Students' Perceptions of Project Learning Through a School-Based Curriculum

This dissertation, "Students' Perceptions of Project Learning Through a School-based Curriculum" by Chi-sio, Yip, 葉{213d7e}兆, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract Project learning is one of the illuminating teaching strategies being promoted and adopted extensively in Hong Kong after the Education Reform has been proposed. Schools may rearrange their manpower and time-table to facilitate the introduction of project learning. Some studies have revealed the significance of it from the teaching perspective. This research proposal suggested an alternative approach to evaluate the nature of project learning from students' perspective. This research tended to uncover students' perceptions of project learning based on a well-established context - a school-based curriculum. Such approach was taken as a checkpoint to highlight students' perception under a well-defined situation and hence further discussion could be put forward through comparison and reflection. Accordingly, qualitative research was adopted as it was capable of exploring in-depth and authentic images from students, rather than superficial but large-scale quantitative data. It was expected that students might have exclusive perceptions for this school- based curriculum and hence generalization about students' perception of project learning could then be revealed. Through this study, it was found that students' perception of project learning varied according to four factors: availability of guidance or curriculum; students' own learning approaches; relevance of the curriculum and collaboration and group arrangement. It was suggested that in order to improve project learning as a constructive teaching and learning approach, school might consider re-orientating its teaching approach, adopting activity-based curriculum supplemented by procedural skills and providing rooms for continuous guidance and feedback. Descriptors: Project learning, student perception, qualitative research, curriculum ii DOI: 10.5353/th_b2758858 Subjects: Activity programs in education - China - Hong Kong Group work in education - China - Hong Kong Junior high school students - China - Hong Kong - Attitudes Education, Secondary - China - Hong Kong - Curricula