Notes

Article one

“Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovative approach to learning that teaches a multitude of strate-
gies critical for success in the twenty-first century. Stu- dents drive their own learning through inquiry,
as well as work collaboratively to research and create projects that reflect their knowledge. From
gleaning new, viable technology skills, to becoming proficient communica- tors and advanced problem
solvers, students benefit from this approach to instruction.”

“Students develop a question and are guided through research under the teacher’s supervision.”

“PBL is not a supplementary activity to support learning. It is the basis of the curricu- lum.”

“The outcome of PBL is greater understanding of a topic, deeper learning, higher-level reading, and
increased motivation to learn.”

“In mea- suring basic academic subject proficiency, standardized testing shows that students engaged
in PBL outscore their traditionally educated peers (Geier et al. 2008). However, standardized testing
does not measure criti- cal twenty-first-century skills that are integral for student success.”

“In another study, elementary students in three Dubuque, Iowa schools that used PBL raised their
IOWA Test of Basic Skills scores from “well below average” to the district average in two schools and
to “well above the district average” in another school. Moreover, in three years, reading gains “ranged
from 15% in one school to over 90% in the other two schools while the district average remained the
same” (Thomas 2000).”

“At an inner city, racially diverse school in Boston that implemented a PBL program called
Expeditionary Learning, eighth graders exhibited the second highest scores in the district on the
Stanford 9 Open Ended Reading Assessment (Thomas 2000). Similar findings in Maine concluded that
a middle school using a PBL ap- proach showed significant increases in all achievement areas on the
Maine Educational Assessment Battery after only one year using the approach. The gains made by
this school were three to ten times higher than the state average (Thomas 2000).”

“PBL promotes social learning as children practice and become proficient with the twenty-first-century
skills of communication, negotiation, and collabora- tion.”

“Technology as a means, not an end, enables students to experiment with different tech- nologies for
all aspects of PBL. An authentic use of tech- nology is highly engaging to students, because it taps
into their fluency with computers.”

“research sup- ports that students using PBL perform better on both standardized assessments and
project tests than stu- dents in traditional direct instruction programs, and that they learn not only real-
world application of skills, but also analytic thinking (Boaler 1999).”

Article 2

“There is a longstanding tradition in schools for "doing projects," incorporating "hands-

on" activities, developing interdisciplinary themes, conducting field trips, and
implementing laboratory investigations.”
PBL is the curriculum not outside of te curriculum and not an enrichment to the
curriculum
“n investigation is a goal-directed process that involves inquiry, knowledge building, and
resolution. Investigations may be design, decision-making, problem-finding, problem-
solving,
3discovery, or model-building processes. But, in order to be considered as a PBL project,
the central activities of the project must involve the transformation and construction of
knowledge (by definition: new understandings, new skills) on the part of students”
“PBL projects do not end up at a predetermined outcome or take predetermined paths.
PBL projects incorporate a good deal more student autonomy, choice, unsupervised work
time, and responsibility than traditional instruction and traditional projects.”
“PBL incorporates real-life challenges where the focus is on authentic (not simulated)
problems or questions and where solutions have the potential to be implemented.”
"Using technology in project-based science makes the environment more authentic to
students, because the computer provides access to data and information, expands
interaction and collaboration with others via networks, promotes laboratory investigation,
and emulates tools experts use to produce artifacts." (Krajcik et al., 1994, pp. 488-489).”

“Faculty of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and the Chicago Academy of
Science have collaborated on studies examining the effect of a high-school version of the
problem-based learning model on students' academic achievement and problem-solving
skills. Gallagher et al. (1992) devised a problem-based course for high-school seniors
enrolled in an Illinois school for students talented in mathematics and science. In each
semester that the course was given, students were presented with two "ill-structured"
problems along with raw data relevant to the problem. For example, information was
presented to students about an unusually high number of persons dying of a disease with
flu-like symptoms in hospitals across Illinois.”
“Shepherd (1998) reports that problem-based learning can have a positive effect on
students' acquisition of critical thinking skills. Shepherd describes a nine-week project in
which students work on defining and finding solutions for a problem related to an
apparent housing shortage in six countries. Although the number of students involved in
the study was quite small (20 students in the experimental group and 15 in a control
group), Shepherd found a significant increase on the part of the experimental group, as
compared to the control students, on a test of critical thinking skills (The Cornell Critical
Thinking Test). Additionally, experimental students reported increased confidence and
learning, as a result of the nine-week project, on a self-report measure given after the
program.”
Article 3
“The main purpose of this study was to identify the effects of projectbased learning approach on learning
outcomes of students in fifth-grade Social Studies courses in primary education.”

“The most obvious result of the present study is that project-based learning approach improves academic
success, makes learning enjoyable, meaningful and permanent, and develops essential and important skills
in students. In other words, project-based learning lets students search while studying by making the
learning process enjoyable, entertaining, meaningful and permanent, forces them to be busy with learning,
leads them towards research by improving cooperation and develops a variety of abilities. When compared
to the conventional teaching approach, the project-based learning approach makes students happy during
the learning process by providing them with rich learning experiences. For this reason, the use of the
project-based learning approach in the Social Studies class as well as in other disciplines of the primary
school curriculum should be encouraged. Furthermore, research studies that show successful
implementations or illustrations of the project-based learning approach in different educational contexts
should be widespread. Finally, if one desires to benefit from the outcomes of the projectbased learning
approach, one is to pay attention to its main characteristics and implementation stages.”

Do not use article 4

Article 5
“he results of this study indicate that middle-school students perceive the learning environment factor as more
important to prompting their thinking, while college students perceive the scaffolding methods factor as more
important.”

“Based on these results, suggestions are given for designing developmentally and age-appropriate PBL learning
environments that support reflective thinking.”

“Middle-school and college level students’ perceptions of the design fac- tors that prompt
reflective thinking in PBL environments were exam- ined.”

Surveys of ten questions were used

“Both middle-school and college level learners perceived the learning environment and
scaffold- ing methods as helpful factors prompting reflective thinking in a PBL environment,
although the essence of these two and their order of importance in prompting reflective
thinking were different.”

“For middle-school learners, it appears that how they engage in thinking reflectively is more
important than what they do. The most important elements for the middle-school students
was collab- oration, which has generally been classified in the literature as so- cial interaction
in the learning environment. This element is essential in making PBL constructive because
one major learning approach in PBL is small-group social learning”

Article 6

Study found that students were more successful using pbl when the teacher modeled his thinking outloud,
than when he gace an example. Modeling the thought process was more effective e.

Article 7

“Project-based learning connects new learning with students’ past knowledge and experiences.”

“ Students maintained high levels of interest in their own learning because their hands-on/minds-on schoolwork
was meaningful. In the years I observed students developing their automo- tive projects, a by-product has been the
development of strong leadership and communications skills.”

Article 8

"I'm trying to change the way we deliver curriculum to students," he added. "There is so much focus on
information and not as much on the experience. ... You can't build a robot by reading about it online."
“A high school science and engineering teacher who develops project-based-learning courses to inspire his
students has been named one of this year's 23 MacArthur Fellows by the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation.
He is believed to be the first public school science teacher to receive one of the foundation's annual "genius
grants," worth $500,000 each.
Amir Abo-Shaeer, who teaches physics and engineering at Dos Pueblos High School, in Goleta, Calif.,”
Article 9
Success of implementing grade level pbl is that time is set aside for collaborative planning across content
areas.

Article 10
“In this pilot study, 4th graders receiving PBL in science were compared with a corresponding group receiving the
same instruction in thematic format. Using a quasi-experimental design, the researchers investigated students’
knowledge of content, stereotypical images of scientists, time-on-task, and transfer of problem-solving skills.”
“A study of of 10th-grade Earth science students corroborated that PBL instruction improved their
knowledge of the material as measured on an achievement test as compared to their peers in more
traditional classes”

“High school students using PBL in biology, chemistry, and Earth science classes outscored their peers on
44% of the items on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science test given during their
12th-grade year”

“middle school students had a better understanding of science concepts and felt more confident about being
successful learners after they completed a computer-enhanced PBL unit.”

“By organizing the curriculum around the completion of an authentic problem or project, PBL requires
students to use the knowledge and skills they have acquired in meaningful contexts. This approach is
aligned with recommendations of the AAAS (1993) and the NRC (1996) that indicate the need for teachers to
develop communities of science learners in their classrooms. These communities should engage students in
inquiry-based activities to encourage a deep understanding of science and to develop attitudes and social
values conducive to science learning. The results of this pilot study suggest that using PBL as a vehicle for
teaching science in the elementary classroom has the potential to address these recommendations.”

Article 11
exposing students to questions that are not easily answered or do not have an easily indentified solution
encourages students t consider alternatives and leads to deeper learning.

Article 12

“In teacher education programs, a PBL approach using problems and issues from K–12 classrooms,
can help preservice teachers recognize different perspec- tives and encourage them to elaborate,
defend, or modify their current beliefs about classroom practices.”

“The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) on
preservice teachers’ beliefs regarding technology use and on their intended teaching practices as
captured by detailed lesson plans.”

“. If preservice teachers were to participate in a series of student-centered approaches such as PBL,

their in- tended teaching practices about teaching, learning, and technology may show changes during
their teacher education programs. Then, over time, these in- tended practices may impact preservice
teachers’ beliefs regarding technology use. Finally, these changed beliefs are likely to impact teachers’
future teaching practices. Changes in intended teaching practices may be an important first step in
changing teachers’ beliefs regarding technology use and future teaching practices.”

Notes for 13 & !4

Article 13
OXFORD, Miss., March 9 -- The University of Mississippi issued the following news release:
American 15-year-olds lag behind their peers in 31 countries in math proficiency, and in science, the
nation's eighth-graders' test scores trail those of eight countries, a 2009 U.S. Department of Education
report concluded.
"Even worse, that standing is falling," said John O'Haver, a University of Mississippi chemical engineering
professor and director of the UM Center for Mathematics and Science Education.
"Our society is becoming more and more technologically advanced," said Julie James, former North
Pontotoc High School math teacher. "As teachers, we are preparing students for jobs that don't even exist
yet. Problem-solving and logical thinking skills will be in high demand."

Article 14

“For years, U.S. students have fared poorly at math and science when compared to their peers in other
countries. For example, in 2006 the Program for International Student Assessment found that American 15-
year-olds ranked 24th out of 57 developed nations in science and 32nd in mathematics. The numbers are
even more dire for high-needs students - those with economic, social or geographic disadvantages, who
often lag far behind their fellow students. This so-called "achievement gap" is already costing the United
States: Students who aren't equipped with the educational tools to become scientists, mathematicians and
engineers can't help provide the technological advances upon which the nation's economy has come to
depend.”