Project-based Learning in the educational practices of beginning teachers

Abstract

The beginning of a teacher's career is a challenging period for the development of their educational practices. Despite valuing active teaching methods, such as Project-based Learning, the pressure felt at this stage leads teachers at the beginning of their careers to experience difficulties of a diverse nature in its implementation. This study aims to understand how elementary school teachers at the beginning of their career, integrate Project-based Learning in their teaching practices. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews to eight teachers and documental analysis of their teaching materials. The results show that beginning teachers value and try to implement Project-Based Learning in their educational practices. The difficulties in its implementation could be mitigated through a more consistent methodological approach in initial teacher education and a redefinition of educational priorities in the schools where they teach, which overloads beginning teachers with too many parallel tasks to the teaching service.