TWP is the first encounter that our students have with Cluster Learning. Learn more about the three facets of Cluster Learning, and take a deeper dive into Project-Based Learning, which is at the heart of TWP:
- Read about Cluster Learning;
- Read and explore this page about project-based learning from the Buck Institute.
- Optional:
- Watch PSU professor Matthew Cheney’s video on Interdisciplinarity;
- Read this piece about open pedagogy, co-written by PSU professor Robin DeRosa.
Workbook Question #4
Many people think about using projects in their courses in which students first learn some content and then apply that content to a project. This is “dessert” PBL when the learning comes first and the project comes later. In TWP, we want to engage in “main course” PBL in which students learn the content of the course by engaging in the project. We do this because this is the way life mostly works. We are rarely afforded the possibility of learning everything we need to know before we engage in a task. Instead, we embark on the task and figure out what we need to know while we are trying to complete the task. How will you engage students in this potentially messy, frustrating process? What worries you about teaching in this way?
Workbook Question #5
Our ultimate goal is to help students practice and develop the Habits of Mind and we use the Cluster Learning model as the framework to do that. And since we want ALL students to have the opportunity to practice and develop the HoM, we require two classes, TWP and INCAP, in which we guarantee that students will have that opportunity. What connections can you see between TWP and Cluster Learning? How would you explain the connections to a prospective student and their family
