New Perspectives in Science Education

Over the last two decades, the interest in student engagement has grown. Engaged students show behavioral involvement in learning and positive emotional tone. On the other hand, many teachers are often required to teach to a standardized curriculum and a set pedagogy with the majority of their time spent on teaching mathematics and literacy and having no time or autonomy to use creative and student-centered pedagogies or to include the arts in their curriculum (Oerek, 2006) or to use PBL methodology in their teaching. This study was designed to investigate how PBL integration across the curriculum affects student engagement.  Are educational pursuits more important to students that have experienced in PBL integration across the curriculum for one or more years than to students that have had the same experience but for less than one year? Is the level of engagement in the learning process for students that have experienced in arts, Scientix, or using different tools in their studying,( Demonstrated good example of PBL through the project “Math and successful investor”  integration across the curriculum for one or more years higher than for students that have only experienced arts integration for less than one year? The participants in the study completed the Survey for Student Engagement. The collected data was analyzed and revealed significant relationship between PBL integration across the curriculum and students engagement in the learning process and the important of educational pursuits to them. Findings and limitations are discussed.

Key words: PBL, engagement, curriculum, Scientix, project