problem-based learning

problem-based learning

What is Problem-Based Learning? 

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an approach that challenges students to learn through engagement in a real problem. 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.

Problem-based learning is student-centered. PBL makes a fundamental shift--from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. The process is aimed at using the power of authentic problem solving to engage students and enhance their learning and motivation. There are several unique aspects that define the PBL approach:

• Learning takes place within the contexts of authentic tasks, issues, and problems--that are aligned with real-world concerns.
• In a PBL course, students and the instructor become colearners, coplanners, coproducers, and coevaluators as they design, implement, and continually refine their curricula.
• The PBL approach is grounded in solid academic research on learning and on the best practices that promote it. This approach stimulates students to take responsibility for their own learning, since there are few lectures, no structured sequence of assigned readings, and so on.
• PBL is unique in that it fosters collaboration among students, stresses the development of problem solving skills within the context of professional practice, promotes effective reasoning and self-directed learning, and is aimed at increasing motivation for life-long learning.

Problem-based learning begins with the introduction of an ill-structured problem on which all learning is centered. The problem is one that MBA students are likely to face as future professionals. Expertise is developed by engaging in progressive problem solving. Thus, problems drive the organization and dynamics of the course. MBA students, individually and collectively, assume major responsibility for their own learning and instruction. Most of the learning occurs in small groups rather than in lectures. As teacher, my role changes from "sage on stage" to a "guide by the side." My role is more like that of a facilitator and coach of student learning, acting at times as a resource person, rather than as knowledge-holder and disseminator. Similarly, your role, as a student, is more active, as you are engaged as a problem-solver, decision-maker, and meaning-maker, rather than being merely a passive listener and note-taker.

As you work with each problem you can:

1. Develop your diagnostic reasoning and analytical problem-solving skills.
2. Determine what knowledge you need to acquire to understand the problem, and others like it.
3. Discover the best resources for acquiring that information.
4. Carry out your own personalized study using a wide range of resources.
5. Apply the information you have learned back to the problem.
6. Integrate this newly acquired knowledge with your existing understanding.

In short, you will be learning in a highly relevant and exciting manner to problem-solve and to develop self-directed study skills that build toward the skills and knowledge that you will need as a practicing manager.