My long-time friend and PBL colleague, David Ross, published a recent post about his last trip to Beijing, where he worked with over 100 teachers on designing projects using AI and PBL design principles.
As usual, David’s posts offer a window into Chinese education. He found what I also witnessed on my trip to China last December working with vocational instructors in three provincial cities: China has excellent teachers, and they are as frustrated as the rest of the teachers across the globe.
Why are they frustrated? Because they can’t escape the limitations of a testing regime that takes up all the curriculum space and mandates coverage over depth. Many people know about the gaokao, the national test for high schoolers to qualify for universities. As David wrote, not as many know the zhongkao, the test in 9th grade to determine the 50% of students who will enroll in college preparatory high schools versus the remaining 50% who will attend vocational schools.
China’s sort and select system is Confucian-based, deeply rooted, and offers one redeeming feature: Every child gets the same chance to excel (although equality varies because big city schools are largely better than provincial schools). I have another colleague, a full Professor at Beijing Normal University, who came from a tiny village in the far west of China, spoke as his first language a Mongolian dialect, learned Mandarin, and then was the only student in his village to take both tests and earn scores that ultimately propelled him into a prestigious professorship.
That’s a success story. But it’s not the story most Chinese teachers told Dave—and not the story I heard last December.
The deeper story? They know their system is stuck. A system too standardized and entirely dependent on test results to measure achievement blots out the freedom necessary for inquiry, personalization, innovation, and skills mastery. Students suffer—and Chinese teachers acknowledge the loss.
The results are exactly what Western educators also report: Lack of engagement, diminished curiosity, focus on grades rather than learning, and a general lethargy around education. The white boards that the teachers on my visit used to list their concerns about students were proof enough. The lists were identical to any created by teacher teams in PD sessions in Kansas, California, Maine, Australia, the U.K. and all points beyond in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
It’s common in western countries to criticize China’s system. But that’s narrow educational imperialism. Worldwide, education has locked themselves into a system that leaves students unhappy, uncommitted, and feeling like tests matter more than competency. High quality PBL is impossible. The conditions don’t allow it.
I’m not going to issue an emergency call for reimagining schools. I’ve been doing that for over 25 years, with virtually no success. The system is baked in because the adult world fears deep change, remains uncertain about what to teach, and confuses preparing young people for the past versus helping them imagine the future.
Many teachers want to escape the trap of standardized instruction. That was the original intention behind PBL. But the solution at the moment isn’t to take three or four weeks for classic PBL. The system doesn’t allow that now.
Instead, we’re using AI and PBL design principles to find ways to subvert the system while working within the system. At PBL Future Labs, this is our focus. We’re trying to get schools unstuck. Here’s the five-step approach we share with schools:
Teach standards through projects. The bulleted list of standards to be ‘covered’ remains the biggest barrier to inquiry and PBL in schools. But AI has a cut-through solution: Turn standards into projects. Use any standard or short list of standards as a prompt; AI will then reveal the learning landscape behind the standards and offer 5 -10 project ideas for students that teach the standards through ‘doing’ rather than listening or worksheets.
This solves two problems at once: You get a list of good project ideas that can be shared with students, turned into a class project, or adapted to fit perfectly for your curriculum; most important, standards turn from abstract bullets into the real work of learning and engaging with challenges and wicked problems.
Shorten Projects into Learning Missions. Next to standards, the barrier to PBL is time. It’s hard in today’s enviroment to carve out three weeks for a project. The answer is to do a short form version of PBL that resembles a design sprint. A Learning Mission is a 3-7 day personalized learning experience for students. Students use a Driving Question to solve a problem, usually of their choice. They work in teams, so they collaborate. They present solutions and a public product.
All this fits the PBL philosophy. And Learning Missions can be used flexibly, stacking them together into a longer ‘project’. Their added value: Voice and choice are inherent to Learning Missions.
Make skills a priority. Standardized instruction and testing has driven out teaching to the real needs of youth: The requirement to be proficient in skills and competent in the workplace. Learning Missions can be designed with this goal in mind. Either establish (or have students establish) one key skill they wish to work on or master.
Use a rubric if you wish but pay most attention to making the skill visible. How are students using the skill in the Learning Mission? What do they notice? What is the level of their proficiency?
Use process-based assessment. End of project or end of unit assessment is an industrial artifact. Learning happens over time, in short bursts or quiet times; it is far more of an organic process that the current a system allows. Honor this fact by having students regularly assess their progress, even during a short Learning Mission. It need not be a test; it can be a reflection, a team conversation, or any other method you use to probe progress and shifts in learning.
Reflection and slow learning. Combining AI and PBL principles offers tools to pry open the lockbox that keeps students in lockstep. But some fresh thinking about human intelligence adds a critical human element to the process. My partner, Phil Alcock, uses the term ‘Positive Based Learning’—an approach to PBL that emphasizes human flourishing in ways standardized learning never will.
There’s no one way to do this but if you want to draw upon best practices in PBL to help students to get unstuck, there’s one easy rule: Slow down. During a Learning Mission, reserve time for reflection by teams. Take plenty of time at the end to share, reflect, and anchor the learning.
Together, these five principles align to create a more active, engaged classroom that emphasizes personal growth, life skills, and meaningful problem solving rather than test-taking. Yes, you’ll still be doing some test prep and losing time to standardized testing. But you’ll also be doing a service to your students by teaching them the real standards of life.
Contact thom@pblfuturelabs.com or Phil@pblfuturelabs.com for a conversation about your school. We work with teacher teams organized into Innovation Hubs or entire Districts and other organizations who want to turn the Age of AI into the age of human flourishing.