Technology Project Learning Versus Lab Experimentation

The Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach enables the student to construct knowledge in his/her own way. Piaget, the founder of constructivism, saw the development of intelligence as a process involving the relationship between brain maturity and individual experience. The technology PBL (TPBL) approach confronts the student with a personal problem taken from real life, which he/she has to solve by designing and building an artifact or instrument. It is assumed that by replacing dictated lab experimentation with project learning in an engineering course, the student will show an improvement in learning achievements. This paper describes the last stage (1 year) of a 3-year four-stage research in order to examine the achievements of students using the TPBL approach in comparison to those that carry out lab experiments. A class of 34 students studying “Digital Electronics” toward a degree of a practical engineer was randomly divided into two training groups. During one semester, the experimental group used the TPBL approach and the control group used lab experiments. The groups' achievements were monitored during 1 year. The research findings reveal that the experimental group gained higher scores.