Research Report: Project Based Learning in Mathematics

Research Report: Project Based Learning in Mathematics

Nate Gildersleeve

CI563

Emily Delacruze

July 19, 2010

Area of Focus

In my work sample I had students make a project using Google Sketchup. The idea was that they would create a figure using solid geometric shapes, and then tell me the volume and surface area. In actuality, the figures were often amazing, the calculations were not. I was often concerned with how little students were able to adapt an existing piece of knowledge into a new situation. So if students knew that the volume of a cylinder, triangular and rectangular prism were all the area of the base times the height, they still had no notion of how to find the volume of a polygonal cylinder. In addition, what could have been a one week unit with the base curriculum ended up becoming a three week unit.

I want to do more projects because in this day and age I think one of the most important things math class can do is give students the tools to harness their own creativity. The 21st century will be all about democratizing creativity, and math class should be a key piece of that. As Nel Noddings says in “All Our Students Thinking,” we cannot just infused thinking into our existing curriculum. We must create curriculum that encourages students to think and explore their world organically (2008). I believe one of the best ways to do this in mathematics is to have students work on projects, since that is often where we do use mathematics in our everyday life.

However, if I am not teaching math standards at the same time, then I can’t really justify putting more projects like this in my lesson time. I must meet standards and engage students in worthy projects. To this end, I want to research best practices in order to find ways to maximize time on task and find best practices so that I get more learning time out of every project that I do. In this way I can justify to my administration that my projects are just a different way of teaching math, but that I am teaching as much as any other teacher in the school.As Allison Heyl points out, standardized tests are a challenge to a constructivist learning approach, since “After using the constructivistapproach, students are not familiar with solving the problems as they are set up on standardized tests.” (Heyl 2008)

Specifically, I must find ways to engage students so that my less devoted students do not just quit when the project gets hard, with one or two weeks to go. I have to find ways to ensure success, without giving so much scaffolding that I am no longer giving them a real task to attempt. I am looking for ways to maximize engagement that keeps the activity student centered. I must also try to keep my projects anchored to standards as much as possible. These are two distinct goals, but at this stage in my learning, I feel that I am really looking for one or two techniques to try out that would work towards each goal.

Data

One of the first things that I learned was that during a project I should give constant feedback (Fischer 2008). Many people want to give constant external rewards, or to set up competitions, but both of these can be problematic and end up being counterproductive. Extrinsic motivation can end up removing any intrinsic motivation that might have existed. And while competition can be a good motivator, if students get behind and feel like they can no longer compete, then they will give up. One thing that does work is feedback:

Students should have ongoing feedback throughout the entire

project process to help them stay motivated and on track. Students

who do not get quality, ongoing feedback may find that the work

they did was incorrect and that their efforts were wasted. As with

failing early on, this can derail even the most dedicated students. (Fischer 2008)

So ongoing evaluation is important, but how do we make sure that this feedback doesn’t just warp our students’ vision to match our own?

In her paper, Stephanie Bell describes several explicit practices that make project based learning successful. Students start with organizers that help clarify their inquiry. They then give ongoing reports of their progress that culminate in some sort of display of what they have learned. Notice that while a teacher would be evaluating these pieces, this is all still student centered inquiry. Since students are pursuing their own interests within a framework, they are differentiating their learning. This means that their learning is more meaningful on a personal level, and that they are rising to their own levels and abilities with the learning. In support of Fischer’s findings, Bell also acknowledges daily goal setting as a key to students’ success. This fits in with the idea of constant feedback to ensure motivation. (Bell 2010)

Bell also mentions that, in contradiction to Heyl’s concerns, research indicates that students who undergo project based learning perform better on standardized tests (p. 4). This supports my own intuition as to why I wanted to use project based learning in the first place. If students are intrinsically motivated to learn something through interest in a project, then they will not sit back passively and say that they were never taught a skill. They will have learned how to think for themselves. Ideally, this should turn a test from a task of retrieval of several facts they might or might not remember, into a challenge to be solved based on the information they do have at their disposal. This self reliance should be a part of a successful project based learning curriculum.

Synthesis

I feel that the research is very enlightening for a beginning teacher. With the tools outlined, I should be able to address one of the main issues I discussed in my work sample reflection, which was continuing to lose class periods to lab time that I felt students weren’t using effectively. This let them slow the class down to a crawl. If I am giving constant evaluation of work done, however, based upon daily stated objectives, then I have a means to evaluate ongoing performance.

Also, by reading between the lines of the research, I can see more of what I should do to prepare for a project. Bell mentioned organizers and presentation tools. These must come from me. When I am anticipating putting a project into my curriculum, I need to also create materials that give students a framework for exploring their own thinking. This should help with motivation by making sure that each student is working on a project they actually care about, and have clear thinking about where to go for further exploration.

I think that the data also shows that I had more engagement in my work sample than I had previously thought. Students were always engaged in working on their projects. However, by not having constant feedback, students were not putting as much effort into the parts of the project that they found less interesting, namely the calculations.

Conclusion

Many of the articles that I found were more focused on justifying why people should use project based learning as a technique than how to actually implement good project based curriculum. I did get several good techniques to try to put into my own practice, which is probably all that I should change at one time anyway. The research indicates that I am on the right track in trying to use project based learning in my classroom, since researched shows a correlation between project based learning and: increased student motivation, more independence, more responsibility, and increased test scores.

My next actions on this topic will be to read some of the books mentioned in the back of Fischer’s research starter. I also saw lots of connections between what the research indicated and my high school English classes. This made me realize that while mathematics is still struggling to implement project based learning, English has been doing it for some time. So if I am looking for more strategies on effective implementation, English teachers in my school would be a good resource. I am hopeful for my future progress on this front, and looking forward to fun projects next year.

Bibliography

Top of Form

Bell, S. (January 01, 2010). Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the Future.Clearing House: a Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas,83,2, 39-43.Bottom of Form

Fischer, C. (2008). Project-Based Learning. Great Neck Publishing. Retrieved from Research Starters - Education database.

Heyl, A. (2008). Fostering Engagement for Students from Low-Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds Using Project-Based Mathematics.Online Submission, Retrieved from ERIC database

Meyer, D., & And, O. (1997). Challenge in a Mathematics Classroom: Students' Motivation and Strategies in Project-Based Learning.Elementary School Journal,97(5), 501-21. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Noddings, N. (2008). All Our Students Thinking.Educational Leadership,65(5), 8-13. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Southern Regional Education, B. (2009). Getting Students to Meet High Standards Calls for Innovative Strategies and Extra Help.Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), Retrieved from ERIC database.

Southern Regional Education Board, A., & Jobs for the Future, I. (2000).Using Real World Projects To Help Students Meet High Standards in Education and the Workplace. Site Development Guide #11. High Schools That Work. Retrieved from ERIC database.