The Evaluation of Theses Prepared on Project-Based Learning in Turkey: A Content Analysis Study

The aim of this study is to undertake a content analysis of theses prepared on project-based learning between 2003 and 2013, and to uncover their trends. The theses that tackled project-based learning were scanned within the Council of Higher Education database by searching the keywords "project-based and project-supported". The 99 theses listed were subjected to content analysis using publication classification form. These theses were reviewed in terms of "the year of publication, type, university of origin, purpose of study and results, working group, sample size and research model". The result of this research suggests that the studies on project-based learning were mostly conducted over primary school students and the preferred sample size were between 17 to 146 individuals and the most used research model was experimental. Also, almost half of the studies were conducted within institutes of educational sciences, and most studies were in the form of a master's thesis. The most common purpose of these studies was found to be academic achievement goals. So in this context, it would be useful to include project-based learning and other learning fields together.