A Study of How Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Project-Based Learning (PBL) Can Improve Student Engagement
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Date
2017-07-10
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Abstract
Schools and teachers are facing a difficult challenge of how to keep students
engaged in mathematics and students’ lack of engagement is common nationally. The
research conducted for this study focused on the effects of STEM PBL on student
engagement. The drive for the present study was to understand the effects STEM PBL
instruction has on student engagement compared to non-STEM PBL instruction. There
has been growing evidence that STEM PBL instruction increases student engagement
and enhances the academic learning across demographic demarcations. In order to
cognize how engagement is influenced by instructional methods an experimental design
was used where three conditions were established and students were randomly assigned
to one of the three conditions.
Confidence intervals were used to compare means across 8 engagement structures
within the three conditions. These results suggest that student engagement as measured
by engagement structures can be separated across teachers and that lesson type may
influence student engagement as measured by the same instrument. Those 8 structures
were then subjected to an exploratory factor analysis that produced two-second order
factors allowing for a separation between academic and behavioral engagement. These
results showed more specifically the influence of STEM PBL on students’ academic
engagement. Overall it is suggested that student engagement was greater with the STEM
PBL instructional strategy than the other two.
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Keywords
mathematics achievement, project-based learning, rigor, relevance, STEM, student engagement