These change ideas and findings are replicable and transferable to another grade, another school, and even beyond schools. However, unless it is project-based, collaboration, which was our focus character, will not improve. Collaboration cannot be fostered in a place where there is no opportunity to work collaboratively as a team, or where the need to do so does not arise. Collaboration is learned only by doing. So what conditions make it possible to doing? The followings conditions are to be considered and all must be met to foster collaboration:
Frequency: Working collaboratively as a team is a central daily activity.
Necessity: Needs each other to accomplish goals and tasks and to meet expectations.
Goals and tasks are group-worthy.
Relevance: Teams see the content and the level of tasks relevant to them; rigorous,
but competent enough.
Diversity: A team is composed of people who have different elements of identity (race, religion, ethnicity, sexual identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, socioeconomic status, personality, or strengths). Differences are honored.
Psychological safety: A team feels safe and comfortable to bring their whole self and to work together.
Physical space: Teams have space to work collaboratively.
In this respect, I believe that PBL is a method that excels at refining collaboration. PBL is brutally so, when projects are designed well and conditions are met.
Insights
PBL is brutal.
"I really can't work with her, please Kana, put me on a different team, please!" One day, in the middle of class, a student asked me if she could privately talk with me. As soon as I stepped out of the classroom with her, that's what she said to me. "You know, it's important to be able to work with anyone. Because that's real life stuff," I replied. Then she asked me if I had experienced something similar when I was in high school. I said, "yes," at first. But then I paused and took it back. "Wait. You know what, let me take that back. Not really." I took it back not because I got along with everyone I worked with. It was because I simply didn't have this much experience of working in teams like she does. From this conversation, I realized that PBL can be quite harsh. Imagine yourself as a teenager going to a PBL school. You might be doing a project with a group of students that you don't naturally get along with. Or you and your close friends might be in the same group, but you know how teenage friendships are like. It can get rocky. "We used to be friends. But she's not talking anymore to me. And I don't wanna go to class because we're in the same group and we have so many things to do," a student came into our office in tears. No relationships are perfect. Its imperfectness of relationships you have in and outside of projects which can make collaboration a difficult ride. It is obvious that collaboration among adolescents does not work so easily. Nevertheless, schools like HTH continue PBL to be their fundamental pedagogical tool without making compromises−even the global pandemic did not stop them from continuing. PBL schools are bold. I find this boldness attractive so much so that I think the "B" in "Project Based School" could be replaced with the "B" in "BOLD."
I must admit that I had doubts about this boldness. A project based school is very committed to the project and the quality of the final product. In the case of HTH, students only learn things that are relevant and meaningful to the project. What that means is, for example, students don't read books that every 10th grader in a traditional school in the U.S.A. would unless they relate to the project. At HTH, there is no aligned curriculum or textbook. It is left to the autonomy of the teachers and the collaborative design of the teachers and students. To be honest, at first I was skeptical about this loose alignment across disciplines and grade level bands. Yet, I realized that, in regards to alignment, the final product and the learning process leading up to it are extremely aligned. The process is often designed backwards from the final product so there is a strong throughline from the beginning to the end. This alignment makes PBL both extremely goal-driven and process-driven. From project launch to exhibition students and teachers work together towards an unseen goal up until the student showcase. Their daily process builds up the final product as well as their character of the students and the culture within the cohort. I also think it is highly rational.
Being a diligent learner and an achiever, throughout my academic life, I studied hard for every examI had to take, most being memorization-based. It is depressing to compare the time I spent to the amount I remember. To make myself feel better, I would say that I was able to develop discipline and perseverance through these exams. But if the goal was to cultivate them, there are millions of other effective ways to do so. In contrast, the menu and how to make a latte that I learned to serve customers in my part-time job at a café. The books I read to teach as an English teacher. The marketing techniques I learned to market at a consulting firm. I still remember these things. That is simply because I needed to learn them in order to do my tasks well. I chose to attain them and learned by applying. This is why I think PBL is rational. It is an extremely rational tool because it allows students to cultivate the knowledge and skills necessary to produce quality work while refining character through projects. I am sure that there is no content that is not covered in the project that cannot be found on Google today. If there was, it would be a global breakthrough.