At the heart of all active learning is the quote "Tell me and I will forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand."  Since at least the mid-Twentieth century, economists have avoided purely “tell me”-type lectures in favor of a more “show me”-style of teaching.  We, as a discipline, love to demonstrate economic principles, whether with a graphical model, a numerical example or a real-world application.   Additionally, mastery of the discipline naturally involves not only content knowledge but significant critical thinking and problem solving skills, thus pedagogical techniques that encourage the development of such higher-order learning skills are well suited to the economics classroom.  Getting students actively involved in the learning process is critical in a field like ours.

Project-based learning is a method of actively involving students by using a multi-part project through which students supplement and build on their classroom learning experiences.  For example, one part of a project-based learning project may ask students to explore some particular question.  In order to complete the assignment the students may have to explore various sources of data, learn some new method of analysis, compare/contrast opposing points of view, etc.  Such a project differs from a traditional term paper in that the project focuses on students exploring and learning specific concepts, applications or techniques that are then incorporated into other aspects of the class.   Like a traditional term paper such a project may also help students develop independent research and writing skills.   

In this paper I will describe two examples of the use of collaborative project-based learning in upper level economics courses (urban economics and econometrics).  In each case, students are assigned projects through which they independently explore some course-related concepts and techniques.  The collaboration comes when each phase of the project is completed—the students report and discuss their results (as well as the difficulties they may have encountered along the way) with the entire class, thus building a much more complete picture than they discovered on their own.  This step serves several purposes:  students are motivated by each other to work hard, students gain an appreciation for the difficulties involved in independent work and learn techniques for overcoming obstacles, students gain practical critical analysis skills, the instructor can use the discussion to point out various nuances of an issue that might be difficult to otherwise address, the instructor can provide constructive feedback in an open setting that can benefit all students.

The paper provides specific examples of assignments, describes reaction to the technique from both the instructor’s and students’ points of view, and discusses learning outcomes.