{"id":9475,"date":"2024-12-06T17:27:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnercentered.org\/?p=9475"},"modified":"2025-08-15T13:02:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T21:02:20","slug":"exhibitions-of-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learnercentered.org\/big-moves\/exhibitions-of-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibition of Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/h2>\n

Exhibitions of Learning<\/strong> (also called Celebrations of Learning, Showcases of Learning or Demonstrations of Learning) are events where students share their learning and any products from a learning experience or project with a broad and public audience. These events could take the form of a formal presentation (ex. play), an individual exhibition (ex. science fair) or a gallery walk of student tables (ex. showcase).\u00a0 Exhibitions of learning provide authentic audiences<\/strong> for students with a public deadline which leads to higher quality of work. This gives students motivation to work towards something that will be seen beyond their teacher and classroom. It is also an opportunity for the greater community including families to be part of the learning process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Typically these happen at the end of a project-based learning<\/strong> experience or other large experience or project. Ideally, learners have the opportunity to share the products of their learning that address a specific question or real world problem with the audience for whom the learning is most useful and relevant, which might be a broad and public group.\u00a0 The process of sharing their learning and reflection should be deeply embedded in the experience. Exhibitions typically include multiple students sharing their work on the same project or experiences. In addition to sharing products of learning, learners can share the process of learning and their reflections from the experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These exhibitions are distinct from defenses of learning<\/strong>, which focus one learner at a time with a smaller audience in the panel, reflecting more on personal growth over multiple learning experiences and projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can learn more about this in our course, <\/span>Design Performance-Based Assessments<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>

Bright Spots<\/h2>\n

District-Wide Showcase of Learning<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>
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First graders in Logan County, KY celebrate their ability to learn a new skill – how to blow a bubble with gum – and document the process in writing. They created a poster and t-shirts as visual aids in their presentation at a county-wide showcase, to which all school families were invited.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Pitch Day!<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>
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6th grade students at Encinitas Union School District participate every year in Salad Wars as part of a week-long project-based learning experience at the <\/span>Farm Lab<\/span><\/a> where they develop a salad dressing company as a team. At the end of the week students pitch their salad dressing concepts to a team of judges. During this authentic exhibition of learning they share their salad dressing company name, the recipe of their salad dressing and even prepare a jingle or other form of commercial. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Community-Based Exhibitions of Learning<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>