Project-based learning as a holistic learning framework: Integrating 10 principles of critical reasoning and argumentation

In this paper, we outline and illustrate ten principles of critical reasoning and argumentation within a project-based learning approach to teaching academic literacy. We discuss project-based learning from a practical and theoretical perspective, outlining our view that some kind of holistic approach is needed to provide adequate coverage of the broad range of skills and knowledge that contribute towards academic competence. To illustrate the practical side, we use extracts from recordings of student teams in action doing semester-long projects, and examples from students' written work on the same projects to illustrate emerging literacy in relation to our own ten principles of critical reasoning/argumentation. Project-based learning is therefore proposed as an approach to holistic learning that is able to provide wide enough coverage of all 10 principles in a broad range of activities practiced in and out of class. We emphasize that students need real hands on experience of putting these principles into practice rather than just some kind of explicit teaching of principles. Paradoxically project-based learning can provide a framework that can also include explicit teaching of skills and knowledge. Although each of the 10principles can be considered independently, we believe that they are interrelated as a coherent 'whole' and also interact with other aspects of learning such as SLA. Our focus is on the holistic learning grounded in these10 principles, but we will also draw a brief analogy with Ellis's 10 principles of instructed second language acquisition. The holistic nature of these and other principles has implications for teaching in all contexts. Our notion of intercultural 'translatability' is based on our experiential assumption that no approach can be transferred directly from one local context to another. However, we also assume that we can all find something from an approach designed in one context that is 'translatable' to enhance our own local context.