Complex Thinking in Project-Based Learning

Abstract

This article seeks to investigate the potential of Project-Based Learning as a pedagogical methodology for the development of complex thinking, as theorized by Edgar Morin. It starts from the premise that the traditional, fragmented, and Cartesian educational model is insufficient to prepare students for the multidimensional problems of the contemporary world. Complex thinking—with its principles: dialogical, recursive, and holographic—offers a paradigm that accepts contradiction, uncertainty, and the interrelation of knowledge. It argues that the project-based methodology, by organizing learning around significant and transdisciplinary problems, effectively reconnects knowledge, materializing these principles in school practice. The analysis is supported by a case study from the Lumiar School, which demonstrated how collective investigation and autonomous production can foster a systemic and critical understanding of reality.