Research backs the efficacy of project-based learning as a whole, and its individual features. Project-based learning is an inquiry-based framework, with inquiry and structure throughout. Students reflect on what they already know, generate questions, connect to resources, analyze and synthesize findings. Students work independently and collaboratively. They share their findings and conclusions with an audience beyond their class, whether engaged in public speaking or non-public speaking.
When students work to help solve a real-life challenge, such as in PBL with Inquiry and Service (Elem & Middle, Middle and HS, College & Univ) and share their recommendations, they engage in advocacy service. With students working to solve a real-life challenge, project-based learning and problem-based learning are synonymous. Research across grade-levels, academic achievement levels, socio-economic backgrounds, and students identified as having special needs or gifted shows the efficacy of both project-based learning and problem-based learning.
College/University
Project-Based Learning in Higher Education – Fourteen Research Articles
– Harvard study shows students in Harvard active learning classrooms learn more than students with just lecture. Harvard Gazette Article.
– Taking a Leap of Faith: Redefining Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Through Project-Based Learning . Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning
Supiano, B. (2022). Worried About Cutting Content? This Study Suggests It’s OK. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
High School
– A series of studies conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) found that students at high schools that emphasize deeper learning frameworks such as project-based learning, along with internships, and long-range assessments have higher attendance and graduation rates than non-deeper learning schools. Students who attend deeper learning schools in the study achieved higher scores on the OECD PISA-Based Test for Schools (PBTS)—a test that assesses core content knowledge and complex problem-solving skills—than did similar students who attend non-deeper learning high schools.Students who attend deeper learning schools report more positive interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes than students who attend non-deeper learning schools.Students who attend deeper learning schools are more likely to graduate from high school on time (within four years of entering Grade 9) than are students who attend non-deeper learning high schools.Students who attend deeper learning schools are more likely to enroll in four-year institutions and in selective institutions. The schools are located in California, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, and Minnesota.
American Institutes for Research (2014, Sept.). Findings from the Study of Deeper Learning Opportunities and Outcomes: Strategies, Structures, and Cultures in Deeper Learning Network High Schools.
– In a study involving 3,600 students in both AP Environmental Science and AP U.S. Government and Politics courses from five districts serving a diverse student body, researchers found students in project-outperformed students in traditional classrooms by eight percentage points, in passing the AP test. Students from low-income households and wealthier peers had similar gains. When teachers in the study taught the same curriculum for a second year, PBL students outperformed students in traditional classrooms by10 percentage points.USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (2021, Feb. 22).Knowledge in Action Efficacy Study Over Two Years.
Middle School
– A study based on interviews with middle school and elementary teachers who provided PBL, sites PBL outcomes of academic mindset, depth of learning, problem-solving abilities, engagement, motivation, character, collaboration, leadership skills, creativity, and life skills. Dole, S. , Bloom, L. , & Doss, K. K. (2017). Engaged Learning: Impact of PBL and PjBL with Elementary and Middle Grade Students. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 11(2).
Available at: https://doi.org/10.7771/1541-5015.1685
– In a highly controlled experimental study of PBL in a middle school population,comparisons were made of students learning the same material under three instructional conditions: lecture/discussion, characteristic small-group PBL, and solitary PBL. Assessments of comprehension and application of concepts in a new context, nine weeks after instruction showed superior mastery in both PBL conditions, relative to the lecture condition. Wirkula, C. & Kuhn, D. (2011). Problem-based learning in K-12 education: Is it effective and how does it achieve its effects? American Educational Research Journal, 48(5), 1157-118.
Elementary/ Early Childhood
– Nell K. Duke, EdD, a renowned literacy expert writes:
I have been studying how children learn to read and write informational texts for over 20 years. I have observed in many classrooms, talked with many teachers and students, and read and carried out many research studies. In the process, I have become convinced that a a project-based approach is the best overall framework for teaching the reading and writing of informational text. p. 11
Duke, N.K. (2014). Inside information. Developing powerful readers and writers of informational text through project-based learning. Scholastic and International Reading Association.
– Researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan studied 2,371 third-grade students in 46 schools, randomly assigned to a control group or a PBL group. In the schools selected for the study 62 percent of the schools’ student bodies qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, and 58 percent were students of color. Elementary students in PBL classrooms outperformed their peers, by 8 percentage points on a test of science learning. The pattern held across socioeconomic class and across all reading ability levels: In the project-based learning group, both struggling readers and highly proficient readers outperformed their counterparts in traditional classrooms. In addition to academic gains, social-emotional learning abilities of reflection and collaboration were strengthened. Study
– Project-based learning strengthened social studies and reading achievement for second grade students from poverty backgrounds in low-performing schools, compared to students taught social studies and reading without PBL. 48 classes in high poverty schools were studied. In social studies and literacy, participation in PBL narrowed the gap between students in low and high-income communities. Compared to the control group, students in PBL classes increased their academic knowledge and skills. 63% gain in social studies and 23% gain in informational reading. VIDEO (six minutes)
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