Forced by organizational and curricular constraints, lectures were moved to weekends and, to minimize the potential lack of motivation among students, teachers decided to use this approach. PjBL originated in an architecture school in Rome in the 16th century.
Since both approaches are closely related and share a central end, throughout this review we will use the term PjBL to refer to both of them. In practice, given the usual difficulties in distinguishing one from the other or in defining their key features, both terms are often employed interchangeably among researchers and teachers. Finally, PjBL occurs over an extended time period, while PBL normally lasts a few days. In addition, while in PBL the solution to the problem is merely suggested, in PjBL it must be executed. For instance, in PjBL learners are expected to follow correct procedures towards a desired end-product or presentation during which they are likely to encounter different problems, while in PBL the emphasis is on the role of the students to define the problem and develop a solution. Despite these common characteristics, PjBL and PBL also present some noticeable differences. PjBL and PBL are usually described as active, student-centred methods of instruction that encourage students to work in collaborative groups on real-world questions or challenges to promote the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills, while teachers act as facilitators of learning.
Within this context, project-based learning (PjBL) and problem-based learning (PBL) have emerged as valuable inquiry approaches to achieve the so-called skills for the 21st century. According to many experts, although the prevailing methods of direct instruction and recitation may be effective for the acquisition of factual knowledge, these skills demand new pedagogical approaches. Some of these skills are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, or creativity. Over the last decade, numerous institutions have addressed the skills and dispositions that are expected to be vital for schooling in 21st century. Funders did not play any role in any phase of the study.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. As the present systematic review does not include a quantitative meta-analysis, there are no additional datafiles, beyond the information reported in the results section.įunding: Funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación with grant number PSI2017-85159-P (MAV), Comunidad de Madrid (ES) with grant number 2016-T1/SOC-1395 (MAV) and Comunidad de Madrid (ES) with grant number 2020-5A/SOC-19723 (MAV). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are reported within the paper. Received: JAccepted: MaPublished: April 2, 2021Ĭopyright: © 2021 Ferrero et al. PLoS ONE 16(4):Įditor: Mingming Zhou, University of Macau, MACAO Educational implications of these results are discussed.Ĭitation: Ferrero M, Vadillo MA, León SP (2021) Is project-based learning effective among kindergarten and elementary students? A systematic review. The studies yielded inconclusive results, had important methodological flaws, and reported insufficient or no information about important aspects of the materials, procedure and key requirements from students and instructors to guarantee the success of PjBL. The final sample included eleven articles comprising data from 722 students.
The inclusion criteria for the review required that studies followed a pre-post design with control group and measured quantitatively the impact of PBL on content knowledge of students.
For this objective, we conducted a literature search in January 2020. We also examined the quality of studies, their compliance with basic prerequisites for a successful result, and their fidelity towards the key elements of PBL intervention. The aim of the present study was to perform a systematic review of the empirical evidence assessing the impact of PjBL on academic achievement of kindergarten and elementary students. However, the evidence of its effectiveness in the classroom is still limited, especially in basic education. Project-based learning (PjBL) is becoming widespread in many schools.