Project based learning
I am new to the field of education. I want to open an alternative school some day. Currently, I am exploring different ways of teaching the academic subjects. I went though the different approaches of teaching followed in alternative schools in India. I particularly liked the Mirambika's way of teaching. As you may know, Mirambika is a school in Delhi based on teaching of Sri Aurobindo. It follows project based learning approach to teach most of the subjects (other than languages). I have a few questions about PBL (Project Based learning):
1) To me PBL seems to be the best way of teaching academic subjects. Is it really so? Can you suggest other ways which are equally or more effective.
2) It sounds quite difficult to implement PBL because the whole curriculum has to be developed by the school. Are there text books available for PBL which will provide the base to develop our own curriculum? I do not mean books that teach how PBL works but text books which have details of projects for each topic.
3) Will IB board books be helpful? I think IB board follows PBL approach.
4) What is the approach to teaching followed in Rishi Valley school (Andhra Pradesh)? Do they also follow PBL?