Why Do We Have Such Dilemmas?—An Reflection on Shadowing a PBL Mentor Teacher

Abstract

The author reflects on six dilemmas that teachers and mentors may face during the implementation of project-based learning (PBL): (a) the conflict between student autonomy and teacher control, (b) the belief incongruence between a mentor and a mentee, (c) the gap between an advanced pedagogy and novice teachers, (d) the gap between a mentee’s need for more support and a mentor’s limited support, (e) the conflict between a mentor’s excessive modeling and a mentee’s need for practice, and (f) the problem that a mentor focuses more on student performance than on teacher growth. Understanding these dilemmas may improve PBL training.