Gevorg Hakobyan

The Project as a Form of Learners’ Learning Activity: What Are We Doing and Where Are We Heading in the 2026–2027 Academic Year?

Project-Based Learning at the Educational Complex: From Experience to a New Stage

Project-based activity at the Educational Complex has long extended beyond the projects specified in its academic calendar. Various components of the educational programme—including educational trips, the ascent of mountain peaks, learning camps, concerts, and exhibitions—can be organised as learning projects or structured according to the principles of project-based work.

Learners from different educational institutions within the Educational Complex undertake individual and group learning projects. They choose topics that interest them, determine the direction and stages of their work, work independently or collaboratively, and present the results to the public. These presentations may take place beyond the boundaries of the Educational Complex, as learners also share their research findings in relevant professional and public settings.

The scale of project-based work at the Educational Complex can be illustrated by the figures from the previous academic year:

• High School: Approximately 355 research projects were carried out. If a learner does not manage to complete a project, they continue working on it during the fifth academic period, in July and August. Some learners organise public presentations of their completed work in September.
• Middle School: Approximately 400 learning projects were carried out, including science projects that also served as final examination projects.
• College: Learners completed approximately 300 project-based assignments.

The number of projects and the number of learners involved may differ, since a single project can be undertaken by several learners.

Thus, the project-based approach is one of the fundamental principles governing the organisation of learning at the Educational Complex. It is reflected not only in individual learning projects but also in the organisation of various components of the educational programme.

Under the new state standards for general education, carrying out a learning project has become a compulsory learning activity for every learner in Grades 7–12: “26. Each learner in Grades 7–12 completes at least one learning project per academic year in a subject or subjects of their choice.”

This requirement does not present a fundamentally new challenge for the Educational Complex, since project-based work is already an established practice here. However, it brings the task to a new scale: project-based activity must be accessible to every learner and organised in a way that enables everyone to participate. At the Educational Complex, project-based work is undertaken not only by learners in Grades 7–12 but also by college students.

To understand the scale of organising project-based work in the Middle School, High School, and College during the 2026–2027 academic year, let us look at the number of learners involved.

Organising project-based work for this number of learners makes a shared approach among the Educational Complex’s teaching staff and other participants essential. What needs to be shared are the fundamental principles of project-based work, not the ways in which projects are carried out.

At the Educational Complex, projects are viewed as collaborative learning activities undertaken by learners and teachers. Each of us must recognise that a project at the Educational Complex is not simply an assignment or an event. It is a way of organising the learner’s real, living learning activity, in which the learner formulates a question, finds solutions, collaborates with others, creates an outcome, publishes it, and presents it to an audience.

The existence of a large number of projects does not necessarily mean that project-based learning is of high quality. Therefore, in the 2026–2027 academic year, it is important not merely to record how many projects have been carried out, but also to understand what kind of learning activity each project engages the learner in and what the learner gains from that experience.

However, the challenge is not merely organisational; it is also pedagogical. If hundreds of learners are expected to undertake project-based work, every teacher must be able to distinguish an ordinary learning assignment from genuine project-based activity, understand their own role in the project, and assess not only the final outcome but also the learning journey the learner has undertaken.

The next stage of project-based work at the Educational Complex is not an increase in the number of projects, but a conscious commitment to improving the quality of project-based learning.

It is important to answer the question: What makes project-based learning genuinely project-based?

Project-Based Work as a Way of Organising Learners’ Learning Activity

Project-based learning becomes genuinely project-based not because a learning activity is labelled a “project,” but because the nature of the learner’s activity changes.

A project is a learning activity in which the learner formulates a question or problem that interests them, determines how to achieve the intended outcome, and creates and presents a result of their own.

The stages and tools involved in carrying out a project may vary depending on the problem, the subject, and the expected outcome. What remains constant is not the format of the work, but the learner’s conscious participation, independent activity, and reasoned presentation of the outcome.

A project begins with the selection of a topic, problem, or question. It has a title and a brief description (abstract). Ideally, the description should also specify the expected outcome.

The steps to be taken, the tools to be used—including AI tools—and the timeline for completing the work are then determined. It is important that the learner does not remain passive in this process, but participates in decision-making and understands what they themselves need to do.

Beyond gathering information, the implementation stage should include research, meetings, and practical activity. It is important to emphasise that finding information is not, in itself, research. Research involves formulating questions, examining information or data, analysing it, and drawing conclusions. Depending on the nature of the project, it may also include observation, experimentation, measurements, interviews, or other practical activities.

Collaboration with fellow learners, teachers, parents, specialists, and the wider community is particularly important during this stage.

As the work progresses, its scope, timeline, and tools may change.

By the end of the project, the learner should have a tangible outcome: a written piece, a film, an experiment, an exhibition, a map, a model, a publication, an event, or something similar.

An important final stage of a project is the presentation of its outcome. Whenever possible, working with teachers and fellow learners, the learner decides how, where, and to whom to present their work. Presentation allows the outcome to move beyond the boundaries of the learner’s individual work, invites feedback, and makes the result accessible to others. The learner actively participates in decisions about how the presentation will be organised.

The project process can be represented in the following sequence:

Question Formulation → Planning → Research and Practical Activity → Creation of an Outcome → Presentation → Reflection

Questions for Assessing Project Quality

In the new academic year, we need to consider projects not only in terms of quantitative indicators, but above all in terms of qualitative indicators.

We assess a completed project not only by its outcome but also by the journey taken to achieve it. The following questions can help us evaluate a project:

• What question or problem did the project address?
• What did the learner learn?
• What did the learner do independently?
• What research did the learner carry out?
• What did the learner create?
• With whom did the learner collaborate?
• What tangible outcome did the learner achieve?
• How did the learner present the outcome?
• What would the learner change next time?

Assessment tools should be developed on the basis of these questions, giving learners themselves the opportunity to evaluate both the work they have done and the outcomes they have achieved.

When considering the educational value of a completed project, it is important to ask what the learner gained from the experience and what kind of person the learner became in the process of creating that outcome. Project-based work can contribute to the development of learners’ personal qualities when it gives them genuine opportunities to make independent decisions, take responsibility, show initiative, and be accountable for the results of their work.

Let us consider some of these qualities:

• Independence — the ability to make decisions and act independently.
• Responsibility — the willingness to take responsibility for the work undertaken and its outcome.
• Initiative — the readiness to propose ideas and make efforts to put them into practice.
• Perseverance — the ability to sustain effort and bring a task to completion.
• Willingness to collaborate — the ability to work effectively with others towards a common goal.
• Creativity — the readiness to propose new ideas and solutions.
• Self-confidence — the willingness to justify and present one’s own ideas.
• Integrity — the willingness to present the actual process and results of one’s work honestly, acknowledge sources appropriately, admit mistakes, and refrain from falsifying results.

Integrity is particularly important in project-based work. Learners must be able to distinguish their own work from that of others, acknowledge the sources they have used, report the data they have collected and the results they have obtained truthfully, and acknowledge mistakes and unsuccessful attempts. What matters is not only the result they achieve, but also how they achieve it.

Project-based work teaches learners to approach their own activities responsibly and honestly: to distinguish their work from that of others, acknowledge the sources they have used, avoid falsifying data, and accept unsuccessful outcomes as part of the process. When using artificial intelligence, learners should indicate when and for what purpose they used AI, and which parts of the work they completed independently.

Equally important is the development of learners’ abilities and skills. I would highlight the following:

• Research skills: formulating questions, proposing hypotheses, searching for and selecting information, observing, experimenting, measuring, collecting data, and drawing conclusions.
• Critical thinking: comparing information, distinguishing facts from opinions, questioning the reliability of the information obtained, and justifying one’s own viewpoint.
• Problem-solving skills: identifying a problem, breaking it down into stages, proposing solutions, testing them, and changing the approach when necessary.
• Creative skills: turning an idea into a concrete outcome, such as a model, experiment, film, article, map, media product, exhibition, and so on.
• Communication skills: conducting interviews, asking questions, listening, expressing oneself orally and in writing, and presenting the results of one’s work.
• Collaboration skills: distributing roles, reaching agreements, making joint decisions, supporting group members, and taking responsibility for the collective outcome.
• Self-management skills: setting goals, planning work, managing time, meeting deadlines, and organising one’s own activities.
• Digital and media skills: searching for, processing, creating, and sharing content using digital tools.
• Self-assessment and reflection skills: evaluating not only the final outcome but also the process of one’s own work by asking: What went well? What did not? Why? What could be changed next time?

Project-based work should help learners develop the ability to approach their next problem with greater independence, awareness, and effectiveness.

Where Are We Heading? Challenges in Developing Project-Based Learning

The challenges associated with project-based work at the Educational Complex in the 2026–2027 academic year can be divided into four areas:

1. Shared principles. Clarify the requirements that every learner’s project should meet, regardless of the subject or the format in which it is carried out.

2. Teachers’ professional development. Turn the experience accumulated by the Educational Complex into a foundation for professional development and the exchange of experience.

3. Learner independence. Increase learners’ participation in formulating questions, planning, decision-making, and presenting outcomes at every stage of a project.

4. Quality assessment and reflection. Assess not only the final outcome but also the learner’s research, independence, collaboration, and learning.

Our task in the 2026–2027 academic year is not merely to organise project-based work, but to consciously improve its educational quality. To achieve this, we need to turn the Educational Complex’s years of experience into a foundation for shared professional discussion and learning, clarify the fundamental principles of project-based work, and develop tools for assessing learners’ independent activity.

The quality of project-based learning is determined not only by the outcome created, but also by the path the learner takes to achieve it. Our forthcoming work must place the learner at its centre—as a questioner, researcher, creator, and responsible participant in their own learning.

Photo: From Gevorg Hakobyan’s Facebook page.