Case study 3 Empowering the Entire Classroom

Elijah is part of a group of teachers at an urban ‘middle school’ that decided to start with project based learning to enhance cross-disciplinary cooperative learning in which acquiring (soft) skills plays an important role. After several meetings with his colleagues during which they studied the principles of project-based learning, he is ready to make a first attempt. For a period of three weeks, students are going to work on a project about their own city in which they will design plans to make public spaces in their own neighbourhoods more inviting for young people. The main subject of the project is given, as well as the different steps to be taken and what they have to deliver eventually: a presentation of their design to a member of the local council. While engaged in the project, students are expected to develop skills like learning to ask questions, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, presenting, giving and receiving feedback, and other metacognitive skills like self-reflection and self-regulation.

The class consists of students with various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, living in different parts of the city; Elijah decided to form heterogenous groups in which different neighbourhoods are represented. Right after the explanation of the project, one group starts immediately with the presentation, another group has trouble getting the design process off the ground.  During the (peer)feedback phase, a number of students don’t get much further than complimenting each other instead of  giving helpful critique, and substantive questions are not being asked.

When Elijah and his colleagues evaluate the project, they come to the conclusion that they did not have a proper knowledge of which skills the students master (to which extent) and that they still don’t know whether all students understood the purpose of the project…

In this case study, you will support the teacher in exploring how problem-based learning can be implemented in inclusive settings and which didactic approaches make it genuinely inclusive, ensuring that diverse learners can contribute, interact, and succeed together.

The presentation of the case study should include the following aspects:

• Brief introduction to the case (including a description of the initial situation and the guiding question);

• Theoretical foundations of cooperative learning in general (characteristics, prerequisites, methods, functions, effectiveness) and project- and/or inquiry based learning in inclusive learning environments in particular;

• Cause analysis: Possible reasons for the failure of the attempt to implement cooperative learning/project based learning;

• (Didactic) approaches for inclusive PBL;

• Recommendations for action for teachers: Guidebook for implementing and preparing cooperative learning in an inclusive classroom, with special attention to (soft) skills not every student possesses or acquires from home.