Double Entry Journal 6

The dominant paradigm that is showing signs of wear is "the instructional model of the teacher and the textbook as the primary sources of knowledge, conveyed through lecturing, discussion, and reading" according to the reading. Project based learning supports student learning by being organized in a way that the questions lead the students to encounter central ideas and concepts. It supports learning by focusing on the students investigating which involves them building knowledge. Another great thing about project based learning is that is allows the students to design and manage their own work on a personal and group level. Research has found that students that are involved in this approach benefit in gains of factual learning. Many short term studies that compared project based learning to traditional learning show that there are several advantages to project based learning, such as better identifying a problem. Problem based learning also puts students into small groups and the activities aim to have students solve a particular problem with the reason and resources they have. Some benefits of this approach are that students are solving realistic problems , students are taking an active role in learning, and  there are multiple answers rather than a single answer. Most studies about problem based learning are done in the medical field as this type of teaching is often used in those settings. Studies show that those who have been in problem based learning usually have a higher ability to problem solve. Studies also show that problem based learning helps students learn how to apply the theories they have learned in realistic situations. Learning through design approach is based on the idea that students learn deeply when asked to design or create an artifact. This approach supports revision, it also creates a need for collaboration due to  the difficulty of the work, and it always the students to have different roles and for each to become an expert over their part of the project. There have been very few studies done on the comparison between learning through design and traditional but the study mentioned in the text was about a group of sixth graders and the learning through design group had better learning outcomes. The three approaches are quite similar and the article even refers to them as "cousins". While each project is group based the focuses of each are a little different. Project based learning has students focus on central ideas, which are often common to all groups, while problem based learning has many possible answers and none are consider the "right" answer and students don't have to be pushed toward a central theme. Learning by design has students break the work down more than the others and usually has students become experts of a certain area, rather than everyone knowing a little bit about everything. In my opinion the most important benefit to learning used in these approaches is the fact students must work as a group. Learning to work with people and in groups becomes very important after school. Many jobs in the world today often require collaborations between people, and learning to give and take in a group becomes a valuable skill. When you work properly as a group not only can you learn more but in the group discussions many pointsof view come out so it leads to a more open form of learning.