PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN THE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES OF BEGINNER TEACHERS ¹

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 at understanding 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 with eight teachers and documental analysis of their teaching materials. The results show that beginner 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 at the schools where they teach, which overloads beginner teachers with too many parallel tasks to the teaching service.

Keywords:
project-based learning; educational practices; induction phase; elementary school teachers