Project Based Learning: A Novel approach leading to Learner-Centred Education

Learning is essential for an individual to obtain required knowledge and to develop the skills to accomplish the target. In the early days, numerous education systems were developed and followed in the various parts of the Globe. The education system and learning strategies are getting transformed day by day continuously to enhance effective learning and build cognitive skills. In Ancient India, children were educated through Gurukul education system. Later, during the British Raj, a new education system was introduced by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1830 which was promoting memory-based learning. At present most of the educational institutions are following the traditional rote learning methods.
The traditional lecture-based pedagogy predominantly focuses only on instructional perspectives instead of assorted learning fashion and confined within regular memorization and recitation techniques alone. The students following this routine are struggling to associate the concepts learned and the real world. Henceforth an introduction of a new phase of learning framework is required to furnish the leaners with critical thinking ability, lifelong learning skill and make the students to be a ‘Complete Learner’.
Project based learning (PBL) is an effective approach in the educational institutions to provide the learners a wonderful learning platform to improve the thinking skill and problem-solving ability and lead to new findings and innovation. Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian Physician and Educator initiated the PBL approach to the school children to learn things naturally through self-directed teamwork.

Presently, the similar approach has been followed for the students of kindergartens as well as the students at world famous universities. The PBL phase implemented in the schools promotes the collaborative learning preferably from real life instead of assigned texts. The PBL in colleges fosters the learning through productive methods such as in-depth inquiry, driving questions, real world connection, critical thinking, and presentation of ideas and projects in open forums.

The preference given to the choice and voice of the leaners in PBL enhances the exploratory research and accelerate the productivity. Heterogeneous collaboration and problem-solving techniques induce to obtain a solution for the existing real-world problems. In the present scenario, rising awareness among students and parents in India on requirement of PBL are observable and appreciable.