Developing Important Life Skills through Project-Based Learning: A Case Study
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Keywords
case study, life skills development, Project-based learning, education
Abstract
Project-based Learning (PBL) is regarded as an effective teaching method to help students develop their life skills to meet the needs of the 21st century. However, PBL has not been widely implemented in Vietnam. Therefore, this case study was conducted to explore how effective PBL was to students' life skills development. Thirty-three students and an instructor in a university participated in the study. Data were collected using six classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews with nine students and the instructor. The study showed that PBL dramatically helped improve the students' problem-solving, critical-thinking, time-management, and interpersonal relationship skills. PBL also promoted some students' creativity, information technology (IT), research, leadership and film-making skills. The benefits and difficulties they encountered while doing projects motivated them to love projects that they even suggested that the school should incorporate more projects into the curriculum. The study recommends that PBL should be more widely implemented to maximize the development of students' life skills at universities.
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