From listening to doing: how project-based learning shapes academic emotions in lower-secondary mathematics

Project-based learning (PjBL) is widely promoted as a student-centred approach, yet limited evidence explains how it shapes discrete academic emotions in lower-secondary mathematics. This study examined Grade 7 students’ mathematics-related academic emotions and unit-level mathematics achievement during the unit ‘Data Collection, Organization, and Description’. Two intact Grade 7 classes in a lower-secondary school in central China participated in a quasi-experimental study: one class (n = 40) completed a seven-lesson PjBL project, while the control class (n = 40) received lecture-based instruction. Students completed a 26-item academic emotion questionnaire at three phases, measuring enjoyment, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom. Unit-level mathematics achievement, interviews, and classroom observations were also used. Both groups improved emotionally, but the PjBL group showed larger changes, particularly in pride, anger, anxiety, and boredom. Enjoyment and hopelessness improved more descriptively, while shame declined temporarily before recovering. The raw post-test achievement difference was not significant, but ANCOVA controlling for pre-test achievement showed a significant adjusted advantage for the PjBL group. Interviews and observations suggested that authentic tasks, visible outcomes, peer interaction, and teacher scaffolding made mathematics more meaningful and manageable. Findings should be interpreted as short-term, unit-specific evidence rather than as a general effect of PjBL.