Problem Base Learning

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an approach that challenges students to learn through engagement in real problems. It is a format that simultaneously develops both problem solving strategies and disciplinary knowledge bases and skills by placing students in the active role of problem-solvers confronted with an ill-structured situation that simulates the kind of problems they are likely to face as future managers in complex organizations. Typically, five to eight students work together in a group, together with one or more teachers, to identify and define problems, develop hypotheses to explain the problems, and explore preexisting knowledge relevant to the issues. Students determine and research what they already know and what they need to learn in order to advance their understanding of what the problems are. PBL is the formation of questions that can be explored and answered through the testing and revision of hypotheses through newly acquired knowledge.

English: An awesome PBL group.

English: Shows students in a university classroom ...

The Art of Inquiry

Active discussion and analysis of problems, hypotheses, mechanisms, and learning issues among students are essential to this process, enabling students to acquire and apply content knowledge and to learn and practice both individual and group communication skills critical to learning and teaching.

Traditional education practices, starting from kindergarten through college, tend to produce students who are often disenchanted and bored with their education. They are faced with a vast amount of information to memorize much of which seems irrelevant to the world as it exists outside of school. Students often forget much of what they learned, and that which they remember cannot often be applied to the problems and tasks they later face in the business world. Traditional classrooms also do not prepare students to work with others in collaborative team situations. Research in educational psychology has found that traditional lectures do not lead to a high rate...