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enough. Students also need to develop the 5C ’ s competencies, which include of critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, cultural relevancy and communication (www.pblworks.org). To meet these new demands, more and more teach ers are turning to Project - Based Learning (PBL), defined as “… a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning important content knowledge and developing 21 st century competen cies through an extended, student - influenced in quiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and learning tasks ” (www.pblworks.org). PBL puts equal emphasis on academic learning goals and on the 5C ’ s competencies . Through well designed project experiences, students learn how to contribute to team efforts, think critically, solve problems creatively, and communicate effectively, all while engaging in deep learning of important content. We know that the shift to PBL creates new ques tions for teachers: How do I design projects to meet goals for both content mastery and 21 st centu ry learning? What does 21 st century learning mean, anyway? Is it fair to assess students on hard - to measure skills like creativity? How can I find time to focus on goals like learning to collaborate when I am scrambling to meet the new Common Core State Standards? The good news is that there are forty years of accu mulated evidence that the instructional strategies and procedures that make up standards - focused Project Based Learning (PBL) are effective in building deep content understanding, raising aca demic achievement, and increasing student motiva tion to learn. • Be more effective than traditional instruction in increasing academic achievement on annual state - administered assessment tests (1). • Be more effective than traditional instruction for teaching mathematics (2, 3), economics (4), science (1, 5, 6), social science (7), clinical medical skills (8) and for careers in the allied health occupations (7) and teaching (7). • Be more effective than traditional instruction for long - term retention, skill development and satisfaction of students and teachers (1,9,2). Research studies have demonstrated that PBL can:

• Be more effective than traditional instruction for preparing students to integrate and explain concepts (10). • Improve students ’ mastery of 21st - century skills (11,12). • Be especially effective with lower - achieving students (1,4,6). • Provide an effective model for whole school reform (13). A particular passion of mine is how PBL can strengthen mathematics identity, especially for girls. Indeed, research confirms that PBL helps to empower, engage and build girls ’ confidence, be cause it requires a different mindset of learning— actually “ doing ” the mathematics and understand ing its impact on the problem(s) being addressed and solved (Boaler, 2015). Neuroscientist and former middle school teacher, Dr. Immordino - Yang (Immordino - Yang, M.H., 2015), shows that emotions matter and it is essen tial to learning. The emotional impact of learning should not be underestimated or misunderstood as a trend, or merely the “ E ” in social - emotional learning (SEL). SEL is defined by The Collabora tive for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): Engaging the Emotions • The process through which children and adults acquire and effectively • Apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills nec essary to understand and

“ Graphic Developed by Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and used with permission. ”

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 46, no. 2

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