Inspiring Changemakers with Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a student-centered approach to education, where students take the lead by collaborating to solve real-world problems. Although many of us have heard of this approach, how many of us have actively applied it to our library instruction?

Our guest this month is high school librarian Dustin Hensley of Elizabethton, TN. Dustin's school took a big leap several years ago and became a PBL school, which has taken library activities in unexpected directions. Dustin was searching for a grant to fund new carpet in the library when he stumbled upon another kind of grant—an XQ Superschool grant that led to new adventures and placed community engagement at the center of the library curriculum.

Design Thinking and Student Agency

Some of the most exciting projects that Dustin has taken on with his students have stemmed from a community improvement class that Dustin has taught for a few years that uses the Design Thinking model from Stanford University (https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-collections/getting-started-with-design-thinking) as a guide. Students identify a concern they have in their local community, work with partners in the community for the development and execution of their project, and then create an end product that will benefit others. In the example Dustin shares with us, students improved their community with innovative changes to their town's outdated walking tour.

As a school librarian, and specifically through PBL, Dustin can support students in taking the lead on their learning journey, and he also gets to work and learn alongside them as they grow.

And, in case you are on the edge of your seat like I was, yes, they did get the new carpet, but that initial research also led them to a $2.3 million dollar XQ Superschool grant (https://xqsuperschool.org/).

Meet Dustin!

For a deep dive into Dustin's experience with PBL and community engagement, listen to this month's episode of "One Lesson at a Time." Here is a breakdown of our conversation:

Additional Resources

You can find a detailed model of Dustin's community engagement project in "Community Improvement in the School Library." Read more about the Elizabethton High School walking tour project in the Elizabethton Star (https://www.elizabethton.com/2017/11/07/take-a-stroll-with-bartleby-ehs-students-working-with-tourism-department-on-walking-tour/), and more about PBL at the Buck Institute for Education (https://pblworks.org). And, if you're curious to learn more about how design thinking can be applied to student learning, check out this course by Jacquelyn Whiting, author of Student-Centered Learning by Design (Libraries Unlimited 2021): https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course?LearningModuleId=2267090&topicCenterId=2247903.

Follow Dustin Hensley on Twitter at: @DSHensleyEDU