Student Experiences
Finding: "Although students are engaged by PBL, they need support and guidance, especially when new to PBL. Projects need to be carefully constructed with an eye to the requisite skills and knowledge students will need to have to be able to complete the project successfully" (Larmer, Mergendoller, & Boss, 2015).
- In PBL classrooms, students demonstrate improved attitudes toward learning. They exhibit more engagement, are more self-reliant, and have better attendance than in more traditional settings (Thomas, 2000; Walker & Leary, 2009).
- PBL is aligned with current thinking about maximizing student motivation and interest. (Larmer, Mergendoller, & Boss, 2015)
- High school students in an Earth Science class struggled in a PBL experience; they had difficulty planning and conducting sustained inquiry because they lacked the necessary background knowledge necessary to complete tasks and meet expectations (Edelson, Gordon, & Pea, 1999).
- PBL brings together a number of factors that encourage motivation:
- PBL involves a collaborative group efforts, and working with other students is usually motivating (Blumenfeld et al., 1991).
- PBL allows students to have voice and choice, and such opportunities for self-expression and decision making are considered very powerful motivators (Brophy, 2013).
- PBL emphasizes authenticity in the tasks that are completed and the public product that emerges from the project, and such authenticity encourages student engagement (Brophy, 2013; Seidel, 2011).
- PBL generally involves novelty in the nature of the questions addressed, the academic tasks completed, and the contexts in which the project unfolds. PBL is not school as usual and this is a strong catalyst of student motivation and engagement (Blumenfeld et al., 1991; Thomas, 2000).
- PBL involves a collaborative group efforts, and working with other students is usually motivating (Blumenfeld et al., 1991).