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I’m excited to announce that I have new research being published in the the September issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning. This article presents the findings of students’ perspectives with project-based learning, conducted with 8th graders studying geography.  This is a follow-up to some of my previous writing and research on project-based learning.  (See for example, “Getting a grip…” , “Project-based learning in a middle school” , and a brief at the Buck Institute for Education.)

Below is a brief abstract of the findings, and I will give you an update when it comes out.

Project-based learning offers promise as an instructional method that affords authentic learning tasks grounded in the personal interests of learners.  While previous research has presented results of learning gains, motivations, and teacher experiences, limited empirical research has presented student perspectives in project-based learning.  This research sought to explore how learners created projects. A qualitative case study design was employed with five purposively selected participants from eighth grade geography at a private day school. From interviews, observations, and document collection, five themes emerged from what influenced participants’ projects and what the participants learned:  (1) internal influences, (2) external influences, (3) beliefs about projects, (4) tools for technology-rich environments, and (5) learning outcomes and products.  The first four themes describe influences to shape the fifth theme, learning products.  The term learning products was used to describe both the learning acquired by the participants and the learning artifacts the participants produced as part of the instructional unit.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below, or if you’d like to have a preprint version of the paper, I can probably swing that, too.

Related articles from around the web:

• Project Based Learning – what did I learn? (darcymullin.wordpress.com)
• Developing PBL (gomesstem.wordpress.com)
• A Quality Learning Experience (weber.k12.ut.us)