Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning

Blumenfeld, P.C., Soloway, E., Marx, R.W., Krajcik, J.S., Guzdial, M., & Palinscar, A.(1991). Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning. Educational Psychologist, 26 (3&4), 369-398.

Project-based learning is a comprehensive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. Blumenfeld, et al, pose an argument for why projects have the capacity to help students learn. Specifically, this study indicates the factors in project design that affect motivation and thought. The article examines difficulties that students and teachers often encounter with projects, and describes how technology is a tool that can support students and teachers as they work on projects, while maintaining motivation and thought.