Project-Based Learning Integrated Caring Assessment and Tiered Instruction: Implications for Creative Thinking and Collaboration

Abstract

Creative thinking and collaboration are two competencies whose needs continue to increase in the context of 21st-century education. However, their development in the practice of project-based learning (PjBL) in junior high schools still faces obstacles, mainly due to overly product-oriented assessments and a lack of assignment adjustments to students' learning readiness. This study examines the influence of PjBL integrated with caring assessment and tiered instruction on these two competencies. The design was a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design involving 65 junior high school students, in which the experimental group (n = 32) received integrated PjBL and the control group (n = 33) received conventional PjBL. Data were collected through PBLWorks and P21 framework-based performance rubrics and written tests and then analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, and the Mann-Whitney U. As a result, the experimental group showed a significant improvement (Z = −4,071; p < 0.001; N-gain = 0.49), while the control group showed no significant change (Z = −1.574; p = 0.116; N-gain = 0.11). Creative thinking achievement (U = 356,500; p = 0.024) and collaboration (U = 298,000; p = 0.002) in the experimental group were also significantly higher. These findings indicate that the integration of caring assessment and tiered instruction in PjBL is able to encourage the development of these two competencies in a more structured manner than PjBL, which runs without these two components.