International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 5, No.

2, February 2015

Let‘s Go Traveling – Project-Based Learning in a

Taiwanese Classroom
B. T. Wang, C. W. Teng, and Y. H. Lin

 improve their collaborative skills, find information on their

Abstract—The aim of this project was to use the concept of own and let them experience different cultures worldwide.
Project-based Learning (PBL) in a junior high school English Based on the content of the junior high school English
classroom in Taiwan. Through the PBL curriculum design, it is textbook, the teacher designed different English projects,
hoped to develop students’ creativity, cooperative learning
ability and data collection ability. Besides, students’ English
such as writing postcards, traveling journal, etc. The aim was
writing ability and conversation skills can also be improved to let the students apply their English knowledge to complete
during this PBL curriculum. During the 9-week lecture, an the tasks. Through this PBL curriculum, students can
English class was chosen to conduct the research, and there understand the timing of using tenses, format of postcard and
were 30 ninth-grader students (approximately age 15) who envelope, read the journal with appropriate intonation and
joined this English PBL research. The whole class was divided find information on the Internet. In addition, students learned
into 10 groups. Each group was asked to submit the work of
English mind mapping, postcard, and traveling journal. At the
to work with their group members to accomplish the tasks.
end of the project, the formative assessments were used to check After the 9-week lecture, students‘ performances were
students’ projects. That is, each group had to read the traveling evaluated through three ways: teacher‘s evaluation,
journal aloud in front of the class and the rubrics designed by peer-evaluation and self-evaluation. At the end of this PBL
the English teacher were used to evaluate the students’ research, we would like to investigate the following
performances. Also, each student was asked to fill out the questions:
self-evaluation form to check his own progress. The results
1) How well are students‘ meeting the teacher‘s
showed that students learned how to use the search engine, like
Google or Yahoo through the project. Moreover, their ability of requirements and expectations?
data collection and sorting information was also improved. In 2) What needs improvement in this PBL curriculum?
addition, the students understood more of foreign countries’ 3) What have students learned through the PBL curriculum?
culture and tourist attractions. Through the PBL curriculum,
students can not only apply what they have learned in the
English class to conduct the project, but they can also increase
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
their English learning achievement.
A. PBL
Index Terms—Project-based learning, curriculum design,
cooperative learning, English writing ability and formative PBL is based on the constructivism theory, along with the
assessments. cognitive psychology and the concept of learning in a context
[4]. It refers to a learner-centered approach, and there is a
topic for the learners to achieve [5]. Learners can acquire the
I. INTRODUCTION knowledge by using the methods like discussion, cooperative
Recently, multiple assessments and creative teaching learning, or data collection [5], [6]. At the end of the project,
methods have been taken seriously in the educational field learners are expected to present the project [5], [6].
[1], [2]. However, most junior high school teachers in The spirit of PBL is that learners can learn by doing and
Taiwan still use the traditional paper-and-pencil test instead learn by research [7]. The assigned work can be a paper, a
of multiple assessment methods. Probably it is because they model or even a program [7], [8]. The main purpose of PBL
need to follow the school schedule, or it is time-consuming to is to eliminate students‘ inert knowledge phenomena, and
do multiple assessments. But the learner-centered teaching is make students have problem-solving ability [7], [9]. Besides,
a trend, and teachers are encouraged to create a learning PBL can provoke students‘ learning motivation, critical
environment which can not only inspire students‘ learning thinking ability, communicative skills, and data collection
motivation, but also develop students‘ critical thinking ability ability [10]. The educational concepts of PBL can be
[3]. summarized as follows [7]-[10]:
Hence, in this paper, we used the PBL method in a junior 1) Constructivism theory: instead of receiving knowledge
high school‘s English classroom. The purpose of this from the instructor, students learn actively. PBL can
research was to encourage students‘ to create their own work, create a knowledge-construction environment for the
learners.
2) Learning by exploring: the tasks are designed as
Manuscript received January 5, 2014; revised March 13, 2014.
Bor-Tyng Wang is with the Foreign Language Center, Feng-Chia
open-ended questions for students to investigate the
University, Taiwan (e-mail: [Link]@[Link]). answers. In the realistic situation, students learn how to
Chun-Wen Teng is with Gradute Institute of Public Policy, Feng-Chia gather information and solve problems.
University, Taiwan (e-mail: cwteng@[Link]).
Yi-Hsuan Lin is with Shin-Kuang Junior High School, Taiwan (e-mail:
3) Cooperative learning: usually, the students work as a
linemily1107@[Link]). team to solve problems and accomplish the project. Each

DOI: 10.7763/IJIET.2015.V5.481 84
 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 5, No. 2, February 2015

student has his individual responsibility in the group and grouping, teachers try to balance students‘ gender and ability
he needs to communicate his ideas with other group in each group. It is expected that the good students can teach
members. the weak students. Also, the different backgrounds make
Comparing with the traditional teaching methods, PBL students to respect and understand their group members.
seems to be different in the following aspects [11].
1) Teacher‘s role: instead of being an instructor in class, the
teacher in the PBL classroom is more like a curriculum III. RESEARCH DESIGN
designer, and a guide who inspires students‘
thought-provoking skills. A. Participants
2) Learning method: PBL is student-centered while the An English class in a junior high school in Taiwan was
traditional teaching is teacher-centered. chosen to conduct the research, and there were 30
3) Learning content: the traditional teaching is ninth-grader students (approximately age 15; 17 males and
textbook-based while PBL integrates the textbook, online 13 females) who joined this English PBL research. The
resources and media. teacher divided the whole class into 10 groups. Based on the
4) Assessment method: the traditional teaching emphasizes cooperative learning concept, the teacher made the weak
the overall scores; however, PBL cares students‘ learning students work with the good students. In this way, the good
process and outcomes from the experience. students can teach the weak students and the team can finish
In addition, Adria Steinberg mentioned the ―Six the project on time.
A‘s—Criteria for Designing Projects‖ for teachers to B. Procedure
reference when design projects [12]. The six criteria include
The PBL flowchart in the Taiwanese classroom is shown
authenticity, academic rigor, applied learning, active
in Fig. 1. First of all, the English teacher taught the English
exploration, adult connections and assessment practices.
verb tenses and English letter format in class. At this stage,
In short, PBL creates a student-centered classroom, and the
the English teacher focused on the content in the textbook.
teacher provides sufficient help to the students. Through PBL,
Then the English teacher used the heterogeneous grouping to
students can construct the knowledge to accomplish the
divide the class into different groups. Meanwhile, the groups
project in a group. In addition, they also improve the
were assigned tasks, and they started to find the information
communicative skills with their peers, and share the
on the Internet. After that, each group worked on the ―mind
information at the same time.
mapping‖ and reported their work in class. Next, each group
B. Cooperative Learning chose a tourist attraction and wrote the traveling journal and
In today‘s world, it is difficult for an individual to postcard. Finally, they finished writing the English envelope
accomplish a task on his own; therefore, team work has been and gave presentations in class.
a trend and the idea of cooperative learning emerged [13].
Cooperative learning provides students an opportunity to In-class teaching
work with their classmates instead of accepting information (tenses and letter format)

from the teacher. During the team work, students learn how
to express their ideas and solve the conflict in the team [14].
Also, students can construct new knowledge and learn new Group discussion, data collection and sorting
skills in the team. Finally, students‘ learning motivation can
be increased [14], [15].
According to the previous researches, the advantages of Mind mapping design
cooperative learning can be listed as follows [16]-[18]:
1) Cooperative learning encourages personal experience and
knowledge sharing. The team can propose varieties of
Mind mapping group report
views and experiences to provoke deeper investigation.
2) Learners in cooperative learning learn and construct their
knowledge actively.
3) During the cooperative learning process, learners have to Design postcard and writing traveling journal
present, express and modify what they have already
learned. This enables them to integrate the new
knowledge with old. Writing English envelope
In cooperative learning, group members depend on one
another, and they have to reach a consensus to achieve the
goal [13]. Also, each team member‘s accountability needs to
Read the traveling journal aloud in class
be clarified and teachers need to take this into consideration
when grading. The most important is that the teacher has to Fig. 1. PBL flowchart.
express the idea of cooperative learning to the whole class,
and train the students to work as a team.
C. PBL Curriculum Design
When dividing the class into different groups, the teacher
needs to think of which method to use. Most researchers By following PBL 6 A‘s criteria [12], the English teacher
suggest the heterogeneous grouping [16]. In heterogeneous designed the projects and the details are listed in Table I.

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 5, No. 2, February 2015

TABLE I: PBL 6A‘S CURRICULUM DESIGN 4) Students developed team spirit and cooperative skills in
Categories Content
the group. Fig. 3 showed the in-class group discussion,
and we could see students‘ active interaction. Also, they
One of the assigned project asked students to were engaged in more complex discussions.
explore the world, and understand the cultures
and features. Besides, writing postcards and
Authenticity
English letters let students apply what they had
learned in the textbook to the real-world
situation.
The project asked students to use different tenses
Academic
in different situation which was corresponded to
rigor
the curriculum goal.
The English journal writing required students to
use the vocabulary, grammar, and sentence
Applied
patterns to complete the project. Also, students
learning
applied their information literacy to collect the
information.
In order to complete the project, students had to
Active find information on the Internet. In addition, the
Fig. 3. In-class group discussion.
exploration team members had to share, discuss and integrate
the information in the group.
Adult Based on the project topics, parents can provide
5) Students can apply their English knowledge, including
connections timely assistance. writing and speaking skills, to the real-world situation.
In the PBL, students had to complete postcard Fig. 4 presented the English envelope written by the
writing, English journal writing, mind mapping students, and Fig. 5 showed the English postcard
Assessment
drawing and gave an in-class presentation. designed by the students.
practices
Hence, there are three different rubrics to
evaluate students‘ performances.

D. Instrument
To check students‘ progress, the formative assessments
were included. First, the English teacher designed the rubrics
to grade students‘ work and presentation. Besides, students
had to fill in the self-evaluation forms. Moreover, each group
could give grades to other groups. Finally, each group needed
to submit the traveling journal, project progress journal, and
English postcards to the teacher.

Fig. 4. English envelope.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
According to students‘ self-evaluation form, what they had
learned through the PBL can be concluded as follows:
1) Students learned how to use the Internet tools, such as
Google, Yahoo, ChungHua post website, and Google
translation software.
2) Students‘ ability of data collection and integration had
been enhanced.
3) Students understood the cultures and tourist attractions
better. Fig. 2 showed the example of students‘ mind
mapping work, which proved their understanding of the
tourist attraction. Fig. 5. English postcard.

Fig. 2. An example of students‘ mind mapping work. Fig. 6. In-class group presentation.

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 5, No. 2, February 2015

6) Students‘ learning achievement had been increased. The 7) Teachers can encourage the weak students to learn from
PBL course inspired their creativity and gave them an their team members and some prizes can be provided to
opportunity to find out their merits and weaknesses. those who help their weak team members.
Based on their self-evaluation forms, students showed Through the PBL, the teacher discovered that the new
positive attitudes toward the PBL. interests and skills in English teaching increased. However,
7) Students learned the English presentation skills. Fig. 6 this is just a PBL being carried out in one English class; the
showed the in-class group presentation. Students needed effectiveness of PBL can be more reliable if more classes join
to prepare the PPT and read the traveling journal aloud in this project. In the future, there could be a pre-test and
front of the class. This was a student-centered classroom post-test to check students‘ progress in a quantitative way.
which was totally different from the traditional teaching. Moreover, the multiple assessment methods, like individual
On the other hand, the problems we faced during the PBL learning portfolio, can be included to make the project more
can be summarized as follows: comprehensive.
1) The time limitation was a big problem while doing the
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5) During the group presentation, the teacher needs to notice
the audience‘s responses. Once there is someone talking, Bor-Tyng Wang is currently an assistant professor of
Foreign Language Center at Feng-Chia University,
the teacher has to correct the bad manner. Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. degree in Graduate
6) While students carrying out the project, the teacher has to Institute of Educational Measurement and Statistics
ask students to write the work schedule journal weekly. from National Taichung University of Education,
Taiwan. Her research interests include dynamic
Also, the teacher should check the journal periodically to assessment, knowledge structure analysis, English
reduce the free-rider situation. language teaching and CALL. She was also the associate

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 5, No. 2, February 2015

executive editor of International Journal of Kansei Information. Yi-Hsuan Lin is currently an English teacher in
Shin-Kuang Junior High School and now studies in the
Chun-Wen Teng is currently an assistant professor of Graduate Institute of Public Policy at Feng-Chia
Graduate Institute of Public Policy at Feng-Chia University, Taiwan. English teaching is her interest and
University, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. degree in she has been an English teacher in the junior high school
Department of Education from National Chengchi for ten years. She likes to apply teaching theories to the
University, Taiwan. His research interests include higher practical teaching and enjoys trying to teach in
education, curriculum and instruction design and innovative ways.
e-learning. He was also the executive officer of Center
for Teaching and Learning Resource at Feng-Chia
University.

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