Problem Based Learning

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of creating a problem. Students learn both thinking strategies and domain knowledge. The PBL format originated from the medical school of thought, and is now used in other schools of thought too. It was developed at the McMaster University Medical School in Canada in the 1960s and has since spread around the world. The goals of PBL are to help the students develop flexible knowledge, effective problem solving skills, self-directed learning, effective collaboration skills and intrinsic motivation.^[1] Problem-based learning is a style of active learning.

Working in groups, students identify what they already know, what they need to know, and how and where to access new information that may lead to the resolution of the problem. The role of the instructor (known as the tutor in PBL) is to facilitate learning by supporting, guiding, and monitoring the learning process. The tutor must build students' confidence to take on the problem, and encourage the students, while also stretching their understanding. PBL represents a paradigm shift from traditional teaching and learning philosophy, which is more often lecture-based

1.      Meaningful activity – PBL engages students in problems that are designed to be realistic, intriguing, and relevant to the field of study.  Meaningful problems thus serve as the context and the stimulus for knowledge-building and critical thinking. 

2.    situated learning – PBL creates an environment that permits students to work on the kinds of problems that professionals encounter and to use the perspectives, the knowledge, and the skills that professionals use in attempting to solve them.

3.   open-ended generative tasks – PBL engages students in an ill-structured, open-ended problem for which there is no prescribed approach or solution.  Students become intentional learners as they generate their own questions, plans, and goals.

4.    collaborative decision-making and problem-solving –  PBL encourages students to work together in their problem solving and product development.  Students collaborate with each other and with more knowledgeable individuals who model expert behaviors and lend assistance as students try out skills on their own.  

5.     changed role of the instructor -- Instructors act as metacognitive coaches throughout the PBL process.  They model and coach, giving students guidance as needed, but encouraging student independence in goal setting and decision-making.