7 Learning Problems Project-Based Learning Solves Better Than Anything Else

How to Help Kids Who 'Hate School' Love Learning Again

Photo by Joonas Sild on Unsplash

Sadie hated school. She didn’t have to say it — it showed in everything she did.
What turned things around wasn’t more worksheets or stricter schedules.
It was one project. And it changed everything.

Sadie was a neurodivergent teen who had fallen several years behind in school. Reading and writing were exhausting for her. Math made her anxious.

When I started working with her, it was after years of both traditional school and homeschooling failing her. We sat down with worksheets, her eyes glazed over like she was miles away.

Everything she was being asked to do felt disconnected from her world. Nothing felt like it mattered to her.

I decided to take a different approach, one that would build her confidence and help her feel connected rather than focusing on what she ‘couldn’t do’ or ‘wasn’t good at.’

We worked on a project instead. And I got to know her as a person, not as a person who…

How We Got Started

I knew Sadie loved graphic novels. She’d spend hours poring over the art, the pacing, the way the panels told a story. It was the one thing she could relate to.

So I proposed we work on her developing her own superhero story.

She was skeptical, but willing to try… as long as it wasn’t for a grade.

We started by brainstorming her main character, the backstory, and the setting. She came up with some character ideas. We read other superhero origin stories and picked apart what made them work.

And without even realizing it, she was:

• Reading more than she had in months (graphic novels, articles on story structure).

• Writing every day (character bios, plot outlines, dialogue).

• Learning art and design skills she cared about.

And while I’m skipping over the many steps she took to go from completely disengaged to creating her own novel, the fact is—she did it. She got engaged. She went from shutting down at the sight of a blank page to asking if she could ‘work on her project’ after lunch.

She had a long road ahead but taking this first step meant she started seeing herself differently. It was a way I could build a relationship with her and help her build the confidence she needed to consider other projects in math, history, and science.

Over the next two years we worked on a lot of projects. We started math at ground zero so she would understand the building blocks no one had helped her learn. Every small win in terms of understanding built her confidence, her ‘buy-in,’ her interest and belief that she could learn.

Every kid can learn. Even when the system has failed them.

The catch? Kids learn best when what they’re doing feels real and meaningful and they know they’re supported.

Why Kids Tune Out

If you’ve seen that same glazed-over look — whether it’s in a classroom of 25 or your own kitchen table — you know how hard it is to bring a kid back from disinterest.

It’s not laziness. It’s a need for connection.

When kids are passive recipients of information, their brains have nothing to hook it to. They may remember the information for the test, but they don’t retain it because it’s not inherently meaningful or relevant to them. And without meaning, there’s no motivation to try.

What Project-Based Learning Actually Means

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is often explained in heavy theory and complicated rubrics.

But at its heart, it’s simple:

• Kids work on a real-world challenge or problem.

• They integrate skills across subjects naturally.

• They create something tangible at the end.

That’s it. No overcomplication.

The problem is, most teachers and parents don’t have a practical, step-by-step way to do this. But with a clear, flexible, simple system, PBL can transform your kid’s interest in learning and ability to learn.

If you’re thinking, ‘This sounds amazing — but how do I actually start?’ That’s exactly why I created my PBL Quick Start Toolkit. I’ll share more about it at the end.

What worked for Sadie works for almost every kid — including yours.
And it isn’t magic. PBL directly solves the most common learning problems I see over and over again. Here are seven common learning problems PBL solves better than anything else.

7 Learning Problems PBL Solves Best

Let’s look at why it works so well — and why it transformed Sadie’s learning.

1. When Kids Stop Caring

It’s the glazed-over look.
The one where your kid’s eyes are on you, but you can tell the light’s gone out. They’re ‘doing school’ in the most minimal sense — completing the worksheet, sitting through the lesson — but there’s zero interest. You’re practically standing on your head to make the material interesting, and still… nothing.

The reality? Kids tune out when learning feels disconnected from their lives.

PBL helps kids feel connected and motivated because it starts with something they care about. Instead of opening to page 127 because the schedule says so, you start off with a real-world problem, a mystery to solve, or a project that matters.

Suddenly, your kid is asking questions instead of avoiding them.

2. We Just Learned This… Why Don’t You Remember It?

Your kid studies all week, passes the quiz, and by Monday — poof — it’s gone.
This isn’t laziness. It’s how memory works: if kids never use the information, the brain doesn’t keep it.

In PBL, the all-important difference is information isn’t for reciting — it’s for doing.

If your kid is designing a lunch menu that meets nutrition guidelines and budget constraints, they’re calculating, researching, testing recipes, and making decisions. They start taking ownership and expressing agency over their learning. Why? In PBL, kids use knowledge right away by applying it to real challenges — and that action cements memory.

3. Always Waiting for Instructions

So many kids get used to waiting for someone else to tell them exactly what to do — and exactly how to do it—whether they are in traditional or homeschool. They become pros at ‘fitting in’ or ‘getting by’ but never really lead their own learning.

It’s not their fault. Traditional teaching often rewards compliance over curiosity.

Let’s flip that script using PBL. PBL poses an open-ended driving question. Every child will have a unique answer or solution to that question as they work through the project.

When there’s no single ‘right’ path to the answer, and no one ‘right answer,’ kids have to choose their next steps, test ideas, adjust when something flops, and keep going. This creates active learning — and it turns kids into problem-solvers instead of just rule-followers.

4. When Will I Ever Use This?

Ever heard, “When am I ever going to use this?”
That’s the sound of a kid disconnecting from their own education.

When kids face having to learn an endless parade of disconnected facts, they can find it hard to stay motivated.

In PBL, every lesson is anchored in something real — think redesigning the playground for more accessibility, starting a recycling program, planning a local history walking tour, or designing a real life escape room.

Projects aren’t just ‘school work’ anymore. It’s their work. And that makes all the difference.

5. “I’m Just Bad at Math” (and Other Labels Kids Carry)

Some kids, like Sadie, start to believe they’re ‘bad’ at certain subjects, and they carry that label like a song on repeat everywhere they go.

Kids can easily start thinking, “I’m just not a math person” from even one low test score.

Or when faced with a blank page and no idea how to write an essay it can be easy for kids to decide, “I can’t write.”

In PBL, success isn’t measured by a single moment on a single test. Projects are the vehicle for learning. Kids work on dozens of small tasks along the project pathway. They also learn that mistakes or ‘failures’ are valuable tools for learning. So rather than feel discouraged from a ‘bad grade’ kids learn to ‘fail forward.’

‘Good’ and ‘bad’ start to become normalized into a pattern of ownership and resilience. Kids start stacking evidence that they can do hard things. As their confidence grows, so does their willingness to try.

6. Why Learning Feels Disjointed

Traditional school often teaches subjects in isolation — math, some science, ELA — but real life doesn’t work that way. In the real world, problems don’t arrive labeled ‘Math Problem’ or ‘Language Arts Problem.’

PBL shows kids how to connect—and use—their knowledge across subjects. Planning a dog-walking business? That’s math for budgeting, language arts for advertising, science for animal care, and even geography for planning routes. They see how skills feed into each other, and learn to place ideas within a connected ‘web of knowledge’ instead of a set of unlinked dots.

7. When Kids Get Stuck If Plans Change

When kids are trained to find the ‘right’ answer and stop, they miss out on developing flexible thinking. They freeze when a problem changes halfway through, or they’re thrown by unexpected constraints. The level of learning is superficial—often relegated to memorizing facts rather than thinking critically, creatively or problem-solving.

PBL is inherently flexible and adaptive. This is because learning happens through the process of *doing* the project. Maybe the community garden plan has to change because of a budget cut, or the bridge they designed in a STEM challenge keeps collapsing. They learn to adapt, test new ideas, and see mistakes as part of the process — not a reason to give up.

Back to Sadie

Two years later, Sadie had not only caught up in multiple subjects, but she’d also started writing stories for fun. The girl who once hated school now saw herself as a creator, someone with skills and ideas worth sharing.

She learned resilience when something didn’t work out.

She still struggled with math, but the difference was, she believed she could do it. When faced with a math exam she needed to pass to take a community college class, she didn’t tune out. She dug in, learned study strategies and improved her executive function skills to help her understand how to improve her test taking skills—and, in the end, succeeded.

And I learned — again — that kids don’t need more ‘school’ to succeed. They need opportunities to learn by doing.

Your Turn

If you’re picturing your own student or child while reading this, and thinking, Yes — but where do I start?, you’re not alone.

The reality is, most parents and teachers love the idea of PBL but run into real-world roadblocks:

• No idea how to get started

• No idea what the difference is between ‘doing a project’ and doing PBL

• Limited time

• Unclear structure

• Projects that fizzle or crash midway through

• Worries about meeting academic goals

• Lack of ready-to-use examples

In my next article, I’m sharing the biggest reasons PBL fails in most classrooms and homeschools — and how to make it work every time. You’ll see the most common mistakes and the simple fixes that change everything.

If you don’t want to wait, my PBL Quick Start Toolkit gives you step-by-step guidance, a ready-to-go project plan, and ideas you can adapt immediately — without spending weeks in planning mode.