The Effects of Project-Based Learning on Students' Academic Achievement and Intrinsic Motivation in Science Class

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

10-2014

Department

Teaching & Educational Leadership

Abstract

Grounded in constructivism teaching methodology, the present study investigated the effect of the project-based learning strategy on students’ learning outcomes and perception in a middle school science class. Participants were 121 students. A within-subjects design employed to compare students’ test scores after using project-based method (PBL) and lecture-based (LBL) method. The results for this study indicated that students in PBL condition perform better compared to LBL condition. This effect was demonstrated by the paired samples t-test statistically significant differences in students’ learning outcome, with the highest scores achieved by students in the PBL condition (M = 80.72, SD = 14.67) compared to LBL (M = 72.50, SD = 16.44), t (119) = 6.349, p < .001, a = .001. Further, the results of ANOVA analysis indicate that there were no significant differences of the PBL method on male students’ learning outcome compared to female students. Finally, the results indicate that students preferred and were more motivated in the PBL condition compared to LBL. The findings of the present study suggest that the use of PBL method has the potential to effectively improve students’ learning outcome and motivation in middle school science class and that the PBL method improve all students’ learning outcomes equally and effectively, regardless of their gender.

First Page

701

Last Page

706

Publication Title

Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning

Publisher

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

ISBN

9781939797124

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