Aprendizaje basado en proyectos en Educación Ambiental. Implementación en Educación Secundaria

Resumo

The purpose of this mixed method study (i.e. quantitative and qualitative) is, therefore, to examine the effectiveness and functioning of the PBL (Project based learning) methodology in the EE (Environmental Education) field while contrasting this methodology with conventional methods of teaching. More specifically, the main objective of this thesis is to determine whether the PBL methodology is indeed an efficient methodology to raise environmental awareness among secondary school students. Additionally, we aim to adapt this methodology to a specific class in order to examine the impact and teaching implications of the implementation of this methodology in a classroom. At the same time, we also evaluate its process and outcomes to be able to specify recommendations regarding the implementation of the PBL methodology in case this methodology is used in other educational contexts. We also want to determine whether the PBL methodology is more effective than the conventional methods of teaching when it comes to raising environmental awareness in a specific educational context. The results of the two studies that were conducted prove that this methodology was indeed successful in increasing the environmental awareness level of the students who participated in the contexts where it took place. Besides, we observe that PBL is slightly more efficient than the implemented teaching unit when it comes to raising environmental awareness among the third-year groups where the interventions were conducted. After the implementation of the environmental project we designed, we were able to observe a significant increase in the perception level of certain aspects of the local environment such as noise pollution, green spaces and river ecosystems. Regarding the effectiveness of the methodology and the results we obtained after its implementation it is worth saying they are positive, though with room for improvement in the second year of intervention. The students who participated in the environmental projects showed an appropriate level of motivation and the tasks they were most interested in were the interactions with agents who were not related to their school and those tasks where they had to measure or analyse environmental parameters. On the other hand, cooperative work proved to be an inconvenience at times, as well as time management and lack of skills that are needed to conduct this type of projects such as communication, autonomy and personal initiative and digital competence.