CLIL and PBL to Improve Student Engagement

Description

Very often, educational environments are still hesitant to adopt teaching approaches and strategies that better prepare students for real-life situations, meaningful communication, and the skills required by today’s world.

At the same time, many teachers who are actively interested in more engaging methodologies face practical constraints such as rigid curricula, exam pressure, limited preparation time, and mixed-ability classes.

Educators should link curriculum topics to real-life situations, making learning more meaningful, and guide students in the acquisition of competencies and life skills (including critical thinking, effective communication, and language fluency) in order to meet learners’ needs.

Good news: effective teaching strategies can be easy to learn!

This course is designed to help them respond to these challenges through two complementary approaches: Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).

PBL offers students an opportunity to be more engaged in learning, making them work towards a tangible goal, in order to work on both content and competencies (stimulating also critical thinking and problem solving).

CLIL is a methodology for designing lessons that integrate learning of subject-specific content and foreign language skills, creating opportunities for authentic communication and meaningful language use in context.

The course also shows how these approaches can be combined in Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL), allowing students to develop both subject understanding and language fluency through structured, goal-oriented tasks.

PBLL also provides opportunities for communication in the target language and for the application of accurate vocabulary while working on the specific contents (art, sciences, history, etc), contributing to improving students’ willingness to speak and the authenticity of their experience.

Throughout the course, participants will explore the principles, assumptions, and practical applications of CLIL, PBL, and PBLL, with particular attention to lesson planning, scaffolding, and assessment.

They will be guided in working on designing units, communicative tasks, and project pathways that are realistic, effective, and adaptable to different subjects, age groups, and classroom realities.

By the end of the course, participants will have learned about PBL, CLIL, and PBLL frameworks, the steps to design adaptable task and project templates, how to facilitate learning of contents and skills, how to scaffold teamwork, and the production of learning deliverables by students.

Last but not least, they will learn practical strategies to guide students in a 360-degree growth process, which includes the acquisition of 21st-century skills and boosts the level of engagement.

Concept by Sheila Corwin

Learning outcomes

The course will help the participants to:

• Design motivating learning activities connected to real-world contexts and meaningful communication;
• Plan manageable CLIL, PBL, and PBLL learning sequences suited to their subjects, learners, and school environment;
• Design communicative, task-based, and project-based learning activities that promote authentic language use, collaboration, and real-world use;
• Integrate language and content objectives through CLIL-informed strategies that support both subject knowledge and language development;
• Apply learner-centered and inclusive methodologies to differentiate instruction and effectively support mono and multilingual classrooms;
• Use formative assessment and feedback techniques to monitor progress and guide instruction;
• Reflect on their own teaching practice and evaluate the effectiveness of different methodologies to inform continuous professional growth.

Tentative schedule

Day 1 – Introduction to Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL)

• Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
• Presentations of the participants’ schools.

Foundations of Contemporary Language Teaching

• Overview of current trends in language education;
• Core principles of CLT, TBL, CLIL, and PBL;
• Comparing approaches: strengths, challenges, and contexts of use;
• Guided reflection on participants’ current practices.

Day 2 – Communicative and task-based learning in practice

• Designing authentic communication and interaction;
• Task-Based Learning cycle and task design principles;
• Experiment with communicative and task-based learning activities;
• Reflect on and evaluate teaching strategies through peer feedback;
• Produce ready-to-use communicative and task-based lessons.

Day 3 – Integrating language and content through CLIL and projects

• Connecting CLIL principles with dual-focused learning objectives;
• Planning Project-Based Learning and the PBL cycle;
• Designing interdisciplinary projects and collaborating;
• Developing a CLIL and project-based learning plan ready for classroom use.

Day 4 – Differentiation and formative assessment

• Differentiation techniques for lower and higher-level language classrooms;
• Scaffolding strategies and flexible grouping;
• Formative assessment and effective feedback practices.

Day 5 – Consolidation and final reflection

• Discuss a clear plan for classroom implementation;
• Evaluate the personal effectiveness of chosen methodologies;
• Adapt strategies to local school contexts;
• Final reflection, discussion, and course synthesis.

Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities

• Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
• Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
• Excursion and other external cultural activities.

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