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The Project Approach

📚 Education By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated
Quick answer: The project approach is an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic of interest to children, carried out by a group or class, organised by Katz and Chard into beginning, investigation and culmination phases.
Contents
  1. 1. Background
  2. 2. Phases
  3. 3. Topics and teacher role
  4. 4. Versus Reggio Emilia
  5. 5. References

Background

Drawing on Dewey, William Kilpatrick's 1918 essay "The Project Method" stressed purposeful activity. Via British infant schools and Reggio Emilia, Lilian Katz and Sylvia Chard set out the modern approach in Engaging Children's Minds (1989), close to constructivist learning.

Phases

  • Preparation: the teacher drafts a topic web and gathers resources.
  • Phase 1, beginning: children share experiences and list questions.
  • Phase 2, investigation: fieldwork, expert visits, observation and representation through drawing and construction.
  • Phase 3, culmination: displays or presentations and reflection.

Topics and teacher role

Good topics are concrete and researchable locally, such as a hospital or bus. The teacher observes, extends questions and documents, combining projects with systematic instruction to build skills and dispositions.

Versus Reggio Emilia

Both value child-led inquiry and documentation; Reggio Emilia adds a community philosophy, atelier and pedagogista with more open timelines, while the project approach is more structured.

References

  1. Kilpatrick, W. H. (1918). The project method. Teachers College Record, 19(4), 319-335.
  2. Katz, L. G., & Chard, S. C. (2000). Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach (2nd ed.). Ablex.
  3. Helm, J. H., & Katz, L. G. (2016). Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press.
  4. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. Macmillan.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

There are no materials dedicated to this theory yet, but you can search related reports in the CampusDown library (Korean).

Find more reports · Search '프로젝트 접근법' on CampusDown →
The Reggio Emilia ApproachThe Reggio Emilia approach: Loris Malaguzzi and the city's post-war preschools, the image of the competent child and the hundred languages, progettazione, pedagogical documentation, atelierista and pedagogista, and the environment as third teacher.📚 EducationPiaget's Theory of Cognitive DevelopmentPiaget's theory of cognitive development explained: schema, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration, the four stages, comparison with Vygotsky, criticisms, and report examples.📚 EducationBandura's Social Learning TheoryBandura's social learning theory explained: observational learning, vicarious reinforcement, reciprocal determinism, self-efficacy, the Bobo doll experiment, criticisms, and report examples.📚 EducationSkinner's Operant ConditioningSkinner's operant conditioning explained: reinforcement and punishment, schedules of reinforcement, shaping and extinction, the law of effect, criticisms, and report examples.📚 Education

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This article was last updated on October 15, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.