Developing student-driven activities for PBL

Next to developing collaborative skills of students, another key part of PBL is for students to take ownership of tasks, initiative at solving problems, and most importantly to stick with these tasks and problems until they have come to a satisfactory conclusion. In other words, we try to develop a student-driven environment in which the energy and persistence of what is happening in the classroom does not primarily come from us but from the students. 

Albert Einstein's quote above captures one of the key essences of this module: getting students' to develop grit and resilience to stay with a problem or project even though they have failed previously is one the most difficult parts of PBL and at the core of developing a student-driven environment. As an example and at a quite simple level, when students work for the first time in a group as part of PBL, the first attempts at collaboration might not be successful. It is essential that students don't become frustrated and demotivated but rather excited and motivated to try again and improve, again and again and again. Creating an environment that allows and promotes this, is what the module is all about. 

The learning objectives for this module are:

1. Understanding the importance of scaffolding the PBL process so that students increasingly develop independence and ownership over the tasks
2. Understanding the importance of a positive environment and mindset for building student confidence and resilience
3. Developing a range of activities, strategies and tools that facilitate an entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial skills

Describe a situation in your professional or personal life where you were first unsuccessful but because you stuck with it you succeeded in the end. Finish by identifying why you stuck with the problem/task and did not give up (and make sure to copy your entry also into your Learning Diary).

My first pbl attempts in my classroom feel like unsuccessful so far. But I love the idea and the potentials of it so I keep trying. That's why I'm here. I hope I will succeed in the end. I was stuck so far because I didn't know much. I was mostly driven by my will to do pbl, without having much of knowledge or first hand experience. I'm trying, trying, trying, trying.....

The shared padlet  here: