CurrentsA C A D E M I C In Teaching and Learning JOURNAL VOLUME 10 NUMBER 2 OCTOBER 2018 CURRENTS | OCTOBER 2018 Table of Contents FOREWORD “ A Task-Based Approach to Tablets and 68 About Us Apps in the Foreign Language Classroom” “How should we prepare students to 2 Currents in Teaching and Learning is a peer-reviewed electronic journal that fosters — Celestine Caruso and Judith Hofmann address the challenges of our time?” exchanges among reflective teacher-scholars across the disciplines. Published twice — Jonathan Isham a year, Currents seeks to improve teaching and learning in higher education with PROGRAM REPORTS short reports on classroom practices as well as longer research, theoretical, or con- ceptual articles and explorations of issues and challenges facing teachers today. EDITORIAL “Extending Experiential Learning 78 Opportunities in Teacher Education: Non-specialist and jargon-free, Currents is addressed to both faculty and graduate “Project-Based and Problem-Based 9 Connecting Preservice Teachers and their students in higher education, teaching in all academic disciplines. Learning” Communities through Project-Based — Martin Fromm Collaborations” Subscriptions — Corrine Hinton, Stephanie Chickadel, Kristen Childress, and Amanda Nix If you wish to be notified when each new issue of Currents becomes available online ESSAYS and to receive our Calls for Submissions and other announcements, please join our “Cultivating Collaborative Writing Space: 12 Currents Subscribers’ Listserv. Subscribe Here Subscribe Here A Framework for Working Through the BOOK REVIEWS Sticking Points of Collaborative Authorship ” Scott D. Wurdinger’s The Power of 88 — Jenna Morton-Aiken and Christina Santana Project-Based Learning: Helping Students “‘Now We’re Trying to Teach the Public’: 23 Develop Important Life Skills Writing and Project-Based Learning — Samuel J. Touchette in General Education” Ross Cooper and Erin Muphy’s Hacking 91 — Brad Jacobson Project Based Learning: 10 Easy Steps to PBL and Inquiry in the Classroom “From Tchotchke to Techne: Project-Based 36 — Lena Ficco Learning in the Arts and Humanities” — Ashley Hall Bob Lenz, Justin Wells, and Sally 95 Kingston’s Transforming Schools: Using Project-Based Learning, Performance TEACHING REPORTS Assessment, and Common Core Standards Alyson Snowe Leitch “ Those who can’t, teach? Project-Based 51 Learning for Teachers and Students in the Digital Age” THE BACK PAGE — Laurie McMillan and Lindsey Wotanis About Us, Subscriptions, Submissions, Inquiries “ Partners in Writing: Addressing the Gap 58 Between High School and College” — Michal Reznizki and Jennifer Rooney Source of Cover Image: gettyimages CURRENTS | OCTOBER 2018 FOREWORD experiential-learning coin (Larmer, 2015)—claim that tion faculty are succeeding in new ways, in part because How should we prepare students to address the their students learn life skills, including time manage- they have embraced forms of experiential learning that ment, organization, public speaking, as well as problem are soundly grounded in theory and, above all, designed challenges of our time? solving: the ability to test ideas against life’s complexities to take on the many challenges of our age (Davidson, — Jonathan Isham and realities (Wurdinger, 2016). 2017). Are these advocates right? Do they overestimate the In this introductory essay, I share refections on impact of project- and problem-based learning? How best practices for project- and problem-based learning Dr. Jonathan Isham is a professor of economics and environmental studies at Middlebury College and was a can we know? Tis issue of Currents is designed to (PBL). Tese refections, as I discuss below, are based Fulbright Scholar at Ashesi University in 2016-17. His research interests are on the institutional determinants help educators address these and related questions. And on my two decades as a faculty member at Middlebury of well-being and best practices in liberal arts education. Dr. Isham has been a nationwide proponent for it could not be more timely. Tese days many critics College, where I have tested various modes of experien- integrating experiential learning and social entrepreneurship into the liberal arts curriculum. have higher education in their sights (Arum & Roska, tial learning. Modeling William Cronon’s sublime essay 2011; Kaplan, 2018). Colleges and universities, they on the liberal arts (Cronon, 1998), I ofer eight qual- Abstract How should we prepare students to address the claim, have not responded to the cultural cross-currents ities of students who have learned in well-taught PBL Project-based and problem-based learning can help to challenges of our time? and technological whirlwind of our age. We educators, courses. With these qualities, our students will be more fulfill John Dewey’s vision of education as the primary Introduction critics charge, are stymied by irrelevant curricula, dusty likely to accelerate social progress and reform over their engine for social change. Based on the author’s expe- worldviews, skewed incentives, accelerating costs, and lifetimes. John Dewey’s case for education—“I believe that ed- rience in teaching undergraduates and training fellow political correctness. educators, this paper details eight qualities of students ucation is the fundamental method of social progress Background and reform” (Dewey, 1897)—resounds in our troubled Yet we know that higher education has faced critics who have learned in well-taught project- and prob- For a newly hired professor, aspiring to what the best times. In his heated back-and-forth in the 1930s with in previous eras (Bloom, 1988): it’s still here; it’s still lem-based learning courses, including a recent class in college teachers do (Bain, 2004) takes hard work, tri- Robert Maynard Hutchins, Dewey laid the ground- thriving. And in part, the strong state of play on our social entrepreneurship at Ashesi University in Ghana. al-and-error, and the forbearance of patient students. Together, these qualities can lay the groundwork for work for experiential learning, broadly defned (Heldke, campuses is thanks to signifcant changes in what we After two years at Middlebury College, a leading lib- lives of meaning and purpose among students dedicat- 2005). Had Hutchins prevailed in the public sphere, St. teach and how our students learn: project- and prob- eral-arts college known for its commitment to teaching ed to addressing the challenges of our times. John’s College—with its well-known great books curric- lem-based learning address the critics head on. Tese ap- excellence, my teaching was up and down: every se- ulum—would be the most prevalent higher education proaches help students to take on actual social challeng- mester, a handful of great classroom days alongside too Keywords model for teaching and learning. Instead, 80 years af- es in communities that are adjacent to and/or afliated many pedagogical train wrecks (as student evaluations project-based learning; problem-based learning; ter the Dewey-Hutchins debate, over 1000 colleges and with campuses; challenges related to lack of access to made all too clear!). service learning; social entrepreneurship; Ghana. universities place service learning, community engage- social services, poorly performing institutions, the stub- ment, and/or social entrepreneurship at the center of born persistence of poverty, and environmental degra- To improve, I frst turned to service learning. In my their mission (Campus Compact, n.d.). dation. At their best, project- and problem-based learn- “Introductory Microeconomics” course in Fall 2001, ing are relevant, consistent with institutional incentives, students led 12 modest projects for two local NGOs: for Project- and problem-based learning in higher ed- and cost-efective. And by eschewing academic jargon, example, a study on the tradeofs associated with local ucation, modeled after innovative training in medical they can promote pragmatic learning that transcends parking spots for the Middlebury Business Association; schools in the 1950s and 1960s (Allen, Donham, & our cultural wars. a plan to increase donations for our local United Way. Bernhardt, 2011), are logical extensions to Dewey’s vi- Te course soon had more energy and greater student sion. Project-based learning is characterized by a prob- Tis special issue ofers a current snapshot of these satisfaction than in previous all-textbook iterations. lem that, by curricular design, yields a fnal student two related approaches. Te articles here comprise a Project-based learning, at a small scale, paid of. led-product (Helle, Tynjälä, & Olkinuora, 2006), while range of examples on what’s working, what’s not, and the priority for problem-based learning is studying the what should be changed as project- and problem-based By 2005, I raised the stakes. In a new four-week complex, realistic problem itself (Allen et al., 2011). learning continue to evolve. Were higher education’s class, “Building the New Climate Movement,” stu- Advocates of these approaches—two sides of the same current critics to peruse these articles, they’d likely con- dents explored the challenges of creating a new social clude that our colleges and universities are doing just movement for the greatest challenge of our time. Teir fne. Or better yet, they’d see that many higher educa- partners included the Environmental Defense Fund 2 HOW SHOULD WE PREPARE STUDENTS | JONATHAN ISHAM FOREWORD | HOW SHOULD WE PREPARE STUDENTS 3 CURRENTS | OCTOBER 2018 FOREWORD How should we prepare students continued