ABSTRACT

The theoretical foundations of project-based learning have been laid in the early 20th century by the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey and the progressive educator William Heard Kilpatrick, both of whom emphasized the goal of public education as the development of individuals who are ready and able to meaningfully engage in a democracy. This chapter presents a discussion of the relationship of project-based learning to student creativity, with a special emphasis on classroom conditions that support creativity, including the purposeful use of technology. It provides a discussion of online, simulation-based technologies designed to support students' project-based learning in science. Importantly, this discussion focuses on the ways that learning technology designers have built project scaffolds directly into the technology itself to support student learning and creativity in the project-based classroom. Educational-technology researchers have found empirical support for a number of different content-knowledge scaffolds teachers may use to assist students in project-based learning activities.