research to support project based learning

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

A study of the impact of project-based learning on student learning effects: a meta-analysis study.

• 1 Institute of Computer and Information Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China
• 2 Institute of Smart Education, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China

Introduction: With the educational reform for skills in the 21st century, a large number of scholars have explored project-based learning. However, whether project-based learning can effectively improve the learning effect of students has not yet reached a unified conclusion.

Method: This study uses a meta-analysis method to transform 66 experimental or quasi-experimental research papers based on project-based learning over the past 20 years into 190 effect values from the sample size, mean, and standard deviation of experimental data during their experiments, and to conduct in-depth quantitative analysis.

Results: The results of the study showed that compared with the traditional teaching model, project-based learning significantly improved students’ learning outcomes and positively contributed to academic achievement, affective attitudes, and thinking skills, especially academic achievement.

Discussion: The results of the moderating effects test indicated that the effectiveness of project-based learning and teaching was influenced by different moderating variables, including country region, subject area, type of course, academic period, group size, class size, and experimental period : (1) from the perspective of country geography, the effects of project-based learning in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, were significantly better than those in Western Europe and North America; (2) in terms of curriculum, project-based learning promotes student learning effects more significantly in engineering and technology subjects, and is better applied in laboratory classes than in theory classes; (3) from a pedagogical point of view, project-based learning is more suitable for small group teaching, in which the group size is 4-5 people teaching the best results; (4) in view of the experimental period, 9-18 weeks is more appropriate and has more obvious advantages for application at the high school level.

1. Introduction

Project-based learning (PBL) is a new model of inquiry-based learning that is centered on the concepts and principles of a subject, with the help of multiple resources and continuous inquiry-based learning activities in the real world, with the aim of producing a complete project work and solving multiple interrelated problems within a certain period of time ( Jingfu and Zhixian, 2002 ). s a new student-centered teaching approach, project-based learning directly points to the goal of cultivating 21st-century skills, especially higher-order thinking skills, and higher-order thinking occurs based on problem-solving, a challenging problem that emphasizes real-world situations and open environments, and project-based learning motivates students to continuously explore in the process of problem-solving, thus promoting the development of higher-order thinking.

In the era of digital transformation of education, the new generation of information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and metaverse are bringing great changes to education at an unimaginable speed, and at the same time posing unprecedented challenges to talent training. Cultivating students with higher-order thinking skills that can adapt to the future development of society and reasonably cope with the complex real world has become an important mission in the current education reform and development around the world ( Ma and Yang, 2021 ). Different types of problems produce different teaching methods and also guide the development of students’ different thinking skills. Project-based learning, as a new type of teaching and learning method in the context of curriculum and teaching reform, takes real life as the background, is driven by practical problems, breaks the disciplinary boundaries, integrates multiple disciplines into one project, and develops students’ future-oriented abilities——creative thinking, problem raising, problem solving, critical thinking, communication and collaboration, etc. The advantages of this approach over traditional teaching and learning models are being recognized and explored. A large number of studies on the effects of project-based learning have been done, but there is not complete agreement on the effects on the development of students’ thinking skills, academic performance, and affective attitudes.

Over the past few decades, project-based learning has received a lot of attention in the field of education. Many studies have shown that project-based learning can improve students’ learning motivation, problem-solving skills, teamwork, and communication skills. However, due to the complexity and diversity of project-based learning, as well as differences in research methods, research findings on its effectiveness and influencing factors vary. A key research question in project-based learning meta-analytic studies is to assess the impact of project-based learning on student learning outcomes, including student performance in the areas of academic achievement, thinking skills, and affective attitudes. By combining the results of multiple independent studies, more accurate and reliable conclusions can be obtained to further understand the effects of project-based learning. In addition, project-based learning meta-analysis studies can help reveal the factors and mechanisms influencing project-based learning. By comparing the learning effects under different project-based learning conditions, researchers can analyze the impact of factors such as project characteristics, instructional design, and learning environment on student learning. This can help guide the design and implementation of project-based learning and promote effective student learning. Based on this, this study compensates for the limitations of individual studies by integrating and synthesizing multiple independent studies in order to systematically assess the effects of project-based learning, provide more accurate and reliable evidence, and reduce the chance of research findings. At the same time, project-based learning meta-analysis can provide a broader perspective to help researchers and educational policy makers gain a comprehensive understanding of the effects and influencing factors of project-based learning, so that they can develop more effective teaching strategies and policies to promote the improvement and development of project-based learning.

2. Literature review and theoretical framework

One view is that project-based learning can significantly improve student learning outcomes, including academic achievement, motivation, and higher-order thinking skills. Karpudewan et al. (2016) explored the feasibility of improving energy literacy among secondary school students using a project-based instructional approach. The quantitative results of the study showed that students exposed to a PBL curriculum had better performance on energy-related knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs. The quantitative results of the study showed that students exposed to the PBL curriculum outperformed students taught using the traditional curriculum. The quantitative results of the study showed that students exposed to the PBL course outperformed students taught with traditional courses in terms of energy-related knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs. The results of Zhang Ying’s intrinsic motivation scale, which was administered to 21 private university students before and after they received project-based learning, showed that there were significant differences in students’ interest, autonomy, and competence before and after, which positively influenced students’ intrinsic motivation to learn ( Zhang, 2022 ). Yun (2022) used the fifth-grade project “Searching for Roots. Xu Hui Yuan” project-based learning as an example to discuss that project-based in-depth ritual education can develop students’ core literacy. Biazus and Mahtari (2022) conducted a quasi-experiment using project-based learning and direct instructional learning models and found that the PBL model had a significant impact on the enhancement of creative thinking skills of secondary school students. Parrado-Martínez and Sánchez-Andújar (2020) explored the effects of project-based learning on ninth-grade students’ writing skills and found that cooperative work in project-based learning potentially promoted students’ critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills, significantly improving middle school students’ English writing skills. Hernández-Ramos and De La Paz (2009) found that students in project-based learning conditions showed significant improvements in content knowledge measures and growth in their historical thinking skills compared to students in control schools. Most researchers agree that STEM as a form of project-based learning and STEM integration will have a positive impact on education, with the advantages outweighing the disadvantages ( Hamad et al., 2022 ; Wardat et al., 2022 ).

Another view is that project-based learning has the same effect or even some negative effects compared to traditional instruction. García-Rodríguez et al. (2021) conducted an intervention experiment in undergraduate education to test the effectiveness of a student-centered project-based learning approach in promoting student skill acquisition. The study found that students’ problem-solving and information management skills, two instrumental general competencies were not improved. The results of ÇAKICI’s project-based learning activities on fifth-grade children’s science achievement showed that although project-based activities significantly improved children’s science achievement, attitudes toward science did not change. Gratchev and Jeng (2018) explored whether the combination of traditional teaching methods and project-based learning activities improved students’ learning experiences, and data collected over 3 years showed that the two groups’ achievements were very similar, and the findings indicated that students were less motivated to accept new learning methods such as PBL. Parrado-Martínez and Sánchez-Andújar (2020) found that the implementation of PBL did not significantly change students’ perceived utility of teamwork, communication, and creativity. Kızkapan and Bektaş (2017) examined the effects of project-based learning and traditional learning methods on the academic performance of seventh graders, and the results showed no significant differences between the experimental and control groups on post-test “achievement test” scores. Sivia et al. (2019) used a mixed triangulation-convergence approach to examine the difference in student engagement between project-based and non-project-based learning units and found that project-based learning did not significantly increase student engagement. Karaçalli and Korur (2014) used a quasi-experimental design to teach the experimental group using a project-based learning approach, and the results showed no statistically significant effect on students’ attitudes toward learning across groups.

In summary, a review of the literature reveals that the research findings and teaching effectiveness of project-based learning have not yet been uniformly determined, and few studies have systematically analyzed and evaluated the optimal group size, class size, curriculum type, and subject area of project-based learning. Therefore, based on 66 empirical research papers that conducted experimental or quasi-experimental studies on project-based learning and traditional teaching, this study quantifies the true magnitude of the impact of the project-based learning approach on students’ learning outcomes and seeks to summarize the experience of applying project-based learning in schools in order to provide a reference for developing project-based teaching. And an attempt is made to answer the following research questions:

1. Does project-based learning significantly improve students’ thinking skills, academic performance, and affective attitudes compared to traditional teaching methods?

2. How do different moderating variables (type of course, learning section, group size, class size, subject category, experiment period, country region.) affect students’ learning effects?

Since the purpose of this study was to explore the effect of project-based learning on learning effectiveness and to explore other factors that may moderate this effect. Therefore, based on relevant research findings on the effect of project-based integrated learning on learning effectiveness and the results of literature coding, the meta-analytic theoretical framework for this study, as shown in Figure 1 .

Figure 1 . Research framework diagram.

3. Study design

3.1. methods.

Meta-Analysis is a quantitative analysis method that extracts and organizes multiple results of experimental or quasi-experimental studies on the same research question and then produces an average effect value by weighting the sample size, standard mean deviation, and other data from the existing research results and analyzes the effect value to obtain the results. The meta-analysis method has been widely used in education. This study compares and combines literature on the same research topic but with different research results by extracting data such as pre and post-test means, sample sizes, and standardized mean differences from relevant literature, while using the standard deviation (SMD), which can correct for small sample bias, as the effective value to indicate the degree of influence of project-based instruction on student learning outcomes. The study entered the relevant data into CMA meta-analysis software (Comprehensive Meta Analysis 3.0) for data analysis.

3.2. Research process

To ensure the quality of the study, this study strictly followed the meta-analysis criteria proposed by Glass (1976) , which was mainly divided into four assessment procedures: literature collection, literature coding, effect size calculation, and moderating variable analysis, and finally a comprehensive effect size exploration and study results.

3.2.1. Literature search

To ensure the timeliness of the study, this study mainly searched the relevant research on the topic of project-based learning since 2003 to 2023, mainly in CNKI, Springer Link, Web of Science, Semantic Scholar and other databases, and searched the literature by “AND” or “OR” logical word collocation of project-based learning and learning effectiveness keywords. The keywords of project-based learning include: project-based learning, PBL, project teaching; the keywords of learning effect include: learning effect, learning performance, learning achievement, learning*, learning outcome, learning result, etc. And the selected articles are all from SSCI or SCI authoritative journals, Chinese core journals of article literature type and part of the master’s degree thesis. To avoid omissions, this study also supplemented the search with the references of relevant articles.

3.2.2. Literature selection and inclusion criteria

To find articles that meet the subject matter requirements, this study used the ( Page, 2021 ) process for literature processing ( Vrabel, 2009 ), the literature search, screening, and inclusion process is shown in Figure 2 . Combining the needs of the meta-analysis method itself and ensuring the accuracy and rigor of the research results, the following selection and inclusion criteria were used: (1) duplicate literature had to be removed; (2) it had to be a study of the effects of project-based learning versus traditional teaching models on learning effectiveness; (3) it had to be an empirical research type article; (4) complete data that could calculate the effect values had to be available. A total of 91 articles were screened by two researchers in the inclusion phase, and those with inconsistent screening were discussed, and the final decision was made to include 66 articles in the meta-analysis, which met the inclusion criteria for the number of articles in the meta-analysis method.

Figure 2 . Flow chart of literature screening.

3.2.3. Literature code

The concept of project-based learning was first introduced by American educator William Heard Kilpatrick proposed ( Kilpatrick, 1918 ). In the 1920s and 1930s, project-based learning was widely used in the lower grades of elementary and secondary schools in the United States; in 1969, McMaster University in Canada officially launched the PBL teaching model within the school. To compare the variability of the effects of project-based learning in countries around the world, the regions of the countries where the study was conducted were coded and divided into North America, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and other regions. As project-based learning is used more frequently in the classroom, whether there is an ideal group size to facilitate student learning outcomes ( Wei et al., 2020 ), and the impact of group size on academic achievement ( Al Mulhim and Eldokhny, 2020 ), which academic section, subject, and course type is better taught, are questions that should be addressed. Therefore, the coding of this study included the following seven main items: subject category, course type, country region, academic section, class size, group size, and experimental period, and categorized learning outcomes into three main categories: academic achievement, thinking skills, and emotional attitudes. Because this study included 66 documents with 190 effect sizes, only part of the feature coding content is displayed, as shown in Table 1 ( Kelly and Mayer, 2004 ; Mioduser and Betzer, 2007 ; Hernández-Ramos and De La Paz, 2009 ; Domínguez and Elizondo, 2010 ; Keleşoğlu, 2011 ; Çakici and Türkmen, 2013 ; Karaçalli and Korur, 2014 ; Bilgin et al., 2015 ; Astawa et al., 2017 ; Kızkapan and Bektaş, 2017 ; ShiXuan, 2017 ; Yuan, 2017 ; Praba et al., 2018 ; Yexin, 2019 ; Faqing, 2020 ; Gao, 2020 ; Lei, 2020 ; Ling, 2020 ; Linxiao, 2020 ; Lu, 2020 ; Luo, 2020 ; Mingquan, 2020 ; Rui, 2020 ; Yanan, 2020 ; Yang, 2020 ; Akharraz, 2021 ; Cong, 2021 ; Migdad et al., 2021 ; Xiaolei, 2021 ; Wang, 2021a , b , 2022 ; Jina, 2022 ; Ma, 2022 ; Xu, 2022 ; Xuezhi, 2022 ; Yating, 2022 ; Ying, 2022 ; Yuting, 2022 ; Zhang, 2022 ). To ensure the objectivity of the coding process, this study was completed independently by two researchers for the 66 empirical research articles included in the meta-analysis, and the coding results were tested for consistency using SPSS 24.0, and the Kappa value was 0.864, which was greater than 0.7, indicating that the coding effect was valid and the results were credible.

Table 1 . Code list (due to space limitation, only part of the coding content is shown).

3.2.4. Data analysis

Based on the completion of the literature coding, the calculation of the effect size (Standardized difference in means), including sample size, standard deviation, and mean value, was performed by finding the relevant experimental data in the literature. The effect size values were calculated as follows:

Starting with Mean, SD, N in each group.

Raw difference in means.

RawDiff = Mean1-Mean2.

SDP = Sqr (((N1–1) * SD1^2 + (N2-1) * SD2^2)/(N1 + N2–2))).

Standardized difference in means.

StdDiff = RawDiff/SDP.

The next stage was data analysis by (1) publication bias test. A funnel plot was used for qualitative analysis, while a combination of Begg’s rank test and loss of safety coefficient was used for quantitative analysis; (2) Heterogeneity test. The aim was to determine whether there was heterogeneity among the samples in this study; (3) Calculation of effect size values. To quantify the degree of influence of project chemistry learning on learning outcomes; (4) the moderating variables were tested. All data analyses in this study were conducted using Comprehensive Meta Analysis 3.0.

4.1. General effect size results

4.1.1. publication bias test.

In this study, the std. diff in means (SMD) value was selected as the unbiased effect value, and also to ensure the possibility that the results reported in the literature do not deviate from the true results, the publication bias was analyzed qualitatively using funnel plots, and the publication bias was analyzed qualitatively using Begg’s rank test, Trim and Fill and Fail-safe N to quantitatively analyze publication bias. Publication bias is critical to the results of meta-analysis, and if the research literature is not systematically representative of all existing research in the field in general, it indicates that publication bias may exist ( Higgins and Thompson, 2002 ). As shown in Figure 3 , the majority of study effect values were clustered within the funnel plot, and a small number of effect values were relative to the right, with Begg’s rank test Z  = 5.082 > 1.960 ( p  < 0.05), indicating a possible publication bias. Therefore, the severity of publication bias was further identified using the loss of safety factor, which showed N  = 2,546, much larger than “5K + 10” ( K  = 190), suggesting that an additional 2,546 unpublished studies would be required to reverse the results ( Rothstein et al., 2006 ), and it can be concluded that there is no significant publication bias in this study.

Figure 3 . Publication bias funnel plot.

4.1.2. Heterogeneity test

To ensure that the effect values of the independent samples in this study are combinable, Q and I2 values were used to define heterogeneity. Higgins et al. classified heterogeneity as low, medium, or high, as measured by the magnitude of the I2 statistic, which was 25, 50, and 75%, respectively. In addition, if the Q statistic is significant then the hypothesis that there is no heterogeneity among the sample data should be rejected. Based on the forest plot of I2 = 87.4% > 50% and Q  = 1496.2 ( p  < 0.001), the results indicate that there is a high degree of heterogeneity between the samples, therefore, this study used a random effects model for correlation analysis to eliminate some of the effects of heterogeneity, and also further indicates that it is necessary to conduct a moderated effects test to examine the effect of project-based learning on learning effects.

4.2. Results about problem of studies’ fields

4.2.1. the overall impact of project-based learning on student learning outcomes.

Cohen (1988) proposed the effect value analysis theory in 1988, he believed that the effect standard measure effect is determined by the effect value (ES), when the ES is less than 0.2, it means that there is a small effect impact, when the ES is between 0.2–0.8 means that there is a moderate effect, when the ES > 0.8 means that there is a significant effect impact. This study included 190 experimental data from 66 empirical research papers, and as shown in Table 2 , the combined effect value of the impact of project-based learning on student learning outcomes was 0.441, close to 0.5 and p  < 0.001, indicating that project-based learning has a large degree of impact on learning outcomes and is an effective teaching approach.

Table 2 . Main effects test.

In this study, the literature included in the meta-analysis was divided into three subcategories of academic achievement, thinking skills, and emotional attitudes according to the “three-dimensional goals” for analysis. Moderately positive impact (SMD = 0.650), and the total effect values for affective attitudes and thinking skills were 0.389 and 0.386, respectively.

Based on the deeper connotation of “three-dimensional goals,” this study classifies affective attitudes into learning motivation, learning attitude, learning interest, and self-efficacy; thinking skills into creative thinking ability, computational thinking ability, decision-making ability, critical thinking ability, problem-solving ability, problem raising ability, collaboration ability, and comprehensive application ability. As shown in Table 3 . In terms of affective attitudes, project-based learning influenced more on students’ interest in learning (SMD = 0.713), and also had moderate positive effects on learning motivation (SMD = 0.401) and learning attitudes (SMD = 0.536), with lower effects on self-efficacy; in terms of thinking skills, project-based learning had the most significant effects on students’ creative thinking skills (SMD = 0.626) and computational thinking skills (SMD = 0.719) had the most significant effect, followed by problem solving, collaboration, and general application skills, but the effects on decision making, critical thinking, and problem raising skills did not reach a statistically significant level.

Table 3 . Effects of project-based learning on different learning outcomes.

4.2.2. Examining the effects of different moderating variables on student learning

First, in terms of country region as a moderating variable, the overall effect value of its moderating effect on learning effectiveness was 0.358 and p  < 0.001, indicating a moderate effect and the effects varied across countries. In terms of effect values between groups, although project-based learning originated in the United States and was first applied in American countries such as Canada, its effect on student learning outcomes was not significant (SMD = 0.061, p  = 0.429 > 0.05), and there was no significant difference in whether or not project-based learning was used; instead, the application of project-based learning produced better learning outcomes in Asian countries, especially in Southeast Asian countries (SMD = 0.684), followed by West Asia (SMD = 0.594).

Second, looking at the school level as the moderating variable, the overall effect value SMD = 0.355, in order of effect value from smallest to largest, is university (SMD = 0.116) < junior high school (SMD = 0.520) < primary school (SMD = 0.527) < high school (SMD = 0.720), which indicates that there are differences in the effects of project-based learning on the learning outcomes of students in different school levels, with the effects on high school, primary school, and junior high school, while the effect on college was relatively small.

Third, using group size as the moderating variable, the combined effect value of group size on learning effectiveness is 0.592 ( p  < 0.001), which is close to 0.6, indicating that the effect of group size on students’ learning effectiveness is more significant and has a moderate to a high degree of facilitating effect. In terms of the effect values of different sizes, the effect values are all positive, indicating that the group learning style is effective and has different degrees of facilitating effects on learning effects, with the most significant facilitating effect of a group size of 4–5 students on learning effects (SMD = 0.909).

Fourth, to test the applicability of project-based learning on different class sizes, the class sizes were divided into three sizes according to the sample size: small (1 ~ 100 students), medium (100 ~ 200 students), and large (200 ~ 300 students), and the data in Table 4 show that the overall effect value of the moderating effect of class size on the learning effect is 0.378, p  < 0.001, indicating that project-based learning on different class size. Looking specifically at each size, the degree of impact was higher for small class sizes (SMD = 0.483), followed by medium size (SMD = 0.466), but lower and not significant for large class sizes (SMD = 0.106, p  = 0.101 < 0.05).

Table 4 . Results of moderating effects of different moderating variables.

Fifth, when subject categories were viewed as moderating variables, all subject effect values were larger than 0, with a combined effect value of SMD = 0.443 ( p  < 0.001), suggesting that project-based learning had a positive degree of enhancement on learning effectiveness across subjects, reaching a statistically significant difference. Due to the relatively small amount of literature in other categories and life sciences, this study focuses on the effects of project-based learning on learning outcomes in engineering and technology, humanities and social, and natural sciences. In each of the subjects, Engineering and Technology (SMD = 0.619) > Natural Sciences (SMD = 0.484) > Humanities and Society (SMD = 0.284), the results indicate that project-based learning has the most significant impact on learning effectiveness in Engineering and Technology and relatively less in Humanities and Society.

Sixth, the overall effect value SMD = 0.441 when looking at the type of course as a moderating variable, while the between-group effect test between experimental and theoretical classes reached a statistically significant level ( p  < 0.001). The effect of project-based learning on student learning outcomes was more pronounced in experimental classes (SMD = 0.498), which was greater than the overall combined effect value, consistent with the finding that project-based learning is more suitable and effective teaching strategy for engineering and technology disciplines, while the use of project-based teaching in theory classes (SMD = 0.393) was below the average effect value.

Seventh, in terms of the experimental period as a moderating variable, there were significant differences in project-based learning across experimental periods ( p  < 0.001), with a moderating overall effect value of SMD = 0.424. The best effect of instructional facilitation was observed for the duration of 9–18 weeks (SMD = 0.673), which was better than single experiments (SMD = 0.359) and 1–8 weeks (SMD = 0.498), with a relatively weak effect on learning outcomes beyond 18 weeks (SMD = 0.3000).

5. Discussion

This study used meta-analysis to systematically review and quantitatively analyze 66 experimental or quasi-experimental research papers published between 2003 and 2023 on the effects of project-based instruction on student learning, and to dissect the differences brought about by different moderating variables. The results show that: ① project-based learning can significantly improve students’ learning outcomes compared with traditional teaching models; ② the effects of project-based teaching and learning are influenced by different moderating variables, including subject area, course type, academic period, group size, class size, and experiment period. The results derived from the meta-analysis are further discussed and analyzed below.

5.1. Project-based learning has a positive effect on student learning outcomes

First, the combined effect value of SMD = 0.441 ( p  < 0.001) for the effect of project-based learning on learning outcomes indicates that compared to the traditional teaching model, project-based teaching has a moderately positive contribution to students’ academic achievement, thinking skills, and affective attitudes, which is consistent with the results of previous studies ( Wenlan and Jiao, 2019 ). This is consistent with previous studies. Compared with the traditional “teacher teach-student receive-evaluate and feedback” model, project-based learning is closer to a “complete learning process” ( Changming, 2020 ). It is a student-centered learning activity in which students show richer affective attitudes such as interest in learning and attitudes toward learning, which can positively guide students’ motivation to learn and influence their academic performance, and is naturally more effective in developing students’ emotional attitudes and values, and thinking skills.

Second, project-based learning has a significant positive effect on students’ thinking skills (SMD = 0.387, p  < 0.001) and affective attitudes (SMD = 0.379, p  < 0.001), indicating that the effect of project-based learning on students’ learning outcomes is not only the effect of academic performance, but also the effect of self-emotional attitudes and values, creative thinking skills, computational thinking skills, and other higher-order The impact of project-based learning on students’ learning is not only on their academic performance, but also on their self-emotional attitudes and values, creative thinking skills, computational thinking skills and other higher-order thinking skills. Project-based learning is a classroom activity that effectively develops students’ core literacies ( Hongxing, 2017 ) and promotes the development of higher-order thinking ( Weihong and Yinglong, 2019 ). The real value of project-based learning lies in its ability to enhance students’ higher-order thinking skills, such as creative thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and integrated application skills, by exploring real problems in small groups as a way to acquire the core concepts and principles of subject knowledge, and by posing driving questions around a topic based on real situations and students’ deep involvement in the investigation. Education for the future requires project-based learning to develop students’ 21st century skills and core literacies for their future careers and lives.

5.2. Moderating effects of different variables on student learning outcomes

To better analyze the impact brought by different moderating variables, this study categorized the moderating variables into four major categories: first, country region; second, curriculum, including subject categories and course types; third, teaching, including experimental period and learning periods; and fourth, experimental scale, including class size and group size. The results of the meta-analysis show as follows: (1) the application effect of project-based learning in Asia is better than that in countries in Oceania and Western Europe; (2) project-based learning has different degrees of influence on different disciplines and is better applied in the type of laboratory course; (3) in terms of the experimental period, the experimental period of 9–18 weeks is more appropriate and the application advantage of project-based learning at the high school level is more obvious; (4) project-based learning is more suitable for small-class teaching, in which the best effect is achieved when the group size is 4–5 students.

In terms of country region, the combined effect value of project-based learning is 0.358, and the application effect varies in different countries. In the Asian region, especially Southeast Asia, the effect of project-based learning is significantly better than that of Western Europe and North America. This study suggests the following reasons: First, Southeast Asian countries are relatively lagging in economic development, and industrialization and modernization are slower, so students and teachers pay more attention to practical learning methods, and project-based learning is a practice-based, problem-solving-oriented learning method that can better help them adapt and master skills and knowledge in actual work. Secondly, because the level of basic education in some Southeast Asian countries is relatively low due to various factors such as history, culture, and society, the project-based learning method can help students understand practical problems more deeply, comprehend knowledge, and enhance their hands-on and problem-solving abilities. Third, in Western European countries, students and teachers focus more on theoretical knowledge and logical thinking, individual student performance, and competition, and in countries such as Oceania, students and teachers focus more on practicality and teamwork. In Asia, however, the educational culture emphasizes a focus on discipline, order, and respect for teachers, making project-based learning more acceptable to students and parents. Students’ attitudes toward learning are also generally more serious, hard-working, and diligent, focusing on academic performance and opportunities for advancement, so students are more willing to engage in project-based learning in the hope of achieving better learning outcomes. Fourthly, in Asia, especially in East Asia, there is a strong demand for high-quality human resources, and project-based learning can cultivate students’ practical skills and innovative spirit, making them more competitive and capable of adapting to the future society.

In terms of curriculum, the combined effects of project-based learning on different subject areas and different course types were approximately equal, at 0.443 and 0.441, respectively, and the effect on student learning in engineering and technology disciplines was more significant (SMD = 0.619) and larger than the average effect, which is consistent with previous research findings that PBL is more appropriate for teaching in engineering ( Kolmos and De Graaff, 2014 ). Facing the rapidly developing society, the traditional teaching methods seem to be unable to better develop students’ skills to meet the market demand, and the research results also show that the application effect of PBL in experimental classes (SMD = 0.498) is better than that in theoretical classes (SMD = 0.393), because PBL can give students a complete understanding of the process of a project from problem raising to problem-solving, which provides them with valuable practical experience.

From the instructional aspect, the experimental period of 9–18 weeks (SMD = 0.673) had the greatest impact on student learning effects, and the impact of project-based learning for more than 18 weeks (SMD = 0.359) was relatively low, while the results of the study showed that project-based learning had a greater impact at the high school level (SMD = 0.720), followed by elementary school, middle school, and university, a finding that supports the results of Mehmet’s study ( Ayaz and Soeylemez, 2015 ). The moderating effect of the experimental period showed that the longer the experiment, the better the effect of about half a semester, and the project-based learning did not have a lasting and stable effect on students’ learning outcomes. Currently project-based learning is carried out more often at the primary and secondary school levels, and the teaching effect is more significant, but the application effect in universities is relatively low (SMD = 0.116), and the results of the study also indicate that the application promotion effect is most obvious in engineering and technology disciplines, so in the follow-up study, the application of project-based learning at the higher education level should be actively explored.

In terms of experimental scale, the effect of project-based learning on small class teaching (SMD = 0.483) is greater than that of medium class (SMD = 0.466) and large class (SMD = 0.106), and the teaching effect is better for group size of 4–5 people (SMD = 0.909), 8 people and above (SMD = 0.514), and 6–7 people (SMD = 0.436) in decreasing order. Therefore, project-based learning is more suitable for small-class teaching, and the number of people in the group collaborative learning is more conducive to the learning effect of around 4–5 people, which is almost consistent with the results of Wei et al. (2020) study on the effect of cooperative learning on learning effect. The relationship between class size and educational output has been discussed by a number of economists from the perspective of the economics of education, and is referred to as the “class size effect.” In small classes, teachers can spend more time on teaching and learning, each student can receive more attention from the teacher, and teachers and students can have more time to interact, thus having more opportunities to demonstrate and participate in collaborative group learning. In terms of group size, although there is no uniform standard, in general, too few or too many group members are not conducive to a higher degree of impact on the learning effect. From the research results, the best learning effect is produced by 4–5 students, with more reasonable task distribution among group members, all with a clear division of labor and sufficient interaction, which is more conducive to the formation of the group effect, thus better promoting the learning effect.

5.3. How does the impact of project-based learning on learning outcomes occur?

The results of the study show that project-based learning has a moderate positive contribution to learning effectiveness under different measurement measures dimensions, and how its effect occurs. The theoretical framework of the impact of project-based learning on learning effectiveness is drawn in conjunction with the specific processes and key features of project-based learning, as shown in Figure 4 , and will be analyzed in the following in conjunction with the theoretical framework.

Figure 4 . Theoretical framework for the impact of project-based learning on learning effects.

In terms of the specific process of project-based learning, it includes five steps: identifying project goals and scope, developing a project plan, implementing the project, monitoring project progress and solving problems, completing the project and presenting and evaluating it, and these steps include key activities that affect learning outcomes such as problem orientation, cooperative learning, and authenticity, which together affect students’ learning outcomes.

Specifically, project-based learning is usually oriented to real-life problems, requiring students to apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems, and the driving questions stimulate students’ interest in learning; it integrates the knowledge and skills of multiple disciplines, blending theoretical knowledge with practice and cultivating students’ creative thinking skills and comprehensive application skills; in the process of implementing projects, group members divide the work and cooperate to identify problems and After the project is completed and presented, the teacher gives timely feedback and evaluation to influence students’ attitude in project-based learning and improve the learning effect. In conclusion, the specific process and characteristics of project-based learning are the key factors to enhance students’ learning effect. Reasonable design of project characteristics and the application of different variables in project-based learning can effectively enhance students’ learning effect.

5.4. When is it more effective to use project-based learning?

The findings suggest that learning effects are influenced by different moderating variables, and this study suggests combining the effects of different variables for project-based learning in order to achieve the optimal effect size. For high school students in the field of engineering and technology subject areas of laboratory courses to 9–18 weeks as the experimental period, based on small class teaching, and group size of 4–5 people using the PBL method of teaching, to promote the improvement of student learning outcomes more effective. In experimental courses, the use of project-based learning can enable students to gain a deeper understanding of the principles and practical operations of experiments, increase their interest and motivation, and promote the development of their active learning and innovative thinking skills, thus improving learning outcomes. Small class teaching and group work can better meet students’ individual needs, enhance their sense of participation and belonging, and increase their interest and motivation in learning. Finally, the 9–18 weeks experimental cycle allows students to make the most of their time and explore the subject matter in depth, enabling them to gain deeper understanding and experience in their learning. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide a reference for front-line educators to carry out project-based teaching and explore more effective ways to promote learning outcomes.

6. Conclusion

This study conducted a meta-analysis of 66 empirical research papers on the use of project-based learning interventions for learning, and the findings provide evidence for the use of project-based learning in education to develop students’ core literacy and higher-order thinking skills, and 21st-century skills. The results show that: (1) project-based learning can significantly improve students’ learning outcomes compared with traditional teaching models; (2) the effects of project-based teaching are influenced by different moderating variables, including subject area, course type, academic period, group size, class size, and experiment period. From the perspective of countries and regions, the effect of project-based learning in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, is significantly better than that in Western Europe and North America; from the perspective of courses, project-based learning has a more obvious effect on promoting students’ learning in engineering and technology disciplines, and the application effect in experimental classes is better than that in theory classes; from the perspective of teaching, project-based learning is more suitable for small-class teaching, in which the best effect is achieved with a group size of 4–5 students From the perspective of teaching, project-based learning is more suitable for small class teaching, and the best effect is achieved in group size of 4–5 students.

7. Limitation

Although our findings have important implications for educators, they still have some limitations. For example, some studies using project-based learning for teaching and learning lacked sufficient statistical information for inclusion in the analysis, and most of the studies did not provide a specific classification of learning effectiveness, limiting our ability to analyze learning effectiveness enhancement in more detail. Subsequent research can be carried out in depth in two aspects: (1) the current empirical studies on project-based learning focus on primary and secondary schools, with less research on the impact on universities and young children; with the popularity of higher education, future research can be conducted on the above research subjects; (2) taking the digital transformation of education as an opportunity to explore the integration of technology and project-based learning to better develop students’ core literacy and 21st century skills.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

YM: critically review the work, provide commentary, supervise and direct the writing of the draft. LZ: conceptualization, methodology, validation, quantitative data analysis, writing, review and editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was supported by the Chongqing graduate education teaching reform research project (No. yjg201009), the Postgraduate Research Innovation Project of Chongqing in 2023 (No. CYS23419, No. CYS23416), and the Special Project of Chongqing Normal University Institute of Smart Education in 2023 (No. YZH23013).

Acknowledgments

We would like to sincerely thank all the teachers and students of Computer and Information Science, Chongqing Normal University, for their support and contributions to us, especially for the support from the Smart Education Research Institute.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: project-based learning, learning effects, 21st century skills, higher-order thinking, meta-analysis

Citation: Zhang L and Ma Y (2023) A study of the impact of project-based learning on student learning effects: a meta-analysis study. Front. Psychol . 14:1202728. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1202728

Received: 09 April 2023; Accepted: 13 June 2023; Published: 17 July 2023.

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Copyright © 2023 Zhang and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Yan Ma, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Core practices for project-based learning, you are here, what is project-based learning, project-based learning (or pbl) is an approach to teaching and learning that has students take on real-world problems in authentic ways. it engages students in authentic roles like that of a scientist, historian, or mathematician to work on authentic problems, whether it be in their classrooms, communities, or societies, and to produce real solutions that have real impacts on real audiences., in doing so, students learn not only rich academic skills but also social-emotional skills, leadership, collaboration, and how to problem-solve with others to take on pressing challenges or opportunities..

While significant efforts have focused on building and researching curriculum materials for PBL, very little work has focused on how to prepare teachers to enact these curricula. This is where PennPBL comes in—the PennPBL program focuses on the important work of cultivating teachers’ capacity to enact the core practices of project-based teaching.

• WHAT IS PROJECT-BASED LEARNING?
• THE PENNPBL FRAMEWORK
• DISCIPLINARY LEARNING
• AUTHENTIC LEARNING
• COLLABORATION
• JUSTICE IMPERATIVE
• ABOUT THE PENNPBL TEAM
• RESEARCH BY THE TEAM

The PennPBL Framework

PBL is a remarkably powerful approach to teaching and learning, but it is also remarkably challenging to do it well. Teachers must draw on extensive knowledge and many skills in order to facilitate PBL effectively. And so at Penn GSE, we’ve studied the teaching practices that support the ambitious learning objectives of PBL and identified four driving goals of PBL that focus on what students learn, as well as ten core teaching practices that focus on what teachers do to support it.

The four driving goals of PBL include Disciplinary Learning , Authentic Work, Collaboration, and Iteration . These goals are what teachers hope students will achieve  through project-based instruction.

In order to support teachers’ pursuit of these four goals in their daily instruction, we have identified core practices associated with each of these goals that can be enacted across disciplines and contexts .

Read on to learn more about each of these four core practices, as well as view guiding questions, example instructional moves and strategies, and resources for implementing these practices into your own context.

Disciplinary Learning

A core goal of PBL is that students explore and deepen their understanding of the core content, questions, and practices within the disciplines. In other words, what are the big ideas and the tools and strategies of history or mathematics or science? In PBL, rather than asking students to learn about history, we actually engage them in doing historical inquiry. Students are not learning about science, they are actually creating and engaging in scientific inquiry to construct knowledge on their own.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support for students to engage in rich disciplinary learning.

Engage Students in Disciplinary Practices

Teachers  support students to do the kinds of work that practitioners actually do.

Ask Yourself...

• How am I encouraging all students to think, talk, and act like historians, scientists, mathematicians, civically-minded individuals, etc.?
• Is what all students are doing right now a thing that a scientist, historian, mathematician, legislator, or other professional would actually do in the course of their work?

Try This...

• Engage students in tasks that are open-ended, require different approaches and skills in order to be completed successfully, and which require students to engage in several different disciplinary practices.
• Disrupt common perceptions of “intelligence” or “competence” by conducting a “Multiple Abilities Status Treatment” at the onset of the project.
• Name the different skills and abilities that will be necessary to complete the activity by referring to the disciplinary practices that will be required.
• Convince students that the task relies on multiple abilities, and that every student will bring value and different abilities to their team —no one will have all of the abilities but everyone will have some.

Elicit Higher-Order Thinking

To elicit higher-order thinking, teachers support students to evaluate, analyze, test, or critique information.

• How will I hold all students to high expectations, and support each student to reach them?
• What question, prompt, or problem can I share with each student to push their thinking?
• How can I encourage all students to synthesize, evaluate, justify, or defend?
• Engage students in projects, tasks, and activities that are inherently open-ended and uncertain, such that there is no one right answer and their process and choices decide the direction of their group product.
• Engage students in multiple-ability projects, tasks, and activities that require students to engage several different abilities in order to be successful.
• Encourage students to justify their arguments, explore alternative solutions, and examine issues from different perspectives.

Orient Students to Subject-Area Content

Teachers continually center core disciplinary understandings, key concepts, or big ideas of their academic subject or discipline. Content and learning goals remain the focus, while students pursue answers to authentic questions of an academic discipline. 

• How can I help all students connect their work on the project with core ideas, skills, or content of the subject area?
• Is what we’re doing right now intimately connected to core ideas, skills, or content in my subject area? Is what we are grappling with important and meaningful ?
• Engage students in projects, tasks, and activities that deal with a central concept or big idea of the discipline.
• Provide specific evaluation criteria for the group product with clear connections between the activity and the central concept.

Authentic Learning

PBL engages students in exploring questions and problems that are relevant to themselves as individuals, their communities, and the world. This means that students have opportunities to draw on their own insights, interests, experiences, knowledge, perspectives, and skills to explore and make sense of what they’re learning about. They also have opportunities to draw connections between what they’re learning about in school and problems that exist in the broader community.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support for students to engage in rich authentic learning.

Support Students to Build Personal Connections to the Work

To support students to build personal connections to their work, we can ask students to share their personal opinions about the work in which they’re engaged. And students are asked to consider: what does the work mean to me?

Ask Yourself…

• Why is this work important or meaningful to my students?
• How can I support all students to build deeper connections between themselves and their work?
• Which of my students appear most engaged? Which of my students should I learn more about? How will I be curious about my students?
• Spend time getting to know your students through one-on-one conversations and empathy interviews.
• Consider if and how your students’ identities are represented in the topics and content that you’re covering.
• Create opportunities for students to consider what they're learning in light of their own experiences, beliefs, values, or interests.

Support Students to Make a Contribution to the World

Create opportunities for students to take on real-world roles as they work on authentic problems and create products that have a meaningful impact on themselves or their communities.

• Is this work addressing a real question, problem, or need?
• Are all of my students taking on real-world roles as they engage in this work?
• Are my students working with materials, data, or text that are also used outside of school?
• Will the product of my students’ work contribute to someone or some community?
• Consider how all of these authentic elements come together in your project.
• Hook students with an intriguing artifact or experience , such as a newspaper article, field trip, demonstration, or data set, and have them generate questions based on their own curiosities.

Collaboration

Most authentic problems require people to work together to solve them. PBL creates opportunities for students to practice and develop their skills at working with others on meaningful and complex questions and challenges.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support that enhance collaboration for students.

Support Students to Make Choices

Resist making all of the choices yourself throughout the project. Instead, offer students support for making big and small decisions that will affect their processes and their products.  

• Where am I giving all students opportunities to make real and consequential choices ?
• What support am I providing so that all students develop as thoughtful decision-makers ?
• Ask students to choose between a set of predetermined options, and provide a justification for their decision.
• Create predictable routines that allow students to lower their level of stress and “collect themselves."
• Consider asking a question rather than making a correction.

Support Students to Collaborate

Actively support student collaboration by defining student roles and responsibilities, designing and managing group processes, and supporting students to reflect on, and refine, their collaborative efforts. Scaffold collaboration and closely monitor participation, communication, and teamwork throughout collaboration. Intervene when necessary to support students’ capacity to work effectively together.

• What opportunities am I providing for all students to work together on meaningful and interdependent work?
• How am I monitoring student participation within groups, and what supports am I providing to encourage equitable participation ?
• What status issues am I seeing within groups? How will I disrupt harmful or unproductive patterns of talk and participation?  Read more about equity in cooperative classrooms here .

Design a task, project, or activity that is appropriate for collaboration.

• Require both a group and individual product.
• Design a task, project, or activity that requires positive interdependence, where students must depend on each other to be successful.

Support students to collaborate effectively.

• Support students with collaboration protocols.
• Determine which roles will best support student collaboration and learning , and support students to play those roles effectively.
• Establish clear behavior expectations, including the supportive behaviors you expect to see.
• Create space for students to reflect on their groups’ process and effectiveness; for example, by conducting an after-action review.

Monitor groups and intervene when necessary.

• Reinforce productive decisions by acknowledging when students attempt to make healthy connections with others or regulate their behavior.
• Observe groups for several minutes and take notes on interactions. Afterwards, discuss the quality of the group interactions using the observed evidence.

In many classrooms, one of the goals of PBL is to position students as active and iterative designers and creators. Whether it’s ideas, arguments, or proposals, they’re constantly  iterating and improving their work.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support to make learning iterative for students.

Track Student Progress and Provide Feedback

Provide feedback on student work throughout a given unit or project, rather than solely at its completion. Keep in mind that student feedback is not rationale for a grade; instead, it’s useful suggestions that students are expected to use to improve their thinking and work.

• What intentional opportunities am I giving all students to review each other’s work and provide feedback?
• What supports do all students need to give and receive high-quality feedback?
• Provide clear evaluation criteria that reflects multiple abilities
• Co-create rubrics with students and support them as they track their growth

Support Students to Give and Receive Feedback

Give students the opportunity to see and critique each other’s in-progress work. Support students to learn the skills of giving and receiving feedback.

• How am I assessing or tracking the progress of each student ? What data am I gathering about where each student is?
• How am I using that data to support each student ?
• How can I support all students to engage in self-assessment or self-tracking?
• Determine and communicate a specific feedback protocol. This may include modeling respectful communication and establishing clear behavior expectations, including the supportive behaviors you expect to see.
• Ask students to select a specific target area and ask their peers for feedback.
• Create several cycles of feedback.

Support Students to Reflect and Revise

Teachers dedicate time and provide ample support for students to reflect on their progress and to revise their plans, thinking, and work. 

• What intentional opportunities am I creating for all students to reflect on their work?
• How am I supporting all students as they use their reflections to revise and improve their work?
• Provide clear evaluation criteria that incorporate a broad set of learning goals.
• Ensure that students have several opportunities to receive feedback, and that those opportunities are timely and ongoing.
• Give students opportunities and support to revise their work after receiving feedback.

Justice Imperative

PBL can be a powerful tool to disrupt inequitable patterns in who has access to a meaningful and fulfilling education. When done thoughtfully, PBL has the capacity to create learning environments that are rich in (inter)disciplinary learning, authentic to students and their communities, collaborative, and iterative. However, like many approaches to teaching and learning, when done without high levels of intention and skill, PBL can serve to reinforce inequitable, unjust, and problematic realities.

The PennPBL program is committed to helping teachers build their capacity to pursue the four driving goals of PBL through the high-quality and equitable enactment of the ten core teaching practices of PBL in ways that support all students to grow, develop, and flourish.

About the PennPBL Team

A lot of work has been done around curriculum design of projects, but we know that curriculum doesn’t teach itself. While PBL requires a strong project idea, it also requires thoughtful and skilled teaching in order for students to fully realize the potential of the project. The PennPBL project at Penn GSE has focused on the knowledge, skills, and mindsets that teachers need to enact PBL and how teachers develop as PBL educators.

Christopher P. Dean Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Sarah Schneider Kavanagh Ph.D., University of Washington

Pam Grossman Ph.D., Stanford University

Zachary Herrmann Ed.L.D., Harvard University

Research by the Team

You can read more about project-based learning and teaching here:

Core Practices for Project-Based Learning, A Guide for Teachers and Leaders

Preparing Teachers for Project-Based Teaching

Exploring Relationships between Professional Development and Teachers’ Enactments of Project-Based Learning

Professional Learning Opportunities

Project-Based Learning

The Project-Based Learning certificate program is designed for current educators who strive to create rich, meaningful, and rigorous learning experiences through student-centered approaches to teaching and learning. Developed in collaboration with the Science Leadership Academy, the Workshop School, Inquiry Schools, and EL Education, the program leverages the educational expertise of Penn GSE's faculty and some of the most skilled and experienced student-centered learning practitioners from across the country.

Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice

The Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice program equips educators with the knowledge and skills they need to design projects that engage students in this important environmental justice work. Learn about PBL for Global Climate Justice and how to engage your students in authentic, action-oriented, and meaningful learning experiences. The time to take action on global climate change is now.

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Can adopting a project-based learning approach affect student outcomes?

Introduction

In the early 20th century, education pioneers such as John Dewey advocated for active, experiential approaches that placed students at the center of the learning process. In 1918, William Heard Kilpatrick built on Dewey’s theory to design the project method, which incorporated student projects into the curriculum. [i] Later in the 1950s, Jean Piaget’s constructivist theory lent further support to active, experiential learning with its description of how children construct their own knowledge through personal experience with the world. [ii]

The use of projects to engage students in active, authentic learning fell out of favor in the 1960s and 70s, but found a resurgence in the 1980s as researchers published new findings on student motivation, the development of expertise, and learning contexts. [iii]

There are a variety of pedagogical approaches related to project-based learning, such as challenge-based learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning. These approaches share common features. They: (1) pose an authentic problem or question; (2) engage students in investigations or design activities; (3) result in a final product; (4) involve student collaboration; and in many cases, (5) use learning technologies. [i]

When implemented well, these engaging, authentic, and inquiry-based approaches can benefit students from all backgrounds and levels of achievement. [iv, v] They can also be implemented in a variety of contexts, from individual classrooms to entire schools. [vi] In the next section, we share key research findings on student outcomes and how to successfully implement project-based learning approaches.

The sections below highlight key findings from the research on PBL Outcomes and Implementation .

Key Findings

Pbl student outcomes.

Project-Based Learning can improve students’ academic achievement.

Project-Based Learning can enhance students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal development.

Project-based learning can offer students a multitude of benefits that extend beyond academic performance. For example, students who participate in project-based learning have shown  increased engagement in learning [viii, iv] and improved problem solving skills. [viii, ii] There is also research on the potential of project-based learning to support students’ identity development as they navigate a project environment that calls for both autonomy and collaborative work. [ix, x] And, as students work together in a sustained team, they can improve their collaboration skills, which is essential for professional work. [ii, viii]

PBL Implementation

Teachers need to adopt new roles and methods for project-based learning.

Some researchers caution that without proper guidance, students may follow misconceptions and have too many false starts in project-based learning. [iv] Further, there is a danger of adopting projects that may be appealing or engaging, but not aligned with learning goals. [ii] Therefore, it is essential that educators be trained to implement project-based learning successfully. For example, teachers need to shift to an advisor or facilitator role [iv] , so they can provide the right support for each student to meaningfully participate in a group project. [ii, viii] They also need to learn new technologies that students will use for their projects [vi, xi] , and how to craft a driving question or challenge that it is aligned with course learning goals. [xii]

Students require support to actively participate in and benefit from project-based learning.

Research in project-based learning supports the use of regular, low-stakes feedback throughout the project ( formative assessment) , in addition to a final evaluation ( summative assessment ). [xiv] Several studies also point to the benefits of offering students formative feedback from a variety of sources, including instructors, peers, and their own self-reflections. [xii, xiv] Technology tools such as e-portfolios can help students document their reflections and share their progress with others. [xv, xvi]

[i] Hasni, Abdelkrim, Fatima Bousadra, Vincent Belletête, Ahmed Benabdallah, Marie-Claude Nicole, and Nancy Dumais. 2016. “ Trends in Research on Project-Based Science and Technology Teaching and Learning at K–12 Levels: A Systematic Review .” Studies in Science Education 52 (2). Routledge:199–231. [ii] Ackermann, E. n.d. Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the difference? Accessed January 30, 2018. https://learning.media.mit.edu/content/publications/EA.Piaget%20_%20Papert.pdf [iii] Thomas, John W. 2000. “ A Review of Research on Project-Based Learning .” [iv] Holm, Margaret. 2011. “ PROJECT-BASED INSTRUCTION: A Review of the Literature on Effectiveness in Prekindergarten through 12th Grade Classrooms. ” Rivier College. [v] Boaler, Jo. 2002. “Learning from Teaching: Exploring the Relationship between Reform Curriculum and Equity .” Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 33 (4). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics:239–58. [vi] Condliffe B, Quint, J, Visher M G, Bangser M R, Drohojowska S, Saco L, Nelson E. 2017. “Project-Based Learning: A Literature Review.” h ttps://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/ler/MDRC+PBL+Literature+Review.pdf. [vii] Halvorsen, A L, Duke N K, Brugar K, Block M, Strachan S, and Berka M. 2012. “Narrowing the Achievement Gap in Second-Grade Social Studies and Content Area Literacy: The Promise of a Project-Based Approach.” https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED537157.pdf [viii] Barron B & Darling Hammond, L. 1998. “Teaching for Meaningful Learning: A Review of Research on Inquiry and Cooperative Learning. Edutopia. https://backend.edutopia.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf [ix] Langer-Osuna, Jennifer M. 2011. “ How Brianna Became Bossy and Kofi Came Out Smart: Understanding the Trajectories of Identity and Engagement for Two Group Leaders in a Project-Based Mathematics Classroom. ” Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education 11 (3). Routledge:207–25. [x] Langer-Osuna, Jennifer M. 2015. “From Getting ‘Fired’ to Becoming a Collaborator: A Case of the Co-construction of Identity and Engagement in a Project-Based Mathematics Classroom.” Journal of the Learning Sciences 24 (1). Routledge:53–92. [xi] Seo K K, Templeton R, and Pellegrino D. 2008. “ Creating a Ripple Effect: Incorporating Multimedia-Assisted Project-Based Learning in Teacher Education. ” Theory into Practice 47 (3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.:259–65. [xii] Barron B, Schwartz D L, Vye N J, Moore A, Petrosino A, Zech L, Bransford J D, and The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. 1998. “Doing with Understanding: Lessons from Research on Problem- and Project-Based Learning. ” The Journal of the Learning Sciences 7 (3/4). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.:271–311. [xiii] English, M C, and Kitsantas A. 2013. “ Supporting Student Self-Regulated Learning in Problem- and Project-Based Learning. ” Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning 7 (2). Purdue University Press:6. [xiv] Trauth-Nare A, and Buck G. 2011. “ Assessment for Learning: Using Formative Assessment in Problem – and Project-Based Learning. ” The Science Teacher 78 (1). National Science Teachers Association:34–39. [xv] Yang M, Tai M, and Lim C P. 2016. “ The Role of E-Portfolios in Supporting Productive Learning. ” British Journal of Educational Technology: Journal of the Council for Educational Technology 47 (6). Wiley Online Library:1276–86. [xvi] Keune A, and Peppler K. 2017. “Maker Portfolios as Learning and Community-Building Tools Inside and Outside Makerspaces.” CSCL 2017 Proceedings. https://kpeppler.com/Docs/2017_MakerPortfoliosAsTools_CSCL.pdf.

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A new research base for rigorous project-based learning

By Kristin De Vivo | Jan 24, 2022 | Feature Article

A series of rigorous studies show that authentic, student-driven approaches to project-based learning improve student outcomes.

Deborah Peek-Brown has always believed in weaving project-based learning into her instruction. But when she looks back on the projects she integrated into her lessons early in her 30-year career as an elementary science teacher, she says that a lot was missing. “We did cookbook experiments that were usually just validating what we did in class,” she recalls. Today, Peek-Brown helps support other teachers in moving to a project-based approach in which projects drive the lesson, as opposed to being tacked on at the end. Students learn through asking authentic questions about real problems and creating projects that tackle those problems. “That power of ‘I can figure things out for myself,’ is such an important skill for kids to develop and one that they will use for the rest of their lives,” Peek-Brown says.

Project-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach in which students explore real-world problems through individual and group projects. When done well, it allows students to make sense of why content is useful and how it might be applied. The approach that Peek-Brown, an education specialist at Michigan State University, uses today to support elementary science teachers is one of four PBL programs studied in a new body of research that has generated strong evidence — based on “gold-standard” studies, using randomized control methods — showing that rigorous PBL improves student learning. (Research briefs for the studies are available at www.lucasedresearch.org/research/research-briefs .)

Funded by Lucas Education Research (which I lead) — a division of the George Lucas Educational Foundation — the research findings are the culmination of seven years of effort to develop and study rigorous PBL curricula and aligned supports used across grades and subjects. The studies were not meant to evaluate progressive education writ large, or even to evaluate all forms of PBL, but they did take a careful look at the effects of pairing high-quality project-based curriculum with the implementation of complementary instructional practices. Specifically, the findings, released in 2021, show that:

• Embedding project-based learning in Advanced Placement courses increased the probability of students earning a passing score on AP tests by about 8 percentage points in the first year and 10 percentage points after teachers had two years of experience with the project-based curriculum (Saavedra, Liu, et al., 2021).
• Middle school students in California who learned science with a project-based curriculum outperformed their peers by 11 percentage points on a science assessment and also did better on the state’s end-of-year math and English language arts assessments (Deutscher et al., 2021).
• Third-grade students in Michigan who used an interdisciplinary project-based science curriculum performed 8 percentage points better than peers in traditional classes on a key science assessment (Krajcik et al., 2021).
• Second-grade students in Michigan who used a project-based social studies and literacy curriculum demonstrated five to six more months of learning in social studies and two to three more months in informational reading than a comparison group (Duke et al., 2020).

Taken together, these studies provide clear evidence that rigorous project-based learning has a strong effect on student achievement. The research also found that these PBL programs improved certain aspects of social and emotional learning, and these effects were consistent across racial and socio-economic groups.

Questions and challenges about PBL

The definitional challenge.

It has taken many years, even decades, to develop an evidence base that focuses on the building blocks of effective PBL, largely because PBL itself has been difficult to define with precision, and it has meant different things to different people. Historically, for instance, many schools have assigned students to complete projects at the end of a unit — perhaps by doing an experiment or making a simple poster or shoebox diorama — rather than letting projects themselves drive student learning throughout the unit. Should that be called PBL, or is it something else entirely (i.e., the assignment of projects as a means of consolidating previous learning)?

It has taken many years, even decades, to develop an evidence base that focuses on the building blocks of effective PBL, largely because PBL itself has been difficult to define with precision.

In my own work, I’ve often heard educators say of good PBL instruction, “It’s hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.” I’ve also been in plenty of classrooms in which the instruction was called project-based learning but didn’t actually reflect the core practices that many of us associate with PBL — that is, the instruction didn’t allow for student inquiry or self-discovery, didn’t address authentic problems that young people care about, and wasn’t tied to key teaching and learning standards. Similarly, advocates have often disagreed with one another over the extent to which PBL requires students to drive their own learning or whether PBL ought to be treated as synonymous with student-centered learning or active learning. (As I see it, PBL does entail greater student agency than traditional instruction, but students don’t have to drive their learning all the time. There are times when traditional, direct instruction by a teacher is appropriate and necessary.) In short, it has been tricky to come up with an operational definition of PBL that is concrete enough to allow for rigorous research into its effects.

Through the Lucas Education Research (LER) research projects, we sought to create some clarity and consensus, based on evidence, around what effective PBL looks like. More specifically, we wanted to determine the extent to which well-designed project-based curriculum units and aligned professional development for teachers could support the implementation of consistent, effective instructional practices. Our hypothesis was that if we could define specific indicators of high-quality PBL, we could then conduct research to evaluate its effectiveness. In this way, we could begin to understand for whom PBL works and under what conditions.

Our research partners identified and described a powerful approach to learning that is consistent with the latest science on how people learn. They defined specific characteristics of rigorous project-based curricula, identified core teaching practices, and described the kind of professional development that would be needed to teach in these ways. Importantly, the research teams implemented and studied the curriculum and practices across various learning environments to ensure replication and reliability.

Across the board, the curricular programs highlighted in the LER studies feature project-based units that foster inquiry, engagement, and a need to learn more. The programs studied allow — to varying degrees — for a balance between student-led discovery followed by lecture or text-based instruction.

The question of who benefits

A definitional challenge isn’t the only obstacle to widespread adoption of PBL in schools. Another key challenge has been the deficit-based view that PBL works for some kids and not others. Too many adults have been led to believe that struggling learners and disadvantaged students need basic content and traditional approaches more than they need complex forms of instruction like PBL. As a result, students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, and English learners are less likely than others to experience approaches that are deeply engaging, ask enough of them, and develop student ownership of their learning (TNTP, 2018).

Too many adults have been led to believe that struggling learners and disadvantaged students need basic content and traditional approaches more than they need complex forms of instruction like PBL.

The new studies should dispel the view that PBL is only effective for some students. For example, in the study showing that students in PBL versions of AP courses outperformed those learning in more traditional ways, a majority of the students in four of the five districts studied were Black and Latinx (Saavedra, Liu, et al., 2021). In addition, a significantly higher proportion of the students in the study were from low-income households than is typical for AP test-takers. Students in the PBL middle school science program also attended high-poverty, diverse schools, and, notably, English learners in the PBL course outperformed peers on a state-developed language proficiency test (Deutscher et al., 2021). Additionally, 3rd-grade students in a PBL science course performed at superior levels on a state assessment, and this held true across racial and ethnic groups and socio-economic levels; it also held true regardless of reading ability level, meaning that struggling readers in the PBL class outperformed struggling readers in the traditional class on the science measure (Krajcik et al., 2021). Finally, the 2nd-grade students who outperformed their peers in reading and social studies attended low-performing schools serving low-income families (Duke et al., 2020).

The problem of implementation

Another criticism of PBL is that it’s labor intensive and hard to implement quickly. And it’s true that, as with most worthwhile educational programs, teacher practice improves over time with project-based learning. However, the new research found that teachers benefited rather quickly from having strong PBL curricula aligned with high-quality professional development opportunities. In the AP study, for example, the PBL curriculum had robust effects on student performance after just one year of implementation, though the gains were larger when teachers had two years of experience with the curriculum (Saavedra, Rapaport, et al., 2021).

Each of the programs highlighted in the new research studies included both strong curricular resources and high-quality professional development. Those professional development programs included sustained professional learning opportunities for teachers, active and collaborative learning experiences, and strong ties between the professional development offering and teachers’ classroom contexts.

Identifying key traits of high-quality PBL

The new studies come four years after MDRC, a social-policy research organization based in New York City and Oakland, CA, published a broad review of the research landscape and highlighted numerous studies that found positive associations between PBL and students’ development of knowledge and cognitive skills (Condliffe et al., 2017). However, the MDRC review also found that the field hadn’t come together to define clear PBL design principles and noted that the lack of a shared vision complicated efforts to determine whether PBL programs were effective and being implemented well. The new research helps greatly in this regard. Across the four new studies, researchers found common and important characteristics of successful project-based learning programs.

The new research found that teachers benefited rather quickly from having strong PBL curricula aligned with high-quality professional development opportunities.

For starters, PBL lessons should be rooted in purposeful and authentic experiences generated by students asking relevant questions. Driving questions that are feasible to explore and meaningful to students should anchor a unit of study, enabling students to explore and address issues beyond the four walls of their classroom — both in their community and the broader world. For example, in a unit within the 3rd-grade science curriculum, Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning, students observe squirrels and develop and revise a model of how a squirrel meets its needs and survives in the environment. A driving question and a series of related questions guide what students do in the unit.

In addition, well-designed project-based learning units are built from content standards, and the projects themselves should deepen student knowledge of core subjects and disciplinary practices. So, for example, teachers should use scientific methods to explore key questions specific to a scientific discipline. Or, in a history class, they should ask students to consider the reliability of primary sources and compare them to other sources, just as historians do when studying a topic. PBL generally lends itself to interdisciplinary learning, and the new studies confirmed that students engaged in PBL can simultaneously build knowledge and develop skills related to a range of content areas.

Schools with a culture of collaboration and innovation appear to be the best candidates for project-based learning. Trusting relationships and a healthy school climate contribute to student and teacher success with PBL. This finding from the new research aligns with an earlier American Institutes for Research study that found educators in schools successfully implementing PBL emphasized interpersonal skills (Huberman et al., 2014).

Finally, it is essential that educators are supported with high-quality professional learning opportunities so they can ground project-based lessons in evidence-based teaching and learning practices. These practices include providing feedback to students in a strategic and timely manner, creating opportunities for students to reflect on and revise their own work, and empowering students to share their learning with others through the presentation of products they create and public performances. (For more details about teaching practices, see Grossman et al., 2021.)

Calls for a deeper focus on developing students’ critical thinking and analytical skills, fostering agency, and teaching young people to work collaboratively in schools — just as they’ll likely have to do in college and careers — have resulted in an increased interest in PBL. Parents, educators, and policy makers are growing in their understanding that strong PBL improves student engagement (an area that has received particular attention amid disrupted learning due to the pandemic) and connects academic content to the broader world beyond school. In recent years, school networks centering project-based approaches to instruction (such as the New Tech Network, The Deeper Learning Network, and the High Tech High Network) have helped elevate the role of rigorous PBL in advancing teaching and learning goals. Some traditional districts have made strong gains in this area, too. For example, San Francisco Unified School District is expanding its use of project-based learning and now has a strong, well-regarded PBL science program in its middle schools.

I’ve been fortunate to have a close-up view of the PBL programs highlighted in the new studies and to hear from educators, administrators, and students who have used these approaches. Their insights give me confidence that we need to share their experiences, help tell their stories, and work to further scale rigorous PBL. For example, it’s inspiring to hear the perspective of retired Michigan principal Lynn Bigelman, who observed teachers at her school using the 2nd-grade social studies and literacy curriculum, Project PLACE. She was wowed when she saw 7- and 8-year-olds engaged in a civics and government unit in which they came up with a proposal for improvements to a local park and presented it to a city councilman:

The children had a voice, and they were able to speak with the local city council member and get improvements done to their playground. Problem solving, critical thinking, and civic learning were all happening . . . . They did PowerPoints and presentations on how to improve their local park. They used a lot of reading and writing skills, and students used 21st-century skills such as inquiry, critical thinking, agency, and problem solving.

Amber Graeber, a curriculum coordinator at Des Moines Public Schools, who has taught the AP U.S. Government and Politics course using project-based learning,  said the approach transformed her teaching:

Now, my students have a reason to learn and a need to know. The question in the beginning of each unit sparks my students’ curiosity. And they feel like they matter, which makes them much more engaged. They really remember what they learn because they experience it — they don’t just read it.

Students who have taken the PBL courses have strong opinions, too. Gil Leal, who participated in the project-based version of the AP Environmental Science program during high school, said that the course inspired him to major in environmental science in college:

In other classes, it was lecture, readings, test. But in AP Environmental Science we worked on projects with other students, discussed our ideas, considered different perspectives, and I learned so much more this way.

What comes next

As we look ahead, I hope the researcher and practitioner communities continue to work together to examine and share insights into how we can more successfully scale and sustain high-quality project-based learning. Researchers from schools of education and K-12 teachers around the country forged close working relationships as part of this effort to study rigorous PBL and develop curricular resources. Together, they contributed significantly to the research landscape. This model could continue to yield new information about what works best for whom and under what conditions.

In addition, as schools look for innovative, evidence-based ways to improve learning — particularly following the massive education disruption students and teachers faced in the pandemic — school and system leaders should strongly consider the role project-based learning can play in fostering engagement and improving other positive student outcomes. The new studies provide clear evidence that this approach to teaching and learning works across student populations, grade bands, and subjects. Furthermore, the research offers guidelines for characteristics to look for in the selection, development, and implementation of high-quality PBL curriculum, and it helps debunk long-standing concerns and myths that have prevented greater uptake of PBL.

Educators and school leaders should feel confident that if they pursue rigorous project-based learning, they will likely see student achievement and student engagement increase, and they also will see young people experience other lasting benefits. Deborah Peek-Brown, the veteran Michigan researcher and educator, summed it up well, saying:

PBL builds up students’ sense of being able to accomplish things and allows them to develop ownership of their work. If we can develop that in kids, we’re going to see them become amazing citizens and do amazing things as they go on in the rest of their lives.

Condliffe, B., Quint, J., Visher, M., Bangser, M., Drohojowska, S., Saco, L., & Nelson, E. (2017). Project-based learning: A literature review . MDRC.

Deutscher, R.R., Holthuis, N.C., Maldonado, S.I., Pecheone, R.L., Schultz, S.E., Wei, R.C., & Lucas Education Research. (2021). Project-based learning leads to gains in science and other subjects in middle school and benefits all learners . Lucas Education Research.

Duke, N.K., Halvorsen, A-L., Strachan, S.L., Kim, J., & Konstantopoulos, S. (2020, June). Putting PjBL to the test: The impact of project-based learning on second graders’ social studies and literacy learning and motivation in low-SES school settings. American Educational Research Journal .

Grossman, P., Hermann, Z., Schneider Kavanagh, S., & Pupik Dean, C.G., (2021). Core practices for project-based learning: A guide for teachers and leaders . Harvard Education Press.

Huberman, M., Bitter, C., Anthony, J., & O’Day, J. (2014). The shape of deeper learning: Strategies, structures, and cultures in deeper learning network high schools . American Institutes for Research.

Krajcik, J., Schneider, B., Miller, E., Chen, I.C., Bradford, L., Bartz, K.,  . . . & Lucas Education Research. (2021). Project-based learning increases science achievement in elementary schools and improves social and emotional learning . Lucas Education Research.

Saavedra, A.R., Liu Y., Haderlein, S.K., Rapaport, A., Garland, M., Hoepfner, D., . . . & Lucas Education Research. (2021). Project-based Learning Boosts Student Achievement in AP Courses . Lucas Education Research.

Saavedra, A.R., Rapaport, A., Lock Morgan, K., Garland, M., Liu, Y., Hu, A., . . . & Haderlein, S.K. (2021). Knowledge in action efficacy study over two years . Center for Economic and Social Research.

TNTP. (2018, September 25). The opportunity myth: What students can show us about how school is letting them down — and how to fix it . Author.

This article appears in the February 2022 issue of  Kappan,  Vol. 103, No. 5, pp. 36-41.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristin De Vivo

KRISTIN DE VIVO is the executive director of Lucas Education Research, a division of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, San Rafael, CA.

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Teach. Learn. Grow.

Teach. learn. grow. the education blog.

How teaching multiple standards can improve learning and get you through your curriculum

In this latest post in our series on our research-backed Transformative Ten teaching strategies , I will examine how Strategy 7, Teach from multiple standards at once , can not only help you get through your curriculum but also help you make learning stick.

About our research on teaching multiple standards

In his observations at Schiller Park Schools in Illinois, former NWEA researcher Chase Nordengren noticed that teachers used their supplemental-for-all learning block as a way of taking content that is typically taught at the end of the year and interspersing it throughout the year. By using a back-to-front approach, they took topics like data and graphing, which typically fall in the final units of the curriculum and introduced them during intervention blocks earlier in the year. Students then practiced these skills in centers and intervention blocks even while the whole class focus was on other standards.

This approach provided two key benefits. First, by its nature, it allowed students the opportunity for spaced retrieval practice . Research has found that for concepts to be embedded into long-term memory, learners must have the opportunity to practice repeatedly retrieving the information, ideally over a period of time. Secondly, by introducing these concepts earlier in the year, teachers found that students already had a basic knowledge of the content, allowing instruction to go deeper faster.

Of course, this can all work in the opposite direction as well. Students will benefit from spaced practice of content taught earlier in the year, so intervention blocks and centers can be used to both preview upcoming standards and revisit and practice previously taught content.

Leverage the structure of your standards

While it may sound overwhelming or even impractical to try teaching multiple standards at once, most college-and-career ready standards are designed to support such layering. Modern standards are typically designed to have both across-grade and within-grade coherence . In other words, the standards both build upon one another, grade after grade, and support one another within each grade.

As I discussed in a previous post , many college-and-career math standards identify major or focus standards that represent the most critical work of a given grade. The remaining standards often reinforce the major or focus standards. For example, in the Common Core, there are only two data standards in third grade, neither of which are considered major work. One standard introduces scaled bar and picture graphs and the other is about generating data by measuring lengths to the nearest half and fourth of an inch.

Because these standards are not the major work of the grade, curricula often place them late in the year. For example, in Engage NY’s third-grade curriculum, the data standards are covered in the second to last unit. However, each of these standards supports major work in other domains. For example, if you take the time to introduce scaled graphs earlier in the year, the content naturally supports the major work of gaining fluency with multiplication facts. As students read bar and picture graphs with scales of two, four, five, or 10, they gain practice multiplying to find the total number each bar or set of pictures represents. Not only does this give students different contexts within which to practice multiplication, it also builds connections between concepts.

I have discussed the importance of developing a connected view of content before . Having an interconnected schema, or web of concepts, helps students remember and apply content more easily. This is especially important in math, a subject many of us learned as a set of procedures with little or no connection or cohesion.

While it may sound overwhelming or even impractical to teach multiple standards at once, most college-and-career ready standards are designed to support such layering.

The other third-grade data standard involves measuring halves and fourths. Introducing the measurement component of this data standard during your unit on fractions allows for additional practice and reinforcement of the critical, and sometimes challenging, concept of fractions as numbers on a number line. The purposeful interconnection of standards also highlights why it is actually important to try to cover all the standards for your grade . Progressions documents, like those for the Common Core , can help you understand and leverage the coherence within the math standards to teach multiple standards.

By their nature, the ELA standards are highly interconnected and offer many opportunities for teaching multiple standards across the discipline’s domains. For example, selecting rich, high-quality, on-grade literacy texts allows for exploration of multiple comprehension standards as students examine theme, character development, language and style, tone, and structure. Indeed, solely teaching these components as isolated skills waters them down and negates the ultimate goal of helping students engage deeply with text to uncover meaning and purpose. To illustrate the interconnectedness of the standards, imagine trying to determine the theme of a story without also thinking about how the characters help develop the theme!

Literacy educator and researcher Timothy Shanahan , states that “units—and even individual lessons—will need to address multiple standards. The structure of the comprehension standards is less a detailed list of disparate items than an organized set of cognitive moves one might make in trying to understand a text.” Researchers Nell Duke and P. David Pearson also talk about the importance of working with multiple comprehension strategies at a time. In their paper “Effective practices for developing reading comprehension,” they step through five components of comprehension instruction, from explicit teaching and modeling of a strategy to collaborative and guided practice and, eventually, gradual release to independent use. However, they caution that “it is important that neither the teacher nor the students lose sight of the need to coordinate or orchestrate comprehension strategies. Strategies are not to be used singly—good readers do not read a book and only make predictions. Rather, good readers use multiple strategies constantly. Although the above model foregrounds a particular strategy at a particular time, other strategies should also be referenced, modeled, and encouraged throughout the process.”

Read around the room

Other subject areas, such as science and social studies, provide avenues for teaching multiple reading and writing standards. Shanahan cites a group of studies examining reading instruction within middle and high school social studies classes . The research found that when reading content area texts, applying the knowledge gained there to prior knowledge or to problem-solving activities increased content knowledge, content reading comprehension, and standardized reading comprehension.

Combining content-area reading and writing is also a powerful tool for learning. A meta-analysis of 100+ studies showed increased comprehension and learning of content when students wrote about texts they were reading. For younger students, writing summaries or retellings of a reading proved to be most effective, whereas deeper analyses or critiques were shown to be most effective with older students. Having students write summaries or analyses of science or social studies content that they have read can improve retention of the key ideas, give you another place to address reading and writing standards, and support the increased emphasis on nonfiction texts in college-and-career ready standards.

As you review your science and social studies curricula for the year, actively look for places to integrate your reading and writing standards. Check out Read Write Think’s strategy guide series on reading in the content areas and Reading Rockets’ content area literacy hub either to help you get started or to deepen your practice in this area.

Use project power

Project-based learning (PBL) is another approach for teaching multiple standards at once, often across several content areas. PBLWorks describes project-based learning as “a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge.” To be clear, engaging in project-based learning is not the same as doing a project. PBLWorks makes the distinction between a “dessert” project, one served up as a wrap-up of content taught during a unit, and true project-based learning, in which the project is the vehicle for teaching the content.

Implementing PBL with fidelity is not a light undertaking; it requires professional development to get started and up-front planning to ensure that a given project will provide appropriate opportunities to support the desired learning. Studies indicate that PBL is worth the up-front investment. A recent review of research found several studies showing that project-based learning aligns to ESSA Evidence Levels 1 and 2. One study involved a cohort of 48 second-grade teachers. Half of the teachers were given training, ongoing coaching, and resources in PBL and were asked to teach four project-based units related to social studies. The other group of teachers taught their regular social studies curriculum. The results showed that, when compared to the control group, the group engaged in PBL had a 63% gain in social studies knowledge, equivalent to about six months of greater learning, and a 23% gain in informational reading skill, equivalent to about two months of greater learning.

If you are interested in exploring PBL, there are plenty of high-quality resources online including PBLWorks’ guide to getting started , a compilation of PBL articles on Edutopia , Professor John Spencer’s PBL hub , and Magnify Learning’s PBL resource center .

Small steps can have a big impact

If you are still unsure about teaching multiple standards at once, try starting small. Look for places where your standards naturally dovetail and support one another. Or look for standards that have some relatively discrete concepts that can be introduced quickly and practiced before you dive into the full breadth and depth of the standard later in the year.

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Technology as a Tool for Improving Patient Safety

Introduction .

In the past several decades, technological advances have opened new possibilities for improving patient safety. Using technology to digitize healthcare processes has the potential to increase standardization and efficiency of clinical workflows and to reduce errors and cost across all healthcare settings. 1 However, if technological approaches are designed or implemented poorly, the burden on clinicians can increase. For example, overburdened clinicians can experience alert fatigue and fail to respond to notifications. This can lead to more medical errors. As a testament to the significance of this topic in recent years, several government agencies [(e.g. the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS)] have developed resources to help healthcare organizations integrate technology, such as the Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) guides developed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). 2,3,4  However, there is some evidence that these resources have not been widely used.5 Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) started requiring hospitals to use the SAFER guides as part of the FY 2022 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS), which should raise awareness and uptake of the guides. 6

During 2022, research into technological approaches was a major theme of articles on PSNet. Researchers reviewed all relevant articles on PSNet and consulted with Dr. A Jay Holmgren, PhD, and Dr. Susan McBride, PhD, subject matter experts in health IT and its role in patient safety. Key topics and themes are highlighted below.  

Clinical Decision Support  

The most prominent focus in the 2022 research on technology, based on the number of articles published on PSNet, was related to clinical decision support (CDS) tools. CDS provides clinicians, patients, and other individuals with relevant data (e.g. patient-specific information), purposefully filtered and delivered through a variety of formats and channels, to improve and enhance care. 7   

Computerized Patient Order Entry  

One of the main applications of CDS is in computerized patient order entry (CPOE), which is the process used by clinicians to enter and send treatment instructions via a computer application. 8 While the change from paper to electronic order entry itself can reduce errors (e.g., due to unclear handwriting or manual copy errors), research in 2022 showed that there is room for improvement in order entry systems, as well as some promising novel approaches. 

Two studies looked at the frequency of and reasons for medication errors in the absence of CDS and CPOE and demonstrated that there was a clear patient safety need. One study found that most medication errors occurred during the ordering or prescribing stage, and both this study and the other study found that the most common medication error was incorrect dose. Ongoing research, such as the AHRQ Medication Safety Measure Development project, aims to develop and validate measure specifications for wrong-patient, wrong-dose, wrong-medication, wrong-route, and wrong-frequency medication orders within EHR systems, in order to better understand and capture health IT safety events.9 Errors of this type could be avoided or at least reduced through the use of effective CPOE and CDS systems. However, even when CPOE and CDS are in place, errors can still occur and even be caused by the systems themselves. One study reviewed duplicate medication orders and found that 20% of duplicate orders resulted from technological issues, including alerts being overridden, alerts not firing, and automation issues (e.g., prefilled fields). A case study last year Illustrated one of the technological issues, in this case a manual keystroke error, that can lead to a safety event. A pharmacist mistakenly set the start date for a medication to the following year rather than the following day , which the CPOE system failed to flag. The authors recommended various alerts and coding changes in the system to prevent this particular error in the future.  

There were also studies in 2022 that showed successful outcomes of well-implemented CPOE systems. One in-depth pre-post, mixed-methods study showed that a fully implemented CPOE system significantly reduced specific serious and commonly occurring prescribing and procedural errors. The authors also presented evidence that it was cost-effective and detailed implementation lessons learned drawn from the qualitative data collected for the study. A specific CPOE function that demonstrated statistically significant improvement in 2022 was automatic deprescribing of medication orders and communication of the relevant information to pharmacies. Deprescribing is the planned and supervised process of dose reduction or stopping of a medication that is no longer beneficial or could be causing harm. That study showed an immediate and sustained 78% increase in successful discontinuations after implementation of the software. A second study on the same functionality determined that currently only one third to one half of medications are e-prescribed, and the study proposed that e-prescribing should be expanded to increase the impact of the deprescribing software. It should be noted, however, that the systems were not perfect and that a small percentage of medications were unintentionally cancelled. Finally, an algorithm to detect patients in need of follow-up after test results was developed and implemented in another study . The algorithm showed some process improvements, but outcome measures were not reported. 

Usability  

Usability of CDS systems was a large focus of research in 2022. Poorly designed systems that do not fit into existing workflows lead to frustrated users and increase the potential for errors. For example, if users are required to enter data in multiple places or prompted to enter data that are not available to them, they could find ways to work around the system or even cease to use it, increasing the potential for patient safety errors. The documentation burden is already very high on U.S. clinicians, 10 so it is important that novel technological approaches do not add to this burden but, if possible, alleviate it by offering a high level of usability and interoperability.  

One study used human-factored design in creating a CDS to diagnose pulmonary embolism in the Emergency Department and then surveyed clinician users about their experiences using the tool. Despite respondents giving the tool high usability ratings and reporting that the CDS was valuable, actual use of the tool was low. Based on the feedback from users, the authors proposed some changes to increase uptake, but both users and authors mentioned the challenges that arise when trying to change the existing workflow of clinicians without increasing their burden. Another study gathered qualitative feedback from clinicians on a theoretical CDS system for diagnosing neurological issues in the Emergency Department. In this study too, many clinicians saw the potential value in the CDS tool but had concerns about workflow integration and whether it would impact their ability to make clinical decisions. Finally, one study developed a dashboard to display various risk factors for multiple hospital-acquired infections and gathered feedback from users. The users generally found the dashboard useful and easy to learn, and they also provided valuable feedback on color scales, location, and types of data displayed. All of these studies show that attention to end user needs and preferences is necessary for successful implementation of CDS.  However, the recent market consolidation in Electronic Health Record vendors may have an impact on the amount of user feedback gathered and integrated into CDS systems. Larger vendors may have more resources to devote to improving the usability and design of CDS, or their near monopolies in the market may not provide an incentive to innovate further. 11 More research is needed as this trend continues.  

Alerts and Alarms 

Alerts and alarms are an important part of most CDS systems, as they can prompt clinicians with important and timely information during the treatment process. However, these alerts and alarms must be accurate and useful to elicit an appropriate response. The tradeoff between increased safety due to alerts and clinician alert fatigue is an important balance to strike. 12

Many studies in 2022 looked at clinician responses to medication-related alerts, including override and modification rates. Several of the studies found a high alert override rate but questioned the validity of using override rates alone as a marker of CDS effectiveness and usability. For example, one study looked at drug allergy alerts and found that although 44.8% of alerts were overridden, only 9.3% of those were inappropriately overridden, and very few overrides led to an adverse allergic reaction. A study on “do not give” alerts found that clinicians modified their orders to comply with alert recommendations after 78% of alerts but only cancelled orders after 26% of alerts. A scoping review looked at drug-drug interaction alerts and found similar results, including high override rates and the need for more data on why alerts are overridden. These findings are supported by another study that found that the underlying drug value sets triggering drug-drug interaction alerts are often inconsistent, leading to many inappropriate alerts that are then appropriately overridden by clinicians. These studies suggest that while a certain number of overrides should be expected, the underlying criteria for alert systems should be designed and regularly reviewed with specificity and sensitivity in mind. This will increase the frequency of appropriate alerts that foster indicated clinical action and reduce alert fatigue. 

There also seems to be variability in the effectiveness of alert systems across sites. One study looked at an alert to add an item to the problem list if a clinician placed an order for a medication that was not indicated based on the patient’s chart. The study found about 90% accuracy in alerts across two sites but a wide difference in the frequency of appropriate action between the sites (83% and 47%). This suggests that contextual factors at each site, such as culture and organizational processes, may impact success as much as the technology itself.  

A different study looked at the psychology of dismissing alerts using log data and found that dismissing alerts becomes habitual and that the habit is self-reinforcing over time. Furthermore, nearly three quarters of alerts were dismissed within 3 seconds. This indicates how challenging it can be to change or disrupt alert habits once they are formed. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning  

In recent years, one of the largest areas of burgeoning technology in healthcare has been artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI and machine learning use algorithms to absorb large amounts of historical and real-time data and then predict outcomes and recommend treatment options as new data are entered by clinicians. Research in 2022 showed that these techniques are starting to be integrated into EHR and CDS systems, but challenges remain. A full discussion of this topic is beyond the scope of this review. Here we limit the discussion to several patient-safety-focused resources posted on PSNet in 2022.  

One of the promising aspects of AI is its ability to improve CDS processes and clinician workflow overall. For example, one study last year looked at using machine learning to improve and filter CDS alerts. They found that the software could reduce alert volume by 54% while maintaining high precision. Reducing alert volume has the potential to alleviate alert fatigue and habitual overriding. Another topic explored in a scoping review was the use of AI to reduce adverse drug events. While only a few studies reviewed implementation in a clinical setting (most evaluated algorithm technical performance), several promising uses were found for AI systems that predict risk of an adverse drug event, which would facilitate early detection and mitigate negative effects.  

Despite enthusiasm for and promising applications of AI, implementation is slow. One of the challenges facing implementation is the variable quality of the systems. For example, a commonly used sepsis detection model was recently found to have very low sensitivity. 13 Algorithms also drift over time as new data are integrated, and this can affect performance, particularly during and after large disturbances like the COVID-19 pandemic. 14 There is also emerging research about the impact of AI algorithms on racial and ethnic biases in healthcare; at the time of publication of this essay, an AHRQ EPC was conducting a review of evidence on the topic. 15  These examples highlight the fact that AI is not a “set it and forget it” application; it requires monitoring and customization from a dedicated resource to ensure that the algorithms perform well over time. A related challenge is the lack of a strong business case for using high-quality AI. Because of this, many health systems choose to use out-of-the-box AI algorithms, which may be of poor quality overall (or are unsuited to particular settings) and may also be “black box” algorithms (i.e., not customizable by the health system because the vendor will not allow access to the underlying code). 16 The variable quality and the lack of transparency may cause mistrust by clinicians and overall aversion to AI interventions.  

In an attempt to address these concerns, one article in 2022 detailed best practices for AI implementation in health systems, focusing on the business case. Best practices include using AI to address a priority problem for the health system rather than treating it as an end itself. Additionally, testing the AI using the health system’s patients and data to demonstrate applicability and accuracy for that setting, confirming that the AI can provide a return on investment, and ensuring that the AI can be implemented easily and efficiently are also important. Another white paper described a human-factors and ergonomics framework for developing AI in order to improve the implementation within healthcare systems, teams, and workflows. The federal government and international organizations have also published AI guidelines, focusing on increasing trustworthiness (National Artificial Intelligence Initiative) 17 and ensuring ethical governance (World Health Organization). 18   

Conclusion and Next Steps 

As highlighted in this review, the scope and complexity of technology and its application in healthcare can be intimidating for healthcare systems to approach and implement. Researchers last year thus created a framework that health systems can use to assess their digital maturity and guide their plans for further integration.  

The field would benefit from more research in several areas in upcoming years. First and foremost, high-quality prospective outcome studies are needed to validate the effectiveness of the new technologies. Second, more work is needed on system usability, how the systems are integrated into workflows, and how they affect the documentation burden placed on clinicians. For CDS specifically, more focus is needed on patient-centered CDS (PC CDS), which supports patient-centered care by helping clinicians and patients make the best decisions given each individual’s circumstances and preferences. 19 AHRQ is already leading efforts in this field with their CDS Innovation Collaborative project. 20 Finally, as it becomes more common to incorporate EHR scribes to ease the documentation burden, research on their impact on patient safety will be needed, especially in relation to new technological approaches. For example, when a scribe encounters a CDS alert, do they alert the clinician in all cases? 

In addition to the approaches mentioned in this article, other emerging technologies in early stages of development hold theoretical promise for improving patient safety. One prominent example is “computer vision,” which uses cameras and AI to gather and process data on what physically happens in healthcare settings beyond what is captured in EHR data, 21 including being able to detect immediately that a patient fell in their room. 22  

As technology continues to expand and improve, researchers, clinicians, and health systems must be mindful of potential stumbling blocks that could impede progress and threaten patient safety. However, technology presents a wide array of opportunities to make healthcare more integrated, efficient, and safe.  

• Cohen CC, Powell K, Dick AW, et al. The Association Between Nursing Home Information Technology Maturity and Urinary Tract Infection Among Long-Term Residents . J Appl Gerontol . 2022;41(7):1695-1701. doi: 10.1177/07334648221082024. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9232878/
• https://www.healthit.gov/topic/safety/safer-guides
• https://cds.ahrq.gov/cdsconnect/repository
• https://www.cms.gov/about-cms/obrhi
• McBride S, Makar E, Ross A, et al. Determining awareness of the SAFER guides among nurse informaticists. J Inform Nurs. 2021;6(4). https://library.ania.org/ania/articles/713/view
• Sittig DF, Sengstack P, Singh H. Guidelines for US hospitals and clinicians on assessment of electronic health record safety using SAFER guides. J ama . 2022;327:719-720.
• https://library.ahima.org/doc?oid=300027#.Y-6RhXbMKHt
• https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-computerized-provider-order-entry#:~:text=Computerized%20provider%20order%20entry%20(CPOE,paper%2C%20fax%2C%20or%20telephone
• https://digital.ahrq.gov/2018-year-review/research-spotlights/leveragin…
• Holmgren AJ, Downing NL, Bates DW, et al. Assessment of electronic health record use between US and non-US health systems. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;181:251-259. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7071
• Holmgren AJ, Apathy NC. Trends in US hospital electronic health record vendor market concentration, 2012–2021. J Gen Intern Med. 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-022-07917-3#citeas
• Co Z, Holmgren AJ, Classen DC, et al. The tradeoffs between safety and alert fatigue: data from a national evaluation of hospital medication-related clinical decision support. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2020;27:1252-1258. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32620948/
• Wong A, Otles E, Donnelly JP, et al. External validation of a widely implemented proprietary sepsis prediction model in hospitalized patients. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;181:1065-1070. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2781307
• Parikh RB, Zhang Y, Kolla L, et al. Performance drift in a mortality prediction algorithm among patients with cancer during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2022;30:348-354. https://academic.oup.com/jamia/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jamia/ocac221/6835770?login=false
• https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/products/racial-disparities-health…
• https://www.statnews.com/2022/05/24/market-failure-preventing-efficient-diffusion-health-care-ai-software/
• https://www.ai.gov/strategic-pillars/advancing-trustworthy-ai/
• Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health (WHO guidance). Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240029200
• Dullabh P, Sandberg SF, Heaney-Huls K, et al. Challenges and opportunities for advancing patient-centered clinical decision support: findings from a horizon scan. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2022: 29(7):1233-1243. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocac059. PMID: 35534996; PMCID: PMC9196686.
• https://cds.ahrq.gov/cdsic
• Yeung S, Downing NL, Fei-Fei L, et al. Bedside computer vision: moving artificial intelligence from driver assistance to patient safety. N Engl J Med. 2018;387:1271-1273. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp1716891
• Espinosa R, Ponce H, Gutiérrez S, et al. A vision-based approach for fall detection using multiple cameras and convolutional neural networks: a case study using the UP-Fall detection dataset. Comput Biol Med. 2019;115:103520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2019.103520

This project was funded under contract number 75Q80119C00004 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The authors are solely responsible for this report’s contents, findings, and conclusions, which do not necessarily represent the views of AHRQ. Readers should not interpret any statement in this report as an official position of AHRQ or of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. None of the authors has any affiliation or financial involvement that conflicts with the material presented in this report. View AHRQ Disclaimers

Perspective

Perspectives on Safety

Annual Perspective

Patient Safety Innovations

Suicide Prevention in an Emergency Department Population: ED-SAFE

WebM&M Cases

The Retrievals. August 9, 2023

Agent of change. August 1, 2018

Amid lack of accountability for bias in maternity care, a California family seeks justice. August 16, 2023

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An Update on the Quality of American Health Care Through the Patient's Lens. April 12, 2006

Improving patient safety by shifting power from health professionals to patients. October 25, 2023

Patient Safety Primers

Discharge Planning and Transitions of Care

Medicines-related harm in the elderly post-hospital discharge. March 27, 2019

Emergency department crowding: the canary in the health care system. November 3, 2021

Advancing Patient Safety: Reviews From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Making Healthcare Safer III Report. September 2, 2020

Exploring Alternatives To Malpractice Litigation. January 15, 2014

Making Healthcare Safer III. March 18, 2020

Special Section: Patient Safety. May 24, 2006

The Science of Simulation in Healthcare: Defining and Developing Clinical Expertise. November 19, 2008

Compendium of Strategies to Prevent HAIs in Acute Care Hospitals 2014. September 1, 2014

Quality, Safety, and Noninterpretive Skills. November 11, 2015

Patient Safety. November 21, 2018

Ambulatory Safety Nets to Reduce Missed and Delayed Diagnoses of Cancer

Remote response team and customized alert settings help improve management of sepsis.

Using sociotechnical theory to understand medication safety work in primary care and prescribers' use of clinical decision support: a qualitative study. May 24, 2023

Human factors and safety analysis methods used in the design and redesign of electronic medication management systems: a systematic review. May 17, 2023

Journal Article

Reducing hospital harm: establishing a command centre to foster situational awareness.

The potential for leveraging machine learning to filter medication alerts. May 4, 2022

Improving the specificity of drug-drug interaction alerts: can it be done? April 6, 2022

A qualitative study of prescribing errors among multi-professional prescribers within an e-prescribing system. December 23, 2020

The tradeoffs between safety and alert fatigue: data from a national evaluation of hospital medication-related clinical decision support. July 29, 2020

Assessment of health information technology-related outpatient diagnostic delays in the US Veterans Affairs health care system: a qualitative study of aggregated root cause analysis data. July 22, 2020

Reducing drug prescription errors and adverse drug events by application of a probabilistic, machine-learning based clinical decision support system in an inpatient setting. August 21, 2019

Improving medication-related clinical decision support. March 7, 2018

The frequency of inappropriate nonformulary medication alert overrides in the inpatient setting. April 6, 2016

The effect of provider characteristics on the responses to medication-related decision support alerts. July 15, 2015

Best practices: an electronic drug alert program to improve safety in an accountable care environment. July 1, 2015

Impact of computerized physician order entry alerts on prescribing in older patients. March 25, 2015

Differences of reasons for alert overrides on contraindicated co-prescriptions by admitting department. December 17, 2014

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Alum Alexander Levine Honored with Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award

University of Maryland Department of Computer Science alum Alexander Levine (Ph.D. '23, computer science) has been awarded the Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award for his dissertation titled "Scalable Methods for Robust Machine Learning." Levine, now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin , focused on developing machine learning models that maintain accuracy amid distortions. The award ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, at the Stamp Student Union. The award is for the dissertation he completed in 2023.

The Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award is given annually by the Graduate School to recognize dissertations that provide highly original contributions that make an unusually significant contribution to the discipline. Levine is among four recipients of the award this year.

Awardees receive an honorarium of $1,000. Additionally, they may be nominated for further recognition at the national level through the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award competition, which selects outstanding dissertations from across the country to honor achievements in graduate research.

“I feel honored that my work has been recognized by this award,” Levine said. “I am deeply thankful for all of the support I received during my time at UMD from my advisor, my collaborators, my dissertation committee and the rest of the UMD computer science community. I am fortunate to have worked with such talented people on such interesting problems.”

Advised by Associate Professor Soheil Feizi , Levine's dissertation introduces innovative methods for ensuring the robustness of machine learning models, specifically in scenarios where input data may be subtly altered or distorted, including malicious tampering. This research is particularly relevant as machine learning applications become increasingly prevalent in areas requiring high reliability and security.

Levine explained that practitioners can implement these systems more confidently in safety-critical applications by developing machine learning techniques with well-understood robustness guarantees. He noted that the capabilities of machine-learning-based systems have expanded dramatically in just the last couple of years, increasing their use in various sectors. Levine emphasized the growing importance of ensuring these systems' robustness as their applications broaden.

Levine is currently expanding his research focus.

“At UT Austin, my research focus has shifted to representation learning for sequential decision-making tasks,” Levine shared. “In particular, I have been working on frameworks that allow deep learning to be used in combination with search-based planning techniques, so that we can benefit from both the powerful capabilities of modern deep learning and the interpretability, flexibility and efficiency of classical planning methods. ”

Levine received the Larry S. Davis Doctoral Dissertation Award in the Fall of 2023 . Named in honor of Computer Science Professor Emeritus Larry Davis , the award, given by UMD’s Department of Computer Science, highlighted dissertations that were exceptional in their technical depth and potential for significant impact.

—Story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications 

The Department welcomes comments, suggestions and corrections.  Send email to editor [-at-] cs [dot] umd [dot] edu .

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Computer Science > Robotics

Title: research on robot path planning based on reinforcement learning.

Abstract: This project has conducted research on robot path planning based on Visual SLAM. The main work of this project is as follows: (1) Construction of Visual SLAM system. Research has been conducted on the basic architecture of Visual SLAM. A Visual SLAM system is developed based on ORB-SLAM3 system, which can conduct dense point cloud mapping. (2) The map suitable for two-dimensional path planning is obtained through map conversion. This part converts the dense point cloud map obtained by Visual SLAM system into an octomap and then performs projection transformation to the grid map. The map conversion converts the dense point cloud map containing a large amount of redundant map information into an extremely lightweight grid map suitable for path planning. (3) Research on path planning algorithm based on reinforcement learning. This project has conducted experimental comparisons between the Q-learning algorithm, the DQN algorithm, and the SARSA algorithm, and found that DQN is the algorithm with the fastest convergence and best performance in high-dimensional complex environments. This project has conducted experimental verification of the Visual SLAM system in a simulation environment. The experimental results obtained based on open-source dataset and self-made dataset prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the designed Visual SLAM system. At the same time, this project has also conducted comparative experiments on the three reinforcement learning algorithms under the same experimental condition to obtain the optimal algorithm under the experimental condition.

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Research-Supported PBL Practices

At one New Tech Network high school, strategies backed by research make project-based learning effective and engaging for teachers and students.

At Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas, several research-based practices interact to promote successful inquiry-based learning:

• Collaborative project-based learning
• Teacher development and leadership
• Technology integration

Manor New Tech is part of the New Tech Network , a nonprofit that works with schools and districts around the country providing services and support to help reform learning through project-based learning (PBL). Since opening its doors in fall 2007, the school has achieved several notable accomplishments:

• It has graduated two classes with an average annual graduation rate of 98 percent.
• All 39 students in the first senior class graduated, and 95 percent of the 74 students in the class of 2011 graduated. Those who did not graduate are continuing to work on getting their diplomas.
• On average, 96 percent of students in the first two classes (100 percent of those who graduated) were admitted to college, and over 50 percent of those admitted were first-generation college students.
• Currently, 79 percent of Manor New Tech graduates have enrolled in a two- or four-year college immediately after high school, according to the National Student Clearinghouse, thus surpassing the national rate of 70 percent.
• The school has outperformed the state of Texas and Manor Independent School District in the percentage of students passing state standards in three of the four subjects tested: science, social studies, and reading/English language arts.

Collaborative Project-Based Learning

When implemented well, PBL has been shown to develop students' critical thinking skills, improve long-term retention of content learned, and increase students' and teachers' satisfaction with learning experiences (see Ravitz, 2009, for a review). Students at Manor New Tech typically complete nearly 200 projects over the course of their high school experience, with each project lasting about two to four weeks. ( See our article "A Step-by-Step Guide to the Best Projects" for more details on Manor's PBL process or watch the video. )

In designing projects, teachers spend significant time developing a driving question, which forms the backbone of the project and helps to engage student learning (Blumenfeld, Soloway, Marx, Krajcik, Guzdial and Palincsar, 1991). An example of a driving question is, "How can we use mathematics to design and use a Dobsonian telescope?" Teachers at Manor New Tech start with the end goal in mind and avoid canned projects to ensure relevance to their students. As a general rule, the driving questions at Manor New Tech must be mapped to state standards and cover a sufficient number of them to warrant the time spent on the project. In accordance with research on effective problem-based learning designs (Hung, 2009), teachers at Manor New Tech design projects so that learning the content defined by the state standards is necessary in order to successfully complete the project.

At the start of each project, students receive a detailed assessment rubric that outlines the state standards the project covers and provides explanations of how performance will be assessed. Providing a rubric for students has been shown to promote students' time-on-task and content-related discussion (Barron and Darling-Hammond, 2008). The rubric often includes time lines and information on essential elements of successful final products (for example, if a report may be produced as a podcast rather than a paper, the rubric specifies minimum length for the podcast). After students have received the assignment, teachers ask them to determine what content they know and what they need to know. The need-to-know lists are reviewed as a class, and any questions are clarified. Students are prone to ask questions about project logistics (e.g., Can we use music? When is it due? How many grades will we get?), but by adding a content section to the list of knows and need-to-knows, students are more likely to ask questions about content, a practice that is at the heart of inquiry-based learning (Yañez, Schneider and Leach, 2009).

Well over a thousand studies support the impacts of collaborative learning on improving student achievement and promoting positive peer relationships across group lines (Johnson and Johnson, 2009). The way that teachers support successful collaboration is likely an important ingredient in Manor New Tech's success. Students are assigned to groups of three or four, and the first group project meeting begins with groups creating contracts that establish shared norms or expectations for behavior (e.g., being on time, not criticizing each other's ideas, etc.). Building individual accountability into the project process helps to promote successful student collaboration (Slavin, 1996). If a student is not fulfilling his or her portion of the project, it is the responsibility of team members to bring this to the teacher's attention, being specific about the responsibilities that are not being completed. Team members can be fired, which means that the fired student must complete the project on his or her own, although this occurs infrequently at Manor New Tech.

Once a project is under way, teachers' roles shift to advisers, coaches, and evaluators, scaffolding students' success with ongoing and diverse assessments and giving benchmark grades as key stages of the project are completed. Importantly, teachers adjust the project in response to student input, several citing Angelo and Cross's Classroom Assessment Techniques as a frequent reference (Angelo and Cross, 1993; Dickinson and Summers, 2010). During in-class presentations, which occur throughout the project process, students provide feedback to each other using the "I like/I wonder/next steps" format (i.e., statements should begin with "I like…" or "I wonder…" or provide suggestions for next steps).

In addition to the content objectives, which are based on state standards, Manor has six learning outcomes that are assessed in every project: written communication, oral communication, collaboration, critical thinking, work ethic, and technology literacy. Two additional learning outcomes -- numeracy and global awareness/community engagement -- each must be assessed in at least one project per semester. By providing clear learning goals at the start of each project and ongoing and diverse assessments with frequent feedback, Manor New Tech creates an environment for effective inquiry-based learning (Barron and Darling-Hammond, 2008).

Supporting Teachers' Development and Leadership

Professional development has been shown to help teachers implement PBL successfully (Toolin, 2004; Ravitz, Hixson, English and Mergendoller, 2012). Manor New Tech has instituted several systems that effectively support teachers in leading project-based learning throughout the project cycle:

• Professional Development Mondays: Once a week, the school employs a one- to two-hour delayed start for students so staff can engage in a range of professional development meetings, including faculty-wide meetings and leadership committees.
• Critical Friends: This peer-evaluation protocol (also used by students to evaluate each other's projects) often takes place on Mondays and provides a supportive meeting space in which teachers receive feedback on project designs and suggestions for how to adapt tactics as projects progress.
• Teaching Advancement Program : TAP provides time and compensation for teachers to take on extra responsibilities and to mentor other teachers. Master teachers are always on call to provide assistance and mentorship to their peers, and many new teachers cite the master teachers as critical to their success and confidence (E3 Alliance, 2009).
• Project Lead The Way provides STEM curriculum, teacher training, professional learning communities, and business partnerships that enhance the professional relevance of PBL and work-based learning opportunities. Manor New Tech students follow this STEM curricular program, which requires all students to take two courses in engineering (Engineering Design and Principles of Engineering).
• Summer professional development: Each year, all Manor New Tech teachers participate in the New Tech Network's summer training institute. In addition, Manor New Tech hosts the Think Forward Institute , a training workshop for teachers and administrators from Texas and beyond on how to lead PBL successfully. Manor teachers report that engaging in professional learning communities and teaching others about their methods helps them reflect upon and refine what they have learned over the course of the year.
• UTeach enables pre-service education students at the University of Texas to gain experience in PBL instruction at Manor New Tech, as well as at other inquiry-based high schools. A substantial number of teachers at Manor New Tech have been recruited through the UTeach program (International Center for Leadership in Education, 2010).
• Team-teaching and one-on-one professional development coaching are regularly supported at Manor New Tech.

This system of supports helps teachers to design and lead engaging, rigorous projects at Manor New Tech. In addition, the school encourages creativity in project designs and in the approaches that students can take to complete their projects. Providing teachers with greater autonomy over their work, in the context of accountability arrangements, along with professional development, have been shown to promote the success of teachers and students (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2011).

Technology Integration

In general, technology works best when it facilitates learning and activities that would occur without the technology, while extending the time, place, and pace at which they can occur (Naidu, 2008). An analysis by the U.S. Department of Education (Means et al., 2010) also found that blended learning environments are more effective than either online learning or face-to-face learning alone. To blend face-to-face and online learning, Manor New Tech uses New Tech Network's proprietary Echo platform, which integrates Google Apps for Education, to support project collaboration and facilitate communication among parents, students, and teachers. The platform includes the following features:

• Grade tracking: The platform's online grade management tools display student progress on multiple learning outcomes such as the state content standards, written and oral communication, collaboration, critical thinking, work ethic, and technology literacy. The online system provides a comprehensive indicator across grade levels and classes that helps teachers, parents, and students see individual student strengths and weaknesses on a daily real-time basis, enabling teachers to coach students accordingly.
• Instruction and training resources: Resources include New Tech Network's guidelines and tools, teacher-created documents (e.g., rubrics, scaffolding activities), and professional development materials tied to PBL.
• Library: The library is a collection of high-quality projects developed by New Tech Network teachers that are available for immediate teacher use.
• Student journals: Journals facilitate student reflection, help teachers check students' progress, and ensure that students are on course and understand the content.
• Discussion forums: Students and teachers can instantly share ideas and resources.
• Agendas: Daily agendas are linked to project tasks, reinforcing collaboration and school culture.
• Evaluation tools: Tools facilitate peer feedback and help students evaluate projects or group collaborations, as well as enable teachers to track behavior and reward positive student behavior accordingly.

The Scalability of the New Tech Model

High school reform researchers consistently find that immediate positive outcomes are more likely when launching a brand-new school like Manor New Tech, as compared to redesigning underperforming schools (National Evaluation of High School Transformation, 2006; cited in E3 Alliance, 2009). New Tech Network has grown rapidly from 16 schools in the 2006-07 academic year, to 42 schools in 2009-10, to 85 schools in 16 states in 2011-12 (New Tech Network Outcomes, 2012). New Tech's internal evaluation data indicates promising evidence that its model has replicated successfully, with an average four-year cohort graduation rate of 86 percent, an average dropout rate of less than 3 percent, and a college enrollment rate of 67 percent immediately following high school graduation (New Tech Network Outcomes, April 2012; New Tech data 2012).

However, the scalability of the New Tech Network model remains an open question. Can New Tech maintain the quality of the services it provides as it scales nationally? In addition, will New Tech's model work for schools that lack the infrastructure to support systematic professional development around project-based learning and 1:1 computing?

An additional factor that may also account for Manor New Tech's success is that students must apply to attend. Even though Manor New Tech uses a blind lottery system, all students who apply are likely to be more motivated to succeed in school.

Bibliography

Angelo, T.A. and Cross, P.C. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Barron, B., and Darling-Hammond, L. (2008). Teaching for Meaningful Learning: A Review of Research on Inquiry-Based and Cooperative Learning.

Blumenfeld, P. C., Soloway, E., Marx, R. W., Krajcik, J. S., Guzdial, M. and Palincsar, A. (1991). Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning. Educational Psychologist, 26 (3 and 4), 369-398.

Dickinson, G., and Summers, E.J. (2010). Understanding Proficiency in Project-Based Instruction: Interlinking the Perceptions and Experiences of Preservice and In-service Teachers and their Students; A synthesis report prepared for Manor New Technology High School, Manor, TX. Texas State University-San Marcos.

E3 Alliance. (2009). Case Study of Manor New Tech High School: Promising Practices for Comprehensive High Schools.

Hung, W. (2009). The 9-Step Problem Design Process for Problem-Based Learning: Application of the 3C3R Model. Educational Research Review, 4 , 118-141.

International Center for Leadership in Education. (2010). Case Study of Manor New Technology High School, Manor, Texas. Model Schools Conference, June 2010, Orlando, FL.

Johnson, D. W. and Johnson, R. T. (2009). An Educational Psychology Success Story: Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning. Educational Researcher, 38 (5), 365-379.

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., and Jones, K. (2010). Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Naidu, S. (2008). Enabling Time, Pace, and Place Independence. In J.M. Spector, M.D. Merrill, J.J.G. Van Merriënboer, and M.P. Driscoll (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (3rd ed.), (259-268). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

New Tech Network Outcomes 2010-11 (April 2012).

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2011). Building a High-Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from around the World. OECD Publishing, Paris.

Ravitz, Jason (2009). Introduction: Summarizing Findings and Looking Ahead to a New Generation of PBL Research. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, 3 (1), Article 2.

Ravitz, J., Hixson, N., English, M., and Mergendoller, J. (2012). Using PBL to Teach 21st Century Skills: Findings from a Statewide Initiative in West Virginia. Paper presented at Annual Meetings of the American Educational Research Association. Vancouver, BC. April 16, 2012.

Slavin, R. E. (1996). Research on Cooperative Learning and Achievement: What We Know, What We Need to Know. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21 , 43-69.

Toolin, R.E. (2010). Striking a Balance Between Innovation and Standards: A Study of Teachers Implementing Project-Based Approaches to Teaching Science. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 13 (2).

Yañez, D., Schneider, C. L., Leach, L. F. (2009). Summary of Selected Findings from a Case Study of Manor New Technology High School in the Manor Independent School District, Manor, Texas. Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

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Manor New Technology High School

Per pupil expenditures, free / reduced lunch, demographics:.

5% English language learners 4% Special needs