Boosting critical thinking in a Project Management course: An active learning experience

The present study reports the experience of a project-based learning activity in which students are asked to plan and assess the viability of an event. This activity is part of a Project Management course taught at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, in a Masters’ Degree in Business Administration and Production Systems. With this activity students are required to apply the acquired technical skills while use different quantitative methods and tools to interpret data for decision-making. By introducing self- and peer- assessment tasks, this activity also boosts critical thinking. The results show that active learning materialized in the form of project-based learning activities make courses more enjoyable for both instructors and students, and most importantly, contribute to develop students’ skills such as teamwork and critical thinking. The findings also reveal that although pre-class readings and lectures are useful, students do not fully understand and realize about what they learn until they are actively involved in activity where they should apply the new knowledge acquired.