1. Introduction: Why Projects?
At Learning Companions, we believe learning should prepare children not just to recall information, but to act meaningfully in their worlds. Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a method where learners engage with real-life challenges and aspirations to build knowledge, develop skills, and strengthen identity.
Projects are not “activities.” They are a form of inquiry where the child becomes a questioner, designer, and doer.
2. Core Principles of Project-Based Learning
a. Authentic Context
Projects begin from real concerns, aspirations, or problems rooted in the learner’s life or community. The context should matter to the child.
b. Open-endedness
Unlike worksheets, projects do not have a single correct outcome. They require decision-making, iteration, and creativity.
c. Clear Deliverables
Every project should aim toward a tangible output — a report, a product, a performance, a survey, etc. These outputs help anchor learning and allow for reflection.
d. Exploration and Learning
Projects create a need for new knowledge. Learning is not front-loaded but happens along the way.
e. Social Learning
Projects are ideally collaborative. They mirror real-life dynamics of cooperation, negotiation, and shared ownership.
3. What Makes a Project “Good”?
- Anchored in Purpose: A meaningful project emerges from a genuine question or need.
- Designed with Clarity: What is the scope? What resources are needed? What are the checkpoints?
- Reflective: Time and space for reflecting on progress, challenges, and process is non-negotiable.
- Adaptive: Good projects often evolve. The process is alive and responsive.
- Rooted in Dignity: Projects should respect and enhance the learner’s sense of worth, capacity, and voice.
4. The Role of the Educator
A facilitator’s job is not to provide answers but to hold the space for exploration. This includes:
- Helping define or co-define the problem.
- Supporting design and logistics.
- Asking questions that stretch thinking.
- Guiding reflection on both product and process.
- Protecting space for messiness and discovery.
Note: Projects cannot be fully pre-planned. Each one grows out of the last. Facilitators must become comfortable with partial clarity and trust the discipline of reflection and re-alignment.
5. Common Challenges and How to Respond
| Challenge | Response Strategy |
| Uneven engagement among children | Offer differentiated roles and responsibilities. |
| Projects stay surface-level | Push for clarity in purpose and outcomes. Ask deeper questions. |
| Time management issues | Use public planning boards; introduce micro-deadlines. |
| Facilitator anxiety over control | Build routines for frequent feedback and peer sharing. |
| Gaps in execution | Normalize revision and build planning-reflection loops. |
6. Generating Projects: The CREATE–INDULGE–CELEBRATE–SOLVE–RESEARCH–COMPETE Framework
To design powerful projects, we need both inspiration and a structure for ideation. At Learning Companions, we use a simple and generative categorization to help facilitators and children imagine diverse projects from the same theme or subject.
The Six Project Modes
| Mode | Description |
| Create | Build something new — a tool, chart, space, artwork, performance, etc. |
| Indulge | Immerse in experience — reading, listening, playing, or enjoying something deeply. |
| Celebrate | Showcase or honour — people, cultures, values, or achievements. |
| Solve | Address a problem with a tangible action, often through discussion or trial. |
| Research (Expose) | Explore or discover — survey, interview, map, or document something. |
| Compete | Engage in a challenge with goals, feedback, and possible comparison. |
This framework helps fellows and children generate permutations of project ideas on a single topic. For example, for the topic migration, one might:
- Create: Make a short film about migration experiences.
- Indulge: Watch and discuss stories of migration from other regions.
- Celebrate: Organize a storytelling night of migration journeys.
- Solve: Interview families to understand migration-related learning loss and try out support routines.
- Research: Map who migrates and why in the community.
- Compete: Host a quiz on migration trends and impacts.
Sample Project Ideas from Our Database
| Project Title | Mode | Theme/Focus |
| Make HDMG (Health/Dignity/Mind/Goals) posters | Create | Print-rich environment |
| Read stories aloud and discuss characters | Indulge | Literacy/Self-awareness |
| Map Bharwad settlements in Nagpur | Research | Community awareness |
| Family Tree of everyone in the settlement | Solve | Intergenerational links |
| Organize a storytelling festival on folk tales | Celebrate | Culture & language |
| Hold a friendly sports tournament | Compete | Teamwork & health |
This categorization doesn’t box projects — it expands possibilities. Fellows should feel free to mix modes or transition across them as needed.
7. Reflection: The Heart of Project-Based Learning
The core power of PBL lies not in doing a project, but in thinking through it.
Reflective questions might include:
- What did we hope to learn or change? Did that happen?
- What were the most surprising discoveries?
- What would we do differently next time?
- Who led? Who followed? Who stayed out — and why?
- What connections did we find to other learning or past experiences?
8. Conclusion: A Lifelong Method
Project-Based Learning is not a technique. It is a stance: that life itself is the curriculum, and children are capable of navigating it.
In the Learning Companions fellowship, fellows are encouraged to see projects not as side work, but as core work — a way to align curiosity, community, and capacity.
9. If You Want to Go Deeper: Related Resources & Theories
Project-Based Learning (PBL) connects to a broad ecosystem of educational thinking rooted in inquiry, real-world engagement, and learner autonomy. This section offers a doorway for fellows who wish to explore more deeply — to read, watch, visit, or try related approaches.
A. Related Approaches to Explore
| Approach/Theory | Summary Insight |
| Inquiry-Based Learning | Focuses on learner-generated questions as the driver of exploration. Often overlaps with PBL. |
| Design Thinking in Education | Emphasizes empathy, ideation, prototyping, and iteration — useful in solving social or design challenges. |
| Expeditionary Learning (EL) | Real-world, interdisciplinary projects framed as “learning expeditions.” Often community-embedded. |
| Reggio Emilia Approach | Early childhood approach that treats children as competent, expressive learners; values documentation. |
| Big Picture Learning | School model centered around student-designed projects and internships. |
| Service Learning | Combines academic goals with civic/community engagement — learning through contributing. |
“When students have the chance to do work that matters — for an audience that matters — they rise to the challenge.”
— Ron Berger