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The society's social and technological context is in constant change, which causes the need to innovate and experiment changes in higher education, namely as far as teaching and learning strategies are concerned. In this paper, particular emphasis is given to the assessment of the teaching and learning strategy known as Project Based Learning (PBL). Among the features characterizing this strategy, we highlight the possibility that students have of: learning by doing and by applying their own ideas, getting involved in real-world activities applicable to the world of work, researching questions and issues, discussing ideas, and elaborating and executing projects. According to several authors, who will be cited in the article, the PBL methodology makes students more creative and constructive and helps them develop skills for researching and developing solutions to the problems they might face in their professional life, by learning to solve problems with increasingly higher levels of complexity. Students' perceptions on the project based learning strategy were obtained from a sample of subjects attending a course in software development in a Portuguese public higher education institution. This course started in the academic year of 2017/2018 and is integrated in a nationwide pilot project, included in the Portuguese Government initiative INCoDe.2030. The main aim of this course consists of training professionals in the field of computing programming who will develop skills to respond to the needs of the real world, as well as fomenting intervention projects within the community. The predominant methodological strategy in all the course units is anchored in Project Based Learning. The main aim of this paper is to assess the Project Based learning strategy, namely by identifying the students' level of satisfaction and motivation with the strategy used, its strengths and weaknesses, aspects that can be improved, and the skills acquired. The methodology used in this research work is a mixed one, with both qualitative and quantitative characteristics and with procedures associated with experimental research. The main data collection tool used was the survey. The results of this research provide the characterization of the Project Based Learning strategy from students' perspective, and highlight indicators which enable the assessment of the referred strategy's strengths and weaknesses as well as the reference to some skills acquired by the students, aiming to the eventual improvement of the strategy and its extension to other courses. Project Based Learning may constitute an approach which is well received by students and enables them to get involved into the paths of innovation and updating, needed to meet the demands of the 21st century. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

During the last ten years, Engineering Education has undergone tremendous changes. A lot of these changes were caused by external and internal factors. The external factors such as government policy concerning resources, and educational and quality assurance policies are rather simple to describe. However, the internal factors at the institutional level may be unknown. Institutions have developed many different pedagogical models, using very different strategies for development. Nearly all Danish engineering institutions have implemented elements of Problem Based and Project Based Learning (PBL). Particularly five Engineering University Colleges have undergone changes towards PBL. The Pedagogical Network for Danish Engineering Education (IPN) has been one of the central agents in the change processes for engineering education in Denmark. IPN has been responsible for staff and faculty development at the engineering university colleges and has been running the co-ordination of the exchange of experiences among all Danish engineering institutions. However, it is not the same PBL-model that has been developed at the five different institutions - in fact, very different PBL-models have been developed on the basis of very different development processes. In this article, I will shortly present the results from two case studies. The results underpin the hypothesis that only top-down decisions at institutional level together with a pool of motivated staff will cause changes at a system level. A bottom-up approach with decentralized development at departments leads to a variation within the institution, but it might be difficult to develop curriculum models at system level.

Project-based learning (PBL) consisting projects that integrate science, technology, society, history, mathematics, politics and even arts serves a productive discussion opportunity for students, fosters a student-directed inquiry of real world problems, gives them the excitement of learning and seen to be an effective teaching strategy. Therefore, examination of PBL from the practitioners' point of view, interpretation of the conceptualizations and experiences of them would yield valuable indicators for future PBL processes in classes both for instructors and students. This study focused on the prospective science teachers' conceptualizations about project-based learning as practitioners in this research but also as instructors of future. A group of 75 prospective science teachers took place in research for a period of ten weeks and conduct projects in groups of four to five based on science-technology-society issues. Multiple data sources were used consisted a questionnaire with open ended questions, project portfolios and presentation notes. Data collected analyzed qualitatively and some assertions generated with the help of conceptual constructs derived. Assertions generated indicated that prospective science teachers developed some varying understandings based on their experiences about conducting projects in the context of PBL.

Project-based learning (PBL) is gaining increasing prominence as an educational tool for enhancing students' key future competences - communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, referred to as the 4Cs. However, the proportion of PBL classes in Korean schools is among the lowest in the world. Nevertheless, results from a pilot PBL module undertaken by two middle schools in Daegu during a free semester show that students' communication and collaboration skills improved. To boost this momentum, Korea must now establish a mid- to long-term plan aimed at reforming school curriculums and admission systems to fully optimize the use of PBL while seeking short-term measures to encourage teachers to pursue innovative teaching methods. - What should we do to help our future generations develop key competencies in preparation for the rapid changes in technology? - Vital future skills are communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity - the 4Cs or 21st century skills. - PBL is an educational pedagogy in which students are naturally led to learning through self-directed projects in collaboration with their peers. It has been known to be effective in fostering key future capabilities. - The authors provided PBL-related assistance to freshmen in two middle schools in Daegu during the free semester in 2015, and observed changes in their communication and collaboration skills. - To measure communication, students were asked to list three closest classmates, and their answers were used to gauge students' level of communication and interaction in class. - To measure collaboration, students were placed in a situation in which their own personal interests were in conflict with the interests of the entire class, and their way of caring for and collaborating with others to handle the situation was observed. - Comparison of the students in the treatment and control groups shows that one semester of PBL contributed to enhancing students' communication and collaboration skills without interfering in their academic achievements. - Despite the growing importance of PBL, Korea ranked the lowest in the world in terms of PBL use in class. - The government should urgently reform the curriculum and admission systems to enable a stable adoption of PBL in the mid- to longterm, while attracting more teachers to the bottom-up approach in the short-term.

As waves of the Global Educational Reform Movement, what Sahlberg (2015) identifies as GERM, still ripple around the world pushing for competition, standardization, the focus on the core subjects, and test-based accountability some schools like IDEAS choose what Hargreaves and Shirley (2012) call The Forth Way towards inspiration and innovation with their project-based learning pedagogy. IDEAS is a small public high school in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and a member of Ted Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools (CES). Our qualitative inquiry explores the implications of project-based learning on IDEAS' students, teachers, academic program and school community. Data came from direct observation, interviews, curriculum documents, and teaching and learning artifacts. Our research informs IDEAS about the impact of their project-based learning pedagogy and validates its significance as part of their curricular program. It demonstrates that democratic principles are at work in some US schools, despite so many instances to the contrary. In the age of GERM this single-case study provides research-based evidence that alternative pedagogical methods and curriculum programs are potentially viable alternatives to many of the curriculum practices commonly found in today's schools.

As waves of the Global Educational Reform Movement, what Sahlberg (2015) identifies as GERM, still ripple around the world pushing for competition, standardization, the focus on the core subjects, and test-based accountability some schools like IDEAS choose what Hargreaves and Shirley (2012) call The Forth Way towards inspiration and innovation with their project-based learning pedagogy. IDEAS is a small public high school in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and a member of Ted Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools (CES). Our qualitative inquiry explores the implications of project-based learning on IDEAS' students, teachers, academic program and school community. Data came from direct observation, interviews, curriculum documents, and teaching and learning artifacts. Our research informs IDEAS about the impact of their project-based learning pedagogy and validates its significance as part of their curricular program. It demonstrates that democratic principles are at work in some US schools, despite so many instances to the contrary. In the age of GERM this single-case study provides research-based evidence that alternative pedagogical methods and curriculum programs are potentially viable alternatives to many of the curriculum practices commonly found in today's schools.

Although teacher-centered instruction is common, there is evidence suggesting an increased level of motivation and engagement among students when their preferences are considered. As such, teachers are beginning to shift their instructional practices, which can be exceptionally challenging in an inclusive classroom, especially when supporting students with autism. Project-Based Learning (PjBL) is an innovative approach that promotes life skills through inquiry, research, collaboration, and the creation of projects. Although integrating students with autism within an active participation model like PjBL can be challenging, educators can use evidence-based practices to promote a positive classroom climate that fosters the learning of all students.

The pace of technological change is accelerating, the duration of the trends is becoming shorter and the number of technological alternatives to solve IT problems grows quickly. Keeping IT higher education course curricula up-to-date becomes more and more challenging. This paper presents an empirical study that aims to assess whether an open-statement and open-solution methodology in an IT-related project-based learning (PBL) course led to the adaptation of the skills learned by students to the trends of the main IT technology domains. The study analyses data from more than 90 projects by students from eight academic years of the course" Project on Information Technologies", carried out by students in the last year of the Bachelor of Science in Informatics Engineering at the Barcelona School of Informatics. Our results identify a high correlation between the technologies chosen in student projects and technological trends, which shows that the methodology encourages students to incorporate the latest technological innovations in their project work plan. ; This work is partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity under contract TIN2015-65316-P, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under contracts PID2019-107255GB and PID2019-106774RB-C21, and by the SGR programmes (2017-SGR-962 and 2017-SGR-990) of the Catalan Government. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (author's final draft)