Changing Classroom Practice to Include the Project Approach

Project work involves content, products, and processes. Teacher educators may notice that those new to project work adopt ideas and practices related to content and products more readily than they adopt ideas and practices related to the processes embedded in good project work. To fully implement the Project Approach, teachers need to develop an understanding of the underlying dynamics of the processes of project work. The first part of this article defines projects, provides a brief history of the Project Approach, and discusses some benefits of the approach. It then goes on to discuss challenges to implementing the Project Approach, the teacher's role in project work, and processes of the Project Approach. The first part of the article describes how teachers begin to experience a change in their practices as they come to better comprehend the underlying dynamics of the processes that constitute good project work. The second part of the article points to some of the research on teacher learning that may account for the difficulties with this change.