Rigorous PBL by Design: Three Shifts for Developing Confident and Competent Learners (Corwin Teaching Essentials)

I appreciate the structure of this book because it is designed for successful implementation of the PBL approach to learning. Examples, strategies, processes, reflections, and tools are purposefully included to allow readers to better see what this shift will look like in their learning environment, and how to get there.

At last, a book that contextualizes and delivers reality to the mythology surrounding project based learning, problem based learning, or "PBL." McDowell's thinking, analysis and conclusions are research-based and spot-on in terms of putting PBL in its proper frame as a powerful teaching and learning tool that can deliver impact when used strategically and appropriately once students acquire the necessary and critical foundational skills. This is an absolute MUST READ for all educators and parents, as PBL has often been touted as a magical cure to students' lack of engagement in the classroom. Yet as John Hattie (2009) notes, multiple research studies on PBL indicate it has little to no impact on student achievement. Why? Here's what Hattie himself has to say in the forward to McDowell's book,"There is indeed a “culture” that needs developing when implementing PBL. This culture, argues McDowell, is not a busy, buzzy hive of activity, not an overreliance on “authentic” tasks that engage students, not a snazzy techy solution—but a focus on making a change in learning via a relentless focus on clarity, challenge, and culture of learning the surface, the deeper, and the transfer aspects on the domain of knowledge to be learned."Too often we've all seen PBL-like methods used in classrooms where the concepts at hand are not yet clearly understood. As teachers I believe we all have the best of intentions and intuitively it makes sense that PBL has the potential to lift our students' learning to new heights. Yet as McDowell asserts, when students are still learning at a surface level, implementing PBL can be counter-productive and even dangerous to students' mastery of the content.In short, McDowell drives home the notion that PBL has a right and proper time and place in our classrooms. He helps us understand why PBL is not the educational panacea so many tout it to be. Best of all, he shares practical and do-able strategies for how educators can learn to use this tool correctly and to its greatest potential. Just as a hammer in the hands of the unskilled can deliver less-than-desirable outcomes, so too can PBL fail to deliver in classrooms where it is poorly understood and improperly implemented.In this much-needed book, McDowell launches us all on our way to becoming "master carpenters", using PBL to build deeper learning and transference for all our students.

Whether you have been a fan or a skeptic of project-based learning, this book is a MUST READ! Dr. McDowell addresses all of the criticism and and speaks openly about the dangers of PBL units that are poorly designed and implemented. He uses a plethora of research to defend his arguments and addresses the research that has been critical of PBL. He then clearly lays out how to design project-based learning units that focus not primarily on the project, but primarily on the learning. In a practical fashion, he categorizes the 3 levels of learning that take place within the context of a well- designed PBL unit including surface level, deep level, and transfer level learning.John Hattie wrote the Foreword and Suzie Boss wrote the Afterword, two of the best minds in education today. If you are looking to have deep and meaningful dialogue at your school about preparing learners for the future, you need to read this book.An underlying truth in this book is the fact that Dr. McDowell speaks from a tremendous amount of experience as he was a PBL Teacher, PBL School Design Coach, Principal, Assistant Superintendent, and now Superintendent. Very few in the United States have viewed PBL through all of the lenses that Dr. McDowell has, and it is with these multiple perspectives that he has crafted a book that educators will be talking about for years to come. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Bought this for a course I am taking. Explains PBL thoroughly. Still feel as confused as I started about how to implement PBL in a classroom however does provide many examples. The examples are more helpful in explaining how to create PBL than the wordy explanations in each chapter.

I appreciate this book so much! Often, with PBL, the focus becomes centered on the project or the problem, rather than the learning that is transferred from the authentic experience of the PBL. As a principal of a Northern CA school, my team and I centered on the importance of “student learning,” student growth over time and the progression of concepts and skills. I relied heavily on this book to assist in making the shift toward planning with clarity, focusing learning intentions and success criteria to provide specific feedback for student growth. We bought the text for each of our teachers to use as a common document on which to base our collaborative discussions. The information is accessible, Michael is a GREAT writer and has helped all of us to center on what really matters…student learning!

As an elementary school principal, I purchased this book for my entire staff last summer and have since then used the content to drive all professional development.Rigorous PBL by Design is both provocative and affirming, as it challenges widely accepted PBL touchstones while spotlighting more familiar instructional strategies. Accordingly, the book can serve simultaneously as a non-threatening introduction to PBL and also as a tool to deepen the practice of even the most experienced PBL practitioner.While McDowell offers a thought-provoking perspective, he also maintains fidelity to learning. He describes high-impact instruction that is rooted in research and fortified by his own experience in the classroom.More than anything however, I appreciate that this book empowers both teachers and learners. It unapologetically mandates that teachers actively teach – which is curiously lacking in so much of the current discourse around PBL. It also provides practical tools to support a student’s ownership of her own learning. The result is that teachers and students work together to cause learning!