Page 52 - Pedagoška vizija / A Pedagogical Vision

Melita Lemut Bajec

a lingering mistrust towards its more frequent use among Slovenian teach-
ers, especially those in upper-secondary schools (Lemut Bajec et al. 2023). The
reasons that affect their attitudes are often influenced by curricular and na-
tional examination (matura) requirements. These are, due to their very des-
ignated nature, believed to limit teachers’ creativity and deter them from
experimenting with innovative didactic approaches, thus also affecting stu-
dents’ horizons. Additionally, teachers who are hesitant about the novel ap-
proaches harbour preconceptions of their low efficiency, which stems from
a lack of knowledge (Lemut Bajec 2019).
Therefore, the primary objective of the study was to explore how a class of
upper-secondary school students perceive PBL and react to cognitively de-
manding project work assignments. Another focus was to assess the impact
of PBL activities on students’ lives as well as scrutinize evaluators’ perspec-
tives on the task that the students submitted. Overall, the study and its find-
ings are believed to contribute to the broader effort of introducing and en-
couraging new learning practices, thereby helping improve schools to better
meet the needs of the rapidly changing world.

Characteristics of Project-Based Learning
PBL as an active method with pre-determined objectives and a planned
pathway (Savery 2006) puts students at the centre and requires them to pro-
ceed in steps by respecting the timeline (Al-Balushi and Al-Aamri 2014). The
project starts with the formation of a project question, which must be mean-
ingful, precise, contextualized, ethical, and relevant to the learners (Krajcik
and Czerniak 2018) and is completed with a submitted assignment, report,
plan, model, film, etc. (Holubova 2008). PBL gives students more autonomy
so that they arrive at information or insights that make sense to them in ways
that resonate with their interests, abilities, and learning styles, which boosts
their intrinsic motivation, responsibility, independence, and discipline (Bell
2010; Krajcik and Shin 2014). The success of the project work is also attributed
to collaborative learning (Bell 2010), which requires team members to plan,
negotiate, debate, question, and assess each other’s ideas, progress, and final
result(s) (Miceli 2019). Teachers act as advisors, coaches, and trainers, guiding
the learning process. They must be skilled in giving appropriate feedback,
related to the objectives pursued by the students and to the dynamics of
group work (Savery 2006). Educators decide for PBL in order to boost com-
plex and abstract thought processes with their students (Krathwohl 2002),
which means that students rise above factual knowledge to conceptual,
procedural, and metacognitive knowledge as well as from memorization to
transfer (Anderson et al. 2001).
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