Problem - Based Learning

But what is a 'problem-based learning course'? This question is especially important because problem-based learning is often confused with case-study approaches to learning, discovery learning and project-based learning. Sometimes even the most orthodox lecture-based courses are described by their practitioners as 'problem-based' on the grounds that they include an opportunity for students to solve textbook 'problems' during tutorials. In this view almost any course might be described in a similar way. A much clearer understanding of problem-based learning is needed if problem-based courses are to be designed and run effectively. Such an understanding has been developing over the past few decades as experience of this form of education has grown.

Problem-based learning can be described in many ways, but it is possible to see at least three common threads in all of them. First, there is a clear purpose in regard to an area of study, namely, to integrate practice and theory so as to produce sound understanding and action. Second, there is an educational process carefully considered and designed to achieve this purpose. Third, the process is itself content-specific and reflects the process which led to the generation of knowledge in the area of study in the first place. This third thread can be explained more fully along the following lines. A problem-based learning course is not a course in general problem-solving, but focuses specifically on content (or subject-matter) central to the area of study by requiring students to acquire important knowledge in the process of tackling problematic situations. In effect, by combining a problem-tackling process with the specific knowledge essential to dealing with the problem in question, problem-based learning reflects the real process of knowledge generation, regardless of whether the knowledge is 'pure' (generated by questions of pure curiosity) or 'applied' (generated by questions of practical importance). Problem-based learning is open to whatever considerations are relevant to dealing with a problematic situation; it makes no prior commitments to particular subjects or disciplines but is open to taking into account whatever will help deal with the problem. In this it reflects a significantly different conception of knowledge and understanding from conceptions which presuppose that knowledge is certain, on the basis of unshakeable foundations, and incorrigible and that it must be divided up in the ways typically represented in university departments.

It posits a more tentative character to knowledge, possibly an evolutionary character, in contrast to a conception of knowledge as fixed eternally. It treats theory and practice as distinguishable rather than as categorically different, and therefore finds no difficulty in treating real problem-situations as central in the educational context.

The similarity between an original situation of knowledge acquisition in response to problems and a problem-based learning situation often leads to a misunderstanding of problem-based learning. It is sometimes thought that problem-based learning is wasteful of time and energy since it seems to be merely a process of re-inventing the wheel. This misunderstanding often arises because the difference between the original situation and the educational situation is overlooked. In a good problem-based learning course problems are judiciously selected, their presentation is thoroughly designed, and the way they are tackled by students is carefully facilitated - and, most importantly, the sequence of problems throughout the course as a whole must be equally thoroughly designed. A vital principle of problem-based course design is a requirement to reflect the actual problem situation as realistically and as fully as possible in the educational context, while structuring the presentation of the problem in such a way that effective learning by students can be achieved within the time available in the course.