Giving Compass' Take:
- The Met groups students into small communities where students grow and learn through self-driven study.
- How can other schools replicate the success of The Met? What elements of their program could be improved or tailored for a different school?
- Read the HQPBL case study of School21.
What is Giving Compass?
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Students are grouped in small cohorts (or essentially small communities), each with a bonding name like Unity or Liberty. Cohorts collaborate to tackle problems, support each other, and collaborate on projects. “One Student at a Time” is the mission. Learning through internships or learning through interest is how it is done at The Met.
Advisors and mentors are rooted in the PBL process at The Met. They support and guide students through initiating and defining a project idea and then through project management, determining how to use proposals, planners, and timelines to work on deliverables. They also work with students throughout the year, having regular check-in meetings and asking students how they are assessing their own progress, time, and work outcomes.
As a result of collaborating with people in the real world and presenting to large groups, through HQPBL The Met students also experience trials that force them to become effective leaders and know how to be professional in the field. PBL at The Met also includes collaboration and opportunity for peer-to-peer feedback and critique. Students frequently receive feedback from mentors, experts, and university professors.
The Framework for High Quality Project Based Learning (HQPBL) describes PBL in terms of the student experience. It describes six criteria, each of which must be at least minimally present in a project in order for it to be judged “high quality.” The six criteria were chosen as a necessary starting point for providing students access to HQPBL because they are an essential baseline, but they are not all-encompassing. Projects that are the most memorable, and that have the greatest impact on student learning and development, will be those with the highest quality implementation of each criterion. The case study that follows highlights the six criteria and is intended to provide readers with a real-world example of HQPBL.