Hi there~

I'm Dr. Jacqueline Preston, founder of Project Syllabus

Years ago, as a graduate student, inspired by my experiences as someone with a working class background, I became interested in understanding more about the challenges students of diverse backgrounds faced in the classroom.

Based on research I conducted during my doctoral studies, I began incorporating project work in my courses. I knew in short order, I’d hit on something. I was amazed at how engaged my students were and astonished to see their focus on grades fall to the wayside, as they began focusing instead on what they needed to learn in their efforts to design meaningful projects.

Continuing my research, I wanted to fully understand the phenomenal shifts I witnessed as students' relationship to learning transformed before me. Based on my research and my ongoing work with both students and teachers, I refined my approach, focusing on projects that tapped into students literacies, histories and experiences.

As a tenured faculty, I designed courses for my department, presented work at national conferences, published articles and books, and worked closely with the university’s office of teaching and learning, helping faculty across the curriculum manage PBL courses.

As I worked with instructors across the disciplines, who were using projects in their courses, it became clear that not all PBL experiences were the same. I found that in many of the more traditional PBL classrooms, instructors were often excited and students’ interest was high in the beginning. Yet, over time, many instructors reported feeling overwhelmed and overworked, as their students lost interest in the project and the teacher took more and more responsibility for ensuring the project was successful. This experience taught me the importance of taking a more learner centered approach.

While PBL models lay the foundation for active learning, a learner centered approach focuses on shifting the onus for learning to the student, something I’ve found is vital to keeping students engaged to the end.

I founded Project Syllabus in the hope that instructors and their students might fully realize the promise of project based learning.

I hope you’ll join me in charting a new era in education with learner centered project based learning.

Jacque