In this episode we’re talking with Professor Janet Kolodner about a series of resources, and really a teaching approach, that was developed by Janet and her team over the course of about 10 years. In the last ERRR episode, I spoke with John Larmer from PBL Works, and this episode builds on and extends that conversation to get into the nitty gritty of how both skills and knowledge can be built in tandem through project based learning.

We discuss the main challenges, (sequencing, getting to the science, and getting to a classroom culture), that Janet and her team faced in developing the Project Based Inquiry Science curriculum. The micro-and macro inquiry cycles that occur throughout the PBIS units. The impact of the PBIS units on how students see themselves as learners and people, and the mechanisms by which learning can take place in a project-based environment.

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As both a cognitive scientist and a learning scientist, Professor Janet Kolodner has had a long and illustrious career exploring learning, memory, and problem solving, as they relate to both computers and people! She pioneered the case-based reasoning method , which allows a computer to reason and learn from its experiences and has extended that work into designing learning resources, and experiences. Janet is a retired Regents’ Professor at the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Was Founding Editor in Chief of the journal of the learning sciences, was founding executive officer of the international society of the learning sciences, and is now a visiting professor at the lynch school of education, at Boston college.

Links/resources mentioned in the show

  • Check out
  • Research on Project Based Inquiry Science – Janet writes: The last one is the evaluation of the curriculum; the others discuss how to develop assessment questions used as part of such an evaluation and practices for providing professional development.
    • Allen, C. D. & Penuel, W. R.. “Studying teachers' sense making to investigate teachers' responses to professional development focused on new standards,” Journal of Teacher Education, v.66, 2015, p. 136. doi:10.1177/0022487114560646
    • DeBarger, A. H., Penuel, W. R., Harris, C. J., & Kennedy, C. A.. “Building an assessment argument to design and use next generation science assessments in efficacy studies of curriculum interventions,” American Journal of Evaluation, 2015. doi:10.1177/1098214015581707
    • Penuel, W. R., Harris, C. J. & DeBarger, A. H.. “Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards,” Phi Delta Kappan, v.96, 2015, p. 45. doi:10.1177/0031721715575299
    • Harris, C. J., Penuel W. R., D?Angelo, C., DeBarger, A. H., Gallagher, L. P., Kennedy, C., Cheng, B. H., & Krajcik, J S.. “Impact of project-based curriculum materials on student learning in science: Results of a randomized controlled trial,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching, v.52, 2015.

Listen to all past episodes of the ERRR podcast here.

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