Project work with Young Learners

Interview with Diane Phillips, author of the book PROJECTS WITH YOUNG LEARNERS

What don’t children like?

If I asked you to list some of the thing that children don’t like you might say: –

learning stuff of no immediate or obvious relevance e.g. grammar rules or lists of

vocabulary; having to read about topics they have no interest in; being told to ‘be

quiet’, to stop talking to their friends; being passive; never being asked for their

view or about topics they know about; never seeing an end or a point to the work

they have to do; always being told what to do!

Yet, this is exactly the way many classrooms work.

What do children like doing?

One way to get children doing what they like while still learning is through projects.

Children enjoy using their imagination – making up characters, stories; being

creative – making things, drawing, colouring, cutting and gluing, using multimedia;

finding out about interesting stuff; sharing, chatting, working together; talking about

themselves, their friends and family, their interests; making choices, deciding for

themselves, trying new things out; showing off!

What are Projects?

Experiential learning or ‘learning through projects’ is a tried and tested way of

motivating children – by doing what they naturally like doing and avoiding what they

don’t like.

It’s an approach founded on sound pedagogic principles. It addresses the needs of

the ‘whole child’ to develop a number of different skills

 the intellectual skills

 physical/motor and ICT skills

 social skills

 learner independence skills

It gives the children an opportunity to bring their knowledge of the world into the

classroom and can be cross-curricular – linked to other subjects the children are

studying in school.