Spring 2015
Question & Sub-questions
What would the impact be on student engagement
when I adopt a project-based learning (PBL)
framework in Social Studies?
What is the impact on on-task behaviour?
How does time devoted to the task change?
How does student participation during class discussions
change?
What emotions do the students feel?
Why?
I did this field study for a number of reasons:
I usually lean on the textbook quite a bit when teaching.
I teach how I was taught.
I wanted to try a different teaching method because as a
student, I found reading the textbook boring, so I
assumed that my students found my lessons boring.
Pre-Survey
Students answered 14 questions about their
experiences when doing Social Studies on Feb. 11, 2015.
Results
40% of students felt what they were learning is important.
33% of students were interested in what they were learning.
17% of students thought Socials was fun and exciting.
39% of students felt bored in Socials.
32% of students like reading the textbook.
80% of students were interested in group projects.
The Task: Create a Government
Students were given an imaginary island where they had to
create a government for
The project began with students writing down what they
needed to answer when creating their government.
As a class, we came up with a list of what they needed to
know before they could create their own government.
During the 4 week period, I gave mini-lessons based on
what they identified as need to know.
Students were given time to work on their project, while I
observed and check in with groups along the way.
PBL vs. Projects
I realized very quickly that the project my students
were doing was a project, not PBL.
PBL (Teachthought Staff, 2012)
Keewara Project
Is open: Students make choices that
determine the outcome and path of
research
Students were given a list of questions
they had to answer
Could provide solutions in the real
world to real problems
Could not be used in the real world to
solve problems
The scenario is real (or if fictitious, is
realistic and timely).
Keewara government is imaginary
Includes many need to knows for
both the students and teacher.
Is outlined on one piece of paper
The Sub-question Issue
Three of my sub-questions looked at behavioural
engagement (Parsons. S et al, 2014):
On task behaviour
Time devoted to the task
Participation
The problem with looking at student behaviour is I did
not create a baseline of what the above 3 looked like
before starting my inquiry. Consequently, I cannot
report on the changes of the behaviour; however, I can
report the observations I made.
Post Survey Results
Project based learning is known to be more engaging for
students (Lattimer H. & Riordan R., 2011; Buck Institute,
2015) and it is clearly shown in the post survey results.
Results
74% of students felt what they were learning is important.
63% of students were interested in what they were
learning.
58% of students thought Socials was fun and exciting.
10% of students felt bored in Socials.
73% of students enjoyed the government lab.
79% of students liked the Keewara project.
Program Capacities
By engaging in this inquiry, I grew in these capacities:
Educational Leader: Attempted to implement PBL
Strategic and Responsive Teacher: Responded to what
my students needed to complete their project
Flexible Learner & Practitioner: Changed how I would
normally teach Socials because most students found S.S.
uninteresting.
Reflective Practitioner: After observations, reflected and
thought about what was working and what wasnt during
the inquiry. I actually wrote observations and
reflections!
I learned
The importance of writing down observations when I
am doing field study work. I found when I did, I was
able to look back and then reflect on what occurred.
This field study has impacted by beliefs about using
the textbook when teaching. It is far more engaging
do use other methods of teaching. In the future, I plan
to do more projects and less textbook work.
Reflections & Wonderings
PBL is more complex than I first realized. I will need
to spend some more time learning how to do PBL in
my classroom.
Group work is tricky as there can be disagreements
between members. Should I teach students how to
work in a group before engaging in group work?
Engagement means so much more than behaviour. I
found behaviour challenging to observe. I would like
to focus more on emotions students feel, as engaged
students report positive emotions (Chapman, 2003;
Parsons. S et al, 2014)
Works Cited
Buck Institute. (2015). Why Project Based Learning (PBL)? Retrieved
February 7, 2015, from http://bie.org/about/why_pbl
Chapman, E. (2003). Alternative Approaches to assessing student
engagement rates. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 8 (13).
Lattimer, H., & Riordan, R. (2011). Project-based learning engages
students in meaningful work. Middle School Journal, 42(2), 18-23.
Parsons, S., Richey Nuland, L., & Ward Parsons, A. (2014). The ABCs of
student engagement. Phi Delta Kappan, 95(8), 23-27.
Teachthought Staff (2015). The Difference Between Projects And ProjectBased Learning. Retrieved April 5, 2015, from:
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/project-basedlearning/difference-between-projects-and-project-based-learning/
