Volume 1 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership - Page 43

Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership 41 PBL emerged more than half a century ago based on a constructivist theoretical foundation as a practical teaching strategy in medicine, engineering, economics, and other disciplines (Holmes, 2012). In PBL, students are challenged to solve problems or create simulations that mimic real life events. A summary of research on PBL by the Center for Ex- cellence in Leadership for Learning at the University of In- dianapolis indicates that PBL (a) has a positive effect on crit - ical thinking and problem solving skills, (b) is a successful way of teaching 21st century skills, (c) has a positive effect on student engagement (d) fosters collaboration among stu- dents, (e) increases student initiative in utilizing resources and revising, and (f) has a positive effect on student content knowledge (Bradley-Levine & Mosier, 2014). Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study was to measure the impact of PBL on student academic achievement, attendance, and disci - pline in a north Texas school district. The study was an ex post facto, causal-comparative study to determine the im- pact of PBL on eighth grade students taught social studies with PBL in a North Texas school district. Data analysis de - termined whether there were statistically significant differ - ences between PBL social studies students and nonPBL so - cial studies students occurring for (a) student achievement as measured by the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in social studies, reading, and mathe- matics; (b) student attendance as measured by 2013-2014 PEIMS data; and (c) student discipline as measured by 2013- 2014 office referrals. Data analysis sought to answer the fol - lowing research questions: 1. What is the impact of PBL on student achievement on the 2014 STAAR assessments in social studies, reading, and math for students enrolled in an eighth grade social studies PBL class as compared to stu- dents enrolled in a traditional eighth grade social studies class in a North Texas school district? 2. What is the impact of PBL on student attendance for students enrolled in an eighth grade social studies PBL class as compared to students enrolled in a traditional eighth grade social studies class in a North Texas school district? 3. What is the impact of PBL on student discipline for students enrolled in an eighth grade social studies PBL class as compared to students enrolled in a traditional eighth grade social studies class in a North Texas school district? Procedures and Data Analysis For the study, the independent variable was the student’s platform for social studies instruction; PBL or traditional. In this design, the dependent variables were the following: (a) the actual achievement result on the state tests, (b) at- tendance, and (c) discipline referrals in relation to the three research questions. Research Question 1 The t test for independent samples was performed to com - pare the raw score of the STAAR assessments of the char - acteristic-present and comparison groups at a significance level of .05 for Research Question 1 addressing the three areas of academic achievement: reading, mathematics, and social studies. The results from the independent samples t-test show the results were t (364) = -4.054 with p = .000062 for social studies, t (364) = -0.889 with a p-value of .369 for reading, and t (364) = -1.103 with a p-value of .271 for math - ematics. The results showed there was a significant difference in scores on the eighth grade social studies STAAR assess- ment for PBL (M =.577, SD = .150) and nonPBL (M =.499, SD = .156), t (364) = 4.054, p < .05, d = .043. Further, Cohen’s d, a measure of effect size was computed to be .51. The effect size for the difference in scores between PBL and nonPBL stu - dents’ STAAR social studies scores was medium. The results showed there was no significant difference in scores on the eighth grade reading STAAR assessment for PBL (M =.674, SD = .152) and nonPBL (M =.657, SD = .160) due to the size of t (364) = .899, p > .05. Additionally, there was no signifi - cant difference in scores on the eighth grade mathematics STAAR assessment for PBL (M =.554, SD = .150) and nonPBL (M =.531, SD = .176) due to the size of t (364) = 1.103, p > .05. A series of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests was performed to test the hypotheses for Research Question 1 that the PBL group outperformed the