Federally funded study provides evidence of PBL effectiveness in high school economics

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Ravitz, J., Finkelstein, N., Hanson, T. , Huang, C-W, Hirschman, B. & Huang, M. (2010)

This paper discusses findings from the experimental study of BIE's Project Based Economics units, conducted with IES-funding, by WestEd's Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West).

It uses the summaries that were developed by WestEd as a springboard for discussion. Although this study is groundbreaking in some ways, it only scratches the surface in others.

The abstract begins:

"Over the years, supporters of project- or problem-based learning (PBL) in K-12 have generally had to rely on limited research, weak research methods, and sometimes mixed results. Results from a federally funded, randomized controlled experiment in high school economics provide evidence for the efficacy of PBL and should fuel growing interest in this approach to instruction".

This is the first of several papers that will discuss the context of the study, additional findings beyond the released report, and the study's important strengths and limitations.