Reviewing the Research Regarding PBL Efficacy-- several slides borrowed from Jason Ravitz, former Director of Research, BIE, available here: http://www.slideshare.net/biepbl/metasynthesis-3slides

A design view of PBL

“a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process that is structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks”

Mergendoller, et al., 2006

Today’s PBLLooks nothing like the ‘Project Method” popularized by William

H. Kilpatrick (1918), in the early 20th century

Nor does it look like “discovery learning” or “minimally-guided instruction”, popularized later 20th century

– High Tech High School (hightechhigh.org/projects/)– Envision Schools (envisionprojects.org)– Expeditionary Learning schools (elschools.org)– New Tech Network (newtechnetwork.org)

Source: Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, 3(1), p. 52.

Strobel & van Barneveld (2009): A meta-synthesis of meta-analyses comparing PBL to conventional classrooms

See next slide for more information.

Parker, W., Mosberg, S., Bransford, J., Vye, N., Wilderson, J., & Abbott, R. (2011). 

Rethinking advanced high school coursework: Tackling the depth/breadth tension in the AP U.S. Government and Politics course. 

Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43(4), 533-559.

Researchers from the University of Washington, the Bellevue Schools Foundation, and The George Lucas Educational Foundation conducted a multiyear study to test a rigorous project-based learning approach to teaching Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. Government and Politics. Three hundred fourteen students from Washington's Bellevue School District were randomly assigned to a traditional course or project-based learning course on AP U.S. Government and Politics (AP+). The PBL course included five project cycles: (1) role- playing a United Nations task force advising a new nation on the various forms and features of democracy, (2) proposing a public policy and actions to improve society, (3) role-playing legislators in the U.S. Congress, (4) role-playing party campaign strategists in an election, and (5) role-playing a Supreme Court case.

The PBL students performed as well as or better than traditionally taught students on the AP test and better on a complex scenario test, which measures strategies for realistically monitoring and influencing public policy.

Maxwell, N., Mergendoller, J. R., & Bellisimo, Y. (2005).

 Problem-based learning and high school macroeconomics: A comparative study of instructional methods. 

The Journal of Economic Education, 36(4), 315-331.

Researchers at California State University, East Bay; the Buck Institute for Education; and the College of Marin analyzed data from 252 economics students at 11 high schools, while controlling for individual characteristics, such as verbal ability. PBL modestly increased learning of macroeconomics at the high school level as compared with traditional classes. Findings suggest that problem-based instruction can improve student learning if instructors are well trained in both the PBL technique and economics.

• The Effectiveness of Problem-Based Instruction: A Comparative Study of Instructional Methods and Student Characteristics

• Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, 1(2).

John R. MergendollerNan L. MaxwellYolanda Bellisimo

• This study compared the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) and traditional instructional approaches in developing high-school students’ macroeconomics knowledge and examined whether PBL was differentially effective with students demonstrating different levels of four aptitudes: verbal ability, interest in economics, preference for group work, and problem-solving efficacy.

• Over all, PBL was found to be a more effective instructional approach for teaching macroeconomics than traditional lecture–discussion (p = .05).

• Additional analyses provided evidence that PBL was more effective than traditional instruction with students of average verbal ability and below, students who were more interested in learning economics, and students who were most and least confident in their ability to solve problems.

Content Acquisition in Problem-Based Learning: Depth versus Breadth in American Studies.

Authors: Gallagher, Shelagh A.; Stepien, William J.

Descriptors: Academic Achievement; Academically Gifted; American Studies; Critical Thinking; High Schools; Instructional Effectiveness; Knowledge Level; Problem Based Learning; Problem Solving; Secondary School Curriculum; Teaching Methods; Thinking Skills

Source: Journal for the Education of the Gifted, v19 n3 p257-75 Spr 1996

Abstract: This study found no differences in content acquisition (as measured by a standardized test) of 167 gifted 10th graders in American Studies classes who received either a problem-based learning approach or traditional instruction. Results did not support the common assumption that curriculum fostering higher order thinking skills inevitably results in lower content acquisition. (Author/DB)

Standardized Test Outcomes: Inquiry-Based Science in an Urban Setting

Geier, R., Blumenfeld, P., Marx, R., Krajcik, J., Fishman, B., Soloway, E. & Clay-Chambers, J. (2004)

Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(8), 922-939

Findings demonstrate that a standards-based, inquiry science curriculum can lead to standardized achievement test gains in historically underserved urban students, when the curriculum is highly specified, developed, and aligned with professional development and administrative support.

A scalable systemic reform effort in Detroit Public Schools used highly specified and developed project-based inquiry science units supported by professional development and learning technologies. Two cohorts of 7th and 8th graders are compared with the remainder of the district population, using results from the high-stakes state standardized test in science. Both the initial and scaled up cohorts show increases in science content understanding and process skills over their peers, and significantly higher pass rates on the statewide test. The effect of participation in units at different grade levels is independent and cumulative, with higher levels of participation associated with similarly higher achievement scores. Examination of results by gender reveals that the curriculum effort succeeds in reducing the gender gap in achievement experienced by urban African-American boys.

Narrowing the Achievement Gap in Second-Grade Social Studies and Content Area Literacy:

The Promise of a Project-Based Approach Theory and Research in Social Education, 40, 198-229

Anne-Lise Halvorsen, Michigan State University Nell K. Duke, Michigan State University

Kristy Brugar, Meghan Block, Stephanie Strachan, Meghan Berka and Jason Brown, Michigan State University

This design experiment addresses the question: How can second-grade students from low-SES schools attain the same levels of achievement as students from high-SES schools on standards-based social studies and content area literacy assessments? Students from two high-SES school districts were assessed in order to establish target levels of achievement. Two project-based units focused on state standards in economics; civics and government; public discourse, decision making, and citizen involvement; and content area literacy were developed and implemented successively in four classrooms in low-SES school districts.

Achievement of students in the low-SES districts was then compared to that of students in high-SES districts. Results show no statistically significant differences: following instruction, there was no SES achievement gap on these standards-based assessments.

Journal of Research on Technology in Education

EJ868627

Title: Learning History in Middle School by Designing Multimedia in a Project-Based Learning Experience

Authors: Hernandez-Ramos, Pedro; De La Paz, Susan

This article describes a study in which eighth grade students in one school learned to create multimedia mini-documentaries in a six-week history unit on early 19th-century U.S. history. The authors examined content knowledge tests, group projects, and attitude and opinion surveys to determine relative benefits for students who participated in a technology-assisted project-based learning experience, and contrasted their experiences to those of students who received a more traditional form of instruction.

Results from content knowledge measures showed significant gains for students in the project-based learning condition as compared to students in the comparison school. Students' work in the intervention condition also revealed growth in their historical thinking skills, as many were able to grasp a fundamental understanding that history is more than presenting facts.