A Pedagogy of Radical Hope

Project-based learning is, at its core, a pedagogy of radical hope. It begins with what students are capable of and it trusts that when learning is organized around real questions, genuine inquiry, and meaningful work, students rise to meet it.

What makes PBL distinctive is also what makes it demanding: it asks teachers to relinquish the comfort of leading from expertise and instead to lead from design. The teacher's role shifts from authority to architect, building the conditions for student-centered work, then stepping back to let students lead. That shift is harder than it sounds, and more rewarding than most faculty expect.

Done well, PBL changes how students see themselves as learners. That is the work. That change outlasts any course, any grade, or any assignment.

PBL Work

Clark has been deeply engaged in project-based learning as both a practitioner and a designer for over a decade. As Institute Faculty at WPI's Project-Based Learning Institute since 2016, she works alongside faculty from across the country developing and refining PBL curriculum, bringing her expertise in writing, integrative learning, technology, and curriculum design to bear on one of higher education's most powerful pedagogical frameworks.

At LaGuardia Community College, she led a year-long interdisciplinary curriculum development process with ten Liberal Arts faculty to design LIN 150: Introduction to Integrative Research Methods, a PBL course built around authentic research questions, disciplinary inquiry, and integrative reflection. She is currently teaching her 3rd iteration of the course, designed around water. She and her students are investigating Newtown Creek, a body of water with a long history of industrialization and pollution. And a shorter, newer history of conservation.

Her keynote address at the WPI PBL Collaborative, "Projects are People" (January 2023), explored the human dimensions of project-based learning, what it asks of students, what it asks of faculty, and why those demands are worth meeting. Her 2025 keynote, “At the Edge of the Map: Project-Based Learning in Times of Uncertainty” explored PBL as a way to design for the unknown. Her 2026 keynote, "Designed to Matter: What Project-Based Learning Makes Possible" asks what PBL opens up when it's designed with intention and care.

Selected PBL Presentations

"Designed to Matter: What Project-Based Learning Makes Possible." Keynote Address, WPI PBL Institute (June 2026)

"A New Framework for Project-Based Learning: Reclaiming Higher Education's Purpose in a Time of Change," with Kimberly LeChasseur, Ryan Madan, Geoff Pfeifer, and Sarah Stanlick. AAC&U Annual Meeting (January 2026)

“At the Edge of the Map: Project-Based Learning in Times of Uncertainty.” Keynote Address, WPI PBL Institute (June 2025)

"Projects are People." Keynote Address, WPI PBL Collaborative (January 2023)