosaic was introduced to the world, seven years before Netscape made the World Wide Web available to the masses, and a decade before virtual schooling was an option. Unless I could find a private mentorship, my only access to formally learning photography was period three during my junior year of high school and, since I had to take Spanish, that was no longer an option for me.

Along with Dr. Allen N. Mendler, my close friend and co-author of several books, I have spent a great deal of time promoting the use of consequences over punishments. We define a punishment as what is done to us (detentions, suspensions, checkmarks on public boards, calls home), and a consequence as what we do to ourselves (learning new behavior, helping others). This new behavioral and social contract system uses values, rules and consequences as the main components of an effective school or classroom plan for discipline.