“Build the culture” is an essential Gold Standard Project Based Teaching Practice. One way a PBL unit differs from a traditional unit is by incorporating the learner more in the process. This means both teachers and students must shift their understanding of what instruction looks like in a PBL classroom.

I recently realized that shifts in mindset—or mindset growth—can be understood by laws similar to how the movement of an object is governed by Newton’s Laws of Motion. I’m not referring to Carol Dweck’s work on “growth mindset,” but rather our willingness to change our thinking.