Bringing Project-Based Learning to Denmark – Looking Back One Year On
Project-based learning (PBL) changes student mindsets, enhances engagement, and brings our classrooms alive with meaning. As an Assistant Principal, PBL is a pedagogy we use in our school and across our area county. I’ve had the privilege of teaching PBL workshops all over the US. In 2020, my wife and I had the unique opportunity to travel with our family to Denmark to support a network of schools in the beginning stages of implementing high-quality PBL.
As I’ve previously written about for Edge, the project was on a different scale from anything we'd done before. It involved training 18 teachers from eight schools over six months. It was transformative for my family and the schools we worked with because it demonstrated how PBL is a journey, not a destination.
Shifting from in-person to virtual support
Since returning to the US in early 2023, we’ve continued supporting schools in Denmark. But now the training is virtual. Of course, face-to-face professional development is paramount for building trust and we’re thankful for our 6-month experience, which laid the foundations for more productive virtual sessions.
Today, we work closely with three of the original schools (Læringshuset, Borgerskolen, and Sengeløse), speaking with the teacher trainers for two hours a month. We’ve subsequently broken down sustainable PBL into three distinct phases and hope others can learn from our commitment to this process and replicate it for themselves.
Phase 1: Support and coaching
From February 2023 to June 2023, we focused on continuing the work we’d developed over six months. What was coming up as a PBL teacher? How could we critique new projects? What problems had arisen, and how could we troubleshoot? This was important as we needed our first adopters to feel comfortable, supported, and ready to lead the next cohort. Early adopters start a movement, and the next group carries it through to critical mass. Our inspiration in this phase comes directly from Derek Sivers’ Ted Talk: How to Start a Movement.
Phase 2: Setting conditions and reflecting on progress
From August 2023 to June 2024, we shifted to setting the long-term conditions for successful PBL. Instead of leading the PBL guides, they’re now leading their peers. This stage involves reflecting on PBL teaching practices and examining shifting cultures within each school, including relationships between staff members and staff and students. Journey Maps from Stanford d.School have supported our thinking. It’s a process all schools should consider as they set a vision and conditions, and anticipate barriers for large-scale initiatives.
As schools have completed PBL projects, we also examined their overall success, whether students met the desired learning goals, and evaluated the rigor of products and learning activities. It’s easy for schools implementing PBL to fall into a pattern of replicating past projects without evaluating and improving practice. However, reflection is critical for ensuring the work has the intended impact. Gamestorming is a fantastic resource to help build these protocols into practice. We also leaned heavily on project rubrics through PBLWorks and Applied Coaching for Projects.
Phase 3: Long-term sustainability
The third and final phase (August 2024 to June 2025) relies solely on sustainability. With conditions set and a long-term vision and plan established, schools will already have led significant professional development to prepare their peers.
Now, the focus is on getting the 'training wheels off', empowering schools to lead and maintain their PBL practice independently. We’ll incorporate author Brad Sever’s Sustainable PBL Model and implement his 6 Factors of Sustainable PBL.
In my experience, this journey is typically 3-5 years and we're currently in the 'messy middle’, years 2-3. Schools have experienced the PBL ‘highs’ and must now sustain their achievements. We’re proud to say the PBL guides we coached in Denmark continue to grow in confidence and can now critically analyze the quality and engagement of their projects. They’ve gone from simply building something to evaluating its effectiveness. They can ask: Is it good enough? Does it meet high-quality standards? Most importantly, is it engaging for students? They turn now to the next levels of working and supporting their peers to continue the change. Time will tell.
Reflecting on the impact of PBL
For my wife and I, this work has reinforced that, at its core, education is about building relationships and preparing young people to be productive, empathetic members of a global society. It’s also about ensuring they can function independently while advocating for their values and beliefs. For this, we need systems-level thinking in education and that’s why PBL is so powerful.
Our classrooms often come down to compliance vs. engagement. Education must strike a balance between the two. As educators, we sometimes miss the bigger picture, focusing on what we must teach rather than how it connects to the real world. Teaching is one of the most challenging professions in the world. Competing with TikTok and Snapchat, creating these engaging experiences becomes even harder. However, authentic, high-quality project-based learning can reignite curiosity and create epic learning experiences for young people.
Interestingly, the time my family and I spent in Denmark did exactly for us what PBL should achieve overall. It opened our eyes to the world in new ways. I’m blessed to have had my kids at school in a different setting, where English was the second language, and they learned empathy for other people. Even today, we’re reaping benefits in ways we haven’t fully understood.
A powerful phrase from one of my first PBL trainings was: “You learn the work by doing the work.” Our collective work in education becomes meaningful when we invest in deep learning experiences and expect more from our students than just memorization. The journey in Denmark is reaping dividends because of everyone’s investment in this belief. The process is changing lives. And that’s the power of PBL.
Matt Baer is an Assistant Principal at Hudsonville School in Hudsonville, Michigan. He has been delivering innovative education for the last 19 years.
