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STUDENTS’ INVOLVEMENT IN PROJECT WORK IN UNIVERSITY CONTEXT
Vjollca Hoxha
Project work is not a new teaching method. Its benefits have been widely recognized in teaching many different subjects, language teaching as well. It is a highly adaptable teaching methodology and can be used at every level, from beginner to advanced, and with all ages. Project work is important because it is among those activities which foster students ’ autonomy. This paper focuses on how students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tirana are involved in project work, their beliefs and attitudes in relation to project work, constraints they may have encountered in carrying out projects and some solutions to these constraints. It is based on a questionnaire given to students of foreign languages on project work and project work done by them in the English Teaching Methodology course.
Keywords: project work, teaching methodology, project-based learning, 21st century skills.
Introduction
The way we live, work, play and learn has been greatly transformed by technology and the new inventions over the past years. Today we need more different skills than we did in the 20th century, and the educational system and institutions have a crucial role to play in developing those skills.
Project-based learning (PBL) helps students develop 21st century skills which will aid them in becoming productive members of our society. Being used as a teaching method, project work can encourage reflective thinking and problem solving skills and at the same time develops the teamwork and collaboration skills which are highly prized by prospective employers. Problem based learning which originally began in the 1970s as part of McMaster University’s medical curriculum in Canada [Neville, 2009] has been adopted by educational institutions of all levels and by educators in many fields. It includes activities which involve several skills and focus on a theme of interest more than on specific language tasks helping students to develop their imagination and creativity. When doing a project students work in group and they develop skills on how
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to plan, organize, negotiate, make their points, and arrive at a consensus about issues such as what tasks to perform, who will be responsible for each task, and how information will be researched and presented. These are important skills for living successful lives [Stein, 1995]
“Project-based learning is a model for classroom activity that shifts away from the classroom practices of short, isolated, teacher-centered lessons and instead emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered, and integrated with real world issues and practices.” [Asan & Haliloglu, 2005].
Project work must rank as one of the most exciting teaching methodologies a teacher can use. It truly combines in practical form both the fundamental principles of a communicative approach to language teaching and the values of good education. It has the added virtue in this era of rapid change of being a long-established and well-tried method of teaching. [Hutchinson, 2001]
In the future, students will enter a workforce in which they will be judged on their performance. They will be evaluated not only on their results, but also on their collaborative, negotiating, planning and organizational skills. By implementing PBL, we are preparing our students to meet the 21st century requirements with a number of skills they can use successfully.
Problem of research
Teacher education in Albania has undergone a number of changes in the last few years in order to produce teachers who can teach knowledge, skills and values. This has been done by reflecting the new theories, discoveries and innovations occurring in the world as well as in our society. Albania in the 21 st century will need people who have 21 st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, creativity, analyzing, creating and offering solutions to problems, capable to live and work at home and abroad. In the Foreign Language Program it is introduced that one of the teaching methodologies is project work [The Republic of Albania, The Institute of Education Development, Foreign Languages Curricula Guide, -12 page 44, Tirane 2010].
In the 21 st century PBL is at the center of a global shift in education, from the traditional focus on teacher-led instruction to “a new focus on the self-directed learner”. [Markham, Mergendooler, Learmer, & Ravitz, 2003]. Consensus is growing among scholars and educators that PBL is one of the most promising vehicles for promoting 21 st century skills in
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the classroom [Barron & Darling-Hammond , 2008]; [Hong Kong Curriculum Development Council, 2001]; [Pearlman, 2006]; [Sawyer, 2006].
The main aim of pre service education is to prepare teachers who are able to continue to develop professionally after they graduate. The students need to deal with a vast range of information that relates to the rapidly changing nature of the educational environment, they must develop their capacity to become life-long learners. Through PBL students take control of their learning, the first step as lifelong learners. Being engaged in project work while at university teacher students will acquire the necessary skills to take part and teach through project work
Research Focus
Many countries are being confronted with a situation where there exists a gap between the skills and knowledge necessary for future success and the current education system which is designed to transmit a fixed body of knowledge to students rather than prepare them with the skills and abilities of starting a lifelong journey of creative thinking and active learning.
“Education is at the heart of human progress. Economic and social prosperity in the 21st century depend on the ability of nations to educate all the members of their societies to be prepared to thrive in a rapidly changing world. An innovative society prepares its people to embrace change...” [G8 Summit Statement 2006, St. Petersburg]
In PBL students obtain the meaning of what they learn by collaboratively working to solve complex, real-world problems rather than being taught from textbooks.
The research focuses on how teacher students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tirana are involved in project work, their beliefs and attitudes in relation to project work, constraints they may have encountered in carrying out projects and some solutions to these constraints.
Methodology of research
General Background of Research
Project work involves students and they learn knowledge and skills from a number of complex tasks such as designing and planning, solving problems, making decisions, creating products and communicating results.
The reform in the Albanian education system has asked for changes and despite the great importance put on foreign language teaching, the
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change in the introduction and implementation of the new methodology is slow. The new curricula in foreign language teaching in pre university education has explicitly emphasized the importance of using project as a technique of teaching and learning the foreign language. But the teaching practice in schools shows that teachers are merely projectors of the traditional model they had created during their own education. Thus, project work was difficult, and still is, to be implemented as a part of teaching methodology in every course.
The study is organized in two main phases. Firstly a questionnaire was given to the students and the data analysis gave an insight on the knowledge and skills of teacher students related to project work.
In the second phase the students are given some project work to do during the English Teaching Methodology course. Their work is carefully observed to understand which are the benefits and some of the constraints they might have encountered.
Sample of Research
The sample of research consists of 120 students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, 2011-2012. They took Language Teaching Methodology course. It is a full time course. Students’ age ranges from 20-30, with a mean of 23.4. Most of the students, 96 of them (80%) are females and 24 (20%) are males. Females outnumber males in teacher education programs in Albania due to a general belief that teaching is a profession for females. The teaching profession has been feminized to a great extend in every researched country in the Western Balkans [Pantic, 2008]. Only 32 of them (26.6%) have had a teaching experience, mainly in private courses.
Instrument and Procedures
PBL is a powerful tool in the hands of a teacher. It requires a great deal of investment on the part of the teachers to become effective facilitators. Designing and implementing a good project requires efforts on the teacher’s part; they need to make sure of using project work at the right time and for the right reasons. It also requires efforts from the students, who may be used to being told exactly what to do.
The data for this study were drawn from university classroom observations, a questionnaire and project work done by students of Faculty of Foreign Languages, English Department in the English Teaching Methodology course in the academic year 2011-2012. The questionnaire consisted of an introductory explanation of its content and aims. A combina-
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tion of open and closed questions was used to understand how the students are involved in project work, their beliefs and attitudes in relation to project work and constraints they may have encountered in carrying out projects. The questionnaire was distributed among students who had the necessary time to answer all the questions. An essential part of the questionnaire was teachers’ competency to direct a project work, divided in: ability to recognize situations that make for good projects, taking up new roles as facilitators, managing the learning process, collaborating with colleagues to develop interdisciplinary projects, developing authentic assessment ; and the question about the frequency of involvement in project work. The respondents answered according to Likert scale ranging from 1 (not important at all) to 5 (extremely important) in the first case and from 1(never) to 5 (always). The second phase of analysis included closely observations of all the stages of project work done by the students starting from project design to project delivery. The time in disposal for the project was 15 weeks and the students were divided in groups of eight.
Results of research
The students showed vivid interest in participating in the questionnaire and all of them (100%) said that had previously been involved in project work, since project work is being required as a teaching methodology in high schools as well. Nevertheless, they (92%) said they wished they could be exposed to more project work. On average they conduct one project during the whole academic year, in one discipline.
The respondents’ answers to the questionnaire and observations of their project work led to the following table of benefits:
Table 1. Benefits from project work
Results Number Number of responses %
Creativity 120 95 79.16%
Teamwork 120 110 91.6%
Critical thinking 120 82 68.33%
Motivation 120 115 95.83%
Communication 120 100 83.33%
Self-direction/Autonomy 120 102 85%
Use of Technology 120 120 100%
Language skills 120 70 58.33%
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In PBL, students often work on a real-world problem or issue that has importance to people beyond the classroom and this requires being creative and coming up with new ideas. Students said they had to combine knowledge and skills belonging to different disciplines, and find new solutions that met a real need. Thus, project work is not just a mere reproduction of what is in the books, it requires from students to apply what they learn to find solutions to a complex problem. Students explore an issue from a number of perspectives, learning how to ask the right questions, gathering relevant information and synthesizing a solution. Since students are involved in purposeful communication to complete authentic activities, and they have the opportunity to use language in relatively natural contexts [Haines, 1989] and engage in activities which require authentic language use, there is noticed an improvement in their language skills as well.
Typically, PBL involves teamwork. Students really appreciated the fact that project work can help them become effective collaborators and work together with others to continuously advance their understanding, preparing them for the job market in the 21st century.
A project is a product through which students communicate their ideas and learning to others. They present it to an audience and through this process they learn important communication skills such as how to organize a presentation or capture and maintain audience interest. Since students emphasized that they mostly conduct technology-supported projects, they also learn how to use ICT tools in context. Their skills of accessing real-world data, collaborating in distance and creating multimedia presentations of their project are impressively improved.
PBL gives students more control over their learning. Respondents said they had to plan the steps of the project themselves, seek the resources they needed as well as design the final product. 94% of the students said that completing a project gives them a real sense of achievement.
According to respondents’ answers skills that project work enhances can be grouped in:
Intellectual skills: Using their imagination, planning, describing, hypothesizing, drawing conclusions, reading
Social skills: cooperating, sharing, making decisions together, appreciating individual contributions in making a successful whole
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Physical/ motor skills/ ICT skills: painting, drawing, coloring, cutting, folding, gluing, writing, using different software programs (PowerPoint, etc.)
Learner Independence skills: getting information, making responsible choices, trying things out, evaluating results
Table 2. Constraints in project work
Results Number Number of responses %
Lack of time 120 120 100%
Lack of resources 120 88 73.33%
Transformed teacher roles 120 70 58.33%
Administrative support 120 60 50%
Use of L1 120 90 75%
Teamwork Problems 120 103 85.83
The observations and respondents’ answers show that there is lack of time to fully design and deliver a project. Students overloaded with subject matter find no time to dedicate to a project and they say that there is a tendency in Albanian schools to aim at memorizing facts. In terms of instructional time, projects can actually save time if standards and content are delivered through, and not separate from, the project.
This research showed that one of the most important constraints in project work was teamwork problems. Albanian students, being not very much familiar with group work, responded that they feel more comfortable working alone. Among of the problems listed were: poor students prefer group work because they avoid taking responsibilities, there are disagreements about task divisions, dominance of some students over the others, a sense of competitiveness. Teachers should make it clear to students that project work is directed towards cooperation rather than competitiveness. It was also evident that some students were not comfortable with the possibility of having an option (such as, topic selection, team formation) and required an intervention on the part of the teacher. Not being used with the new roles a teacher should take in PBL, that of a facilitator, a guide, 65 students out of 120 preferred being told what to do.
Use of L1 was frequently noticed during group discussions and without the teacher’s making an observation they wouldn’t return to using the target language. Through practice and more involvement in project work the use of the target language would become a habit. The teacher used “a punishment” for the student that overused L1 by giving extra work to do.
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What disturbed more the students during their project work was lack of resources. Our university doesn’t have an on-line library and neither digitalized data of the existing libraries. Students used the internet mostly and some of them bought a few books on line.
Project work and educators
Educators’ role in project work should be less dominant. They are facilitators and not the only source of knowledge or provider of all solutions. Teachers assist project work as fellow learners, coordinators. At all stages of project work the teacher should suggest ideas, provide references, provide alternatives to a situation or stimulate students to think. Great importance should be given to the fist phase, that of the preparation for the project. Preparation, then, is the key to make project work a success. [Hutchinson, 2001]. Taking the role of a guide or facilitator is not the way that most educators were taught, nor even the way they were taught to teach. Thus, a suggestion to improve project work in Albania would be to improve teachers knowledge and skills in project conducting by giving them all the administrative support needed as well as providing some kind of training. Professional collaboration among teachers is another way of improvement. Being able to share with colleagues, project ideas, strategies, resources, and results can make a great difference for educators, especially during the early stages of their career or PBL efforts.
Conclusions
Project work helps to bridge the gap between language study and language use. It answers the frequent students’ question “Why do we need to learn this?”. The experiences during a project are real and not only give students a sense of excitement and achievement because of producing a product of their own, but they also allow the students to see how language operates in the real world. Through PBL students become 21st century people possessing all the 21st century skills and knowledge needed to survive and find a job once they leave the secure territory of the university.
The study shows that students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tirana are not adequately involved in project work. Being a new methodology, it is still not fully implemented in our university. Students are aware of most of the benefits project work brings and are enthusiastic about being engaged in more PBL. As a result there should be more administrative support in order for PBL to become a norm in our universities. Training for teachers should be offered, more recourses
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should be available for our teachers and students so that students of today will be good teachers of tomorrow.
References
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