Examining Teachers’ Instructional Moves Aimed at Developing Students’ Ideas and Questions in Learner-Centered Science Classrooms

Project-based learning seeks to engage students through sustained investigation of real-world problems or design challenges. Weekly mini-surveys were administered to students during an 8-week project-based learning unit to understand students’ perceptions of alignment of lessons to the overall challenge and usefulness of knowledge gained, their affective responses to lessons, and how these varied across lesson types and teachers. Results from a multilevel model revealed significant teacher level variance; no differences across lesson types were found.