Historiography of World History
Project-Based Learning
Shelley Rose
Educators increasingly work together to develop engaged learning experiences that center on projects rather than more traditional delivery formats. Students learn and engage with the materials instructors provide for content in diverse ways. In this project, future world history educators explore the potential of encouraging students to craft their own product for assessment which will both suit their strengths and interests as well as be a public facing product they can share in a professional portfolio.
One example of the project-based learning model in action is the “Cleveland Latin American Mission Team in Context” project from the Introduction to Historical Methods course at Cleveland State University. In this course, students engaged with world history from the local, national, and transnational level creating their own products (artwork, podcasts, visual essays, exhibits) around a common topic. See the range of projects at: https://csuhisppg.shelleyrose.org/exhibits/show/clam/context.
Historians often call this type of assignment an “UnEssay;” in my own digital humanities courses I describe this as an open product. Each learning group will design their own project-based learning lesson around the topic of migration in world history. Project-based learning guides students through the stages of creating a personally meaningful project to present to an audience beyond the classroom. This audience might be parents and family members, fellow students, or public audiences.
Review the resources in this unit on project based learning (PBL) and brainstorm ideas for your own PBL assignment. Go to the next chapter for detailed assignment instructions.
PBL Reading & Resources
- PBLWorks, “What is PBL?” Buck Institute for Education URL: https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl
- Jenny Pieratt, “How to Create a Project Based Learning Lesson.” Cult of Pedagogy, February 16, 2020. URL: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/project-based-learning-lesson/
- Heather Wolpert-Gawron, “What the Heck is Project-Based Learning?” Edutopia. January 26, 2015. URL: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-heck-project-based-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron
- Taylor Zepp, “Hidden Learning Loss: Project Based Learning as a Social Emotional Learning Solution,” Cleveland Teaching Collaborative, August 10, 2022. https://cleteaching.org/t_zepp/
- Shannon Conley-Kurjian, Erin Dargan and Stephani Itibrout, “Creating A PBL Unit.” Migration in Global Context, 2015.
- John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller, “Seven Essentials for PBL” Educational Leadership 68, no. 1 (September 2010): 34-37. URL: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Seven_Essentials_for_Project-Based_Learning.aspx
- Project-Based Learning Resources in Cleveland Teaching Collaborative Resource Referatory
- Podcasting in Class guide by Abby Mullen with examples, methods, and resources for student podcasts
