Unlocking the Black Box: How Project-Based Learning Fosters Students’ Engineering Practice Competence?

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_34How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Project-Based Learning; Engineering Practice Competence; Learning Engagement; Sequential Explanatory Mixed-Methods Design

Abstract

This study investigates the mechanisms through which Project-Based Learning (PjBL) fosters engineering practice competence among university students. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed in a PjBL course at a Chinese research university. By integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence, this research reveals that Project Context and Teacher Support function as core instructional design elements that stimulate students’ learning engagement. Engagement, in turn, acts as a key mediator, effectively driving the development of engineering practice competence. These findings unlock the black box of PjBL, thus contributing an evidence-based framework for optimizing instructional design in engineering PjBL.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ting Han
AU  - Chengfei Shi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/26
TI  - Unlocking the Black Box: How Project-Based Learning Fosters Students’ Engineering Practice Competence?
BT  - Proceeding of 2025 8th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 302
EP  - 308
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_34
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_34
ID  - Han2026
ER  -