Project-based learning as a classroom approach promises much; a shifting of the centre of gravity from the teacher to the student, the creation of conditions under which deeper learning and valuable transferable skills can be fostered and the opportunity to connect the learning process more directly to life itself, so that in place of a sterile regime of jumping through assessment hoops, students are able to learn by grappling with genuinely challenging, personally engaging questions or problems.

At the same time, project-based learning is an approach that has been criticised as promising much but delivering little, resting on an overly optimistic assessment of the capacity of students to learn independently and freighting the learning process with unwanted cognitive baggage.

In his talk, Dr John L. Taylor, Cranleigh School’s Director of Learning, Teaching and Innovation, and a Chief Examiner of the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), will seek to articulate and defend a conception of project-based learning that takes cognisance of the criticisms that have been levelled at this approach and which can be implemented in the classroom in a manner that allows the beneficial aspects of project work to emerge, whilst paying due regard to the ever-present need to ensure successful assessment outcomes.

The talk will provide an overview of some of the relevant research literature and articulate a model for project based learning that can be implemented both through standalone qualifications such as EPQ and through the use of projects within subject-specific curriculum settings.