The promise of the project to student-centered learning: Connections between elements, curricular design, and practices of project based learning

Abstract

This paper examined connections between core Project-Based Learning (PBL) elements, curricular design features, and teacher enactment of PBL practices. Twenty-five teachers in underserved communities were interviewed, submitted videos, and provided curricular features of a PBL unit. Artifacts/Interviews were coded according to presence or absence of PBL elements, and videos were coded according to teachers' presence or absence of support. Presence of support was sub-coded as low- and high-support PBL practices. Results revealed that teachers’ design features related to PBL elements; however, design features mainly did not correlate to PBL high-support practices. Additional support may be needed in bridging the gap between PBL instructional designs and their effective realization in the classroom.