ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the educational literature that anchors project-based learning in the social constructivist theory of learning. The research literature shows that all children, regardless of their age, are able to take part in sophisticated thinking in order to make sense of the world. Research in cognitive science and in science education has demonstrated that young children have developed sophisticated ways of understanding and thinking about the world based on their interactions with their environment. The chapter also examines types of knowledge and ways to help students develop integrated understandings through the construction of knowledge in social situations. It explores a number of techniques to help teachers scaffold students' learning of science. The chapter discusses student understanding and several scenarios of student understanding. Students need to construct content, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge to develop useable understanding. Without procedural and metacognitive knowledge, students develop disconnected and isolated understanding. The chapter outlines a social constructivist model of teaching.
