Overarching Outcomes, Implications, and Conclusion

Reed, Samantha S.; Mullen, Carol A.; Boyles, Emily T.

In this last chapter, overarching outcomes, implications for practice and research, and conclusions are covered. In a discussion of overarching outcomes, a summary of seven findings is provided about PBL instruction and 21st-century skills in elementary education. Each finding is separately addressed, and insights are articulated, illuminating strategies of PBL instruction that influenced the development of the 5Cs. Building on the key instructional strategies previously reported, the information provided effectively addresses the research question asking what key strategies of PBL instruction influenced the Profile of a Virginia Graduate’s expectations of the 5Cs for fourth and fifth graders at one elementary school in Virginia. Implications for practice and research are also described, with school principals and educational researchers in mind. The study’s purposes are re-examined involving what PBL instructional strategies were in use within elementary classrooms and which aided in skills development from the point of view of educators. The gap in PBL at the elementary level and in relation to 21st-century learning is also revisited. The chapter ends with a look at the present and future, with applicability to PBL education, using the metaphor of navigating uncharted waters.