Looking Back to Better Understand Today’s Education: A Review of The Project Method – The Use of the Purposeful Act in the Educative Process by William Heard Kilpatrick

Authors : Kadir Kozan

Pages : 119-123

Doi:10.17244/eku.1543099

View : 24 | Download : 65

Publication Date : 2024-12-31

Article Type : Other Papers

Abstract :The Project Method – The Use of the Purposeful Act in the Educative Process by William Heard Kilpatrick is a very informative book or article, in the author’s words, providing some of the earliest insights into the concept of project and project-based learning. The author’s purpose is to attempt to explain the latent concept that is fundamental to the term project and claim that the underlying concept should be a part of the way in which we think about education. The reading is eye-opening since what it means by a project has certain features some of which are shared with other instructional approaches, thus suggesting a certain level of intertwined relationships among them and having an eclectic approach to project-based learning. For instance, according to the author, a learner’s making a dress or building a kite with a clear purpose and intention in a social context are projects that would remind the reader of constructionism or social constructionism. To this end, the reading gets the reader to question the origins of some instructional approaches and/or interconnections among them as well as their evolution over time. Finally, the reading also highlights the main features of a project: purposefulness, learners’ willingness to do it, and happening in a social environment or context. In other words, the reading provides strong lenses to view project-based learning, other relevant instructional approaches, and the interrelationships among them thus making looking back at the past or origins of instructional approaches a precious tool to better understand today’s educational context.
Keywords : Amaçlılık, isteklilik, niyet, proje, proje tabanlı öğrenme, toplumsal bağlam