4 Powerful Strategies for Project-Based Learning Culture-Building to Boost Classroom Success

One of the most critical parts of project-based learning (PBL), especially when it’s student-led, is building a strong PBL culture. You and/or students can design an incredible PBL experience, but without a solid PBL culture to support it, that plan will remain just an idea.

What are some strategies for project-based learning culture-building? Have a look!

Key Takeaways:

• Shows the clear differences between a PBL classroom culture and a traditional classroom culture.
• Defines what makes a PBL culture unique and why it’s essential for productivity, collaboration, innovation, and more.
• Breaks down four strategies for building PBL culture: interpersonal relationship-building, intrapersonal relationship-building, PBL training, and skill-building.
• Includes real examples and practical tips to help you bring each strategy to life in your own classroom.

Yes, send free checklist and training!

What is PBL Culture and Why Does it Matter? 

Non-PBL Classroom Culture:

Imagine you walk into a non-PBL classroom. Students are sitting at their desks taking notes while the teacher is teaching at the front of the room. This goes on for about 20 minutes.

Then the teacher asks students to break off into small groups to do a quick teacher-designed experiment with the intention of fortifying the concepts that were just delivered through lecture. 

Finally, the teacher instructs students to share their lab results with the class. 

PBL Culture:

Now, imagine you walk into a student-led PBL classroom. The students are in the beginning phases of the PBL process, designing PBLs, having them approved, and starting research. 

You see students occupying every corner of the room.

One pair of students is working on the final details of their PBL design.

Another student has started the beginning phases of their PBL and is writing emails to potential community experts.

​A small group of students is circled up in the back of the room, offering each other feedback on each other's PBL designs. 

The teacher is bouncing around the room answering and asking questions, brainstorming PBL design elements, and offering feedback on PBL designs. 

After about 30 minutes of this, the teacher brings all of the students together at a large round table in the center of the room. The teacher asks students who have finished their PBL designs to share what they’ve developed and accept constructive critique and suggestions from the rest of the group. 

The class period ends with students filling out a check-out form. This check-out form asks students to reflect on the class period, review tasks that have been done and those that still need to be done, identify where they need guidance, etc.

What's the difference?

These two classrooms are very different in a variety of ways, not one better than the other, just different.

One has a PBL culture, the other does not.

The PBL classroom culture forms around and reflects the learning approach, in this case, PBL.

In the non-PBL classroom example, the culture is one of passively acquiring information through direct instruction. The teacher delivers the information.

In a PBL classroom, the culture is one of inquiry and exploration. Students acquire information through research and the exploration of their own questions using a variety of sources and real people. 

In the non-PBL classroom example, the culture is one of following instructions and completing teacher-assigned tasks and teacher-designed lessons.

In the PBL classroom, the culture forms around student-designed, developed, and executed learning experiences.

In the non-PBL classroom example, the expectation is that all students go through the same series of learning experiences. They all listen to the lecture, they all take notes, they all do the very same lab with the expectation of producing similar, if not the exact same results. 

In a student-led PBL classroom, all students are on personalized paths. Each student-designed PBL is personalized. 

In the non-PBL classroom, the learning experiences (lecture, lab, and group discussion), are all theoretical. The information is not acquired through firsthand experience or conversations with experts or real and relevant members of the community. The lab is hypothetical. The results did not directly impact the community or solve a problem.

In the PBL classroom, it is the norm for students to design and lead PBLs that incorporate firsthand experience. It is the expectation that students design PBLs that solve a real-world problem or meet a real need and that the final results play a role in solving that problem. Their final products are authentic and useful in life.

In the non-PBL classroom, the teacher creates the schedule, creates the lessons, and manages tasks and time for students.

In the PBL classroom, the culture is one of self-direction. Students lead, teachers facilitate. Students manage their own time and tasks. 

In the non-PBL classroom, students are not required or encouraged to take academic risks. In a PBL classroom, that is the norm. 

In the non-PBL classroom example, students create what they are being asked to create and move on after the first draft. The lab, for example, will not be revised and revisited the next day. 
​
In the PBL classroom, it is the expectation and norm for students to produce a variety of drafts and accept critique from the teacher, peers, community experts, and more with the intention of producing quality products and experiences.

Again, one learning community is not necessarily better than the other. It is up to you to determine exactly what outcomes you want.

If you want your students to develop 21st-century skills, build character, have real-world learning experiences, and produce tangible and impactful final products, then student-led PBL might be for you! 

If you decide that student-led PBL is what you want, prioritize PBL culture-building into your daily routine from the start.

Build a classroom culture and community of trust, safety, academic risk-taking, authenticity, questioning, quality outcomes, collaboration, intrapersonal awareness, and more. 

But how do you build a PBL culture? How do you build a learning community that empowers students to explore their interests, acquire their own information, personalize their learning experiences, and partner or collaborate with community members on solving real-world issues?

Let’s go over a few techniques.

​PBL culture-building takes time and consistent attention. I heavily focus on culture-building at the beginning of the year, but maintain that culture throughout the entire school year using the following strategies:

Favorite Strategies for Project-Based Learning Culture-Building

​Interpersonal Relationship-Building

Relationship-building is vital to a healthy and strong PBL culture. Your students will offer each other feedback, critique each other's work, give suggestions, and possibly even work together or collaborate on PBLs. 

Building a culture where students feel confident, comfortable, and safe sharing their work and accepting feedback from one another is critical.

Building a PBL culture where students support one another, cheer each other on, hold each other accountable, and challenge each other irons out some of the PBL challenges that teachers and students run into. 

Take the time to build trusting and supportive relationships between students in your classroom. You won’t regret it. 

Intrapersonal Relationship-Building

Students design, develop, and lead their own PBLs in a student-led learning environment. In order for students to confidently do this, and to trust their decisions, they need to know themselves.

Your students will design PBLs around their interests, passions, goals, aspirations, strengths, challenges, and more. They will work toward the skill of identifying these things, as many will not have that skill right away.

So an important PBL culture-builder is helping students get to know themselves. They can do this with personal learning plans, mini-projects about themselves, intrapersonal awareness activities such as interest surveys, and more.

PBL Training ​

Many of your students will be new to student-led PBL. Part of PBL culture-building, then, is training students in project-based learning. 

There are specific PBL design elements such as the driving question, innovative final product, community experts, and authentic presentations. As part of your culture-building strategy, train students in designing deep, authentic, and high-quality PBLs. 

Designing a project-based learning experience that incorporates the expertise of a community expert, for example, is one expectation or norm in a PBL learning community. It’s part of the classroom culture.

You can also train students to execute project-based learning experiences that they have designed. Your students may not be accustomed to leading their own learning experience, especially PBLs, so giving them the tools and a roadmap will help. 

I like to spend some time at the beginning of the school year or semester with a PBL training session.

I work at a project-based school that has a mandatory PBL seminar. This is one of the first classes they take. This approach may not be applicable to you, but it's something to think about and maybe modify in a way that works for your students. 

Skill-Building

Finally, it’s important to keep skill-building in mind. Again, your students may not be experienced with self-directing PBLs.

​There are some skills required of self-directed project-based learners including managing their own tasks, managing time, finding credible and authentic information, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and more. 

Not all of these skills are innate. If it is the expectation that students keep track of and manage their own PBL-specific tasks, which is the expectation in a student-led PBL classroom, your students will need time and practice developing that skill. 

You may find yourself getting frustrated with students that don’t seem to be able to manage and direct their own PBLs right off the bat. That is where skill-building comes in. Give them grace and offer them the tools and exercises to build these skills. 

This can be done with simple and quick exercises. You could also scaffold or facilitate the gradual acquisition of these skills.

You can help students build these skills in any number of ways, just make sure you do it. Expect skill-building to be an ongoing part of developing a strong PBL culture and learning community.

I'm ready for PBL!

That’s it! Let’s review quickly. The PBL culture is unique because PBL is unique. A PBL culture or classroom community will look and function much differently from a non-PBL classroom community. 

A few ways to work toward a PBL-specific classroom culture are building both inter- and intrapersonal relationships, by offering your students PBL training, and by building skills that are relevant to student-led PBL. 

PBL Teacher Academy, my comprehensive, self-paced digital course all about student-led PBL, dedicates an entire module to PBL culture-building. Click here to learn more about PBL Teacher Academy and what it has to offer. 

Note that this course is only open for enrollment 1-2 times per year, one of which is in early August.

​To stay updated on upcoming enrollment periods, get on the waiting list. Getting on this list doesn’t mean you’re committed to the course; it just tells me that you want updates and alerts as it relates to the PBL Teacher Academy. 

Online Courses:

PBL Culture Resources:

Relevant Blog Posts

Let's get social!

Let's be friends! Follow Experiential Learning Depot on TPT for new resource alerts and on Pinterest & Instagram for more on experiential education.  

Did you know that there is an experiential learning Facebook group? 
​
Experiential Learning Community for K12 Teachers and Homeschoolers ​