Accelerating Learning with Meaningful

Project-Based Learning

WHITEPAPER

www.DefinedLearning.com 2

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant

challenges for educators and students alike.

Although educators have spent countless hours on

designing and enhancing online and hybrid

instruction to reach students who are attending

school remotely, the evidence suggests that many

students are still falling behind in their learning,

despite these efforts.

A closer look at the problem suggests that

engaging students in remote learning is a key

challenge. Motivating students to log on and learn

without the personal connection of being in a

classroom with their teacher and their peers can

be difficult. Teachers need highly engaging

lessons that give students a compelling reason to

log on and learn remotely.

Project-based learning (PBL) offers a solution.

Research shows that when done well, PBL can be

an engaging, motivating, and highly effective

learning strategy that helps students understand

how lessons relate to real-world scenarios. PBL

also helps students learn content more deeply,

apply their knowledge to new situations, and

retain what they’ve learned much longer.

This white paper explores how PBL can engage

students in remote learning and help combat

learning loss during the pandemic, while also

continuing to serve students as a highly effective

learning strategy well after the threat from

COVID-19 is over.

Evidence of Learning Loss

The learning loss that many students are

experiencing during the pandemic is real. One

study by global consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

analyzed assessment data from a popular digital

learning platform for students in grades K-8 and

found that students learned only 67 percent of

the math and 87 percent of the reading their

grade-level peers typically would have learned

by the fall.1

On average, McKinsey reports, students have lost

the equivalent of three months of learning in math

and one-and-a-half months of learning in reading.

The learning loss was especially severe in schools

that serve mostly minority students, where scores

were 59 percent of the historical average in math

and 77 percent in reading.

Students learned only 67percent of the math and

87 percent of the readingtheir grade-level peers typically

would have learned by the fall

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“Keeping students engaged remotely is a

challenge,” the report observes, and this challenge

is at least partly responsible for the learning loss

that students have experienced.

Data from a separate instructional software

provider suggests that student participation in

online math coursework decreased by 11 percent

in fall 2020 McKinsey says, compared with

participation before the pandemic. Among low-

income students, the drop was 16 percent—while

participation among students from wealthier

households declined by only 2 percent.

This drop in engagement tracks with what

teachers have said as well. Teachers in remote

learning environments have reported higher rates

of absenteeism and less completion of student

work this year than teachers in classrooms where

students have been learning in person.

Citing data from a RAND Corp. survey, Education

Week reports that attendance for in-person

learning environments was averaging 91 percent

as of October, and 82 percent of the students

learning in person had turned in all or most of their

work. For remote learning environments, the

average attendance rate was 84 percent, and only

62 percent of students turned in their work.2

Keeping students connected to their education

and to each other has been a key challenge

during the pandemic, agrees Candace Singh,

superintendent of the 5,000-student Fallbrook

Union Elementary School District in San Diego

County, California.

“Kids don’t learn as much if they’re not

connected,” Singh says. “This has been the

monumental struggle.”

How PBL Can HelpPBL is an instructional strategy in which students

learn by actively engaging in real-world projects

that are personally meaningful to them. Students

work over an extended period of time on a project

that has them solve an authentic problem or

answer a complex question, and they demonstrate

their learning by creating a public product or

presenting to an actual audience.

In high-quality PBL, students work together on

projects in small groups. Not only are they

learning important content knowledge, but they’re

also learning the “four Cs,” skills that are

foundational for success in school and life:

communication, collaboration, creativity, and

critical thinking.

When implemented well, PBL is a very engaging

way to learn. That’s always a benefit for

educators, but especially now when they’re

looking for strategies that can motivate students

who are learning remotely.

What’s more, research has proven the value of

PBL as a pedagogical approach. Studies

comparing the learning outcomes for students

taught through project-based learning and those

taught using traditional methods show that high-

quality PBL increases students’ long-term retention

of content, helps them perform as well or better on

When implemented well, PBL is a very

engaging way to learn. That’s always a

benefit for educators, but especially now

when they’re looking for strategies that can

motivate students who are learning remotely.

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high-stakes exams, improves their problem-solving

and collaborative skills, and enhances their

engagement and attitude toward learning.3

A 2016 study from MIDA Learning Technologies

compared the performance of second and fifth

graders who were piloting PBL with classes using

the district’s traditional curriculum. The findings

were consistent with other existing research: In

both grades, the experimental group—which used

a PBL curriculum from Defined Learning—

outperformed the control group in math

achievement. In addition, teachers reported a

significantly greater level of student engagement

and motivation in the experimental classes.4

Why PBL Is More Engaging

Why is PBL so motivating for students? While there

are many contributing factors, here are two that

stand out in particular:

Student choice/agency

PBL allows students to take ownership over their

learning. Instead of being fed information and then

repeating it back, students are in control of their

education. They can choose the direction their

project will take, and they can often choose the

type of product they will create to demonstrate

what they have learned, such as a video, slide

show, or podcast.

Giving students choice and agency over their

learning is a very powerful motivator. In his book

Drive, best-selling author Dan Pink identifies

autonomy as one of three main drivers of human

motivation. When students are allowed to follow

their own interests and passions, they will take joy

in their work and become more invested in their

learning. As Pink writes: “Control leads to

compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.”

Relevance

For students to be fully engaged in their education,

it must be relevant to their lives. They need to

understand how the knowledge and skills they’re

learning in class will help them succeed in the

future. In other words, teachers must answer that

age-old question: “Why do we have to learn this?”

A study funded by the Gates Foundation more

than a decade ago, called “The Silent Epidemic,”

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asked young people across the United States why

they dropped out of high school. The top reason,

given by 47 percent of those surveyed, was that

classes weren’t interesting to them. “They make

you take classes in school that you’re never going

to use in life,” one respondent said. When the

researchers asked them about what educators

could do to make sure students stay in school, the

most common answer was making the content

more relevant to students’ lives.5

By using real-world scenarios as the basis for

projects, PBL helps students draw a clear

connection between what they’re learning and

how it applies outside of school. Having students

solve real problems for an authentic audience not

only makes the content come alive for students; it

also gives their work a larger purpose and

meaning, which further adds relevance to the task.

We all want to do work that matters. However,

completing a hypothetical problem for only the

teacher’s benefit doesn’t fit this description.

Instead of asking a student to calculate the

gravitational force in a certain situation, how much

more powerful a learning experience would it be if

students were to use this calculation in the context

of designing a piece of playground equipment that

their peers with physical disabilities could use?

According to Dan Pink, purpose is another key

driver of human motivation. He argues that when

people see a clear and compelling purpose for

what they’re doing, they’ll work harder and will

fully engage in a task.

Elementary School Success

For the last few years, Fallbrook Union Elementary

School District has been using PBL as an

instructional strategy to engage students in

deeper learning and make school more

meaningful for them.

“As we shifted to remote learning during the

pandemic, that became even more important,”

says Superintendent Candace Singh. “Students

have had to become far more independent in the

work they’ve done. Project-based learning is a

wonderful vehicle to give kids choices and support

their independence.”

The best examples of PBL involve cross-

disciplinary projects that tie together concepts

from multiple subject areas. These projects help

students understand how the subjects they’re

learning in school are interconnected, instead of

seeing them as discrete, unrelated topics. For

instance, a four-week project for fifth graders at

Fallbrook’s San Onofre School incorporated both

math and music.

The project originated in math class, with the

purpose of having students answer the question:

“How are fractions used to create rhythms?” The

students researched different types of music and

applied this knowledge to create a composition

that they played during a public performance on a

drum they designed and built. Their teacher

partnered with a music instructor who came in and

taught the students how to read notes and

measures and keep a beat.

During the course of the project, students learned

about fractions in the context of music. They

learned how to add and subtract fractions, write

numerical expressions, and use equivalent

fractions. They also learned important research,

design, problem solving, and teamwork skills—and

they had fun in the process.

Having students solve real problems

for an authentic audience not only

makes the content come alive for

students; it also gives their work a

larger purpose and meaning, which

further adds relevance to the task.

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“This was a highly motivating project,” says

Principal Lillian Perez. “The teacher said the

enthusiasm of her students was like nothing she’d

experienced before. She never had a class so

eager to learn. She also found that her students

were quickly able to transfer the skills they

learned in this project, so the fraction lesson was a

cinch. Her students aced the lesson.”

PBL can be implemented equally well in person or

in remote learning environments. When Fallbrook

schools were completely remote, projects that

involved making a physical object had to be

completed independently, Singh says, but there

are many tools that allow students to collaborate

virtually on documents, videos, slide shows,

podcasts, and other digital files.

PBL can be challenging for teachers to implement

at first if they’ve never done so before. “Supporting

teachers in changing their practice is so critical,”

Singh says. “As leaders, we need to provide clear

expectations about what we’re working toward,

and we have to support our teachers with

resources. For instance, teachers need time for

collaboration and planning across disciplines.”

Fallbrook has full-time instructional coaches who

help teachers design and implement high-quality

authentic learning tasks. The district also uses

ready-made PBL curriculum resources from

Defined Learning, which takes the heavy lifting off

of teachers’ shoulders.

Middle and High School Success

Talladega County Schools, a 7,100-student school

system in Alabama, has been using PBL as an

instructional strategy for more than a decade,

beginning with a pilot high school. When officials

saw the results at this school, they implemented

PBL district-wide.

District leaders found that using PBL changed the

entire school culture. For instance, students

became more independent learners. They also

became more collaborative, more confident, and

better prepared for success.

“We’ve created students who are more ready for

life after high school,” says Superintendent

Suzanne Lacey. “From project planning through

implementation to presentation, they learn how to

work with their peers and talk through solutions to

problems. This emulates what they will experience

when they’re out in the world of work.”

This sense of confidence and independence has

served students well during the pandemic. Like

most school systems across the U.S., Talladega

County shifted to remote learning to finish out the

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2019-20 school year, and the district began the

2020-21 school year with a hybrid model to

reduce the number of students in its buildings.

When learning from home, students who aren’t

independent learners often tend to struggle—but

for the most part, that hasn’t happened in

Talladega County.

Although district leaders have seen some learning

loss in mathematics, reading scores are consistent

with the previous year’s scores and engagement

remains high. Lacey attributes this, in part, to the

district’s use of PBL.

While the pandemic has limited the types of

projects that students can do collaboratively, PBL

has continued to play an important role within the

district.

In one project, ninth graders are learning about

budgeting and money. They’re using the

Engineering Design Process by creating an

interactive budgeting sheet to educate the

community on ways to save money and budget

more effectively to benefit their families. In another

project, eighth graders who read Suzanne Collins’

novel The Hunger Games created tribute

interviews for each district within Collins’

dystopian society.

“This project required students to work together to

complete research on the novel, write creatively,

and use editing techniques to create a video for

the school community,” says Emily Harris,

coordinator of instruction for the district.

Keeping Students Connected

While student instruction has been particularly

challenging during the pandemic, Fallbrook Union

and Talladega County have seen attendance and

engagement remain high as a result of teachers’

use of PBL—and these trends are likely to continue

long after the threat from COVID-19 is over.

“Project-based learning has given our kids a

reason to open their laptops every day and remain

engaged in school,” Singh concludes. “It’s helping

students stay personally connected with the

content and with each other—and it has been a

key reason they have stuck with us through the

pandemic.”

About Defined Learning

Defined Learning is an online project-based learning solution that provides K-12 teachers with the tools

they need to implement high-quality PBL; a library of standards-aligned performance tasks, career

videos, research resources, and more. Our engaging projects are based on real-world situations in STEM

careers to give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world challenges.

Defined Learning creates excitement about careers and empowers students to build the critical skills they

need to succeed in college, careers, and life.

To learn more, visit www.definedlearning.com.

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1 Dorn, Emma; Hancock, Bryan; Sarakatsannis, Jimmy; and Viruleg, Ellen. “COVID-19 and learning loss—disparities growand students need help.” McKinsey & Co., Dec. 8, 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-learning-loss-disparities-grow-and-students-need-help

2 Schwartz, Sarah. “Survey: Teachers and Students Are Struggling With Online Learning.” Education Week, Nov. 16, 2020.https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/survey-teachers-and-students-are-struggling-with-online-learning/2020/11

3 Yew, Elaine H.J., and Goh, Karen. “Problem-Based Learning: An Overview of its Process and Impact on Learning.” Health Professions Education, Vol. 2, Issue 2, Dec. 2016. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452301116300062

4 Speziale, Kerry. “Study Confirms Project Based Learning Has a Positive Impact on How Students Learn Science and Math.”https://blog.definedlearning.com/blog/project-based-learning-research

5 Bridgeland, John, et al. The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts. Civic Enterprises (on behalf of the Gates Foundation), 2006. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED513444.pdf