Mosier, G. G., Bradley-Levine, J., & Perkins, T. (2016). Students’ Perceptions of Project-Based Learning within the New Tech School Model. International        Journal of Educational Reform,25(1), 2-15. Retrieved February, 2019.

I found this study to be very interesting for my topic of research. New Tech schools are a new style of schools that are more centered around project-based learning (PBL), a democratic school system and technology integration. This is very interesting because some of the methods that they use could possibly be used in newer CTE education reform. In summary this study was centered around two main research questions: 1. “How do students perceive PBL and the NTS model?” and 2. “How do students’ perceptions of PBL connect to their views of NTS implementation?” ( Mosier 5). The used a survey method to collect data from 6 New Tech schools and had 710 student participants. they wanted to understand how the students perceived their education and what aspects appeal or don’t appeal to them.  Their findings found that there were many strong correlations to the student’s happiness at school and the PBL/ New Tech school practices. I found it really interesting that many of the student correlated the PBL methods to creating a “culture of “trust, respect and responsibility” (11). I think it’s a great idea to get the reactions and feelings of the students because they are often left unaccounted for. When trying to come up with a new educational curriculum its important to poll the feeling of everyone involved in order to make sure the curriculum is effective. More importantly I loved how the research was done. There survey seemed really thought out and covered almost every aspect of their education. In my favorite section they have the students describe what behaviors their teachers demonstrate when using the PBL methods. I believe that it is important when creating a curriculum to look at it from the student’s perspective. This allows you to understand what the what the teacher is doing to help or not help these students. The finding saw that when the teacher was enthusiastic about the PBL activity the students enjoyment and understanding of the material was much higher than the teachers who are not thrilled to be teaching PBL.