Democratic Functioning and PBL: Determining Factors for Inclusion and Academic Achievement

This work analyzes how democratic functioning and project-based learning methodology (PBL) influence student performance. A link is established between, on the one hand, findings described in scientific literature on performance improvement and inclusion, and on the other, results obtained by Antzuola students in diagnostic testing carried out by the Basque Institute for Educational Research. The methodological perspective of the study is quantitative; it compares results obtained by Antzuola students and those of students from the Basque Autonomous Community who took the same tests in different centers and linguistic strata in 2010, 2011, and 2013. The study concludes that educational practices employed in the center produce better academic results, with a significantly lower percentage of students with below-average results. This can be interpreted as a higher level of inclusion.