Rights Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License What Happens in Project-based Learning?

There is an accumulating literature over the last decade on collaborative learning in various types of settings, from more focussed learning tasks to open enquiry to problem-based projects. Project-based teamwork was valued as students were required to work together for knowledge sharing, knowledge building and problem-solving, and thus provide them with opportunities to be acculturated as members of a knowledge community. Over the last couple of years, it has also become extremely popular in Hong Kong schools to assign group projects to students. This was often justified on the grounds that project work promotes the information retrieval and self-directed learning abilities of students; collaborative learning is good and students should learn to collaborate with each other. However, as a pedagogical strategy, very little is known about the actual impact of group projects on learning in Hong Kong and whether the assumed advantages and expected learning outcomes do come about. Is group-based projects the panacea for the evils of teacher-centred delivery? This paper explores the question “what happens in project-based learning? ” based on the observations made during the SLITS (Self-directed Learning with Informatio