Research Plan: What is the effect of Project-Based learning on Student
Engagement
Sean Cordeiro
Dr. J Taggart
City University of Seattle
Research Methods in Education, EEC 511
The world is changing at an exponential rate, and education needs to change with
the world. In the past 10 years all industries have had to change and adapt to stay relevant
and education is no exception. Students no longer need to memorize information that they
can Google. Instead students need to know how to search for information, decipher
information and process this information. Many students are not engaged in school and
find their schooling to be irrelevant. “Students need learning experiences that meet them
where they are, engage them deeply, let them progress at a pace that meets their
individual needs, and helps them master the skills for today and tomorrow” (Foundation,
2014). The problem I am going to address is that Students are Bored in school. My
capstone will examine: the effects of Project Based Learning on student engagement.” In
Exploring the antecedents of boredom; Do teachers know why students are bored?” Elena
Daschmann found that 91% of students surveyed felt that characteristics of instruction
were the reason for boredom in school” (Daschmann, Elena, Goeta, Thomas, Stupisky,
2014) . In the article one student was quoted as saying they are bored “when the course
always follows the same monotonous scheme, everyday over again.” (Daschmann, Elena,
Goeta, Thomas, Stupisky, 2014).
The articles I plan to use to backup my viewpoint that students are not engaged,
are: The meaning of boredom in school lessons; Participant observation in the
seventh and eighth form by G. Breidenstein; Exploring the antecedents of boredom:
Do teachers know why students are bored? by E. Daschmann, T. Goeta, and R.
Stupisky; Are Students Failing School or Are Schools Failing Students? Class Cutting
in High School by K. Fakkus and S. Opotow; A matter of attitude? Developing a
profile of boys’ and girls’ responses to primary schooling by J. Gray and R. An;
Student Engagement in Instructional Activity: Patterns in the Elementary, Middle,
and High School Years by H. Marks; Arts Voices: Middle School Students and the
Relationships of the Arts to their Motivation and Self-Efficacy by H. Moorefield-Lang;
Middle School Students’ Motivation and Quality of Experience: A Comparison of
Montessori and Traditional School Environments by K. Rathunde and M.
Csikszentmihalyi. Boredom in the middle school years: blaming schools versus
blaming students by R Larson and M Richards; Coping with Boredom in school; an
experience sampling perspective by U. Nett, T. Goetz and N. Hall and Susceptibility
to boredom and devuiant behavior at school by A. Watson.
My solution to student bordom and lack of engagement is Project-Based
Learning. In my capstone I am going to look at how I am going to implement project
based learning in my own classroom and how researchers have implemented it in
other schools. I will show what programs have been effective at aleviating boredom
and lack of engagement and why Project Based Learing is the best solution. I will
also do a meta anaylsis.
The aim of my project is to see if project based learning is effective in engaging
students. My hypotesis is that when projects are student driven, reasistic as
opposed to being contrived school like assignments, and involve students in
constructive investigation, students will be more engaged in their learning. In my
capstone, I will define exactly what boredom, engagement, and Project-based
learning are. I believe the research will show that student driven project based
learning is effective at engaging students. I will also look at different ways that
teachers have engaged students and see if I am able to take parts of different
programs to create one that will work best in the fraser valley schools. The
literature reviews on project based learning that I will use will include: Problembased learning: What and how do students learn? By C. Hmelo-Silver; Learning,
Beliefs, and Products: Students’ Perspectives with Project-based Learning by M.
Grant; Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the
Learning by P. Blumenfeld; A Review of Research on Project-Based Learning by J.
Thomas; Project-Based Learning in a Middle School: Tracing Ablilities Through the
Artifacts of Learning by M. Grant; Learning History in Middle School by Designming
Multimedia in a Project-Based learning experience by P. Hernandez-Ramos ; A
qualitative study using project-based learning in a mainstream middle school by S.
Wurdinger, J. Haar, R. Hugg and J. Bezon; An Instructional Model to Support
Problem-Based Historical Inquiry: The Persistent Issues in History Network by J.
Brush and T. Saye; and implementation and assessment of project-based learning in
a flexible environment by Y. Doppelt.
My proposed study has its strenths, as well as its limitations. The some of the
strenths include compiling the research to prove that project-based learning
engages students with the hope that more teachers will use it in their classrooms,
and that Project-Based learning has been around for a long time. PBL has changed
names over time, but the concepts have remained similar. Some of the other names
include collaborative learning, constructivist learning, and inquiry-based learning.
One of the limitations of my capstone is that I am not doing human subject studies
and therefore I will not be contributing my own reasearch to the topic. I am also
limited by the research that is available. While this topic has been around for a long
time, the available research is still somewhat limited.
I am going to find articles and reseach by searching Google Scholar, searching
the City University Databases, Using the City University Ask a Librarian, emailing
and calling researchers in the field, and by asking professors, colleges and my peers
in my cohort. Once I have read all the research I will synthesize the information and
plan a program I am going to implement. It is too early in my research to know how
I am going to do that.
Works Cited
Blumenfeld, P., Soloway, E., & Marx, R. (1991). Motivating project-based learning:
Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning. Educational …, 26(3), 369–398.
Retrieved from
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arning_sustaining_the_doing_supporting_the_learner.pdf
Breidenstein, G. (2007). The meaning of boredom in school lessons. Participant
observation in the seventh and eighth form. Ethnography and Education.
Retrieved March 15, 2014, from
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Brush, Thomas, Saye, J. (2014). An Instructional Model to Support Problem-Based
Historical Inquiry: The Persistent Issues in History Network. Interdisciplinary
Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 8(1), 1–13. Retrieved from
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1409&context=ijpbl
Daschmann, Elena, Goeta, Thomas, Stupisky, R. (2014). Exploring the antecedents of
boredom: Do teachers know why students are bored? Teaching and Teacher
Education. Retrieved March 20, 2014, from
https://my.cityu.edu/clioweb/Pdfs/114842711.pdf
Doppelt, Y. (2003). Implementation and assessment of project-based learning in a
flexible environment. International Journal of Technology and Design …, 13,
255–272. Retrieved from
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1026125427344
Fakkus, Kirk, Opotow, S. (2003). Are Students Failing School or Are Schools Failing
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Foundation, B. and M. G. (2014). College Ready Education. Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. Retrieved March 20, 2014, from
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/US-Program/College-ReadyEducation
Grand, M, Branch, R. M. (2005). Project-Based Learning In a Middle School: Tracing
Abilities Through The Artifacts of Learning. Journal of Research on Technology
in Education, 38(1), 65–98. Retrieved from
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Grant, M. (2011). Learning, Beliefs, and Products: Students’ Perspectives with
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Hernández-Ramos, P. (2009). Learning History in Middle School by Designing
Multimedia in a Project-Based Learning Experience. Journal of Research on
Technology in Education, 42(2), 151–173. Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ868627.pdf
Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2004). Problem-Based Learning: What and How Do Students
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Larson, R. (1991). Boredom in the Middle School Years: Blaming Schools versus
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Marks, H. M. (Ohio S. U. (2000). Student Engagement in Instructional Activity:
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Moorefield-Lang, H. (2010). Arts Voices: Middle School Students and the
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Rathunde, Kevin, Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2005). Middle School Students’ Motivation
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