About PBL

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Welcome to the About PBL section of the PBL-Online Website. Here you will learn all about standards-focused project based learning from its inception to the current understandings and philosophy behind the model.

What is PBL?

There is no one accepted definition of PBL. However, BIE defines standards-focused PBL as a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

This definition encompasses a spectrum ranging from brief projects of one or two weeks based on a single subject in one classroom, to yearlong, interdisciplinary projects that involve community participation and adults outside the school. Learn more about the Buck Institute for Eduction (BIE) PBL Model.

For more PBL web resources, visit the Buck Institute for Education, and for the latest articles on Project Based Learning and related education topics, visit the George Lucas Educational Foundation.

For a summary of PBL research, visit the Buck Institute for Education and the George Lucas Educational Foundation.

"At Kean University, the largest producer of teachers in New Jersey, we use the PBL online tool in many ways-in coursework for preservice and inservice teachers, and in professional development with many of the school districts with which we work. I express deep gratitude to the Buck Institute for Education for leading this initiative, which, by including the George Lucas Education Foundation materials, has created an environment that resonates with 21st Century Learners."

Michael Searson,
Kean University

The Buck Institute for Education and Boise State University, Department of Educational Technology