Foundations of Early Childhood PBL

Part 1

I am so excited to embed and model PBL as a teaching strategy in my undergraduate ECE methods course. I know this will be both meaningful and valuable as these students learn about PBL methods themselves and then apply their new learning in their practicum classrooms, who are also utilizing PBL! So many opportunities for valuable models and connections. Sara was absolutely fantastic and went above and beyond to facilitate meaningful engagement and challenge new ways we could enhance existing practices within our classrooms.

— Allison Wilson, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education

Workshop Description

This 6.5 hour workshop provides educators with a solid foundation in constructivist principles and learner-centered practices essential for understanding and implementing PBL in early childhood education. This workshop, part one of a two-part series, lays the groundwork for deeper exploration and practice in the second session. Attendees will learn to leverage classroom observations, student interests, and questions to inform project planning, ensuring seamless integration into educational frameworks. By the end, educators will have begun to thoughtfully plan one project and gained strategies for sustaining inquiry, setting the stage for continued learning and detailed planning in the second part of the series.

Participant Outcomes

  1. Utilize learner-centered practices when planning for PBL

  2. Learn how to leverage classroom observations, students’ interests and students’ questions when entering into the project planning process

  3. Explore ways to incorporate existing curricula and schedules into PBL

  4. Develop strategies for sustaining inquiry over the course of a project by redefining the concept of “research”

  5. Thoughtfully plan one project and develop an understanding for how to replicate the planning process in the future

  6. Learn to integrate key knowledge, skills and dispositions into any early childhood PBL unit using a three-layered approach.

  7. Visualize how a project might unfold with young learners and identify how to capture those ideas onto our unique ECPBL Project Planning Outline

What You Can Expect…

Before…

During…

  • Expert facilitation from one of the co-authors of our book

  • Content specific to young learners

  • Strategies, tools and resources.

  • Access to our EC PBL Project Planning Outline

After…

  • Certificate of Completion

  • On-going access to the EC PBL team

  • On-going support from the members of our Facebook Group

  • Access to our comprehensive ECPBL resource document