Great teaching techniques: Projects and investigations

Extended projects or investigations can be motivating and productive learning experiences when included as part of a student’s overall curriculum. What does it mean? An extended project is where students do a deep dive into a particular area of the curriculum at a scale and in a timeframe that normal lessons don’t allow for. Projects allow for various lines of enquiry to be pursued, taking students into the hinterland of the curriculum. They can either deepen knowledge or extend learning beyond the material covered in lessons. Investigations typically involve establishing a key question or hypothesis that students seek to answer. There are risks: you might get shallow responses; students might copy information without understanding it; and there is always a problem of assuming students have resources outside the classroom when they might not. It’s important to mitigate these by structuring the project well, setting explicit standards and ensuring resources are provided. T