As in all polls framed to ellicit a yes or no answer, I had a difficult time answering. Is project-based learning superior to textbook-based learning? No. Is textbook-based learning superior to project-based learning? No. There is a place for both. Project-based learning can take too long for initial immersion, but textbook learning without real application is useless. It is not an all or none proposition.

Is project-based learning superior to textbook-based learning?
The question is far too simplistic for the results to have meaning. Without discriptors, the choice is "which buzz word do you prefer?" The quality of the teacher, curriculum, and the school environment are much more important considerations. PBL provides the opportunity to engage students with diverse learning styles and interests in meaningful work while addressing multiple learning standards. But the application of PBL varies tremendously. It is a diservice to students, teachers, and communities to say, "PBL good. Textbooks bad." This comes from an elementary special education teacher who has not relied on a textbook in years.

Just think about something you learned OUTSIDE school. I'll guarantee it wasn't from a textbook. It was most likely project-based.

For kids that have executive functioning issues, project based learning can be a nightmare. Projects require much more organizational skill and prioritizing and the fun of the project can get lost in the anxiety of managing it all. My 8th grade son has just spent three years deeply involved in project-based learning and I can't wait for him to get into an environment that taxes his organizational skills less and his academic skills more. I don't think teachers realize how stressful the projects with multiple deadlines, due dates, and expected outcomes can be for some kids to manage.

Project based learning is superior to textbook learning ONLY if it is supported by sound pedagogy. Simply doing projects for the sake of doing projects does not result in superior education. Project learning must be supported by sound resource materials, both textual and on-line. Students must keep good, accurage, qualtiy records, and be able to publish or disseminate the results of their work.

In over 40 years of education, including many kinds of project based experiences, I have seen the good, the bad and the VERY ugly.

Comment on Project-based learning:

During the entire time my two children were in school, the only time I could count on hearing from them about school business was when they were involved in a school project. On that basis alone, it is clear to me that projects are engaging, confronting, exciting and cause kids to move out into the real classroom, the world, to find answers.

Edward Davis
Author: Lessons For Tomorrow, Bringing America's Schools Back From The Brink

The tradition text book is not criminal here, it's the text book publishers and the revolving school of thought of administrators. Text books never were meant to be the only teaching tool to excess. The desire to have the best curriculum has allowed big business to milk money from school systems for to many years. A text book is just a starting point, or a addition reference for lessons. At one point in time, they were just that, reference materials. One of the newest math curriculum, that is just wonderful, the text has that, a reference book. Unfortunately it comes as part system.

The survey makes it sound like the use of textbooks and projects are mutually exclusive. Just like anything else, a little of many things in moderation is usually the way to go. I like to teach the basic concepts using the textbook and then use a project where these concepts are put into practice.

How about an anology: Learning is a lot like love. Can you think of anyone who learned the meaning of love by reading it in a book? You have to experience it to know what it means and what you can do with it. Go project!

There is no doubt that project-based learning is more engaging and enhances the learning process. The bigger problem is aligning the projects to state standards and then having the resources to complete the projects. This balancing act often is so much of a challenge that many teachers chuck it and return to textbook teaching. There are so many demands on teachers that this is not surprising.