Published Articles

Including teachers in the social justice equation of project-based learning: A response to Lee & Grapin

Adah Miller, E., Makori, H., Akgun, S., Miller, C., Li, T., & Codere, S. (2022). Including teachers in the social justice equation of project-based learning: A response to Lee & Grapin. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1– 7.

The Impact of Project-Based Learning on AP Exam Performance

Saavedra, A. R., Lock Morgan, K., Liu, Y., Garland, M. W., Rapaport, A., Hu, A., Hoepfner, D., & Haderlein, S. K. (2022). The Impact of Project-Based Learning on AP Exam Performance. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.

Harnessing a cluster randomized controlled trial, we estimated the impact on students’ advanced placement (AP) examination performance of a project-based learning (PBL) approach to AP compared with a lecture-based AP approach. Through PBL, teachers primarily play a facilitator role, while students work on complex tasks organized around central questions leading to a final product. We estimated positive and significant treatment effects on AP exam performance for the overall sample, within both AP courses studied, and within low- and high-income student groups. Results support teacher-driven adoption of the PBL AP approach within both courses studied, among districts with open-enrollment AP policies and supportive of PBL, for students from low- and high-income households.

Mapping Enabling Conditions for High-Quality PBL: A Collaboratory Approach

Potvin, A. S., Miller, E. A., Kuck, R., Berland, L. K., Boardman, A. G., Kavanagh, S. S., Clark, T. L., et al. (2022). Mapping Enabling Conditions for High-Quality PBL: A Collaboratory Approach. Education Sciences, 12(3), 222. MDPI AG.

This paper explores enabling conditions for scaling high-quality project-based learning (PBL) to understand factors that influence how PBL spreads, whether and how it can be sustained and the extent to which it informs meaningful change in schools. We report on a year-long collaboration across three research projects. Each project team analyzed qualitative data from their individual project and then aggregated data across projects to understand similarities and variations in conditions that support the long-term implementation goals of PBL.

Motivating Teaching, Sustaining Change in Practice

Miller, E.C., Severance, S., and Krajcik, J. (2021). Motivating Teaching, Sustaining Change in Practice: Design Principles for Teacher Learning in Project-Based Learning Contexts, Journal of Science Teacher Education, 32:7, 757-779

In A Framework for K-12 Science Education, researchers call for teachers to make dramatic shifts in practice – and sustain in these changes in practice – so students can engage in rigorous and equitable three-dimensional science learning. Project-Based Learning (PBL) motivates students from diverse backgrounds to persist in learning. This project presents design features that bring together the assets of the Framework with PBL, and then tests these features to derive design principles that serve as commitments for designing for teacher change and student learning. Close ethnographic study of 10 teachers over 5 years in a design-based research study is triangulated with data collected across 41 districts in multiple states engaged in a PBL elementary science curriculum. The following design principles provide guidance for developing materials that support the depth necessary for promoting changes to teachers’ practice at scale: Adaptive, Responsive, and both Enjoyable and Intellectually Satisfying.

Knowledge in Action Efficacy Study Over Two Years

Saavedra, A.R., Liu Y., Haderlein, S.K., Rapaport, A., Garland, M., Hoepfner, D., Morgan, K.L., & Hu, A. (February 2021). Knowledge in Action Efficacy Study Over Two Years. USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research.

Knowledge in Action is a project-based learning approach to Advanced Placement. Developers designed KIA intervention—comprised of curriculum, instructional materials, and robust professional development supports for teachers—to bolster students’ deeper understanding of content and skills. A randomized controlled trial efficacy evaluation of the Knowledge in Action intervention was conducted in 2016-17 with a follow-up study of RCT schools in 2017-18. This report describes the study motivation, context, research methods, results, and implications.

Putting PjBL to the Test: The Impact of Project-Based Learning on Second Graders’ Social Studies and Literacy Learning and Motivation in Low-Ses School Settings.

Duke, N. K., Halvorsen, A., Strachan, S. L., Kim, J., & Konstantopoulos, S. (2020). American Educational Research Journal.

This article discusses how a cluster randomized controlled trial investigated the impact of project-based learning with professional development supports social studies and literacy achievement and motivation of second-grade students from low–socioeconomic status school districts.

Promoting Deep Learning Through Project-Based Learning: A Design Problem

Miller, E.C., Krajcik, J.S. Promoting deep learning through project-based learning: a design problem. Discip Interdscip Sci Educ Res 1, 7 (2019) doi:10.1186/s43031-019-0009-6

This paper presents a design solution that involves the bringing together of project-based learning with the theory of usable knowledge.

Discourse Tools Amplify Students’ Ideas and Build Knowledge

Miller, E., & Brown, T. (2019). Discourse Tools Amplify Students' Ideas and Build Knowledge. Science and Children, 56(9), 76-79.

This article describes a lesson in which the teacher uses discourse tools from WIDA (https://wida.wisc.edu) to support second grade students in the language-rich practice of argumentation.

Preparing Teachers for Project-Based Teaching

Grossman, P., Dean, C. G. P., Kavanagh, S. S., & Herrmann, Z. (2019). Preparing teachers for project-based teaching. Phi Delta Kappan, 100(7), 43–48.

This article discusses how to prepare teachers for project-based teaching using core practices.

Project-Based Learning in Primary-Grade Social Studies

Halvorsen, A.-L., Duke, N. K., Strachan, S. L. (2019). Project-Based Learning in Primary-Grade Social Studies. Social Education, 83(1), 58-62.

This journal article examines how project-based learning (PBL) impacts early elementary social studies education, specifically the ways in which PBL helped reduce the achievement gap and improve student engagement with the curriculum.

(Re)Designing for Engagement an a Project-Based AP Environmental Science Course

Tierney, G., Goodell, A., Bobbitt Nolen, S., Lee, N., Whitfield, L. & Abbott, R.D. (2018): (Re)Designing for engagement in a project based AP environmental science course, The Journal of Experimental Education.

This paper describes a three-year, design-based research project to redesign a year-long, project-based advanced placement environmental science course to better support student engagement and the development of environmental citizen identities.

The New NGSS Classroom: A Curriculum Framework for Project-Based Science Learning

Holthuis, N., Deutscher, R., Schultz, S., Jamshidi, A. (2018). The New NGSS Classroom: A Curriculum Framework for Project-Based Science Learning, American Educator, Summer 2018.

This article discusses how the Project-Based curriculum framework designed by researchers from SCALE Science aligns to the new NGSS standards.

Examining the Potential of Computer Science and Making for Supporting Project-Based Learning

This literature review examines how computer science and making and makerspace approaches may inform a project-based learning approach for supporting three-dimensional science learning at the elementary level.

Severance. S., Miller, E., Peek-Brown, D. Krajcik J. (2018, April 02). Examining the Potential of Computer Science and Making for Supporting Project-Based Learning [PDF]. Nicasio: Lucas Education Research.

Engaging the Community With a Project-Based Approach

Halvorsen, A.-L., Duke, N. K., Strachan, S. L., & Johnson, C. M. (2018). Engaging the Community With a Project-Based Approach. Social Education, 82(1), 24–29.

This journal article discusses the pedagogical approach and benefits of Project PLACE, a Michigan-based PBL initiative that examined the impact of a PBL curriculum on a group of second-grade social studies students, and how community involvement impacts classroom experience.

MDRC+PBL Literature Review

The concept of project-based learning (PBL) has garnered wide support among a number of K-12 education policy advocates and funders. This working paper builds on and updates a seminal literature review of PBL published in 2000. Focused primarily on articles and studies that have emerged in the 17 years since then, the working paper discusses the principles that underlie PBL, how PBL has been used in K-12 settings, the challenges teachers have confronted in implementing it, how school and district factors influence its adoption, and what is known about its effectiveness in improving students’ learning outcomes.