Project-based schooling for middle schoolers

These new guidelines formalise what many schools have been promoting informally.

Young girl with pigtails using a VR headset in a robotics lab, surrounded by robotic components and educational tools.

CBSE is introducing 110 hours of practical, project-based training for students in middle school across three broad domains—life forms, machines, materials and human services from the next academic year. Kaushal Bodh, the vocational education activity book for Grade 8, published by NCERT, states that the aim of project-based education is to foster “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values” relating to “ecological sensitivity, gender sensitivity, digital skills and life skills.” How do teachers feel about this change, and how are they gearing up to meet the new requirements?

Not a major shift for some schools

Jaimala Kannan, Advisor and Mentor at Sadhu Vaswani International School, Bengaluru, avers that this program will succeed only if schools embrace the pedagogical intent behind it. Nurturing future-ready, responsive citizens who are ecologically, emotionally, and digitally literate is a tall order. As hers is a progressive school that has always been “unschooling teachers” to teach in ways they were not taught themselves, this CBSE initiative melds beautifully with their philosophy and approach. 

Likewise, Asha Dahima, an educationist from MVN Senior Secondary School, Sector-88, Faridabad, endorses the current initiative. She, too, feels that it is not entirely transformative as schools like hers have always had programs that promoted similar skills and values.

Gunjan Gupta, teacher and co-ordinator of Skill Education, Delhi Public School, Greater Faridabad, concurs as her school championed clubs from cooking to ecology to gaming, wherein students could pick an area that interested them and engage in hands-on learning.

What is perhaps novel about these new guidelines is that they formalise what many schools have been promoting informally. Right from the curriculum to the assessment, CBSE now provides structured guidelines that legitimise project-based education or “learning by doing,” says Gupta.

As students are more engaged and excited when doing hands-on activities, Gupta is hopeful that this type of project-based learning will also extend to higher grades in the coming years. In the long run, she feels that all subjects, even the core academic ones, will benefit from adopting this approach. 

Dahima believes that middle school is the ideal stage to introduce project-based learning, as children in Grades 6-8 are curious and capable of logical reasoning. Brimming with questions, they are optimally suited to explore and learn about the world beyond their school and home.

As projects tend to tap into their creativity and situate learning in meaningful contexts, middle-schoolers enjoy this form of learning, in which they have to ideate, problem-solve, conduct research, and apply and present their learning. 

To give a concrete example, in the life forms domain, Grade 6 students plant a kitchen garden, Grade 7 students create a plant nursery, and Grade 8 students learn to grow plants using hydroponics. Students also have to complete an activity book and take part in a viva.

Additionally, every student must maintain a portfolio in which they record what they do in each session and complete a reflection sheet with their key takeaways. According to Gupta, the projects have been designed to be completed entirely in school, with no homework required.  

Benefits of project-based education

Dahima agrees that project-based learning has numerous advantages. Besides inculcating interest, projects lend themselves to collaborative learning. She finds that academic hierarchies, in which students are bracketed as toppers, mediocre, or poor, are dismantled when students engage in group projects.

Jaimala also believes that these projects promote interdisciplinary collaboration, which is key to solving real-world problems. She also adds that learning by doing will help children identify their interests and strengths, thereby helping them pick a stream that resonates with them. Eventually, Jaimala hopes that this program can be extended to provide summer internships for older students.

Uneven preparedness

All the teachers agree that schools catering to children from higher socioeconomic strata are better equipped, both in terms of faculty and resources, to meet the demands of project-based learning. Gupta says her school has the wherewithal to address all the topics suggested except raising farm animals. However, because there are two topics for each project, they may choose the other.

For schools that have focused mainly on teaching content and assessing students primarily through paper-and-pencil tasks, this program will engender a significant shift. A teacher’s role will morph from delivering content to “facilitating an experience,” says Jaimala.

Unfortunately, schools serving children from low socioeconomic backgrounds lack both manpower and the infrastructure to implement project-based learning effectively. Some of the projects, especially those related to AI and digital citizenship, require access to computers and the Internet. Let alone computers and Wi-Fi, some schools don’t have reliable electricity or even basic furniture. 

Jaimala also notes that it is imperative for parents to understand the pedagogic aims of this initiative. For the program to take root and sustain itself over the long term, parents need to appreciate its purpose and merits. While CBSE has provided guidelines, the success of this initiative will depend largely on how it is implemented across a variety of schools and settings. 

(The author is a psychologist, writer & Visiting Faculty, Azim Premji University)