Project-Based Learning

CHAPTER 8

Projects that Contribute to Theory

As was explained in Chapter 6, projects that contribute to theory generally follow the empirical cycle, although they may start at different spots in this cycle. This chapter provides insights into how to conduct a project that contributes to theory, and for ease of the discussion, the general part of the end result of this type of project, typically a research paper, is described. Although this exact format is not always appropriate and although the project is typically iterative so that these parts in a paper are not linearly developed, this setup is followed here for ease of the discussion. Thus, the following areas are covered: abstract, introduction, purpose and research questions, literature ...