Impact of Project-based Learning on the Higher-Order Thinking Ability of Vocational Undergraduate Students

Abstract

As vocational undergraduate education is shifting its objectives towards developing high-quality technical talents, higher-order
thinking ability has become the core indicator for measuring students' vocational competitiveness. Based on Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and aligned with the characteristics of "post-course-competition-certificate" integration in vocational undergraduate education,
this paper explores the influence mechanism of project-based learning on students' higher-order thinking dimensions such as critical thinking,
innovative thinking and problem-solving ability through empirical analysis and case studies. Research has found that project-based learning
can effectively activate students' higher-order thinking and significantly enhance their decision-making and innovation ability in complex vocational situations through constructing real working scenarios, task-driven inquiry, and collaborative problem-solving. Meanwhile, in view of
the problems in teaching practice such as divorce between project design and job requirements and imperfect assessment systems, this paper
proposes some optimization strategies to provide reference for the reform of vocational undergraduate education.