For learning to take place, the student should get ready to identify his or her difficulties and the mistakes he or she makes during this process in order to be able to overcome them. This intentional exercise is called self-regulated learning, which is a self-directed process through which the learners transform their mental abilities into academic ones. (Maldonado Pérez, 2008: 159).

In the same direction, it is crucial for teaching to be able to collaborate with the students in this process; and for that purpose, there are two basic elements bound together: Test strategies and classroom management in collaborative teamwork.

Therefore, and in relation with the actual conceptual definitions from various authors and theoretical aspects, we can assert that “Project-Based Learning is a learning model in which students plan, implement, and assess projects that are applicable in the real world, beyond the classroom.” (Blank, 1997; Dickinson, et al, 1998; Harwell, 1997 in Galdeana, 2006: 1). Correspondingly, we can affirm that PBL is “a learning strategy which allows to achieve one or several objectives by means of implementing a set of actions, interactions, and resources.” (Ayuste, et al, 1998: s/p) or, as Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory claims (2002: s/p), that it is “an integral (holistic) teaching strategy instead of a complement. Project work is an important part of the learning process.”

In relation to the teaching and learning processes, it can be highlighted the treatment that Constructivism gives to some categories which prove basic for PBL, where the teacher is the active subject and the facilitator of the learning process in the students, and the student is construed as the active subject in the analysis of the received information. Thus, learning is basically focused on the development of cognitive elements, reasoning, and logical processes such as analysis.

The applied PBL provides a learning experience where the student is actively engaged through the realization of a meaningful and complex project, with which his or her attitudes, abilities, skills, and values are developed and enhanced.

According to Maldonado Pérez, PBL

Stimulates in students the development of abilities to solve actual situations, with which they motivate to learn. Students become enthusiastic about research, discussion, and they propose and prove their hypotheses, putting their skills into practice in a real situation. In this experience, the student applies the acquired knowledge on a product aimed at satisfying a social need, which reinforces his or her values and commitment to the environment, as well as using modern and innovative resources (2008: 160).

There are many advantages this method offers in the learning process, since it “fosters students to learn and act according to a project design, laying a plan with definite strategies, to provide a solution to a question and not only to achieve curricular objectives (Galdeana, 2006: 3).” It also allows them to learn in diversity by working all together, to stimulate intellectual, emotional, and personal growth “with direct experiences with people and students placed in different contexts.”

PBL implies organizing teams made up of students with different profiles, where differences offer great opportunities for learning, and prepare the students in an actual environment that will allow them to work in a changing economy with better adaptation.