Meaningful Learning in the Teaching of Culture: The Project Based Learning Approach

This paper reports on a collaborative effort taken by a team of three teacher educators in using the Project Based Learning (PBL) approach in the teaching of Japanese culture with the aim to investigate the presence of actual “meaningful learning” among 15 students of a 12-Week Preparatory Japanese Language course under a teacher training programme. The instrument used in the study was a blog created for the project and the data collected was a compilation of students’ reflection reports and messages about their learning experience uploaded onto the blog. The qualitative data was analysed using an adapted version of Jonassen’s 1999 rubric on meaningful learning attributes. Findings from this study showed a significant presence of meaningful learning attributes, namely constructive and authentic learning. This paper reaffirms project-based instruction as a viable and flexible alternative to traditional intensive coursework.