Running Head: EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING 1

The Effects of Project-Based Learning

Melissa Checco

Gwynedd Mercy University

 2
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Abstract

This research project will be investigating the effects of hands-on learning activities, formally

referred to as "project-based learning." The project will look into students' concept retention and

level of engagement when performing tasks such as classwork, group work, and assessments.

Real world and conceptual learning has become a hot topic in the world of education, and many

supporters of this push claim that it could have more beneficial effects when compared to

instruction geared toward procedural learning. This research project aims to answer these

questions and brings us closer to solving the lecture versus project debate.

High schoolers completed surveys on a variety of project-based and traditional activities

that they were assigned and their corresponding scores and observed performance were analyzed.

While the differing assignments had little variance in affecting student engagement, the scores

from hands-on activities were, on average, higher than those from pencil-and-paper assignments.

Project-based learning and alternative assessment is an increasingly relevant topic in

today's schools. Hands-on activities and real-world learning opportunities are becoming much

more crucial in the classroom. Replacing traditional lectures with this kind of instruction is part

of a push for students to become more adept at conceptual problems and to rely less on simply

procedural methods. It is important to compare these different instructional formats to determine

which is the most effective at maintaining student engagement and maximizing performance.

Research Design

A control group and experimental group will be selected from two existing geometry classes

covering the same material at the same pace. The control group will be given traditional
 3
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
pencil-and-paper assignments and tests with primarily lecture-style lessons. Meanwhile, the

experimental group will be given hands-on collaborative activities during lesson time and real

world projects in lieu of silent, procedural exams. Participants in both groups will be given the

same topics and curriculum (the project's independent variable), and any observations or formal

scores will be monitored to track progress (the project's dependent variable). This setup mirrors

the structure of a pre-test post-test quasi-experiment.

Since the experiment will be conducted using pre-existing classes in an educational

setting, IRB approval is not technically required. However, for the research to be published, IRB

approval will be required. As an added precaution, all participating students and their parents

will be signing a form of informed consent so that they are aware of the research.

The data will be collected using a mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques – early

stages of data on a particular set of concepts will be collected primarily in the form of

observation, and end of unit data collection will be recorded and analyzed from student grades.

The quantitative student grades and survey scores will give us concrete numbers to analyze and

compare, whereas the qualitative observations and verbal survey feedback could clue us in to the

reasons that support any quantitative correlations or conclusions we find. Some questions that the

research will attempt to address include:

- How does hands-on learning affect student participation?

- How does hands-on learning affect student engagement and interest?

- Does project based learning produce a more favorable outcome on student grades when

compared to traditional learning?

- How does student performance change when tasked with project-based assessment
 4
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
when compared to pencil-and-paper tests?

Participants

Those participating in this study are between the ages of 15 and 18, and are currently enrolled in

an urban public school. A majority of the students participating in this study receive reduced or

free breakfast and lunch as part of their school day, awarding them a classification of lower

socioeconomic status.

The participants were selected as a cluster sample, having already been pre-grouped in

specifically placed tracks, such as College Prep Fast (accelerated) and Honors. The control and

experimental groups will be selected from the same pace to keep results more accurate. It was

also important to choose students receiving instruction from the same teacher, to ensure that

content is kept consistent across the different groups.

Materials and Measures

Data collection methods such as classroom observations, recording grades, and verbal surveys

will be used to determine any differing effects between the control group and the experimental

group. Notable classroom observations may include the percentage of students who are

exhibiting “engaged” behaviors such as: actively interacting with their teammates, contributing

to academic questioning or discussion, and referencing their notes and other resources for help.

Other helpful observations could be the number of students giving unprompted positive versus

negative feedback about the lesson. Broad and unprompted observations will be invaluable to the

research since it will allow for the collection of unbiased and qualitative data. Observations are
 5
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
more difficult to pull concrete evidence from, since observations are a type of subjective data

collection. Positive or negative feedback and/or observations may not always be a result of the

material given, but a result of an outside factor that is not measurable.

At the end of each assignment being compared, students will be asked whether they liked

that type of assignment, and will be asked to hold up a number of fingers to visually rate their

understanding of the topic. Showing a “1” would mean that the student still does not have any

idea where to begin, and showing a “5” would mean that the student feels like they have

completely mastered the topic. Responses will be recorded. Finally, student grades will be

compared between the hands-on activities and paper and pencil activities that covered the same

concept or chapter. The use of surveys and grade recording are beneficial to the research project

since tangible patterns are more obviously drawn from quantitative data when compiling

evidence for results. However, it is still possible for students to produce unfavorable survey

responses and grades if they are not performing up to their usual potential, if a team in the

experimental group is missing a significant part of their group, or if an unplanned event such as a

drill or student personal issues disrupt the typical dynamic and flow of the class. Using a mix of

data collection strategies will give us a well-rounded picture of why certain methods did and did

not fare well with students.

Procedure

Participant progress during this study will be analyzed in a quasi-experimental format. Two tenth

grade geometry classes will be monitored over the course of this research project. The assistant

principals who are responsible for the students participating will be informed of the research
 6
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
project in advance, so that any necessary adjustments can be made. Next, each student will be

informed that they are participating in an action research project in the form of a notice that will

be sent home to their parents and/or guardians. One class, the control group, will be receiving

predominantly traditional, individually completed pencil-and-paper material, such as tests,

quizzes, and practice worksheets. The other class, the experimental group, will be receiving

predominantly project-based learning tools. This may include: projects (in lieu of tests), labs

(rather than quizzes), or hands-on, mobile group activities (as opposed to a worksheet). These

types of assignments will prompt the experimental group to access available resources and work

collaboratively to find answers, rather than purely individual memory recall.

Literature Review

The use of project-based learning in the classroom has stemmed from John Dewey’s early

research on cognitive development (Aydin, 2018). As it is being adopted into classrooms, it is

boosting student curiosity, which has a direct positive impact on their engagement and

motivation (Morgan, 2013). This leads to several wonderings:

- What is the purpose of project-based learning?

- What is the general consensus surrounding project-based learning among researchers and

in the classroom?

- What other research has influenced the kind of project-based learning we see today?

- What does project-based learning look like in practice?

 7
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
What is the purpose of project-based learning?

Project-based learning is gaining traction in the educational community due to, in part, its ability

to connect textbook content to solving realistic, applicable problems (Cormier, 2011). An

approach that is centered around more hands-on activities encourages participants to seek

solutions through means beyond the pencil-and-paper, and out in the field looking for notable

patterns, clues, or insights (Claesgens, 2013). This type of problem synthesis can benefit students

of varying needs such as the English Language Learner population or students with autism; as a

commonly recommended learning accommodation for both groups is providing a tactile,

sensory-heavy activity over a seated assignment rooted in reading comprehension alone (Aydin,

2018).

What is the general consensus surrounding project-based learning among researchers and

in the classroom?

There are several existing opinions that shadow the concept of project-based learning. From the

students’ perspective, content being taught is seen as more relevant than it was when presented in

a traditional lecture format (Cormier, 2011). When information is perceived as relevant, students

have a higher desire to learn. In other words, it is possible that project-based learning has a

correlation to heightened intrinsic motivation (Aydin, 2018). However, the use of one-to-one

technology is often coupled with these hands-on projects, and can lead to additional obstacles in

the classroom, including an increase of time allocated to the project to account for technical

mishaps (Claesgens, 2013).

 8
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
Discussion

Data for this action research was collected using three main tools: online student surveys, teacher

observations, and assignment scores. The surveys listed different success factors that the

assignments affected, such as attention, interest, confidence, motivation, and understanding.

Students were asked to decide how well an assignment achieved each of these factors, on a scale

of “1” to “5”. For example, if we were to look at how students assessed how motivated they were

to complete an assignment, a score of “1” signified that the assignment did not motivate them at

all, whereas a score of “5” would tell us that the students felt extremely motivated to finish the

assignment. The survey feedback was placed onto a spreadsheet and categorized based on

whether the assignment was “traditional” or “project-based.” Mean scores from each assignment

were calculated, and then a mean of those averages within a category were calculated. The

findings of these surveys by assignment type are outlined in ​Figure 1-1 a​ nd ​Figure 1-2​ below.

Figure 1-1

Average Survey Ratings by Category

Note: Figure 1-1​ depicts the mean student scores for traditional assignments versus project-based
 9
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
learning assignments in various success categories. It is interesting to see that the types of

assignments ranked fairly close in all categories, with traditional assignments having a slight

edge on all factors except student motivation. This could be attributed to the fact that many of the

project-based activities had a clear end goal, such as being the first team to complete a challenge

or uncovering a secret message.

Figure 1-2

Note:​ ​Figure 1-2​ is a side by side bar graph comparing the mean results from the student survey.

Five categories were measured on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the minimum score, meaning that the

assignment was completely ineffective in that area; 5 being the maximum score, denoting that

the assignment was extremely effective in that area). These categories include student interest,
 10
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
engagement and attention span, motivation, topic understanding, and math confidence after

participating in each activity. The activities were classified as either “traditional” or

“project-based learning”, and the results of each category were averaged by assignment type.

The teacher observations were purely categorical: were the majority of students on task?

Did the classes require a lot of redirection during the activity? Did an overwhelming number of

students complain while participating in the activity? Surprisingly, there were a number of

additional complaints during collaborative activities - many having to do with working with

other people or understanding directions.

Despite the increased complaints with collaborative learning, the resulting scores showed

that project-based learning yielded better scores on average than their comparative traditional

assignment. The purpose of using student scores was to measure the relative amount of content

that each student retained from each topic and/or unit.

The earned scores were calculated by individual students first by calculating earned

points divided by total available points. These scores were then averaged by class period, where

the mean score was calculated by considering total earned points divided by the number of

students in the class. This was done for each class. Since the data is being analyzed using

multiple variables (class and assignment type), the best way to compile the information was to

funnel it into side-by-side bar graphs. This was first done by class level (honors versus college

prep fast). Since each of the assignments yielded different results, the information is split into

two classifications (traditional versus project-based) and then broken down by specific

assignment. You can see these graphs in ​Figure 1-3 a​ nd ​Figure 1-4​ below.
 11
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Figure 1-3

Note: Figure 1-3 b​ reaks down the traditional assignments given so we can look at how well the

students retained the information that the assignment was meant to test. I measured retention in

how well the students scored. This information was broken down into honors level classes,

college prep fast (accelerated-level) classes, and as an overall score average, to see if there were

any outstanding differences. I also broke this down by specific assignment to see if some types

of traditional pencil-and-paper assignments had drastically different results than others. Bars are

missing where a class did not complete the assignment yet.

 12
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
Figure 1-4

Note: Figure 1-4 i​ s a similar concept retention analysis by class, except for the project-based

learning activities.

Finally, to compare the overall concept retention during traditional pencil-and-paper

activities to project-based, collaborative activities, the assignments under each assignment

classification were averaged. The mean scores were taken from both honors classes, both college

prep fast classes, and finally, the classes overall. You can see how the data stacks up in the

side-by-side bar graph in​ Figure 1-5 ​and ​Figure 1-6.​

 13
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
Figure 1-5

Figure 1-6

Note: Figure 1-5 a​ nd ​Figure 1-6​ depict the average scores earned by the honors and college prep

fast (accelerated) classes, as well as the overall average among all classes. Where we previously

saw close student rankings between both traditional and project-based assignments, concept

retention is where we see a larger difference in effectiveness. Honors classes had a better success

rate for the assignments than the college prep fast classes, but overall, the average score for
 14
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
traditional assignments in either class was 58.16%, whereas project-based assignments in all

classes yielded an average score of 68.02%.

Limitations

In both types of classes tested, we see increased scores when students were given a

project-based assignment. This could be attributed to increased access to resources or an

opportunity for students to collaborate rather than rely on accessing memory alone. In the future,

this research could be expanded by testing these factors separately. For example, the

experimental group being assigned project-based learning assignments could be split into three

subgroups. The first subgroup could be allowed to work independently, but open-note and with

access to other classroom resources such as the internet. The second subgroup could be allowed

to work in groups with access to peer knowledge, but without access to notes or extraneous

resources. The third and final subgroup could be allowed to work in groups and access their

resources for help. Comparing the three subgroups could give us more insight into exactly what

factors contributed to the heightened scores.

Based on the literature review, the findings in this experiment were expected to be more

skewed in favor of project-based learning (Morgan, 2013). These results could have also been

affected by the fact that students are already predisposed to proper expectations when given a

worksheet or pencil-and-paper test. They do not always react well when asked to go out of their

comfort zone to try a real-world simulation or to work in groups. There may also be a

discrepancy between the way that high school students react, as they did in this experiment,

when compared to elementary school students. Perhaps older students exude a stronger
 15
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
preference to work independently, whereas younger students may prefer working with each

other. This type of bias could have skewed the way that the participants perceived each activity,

and thus skewing student survey results. In the future, it could be interesting to conduct this

research using multiple age groups of participants with assignments both of the same difficulty

and assignments relative to their skill level.

It was also challenging to assign activities that covered the same information in two

different formats. Some types of project-based learning, like the “Similar Triangles Mad Libs”

activity, were easy to adapt since the problems put around the room could easily be transferred

into worksheet form. However, the “Triangle Spaghetti Lab” was not easily translated into a

regular worksheet and was harder to compare to its traditional counterpart. Findings from this

experiment would probably be more consistent and accurate had the assignments used the exact

same problems when presented in two different formats.

Since even class periods of the same levels had different numbers of participants and skill

levels, it didn’t seem helpful to assign one of each class level Assignment Type A and the other

of each class level Assignment Type B. Instead, the research method was modified so that every

class was given both assignments, to promote more accurate results. Had there been more

participants, and a potential for both groups to have more evenly-matched skills sets, it may have

been useful to try one assignment type per class.

Finally, the survey results could have been even more accurate, had there been more

consistency with student completion. If all participants had attended all days of instruction, tried

all of the activities, and completed all of the surveys honestly, the surveys would have produced

optimal results for analysis. To counteract this issue in the future, the survey could be a required
 16
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
component completed in class for a grade directly after completing an activity. Making these

tweaks could result in more exhaustive conclusions on the benefits and drawbacks of different

instructional styles in the future.

Conclusion

Although sometimes viewed as unorthodox, project-based learning can be a key player when it

comes to producing better grades, fostering peer collaboration, and encouraging students to

reinforce concepts by falling back on their resources. While the administered student surveys

following each hands-on assignment showed little difference against traditional assignments

when it came to student interest, motivation, and engagement, project-based learning can be a

savvy tool in classrooms today.

Perhaps these types of hands-on activities would be best suited in courses that highlight

life skills or careers, such as art, music, finance, and consumer sciences. For core courses,

project-based learning would be a wonderful tool in simulating concepts. For example, a social

studies class might choose to hold a mock trial for a controversial historical figure. Math classes

might create surveys to distribute to their student body about changes they want to see made in

the school, to be put into different kinds of plots. English classes could use skits to reenact a

conflict occurring in their text. Science classes could conduct labs where they plant the same

seed in different conditions to monitor how the growth is affected.

While there is little to no evidence that traditional learning will disappear anytime in the

near future, educators are moving toward a harmonious balance of lecture-style and hands-on

learning. When supplemented into traditional curricula, teachers can use project-based learning
 17
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
to build a wider assignment variability, promote real-world learning, and appeal to a larger

breadth of learning styles.

 18
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
References

Aydin, S., Demir-Atalay, Tazegul., Goksu, V. (2018). Project-Based Learning Practices with

Secondary School Students. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 10(3),

230–242. https://doi-org.libproxy.gmercyu.edu/10.15345/iojes.2018.03.015

Claesgens, J., Rubino-Hare, L., Bloom, N., Fredrickson, K., Henderson-Dahms, C., Menasco, J.,

& Sample, J. (2013). Professional Development Integrating Technology: Does Delivery

Format Matter? Science Educator, 22(1), 10–18. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.gmercyu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN

=EJ1062200&site=ehost-live

Cormier, M. (2011). A city built on geometry: Project-based learning in a Grade 10 math

classroom. In B. Sriraman & V. Freiman (Eds.), Interdisciplinarity for the twenty-first

century: Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Mathematics and Its

Connections to Arts and Sciences, Moncton 2009. (Vol. 11, pp. 371–384). Charlotte, NC:

IAP Information Age Publishing. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.gmercyu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN

=2010-26035-025&site=ehost-live

Morgan, J. R., Capraro, M. M., & Capraro, R. M. (2013). STEM Project-based Learning : An
 19
EFFECTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Approach (Vol.

2nd ed). Rotterdam: Brill | Sense. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.gmercyu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&

AN=578371&site=ehost-live