Benefits of Project-Based Learning in Elementary School
Written by:
Wilson College
• Nov 4, 2024
In 2024, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of over 2,500 K-12 teachers in America. While the majority of teachers agreed that their jobs were fulfilling, 48% of teachers said students being disinterested in class was a major issue. The same percentage said their students’ academic performances were fair to poor.
While these problems are troubling among schools at all levels, they are perhaps most concerning for the nation’s elementary schools. If students become disinterested in learning at an early age, those attitudes could be both hard to change and severely detrimental later on in life.
To combat disengagement, many elementary school teachers turn to a student-focused approach called project-based learning. For highly trained early childhood educators , the benefits of project-based learning extend beyond increased engagement. Evidence suggests that this teaching method can teach young learners essential life skills, improve academic performance, and be beneficial for students of all backgrounds.
What Is Project-Based Learning?
Project-based learning (PBL) is an instructional method in which students have a long-term project or goal to work on. Teachers provide instruction and are available to help, but students typically work on their projects independently or in groups.
While designing a project-based learning exercise encompasses various approaches, a 2022 research analysis published in Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research found that most exercises shared a few core features:
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Driving Question: Either teachers or the students themselves can pose a driving question.
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Tangible Goals: In the planning phase, teachers typically identify specific skills and concepts they want students to learn.
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Collaboration: Students may work with their peers, teachers, parents, or anyone else who can contribute to the project.
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Technological Aids: Technology isn’t always necessary, but computers can help students research or present their ideas.
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End Product: End products can be models, essays, presentations, or other forms of student work. They can also help students understand abstract concepts in a meaningful way.
On the surface, these characteristics can be used to describe any kind of hands-on project. Traditionally, though, teachers assign students projects after they’ve taught a lesson. However, in project-based learning, they assign students projects much earlier and the projects are integrated into the lesson itself.
How Does Project-Based Learning Benefit Elementary School Students?
Elementary school children are in a developmentally significant stage of their lives. According to the Healthy Schools initiative from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it’s a time of deeper friendships, more independence, and increased perspective about the world.
By teaching life skills and aiding in cognitive development, project-based learning can be a powerful tool in an elementary school classroom. Just as important, it’s a tool that benefits elementary students from all backgrounds.
Project-Based Learning Emphasizes Life Skills
For elementary school students, the classroom isn’t just a place to learn academic basics. It’s a place to practice basic life skills. Because project-based learning is often a collaborative, hands-on experience, it affords young learners the opportunity to develop both types of skills at the same time.
For example, during project-based learning projects for groups, students:
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Learn how to communicate effectively, organize, share workloads, and delegate
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Prioritize problems
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Test and evaluate different approaches
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Learn about different types of learning styles by helping and receiving help from their peers
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Research and look for answers on their own
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Employ structured approaches to problem-solving, such as the scientific method, before those concepts are introduced
While this process can benefit students of all ages, it encourages young learners to develop emotional regulation skills, critical thinking skills, and healthy attitudes toward failure in the context of making progress.
It Can Improve Academic Performance
One of the more tangible benefits of project-based learning is that it can increase student performance on exams, standardized tests, and other traditional assessment measures. In a 2021 study sponsored by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, students who participated in a three-year project-based learning program outperformed their peers on science assessments by an average of 11 percentage points.
In the same study, project-based learning students outperformed their peers by 12 percentage points on standardized math tests and 8 percentage points on standardized English language arts tests. However, those assessments were administered in the second year of study. At the end of the third year, project-based learning students outperformed their peers on standardized math and language arts tests by 18 and 10 percentage points, respectively.
The Academic Benefits of Project-Based Learning Extends to All Learners
While the Lucas study demonstrated how project-based learning could boost academic performance, it also demonstrated that project-based learning could be effective for all students. The schools that participated in the study were all located in predominantly low-to-middle income areas and served diverse student bodies.
The study’s authors also applied a project-based learning approach to students studying English as a second language. In the second year of the study, English learners scored an average of 8 percentage points higher than their peers on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT). At the end of the third year, that margin grew to an average of 28 percentage points.
Tips for Implementing Project-Based Learning in Elementary School
Two main barriers hinder the use of project-based learning in elementary schools. The first is that planning long-term, age-appropriate projects for young learners can be difficult. The second is that project-based learning often requires support and additional resources—two factors some teachers may not have.
However, overcoming those obstacles isn’t impossible. Considering the potential benefits of project-based learning, it’s worth it to try.
Create Engaging, Age-Appropriate Projects
Project-based learning is engaging, relevant to the curriculum, and developmentally appropriate. To make that happen for young learners, appealing to their interests and integrating concepts they are already familiar with can be immensely helpful.
For example, teachers can bring broader concepts to life by asking students to do the following:
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Map out their rooms or a new country using their historical and geographical knowledge.
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Care for a plant to reinforce basic biology and help them test hypotheses.
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Budget for a fake business or product of their choosing.
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Write stories based on characters, settings, and plots they’ve seen in other works.
This way, students can begin seeing the relationships between what they learn in class, what they see in the world, and what’s going on in their minds.
Start Small and Elicit Support
Ideally, project-based learning programs are executed with support from parents, administrators, and other teachers. If that’s not immediately feasible, teachers can start with smaller daylong or weeklong projects, so their students can still get the benefits of program-based learning.
From there, teachers can share their observations about project-based learning with administrators, parents, and other teachers to get support for longer initiatives. Similarly, conducting research on project-based learning and finding studies that support it can be a great way to convince administrators to make it a staple in their schools.
Become the Impactful Educator Young Learners Need
Getting the most out of project-based learning and other teaching methods often means taking a critical; informed, and, most important, student-centered approach to the field. Wilson College Online’s Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Early Childhood Education program prepares future educators to take that approach.
Along with classes on teaching the diverse curriculum elementary school students need, the program offers classes on cognition, development, and creating healthy classroom cultures. Combined with classes on serving English learners and students with special needs, this curriculum can give educators the tools they need to make an impact on young learners no matter what they need to succeed.
Find out if Wilson College Online’s flexible yet rigorous B.A. in Early Childhood Education program is right for you.
Recommended Readings
Benefits of Experiential Learning
How to Become an Elementary School Teacher
What Can You Do With an Early Childhood Education Degree?
Sources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Middle Childhood (9-11 Years of Age)
Pew Research Center, “Problems Students Are Facing at Public K-12 Schools”
Pew Research Center, “What’s It Like to Be a Teacher in America Today?”
