Project Method of Teaching

MACROTEACHING ON

PROJECT METHOD

PRESENTERMandeep Kaur

M.Sc. (N) 1st Year

INTRODUCTION Project method is one of the modern method of teaching

in which, the students point of view is given importance in designing the curricula and content of studies. This method is based on the philosophy of Pragmatism and the principle of ‘Learning by doing’. In this strategy pupils perform constructive activities in natural condition. A project is a list of real life that has been imparted into the school. It demands work from the pupils.

DEFINITION

• According to W.H. Kilpatrick, “A project is a whole-hearted purposeful activity proceeding in a social environment”.

• According to Ballord, “A project is a bit of real life that has been imparted into school.”

• According to Thomas & Long, “It is a voluntary undertaking which involves constructive effort or thought and eventuates into objective results”.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PROJECT METHOD

It takes the student beyond the walls of the class room.It is carried out in a natural setting, thus making learning realistic and experiential.

Contd….

It encourages investigative learning and solution of practical problems.

It is focused on the student as it enlists his/her active involvement in the task set.

Contd… It encourages the

spirit of scientific enquiry as it involves validation of hypotheses based on evidence gathered from the field through investigation.

Contd…. It promotes a

better knowledge of the practical aspects of knowledge gained from books.

It enhances the

student’s social skills, as it requires interaction with the social environment.

Contd…

Teacher plays a facilitative role rather than the role of an expert.

It allows the students a great degree of freedom to choose from among the options given to them; hence it provides a psychological boost.

It encourages the spirit of research in the student.

TYPES OF PROJECT

In individual project every students solve the problem in their own according to their interest, capacity, attitude and needs.

Individual and Social projects:

Group projects the problem is solved by the group of pupil in the class. Here the social, citizenship qualities and synergism are develops.   

Simple and Complex project

In the simple projects the students are completing only one work at a time. It gives the deep information about the project in a one angle. The students get deeper and broader knowledge about the problem.

In the complex project the students are carried out more than one work at a time. They are focuses on the work in various subject and angles. Here the students get the knowledge about the work in various activities and dimensions.

According to Kilpatrick there are four types of projects:

1. Constructive project: Practical or physical tasks such as construction of article, making a model, digging the well and playing drama are done in this type of projects.

2. Aesthetic project: Appreciation powers of

the students are developed in this type of project through the musical programmes, beautification of something, appreciation of poems and so on.

3. Problematic project: In this type of project develops the problem solving capacity

of the students through their experiences. It is based on the cognitive domain.

4. Drill project: It is for the mastery of the skill and knowledge of the students.

It increases the work efficacy and capacity of the students. 

STEPS OF A PROJECT METHOD

1. Creating Situation:             In the first step teacher creates the proper situation to

the students in the class. He puts up the knowledge about the project method procedure, steps, and uses to the students.

A project should arise out of a need felt by students and it should never be forced on them. It should be purposeful and significant.

2. Selection of the problem:

              The teacher helps the students to select the problem and guide them. Students are having freedom to choose the topic or problem based on their interest and ability.

Before choosing the topic the principles should be taken in to an account. Such as school tasks are to be as real and as purposeful and they are of such a nature that the student is genuinely eager to carry them out in order to achieve a desirable and clearly realized aim.

Teacher should only tempt the students for a particular project by providing a situation but the proposal for the project should finally come from students.

3. Planning:

        The teacher discuss with the students about the problem in various angles and points.

After the free expression of the students’ opinion about

the problem, the teacher writes down the whole programme of action stepwise on the blackboard.

In the process of planning teacher has to act only as a

guide and should give suggestions at times but actual planning be left to the students.

4. Execution:

The students are stating their work in this step. They are collecting the relevant information and materials at first. The teacher should give the time and right to the students according to their own speed, interest and ability.

During this step the teacher should carefully supervise the pupils in manipulative skills to prevent waste of materials and to guard accidents. Teacher should constantly check up the relation between the chalked out plans and the developing project.

5. Evaluation:

   Evaluation of the project should be done both by the pupils and the teachers.    Here the students evaluating their task. They determine whether the objects are achieved or not. After that they criticize and express their feeling about the task freely. The evaluation of the project has to be done in the light of plans, difficulties in the execution and achieved results.

6. Reporting and Recording:

     It is the last step of the project method in which each and every step of the work are reported. The reported things are recorded in a certain order in a book form.

It should include the proposal, plan and its discussion, duties allotted to different students and how far they were carried out by them. It should also include the details of places visited and surveyed guidance for future and all other possible details.

The book formatted report is submitted to the teacher at the end.  

ROLE OF THE TEACHER:

• In project method of teaching the role of a teacher is that of a guide, friend and philosopher.

• The teacher is not a dictator or a commander but a friend, guide and a working partner.

• He encourages his students to work collectively, and co-operatively.

• He also helps his students to avoid mistakes.• He makes it a point that each member of the group

contributed something to the completion of the project.

Contd….• If the students face failure during execution of some steps of

the project the teacher should not execute any portion of the project but should suggest them some better methods of techniques that may be used by them next time for the success of the project.

• He should help the students in developing the character and personality by allowing them to accept the responsibilities and discharge them efficiently.

• He should provide democratic atmosphere in the class so that the pupils can express themselves fully without any fear of the teacher.

• He should be alert and active all the time to see that the project is running in its right lines.

Contd….• He should have a thorough knowledge of individual

children so as to allot them work accordingly.• He should have initiative, tact and zest for learning. • Teacher should always remain alert and active during

execution step and see that the project goes to completion successfully.

• During execution of the project teacher should maintain a democratic atmosphere.

• Teacher must be well – read and well-informed so that he can help the students to the successful completion of the project.

MERITS OF PROJECT METHOD:

a. As students get proper freedom to execute the project in accordance with their interest and abilities, because of which they get their psychological needs satisfied to considerable extent.

b. This method is not only subject centered, but due importance is being provided to the students also.

c. Through this method, students are provided with various opportunities by which they can satisfy their interests and desires.

Contd…. d. Habit of critical thinking gets developed among the students through this

method. e. With this method, students get the ample chances in which they can develop

coordination among their body and mind.f. Through this method, teacher can lead a well balanced development of the

students.g. Through this method, science teaching can be done with considerable success,

as science is a practical subject and this method is also scientific and practical in nature.

Contd…. g. This method helps in

promoting social interaction and co-operation among the students, as they have to work in a group and have to interact with various persons for gathering information.

h. As students gain knowledge directly through their own efforts, thus, they acquire permanent kind of information, which is retained by them since a long period of time.

Contd….i. Mostly the projects are undertaken in classroom as classroom

assignments, because of which load of home work from the students get reduced to considerable extent.

j. It helps to widen the mental horizon of pupils.

k. It sets up a challenge to solve a problem and this stimulates constructive and creative thinking.

DEMERITS OF PROJECT METHOD

a. This method takes a lot of time to plan and execute a single project.

b. It is not possible to design different projects for different topics and it is also not possible to cover all the topics or content in a single project.

c. For proper execution of a project, large number of financial resources are required.

Contd…. d. Such method can only be prove successful if the teacher is highly

knowledgeable, alert and exceptionally gifted. e. Systematic and adequate learning is not provided by this method,

as it is a method of incidental learning. Through this method, students learn only what is required by them in relation to the completion of the projects.

f. Generally, it is found that teachers do not possess much information regarding the manner in which this method should be used as a result of which they hesitate from using this method, as a result of which, its utility remains more or less limited to negligible extent.

g. Sometimes the projects may be too ambitious and beyond student’s capacity to accomplish.