Project-based learning and its effectiveness: evidence from Slovakia

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, we have examined the effectiveness of teaching economics through project-based learning. For this purpose, we carried out an experiment at secondary schools in the Slovak Republic. We divided 123 students into control and experimental groups. In both groups, teaching was carried out on the same topic by the same teacher in the same time frame. The control group completed the traditional verbal-visual teaching with the help of a blackboard. The experimental group completed project-based learning. Then, in both groups, the students’ knowledge was ascertained in the same way. We compared the results with inductive statistics to see if the difference between the results of the two groups was significant. For comparison, we chose a parametric two-sample t-test, which is used to compare the mean values of two independent samples. We managed to prove higher efficiency of teaching using project-based learning compared to traditional verbal-visual teaching. We think that project-based learning has its place among teaching methods, as it can have also other advantages over traditional teaching. This is also indicated by the results of a questionnaire, which we used to find out the opinions of students after the end of the experiment. Almost all students expressed the belief that project-based learning is very interesting.