Joining Forces with PBLWorks

Last week, our team was fortunate enough to attend the first workshop of the 2020 calendar with PBLWorks alongside 150 leading educators. 

Scroll back three years, BECOME had just been formed, and the phase “future of work” was banded around like a millennial gimmick. However 2019 saw a seismic shift in attitudes, the lessons were being heard and the barrier in failing to prepare our young people, acknowledged.

And now here we are in 2020, and the collective of change agents in this space have stepped forward once more, this time to action to which we can not be more delighted with. 

There’s a growing global panic about future employability of young people and people are looking at the education system for the solution.

PBLWorks has truly recognised this and having spoken to their well-defined, niche audience of educators, we are proud to announce an ongoing partnership with the organisation. We’ve always known that our mission and the aims of PBLWorks are aligned, to inspire young people deeply with their learning and prepare them with the skills they need to thrive in their future. Inspired today, prepared for tomorrow.

Our time at last week’s workshop enabled us to cement the BECOME approach with PBL techniques.

To ensure we remain as close to our members as possible, we are delighted to have walked away with a real project ready to roll out in Term 1. The first BECOME PBL unit is designed for Year 7 and delivers to Year 7 Business & Economics from the Australian Curriculum. Give us a shout here if you’d like to test drive it with your students.

The Driving Question is: How can I design my ideal career? 

To ensure we were learning as well as sharing i have three key takeaways from the workshop that will enable BECOME content to be reviewed, packaged and delivered with the benefits of PBL techniques: 

1. PBL is not a world away from what great teachers do already but there are so many layers of learning, great protocols and resources that can enhance projects for students and teachers.

2. The messy middle of projects is good. I think everyone in our group hit a messy middle when they were planning their project just as our students do. In the workshop we were living the process and the collaboration protocols helped give us clarity through reflection critique, and feedback.

3. With just a few tweaks to our materials particularly in scope and sequence, we have really powerful PBL units from Year 5 - 10. The explicit and instructional learning we want to deliver will feel like it’s delivered just in time for the students to use it in their real project exploring their own future. 

It was important for us to provide our offering to the progressive educators in the room. Disseminating how BECOME can be their tool of choice when implementing PBL programmes into their careers education curriculum was well received and we look forward to our new members coming on board in the coming weeks. Click here to find out more 

Finally we announced a BECOME study scholarship where one lucky attendee would be selected to continue their learning at PBLWorld in Napa Valley later this year. Excitement all round which only went crazier as Brandon from PBL Works announced that they would double it in appreciation for this new partnership with IOTF and BECOME Education. Here’s to a long and valuable partnership. Follow us and join the conversation on our social channels to see and hear who will be off to California.