The Best Way to Learn a Pedagogy is Practice: A Project-based Learning Journey

Authors

Kelly C. Margot, Grand Valley State UniversityFollow
Katherine Worden, Battle Creek Public SchoolsFollow

Abstract

Project based learning (PBL) is an instructional practice that gives students an opportunity to learn while focused on sustained inquiry. The teacher becomes a facilitator of learning by guiding students through an inquiry-process that includes authentic learning leading to a student-created product that will be shown to an authentic audience. Preservice teachers often lack exposure to this type of inquiry-based learning from their own school experiences and may be intimidated by this type of pedagogy. This manuscript tells the story of one English preservice teacher’s experience learning to be more comfortable with PBL and the role teacher education played by providing teacher candidates with in-depth practice.

Author Bio

Kelly Margot is an assistant professor at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She received her PhD in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Gifted Education from the University of North Texas. In her role at GVSU, Kelly has worked to spread the word about the power of Project Based Learning’s ability to reach all learners. Kelly is a gifted advocate for proper identification, appropriate curricula, ongoing research, and educating practitioners and parents. Her book Gifted Education and Gifted Students was released in January 2020. She can be reached at .

Katie Worden is a first year English teacher at Battle Creek Central High School. Her professional areas of interest are in project-based learning, curriculum differentiation, and engaging literacy strategies. She can be reached at .

Recommended Citation

Margot, Kelly C. and Worden, Katherine (2023) "The Best Way to Learn a Pedagogy is Practice: A Project-based Learning Journey," Michigan Reading Journal: Vol. 55: Iss. 2, Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mrj/vol55/iss2/7