Political and international bodies have recommended to engage of students as active builders of their own learning processes and to privilege innovative learning processes centred around real problems (Christersson et al., 2019; European Commission, 2017). Such recommendations are broadly grounded on research on learning processes (e.g., Brame, 2016; Machemer & Crawford, 2007; Prince, 2004), but also on the responsibility assigned to Higher Education institutions, especially after the Bologna process (Čirić, 2016). The new graduates need to be prepared to act proactively in their continuous professional development to face a changing labour market (Inamorato dos Santos et al., 2019; Ornellas et al., 2019), and this should necessarily to be considered in students’ learning experiences during Higher Education studies.

The experience here described results from the participation in a training pedagogical activity organized in a Portuguese university, with the aim of strengthening teachers' capacity for digital teaching and learning processes. It was developed in the context of a curricular unit of Research Methodology taught in a Master Degree Course in Special Education. This is frequently considered a challenging subject due to the technical complexity of the contents and the relatively low students’ background and interest that it generates on them. The usual public attending this course are education professionals, who intend to specialize in Special Education, to update their knowledge and skills and put them into practice. This context highlighted the need to adopt a learning approach that would (i) potentiate the practical application of theoretical issues as a way to facilitate and ensure understanding of abstract and complex concepts; (ii) stimulate the active-learning experience as a way to engage students; in a way that (iii) could prepare them for the elaboration of a dissertation in the Master’s second year; but also that (iv) stimulate the transfer of knowledge and skills to their professional practice. Taking that, this proposal describes and evaluates a project-based learning experience that emerged as an approach with potential to respond to these needs, through student-developed research projects (Ball & Pelco, 2006). Research problems usually do not have a “right and exclusive way” to be approached, instead, they are unstructured and complex, with several valid ways to be carried out. Because of that, it is expect that students need to gather and confront different information as a way to develop a research plan, requiring self-direct learning. This self-directed learning seems to be an effective way to increase students’ motivation and to develop  problem-solving skills (Ball & Pelco, 2006; Dochy, Segers, Van den Bossche & Gijbels, 2003; Silva, Correia, Almeida & Monteiro, 2019; Tiwari, Arya & Bansal, 2017).

The pedagogical experience here presented describes a project-based learning approach used in the context of a curricular unit of research methodology that integrates the 1st semester of a Master Course in Special Education. Thirty-five students, organized in 9 groups of 3 to 5 elements, were asked to select and develop a research theme during a 13 week-semester. The conducted activities followed five steps of a research project: (i) phase 1 – literature review and delimitation of the problem; (ii) phase 2 - definition of variables, hypotheses and/or research questions; (iii) phase 3 - planning and sample study; (iv) phase 4 - instruments; (v) phase 5 – data analysis planning; (vi) research projects presentation and discussion. The development of each of these phases was supported by theoretical-practical classes, were there was a theoretical explanation of the contents, followed by the teacher’s monitoring of each group’s transference of the learned contents to the research projects. After the conclusion of each phase of the project, students uploaded their work in a free web-based application available online, called Padlet, that functions as a “wall” were users can post documents, links, videos or images. Then, the teacher provided feedback on the documents uploaded. Because the wall is open to the whole class, it stimulated collaborative practices in learning contexts, where students who were struggling with difficulties had the opportunity to learn and improve with colleagues who were at a more mature stage of the work. The evaluation of this learning experience was carried out through a development and learning reflection guide that was asked for students to fill at three different moments of the semester. This instrument consisted of an on-line form with 2 to 4 open questions about students’ interests and expectations regarding the curricular unit, perceptions of personal resources to succeed in the curricular unit, perceptions of difficulties and strategies to overcome them, and perceptions of their learning progress (personal development and technical skills). Informal conversations between students and teacher about the learning process also occurred regularly over the semester. The collected data were then subjected to a content analysis.

The results allowed us to conclude that the project-based learning was adequate to the diagnosed needs for this curricular unit. Students generally considered that this experience demanded a significant effort and commitment due to the high workload and need to meet deadlines. This can be particularly challenging in a class composed by a large number of working students who need to manage their time between professional and academic responsibilities but, simultaneously, it can bring increased benefits due to the possibility of knowledge transfer to professional contexts that it provides. Application of theoretical concepts to the projects represented one of the difficulties reported by students, but, at the same time, it represented an opportunity to identify gaps on the concepts’ understanding and ask the teacher for their clarification. Students’ active engagement in the conduction of a research project also contributed to the increase of their self-confidence and autonomy regarding research processes, with reports of students stating to feel better prepared for their master dissertation. Beyond that, the intention to transfer knowledge and skills to professional practice, such as search for credible and relevant sources of information, organisation and construction of scientific thinking, and development of evidence-based practices, was referred by students when reflecting about the perceived relevance of this learning experience. Lastly, and despite the overall positive results of this experience, it is important to refer that this approach is limited in the way that significant learning is usually circumscribed to research methods specifically applied to the developed project, which usually do not cover the wide range of research methods currently available in the Education field.

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