Assessing the effect of project based learning on leadership abilities and communication skills

The accepted methodologies for construction engineering and management education have long recognized that students need to learn a combination of technical and non-technical competencies. Educators then develop their curricula to facilitate learning of these competencies and then assess the students’ understanding. For a competency such as cost estimating, these tasks can be accomplished through lectures, take-home problems, and written examinations. However, the development of non-technical competencies such as leadership abilities and communication skills require higher level methods. This paper describes the results of a controlled study that used problem based learning (PBL) to teach these skills and abilities. The results of the experiment were measured using the Competing Value Framework (CVF) developed by Quinn (2004). The results show a statistically significant improvement in the students’ ability to set goals, and identify and organize activities to best accomplish those goals. A literature review is included to show why PBL is well suited to teach non-technical competencies as well as technical competencies.