Understanding Projects in Project-based Learning: A Student’s Perspective

Understanding Projects in Project-based Learning: A Student’s Perspective

1. Abstract

   • Project-based learning offers promise as an instructional method that affords authentic learning tasks grounded in the personal interests of learner
   • Project-based learning offers promise as an instructional method that affords authentic learning tasks grounded in the personal interests of learners

2. METHODOLOGY

   • The case study method (Merriam, 1998) was used in order to study both the process and products of learning over time and bounded by the project-based learning unit
   • The day school afforded ubiquitous computing and access to the Internet and school intranet at any time

3. FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS

   • Given the intimate nature of results and interpretations in qualitative research, these are presented together below
   • The participants made decisions about their individual abilities, their work and their learning artifact.
   • Persistence, or the motivation and drive to follow a task through to the end, also seemed to contribute to their internal influences as well
   • Comparable with persistence and motivation, self-management skills were evident in this stud
   • The participants were also frustrated.
   • Researchers have suggested content and skills are overcontextualized when taught in a single context, class or discipline
   • Ertmer and Simons assert that when teachers become frustrated, they may “revert back to their teacher-directed strategies"
   • Grades helped define what projects included, too

4. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND RESEARCH

   • As with all qualitative research, the extent to which the findings can be applied in other contexts is situated with the reader, and the small sample size limit generalizability
   • Designing a project-based learning environment can be difficult for teacher
   • Researchers can use this study as a springboard for additional investigations.
   • Other case studies would be wise to consider a younger sample, where students have less experience with school norms, meaning their beliefs about projects may be less rigi