Author/s: Dr Julaine Allan
Edition: Volume 47, Number 1, April 2007
Summary: In this example from the human services field, project-based learning is used to connect theoretical knowledge and practice skills by taking a project from industry and completing it within the peer supported learning environment of the classroom, returning the project product to industry. The theoretical ideal of participation was the project’s goal and the way Snapshot of a generation fulfilled this goal on several levels is discussed. The benefits of project-based learning are an injection of new perspectives and energy from students to the workplace, completion of tasks that human services workers view as important but do not have time to do, and critically important workplace experience for students in an environment of peer support and learning. Project-based learning is a subversion of the usual practicum because of the way abstract theory is embedded in the doing rather than separate from it.
Keywords: human services, project-based learning, theoretical knowledge, practice skills, peer-supported learning
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