Although educators frequently act as if curricula are as standardized as drug doses (300 mg of PBL t.i.d.), such is not the case. As a case in point, at its inception, Problem Based Learning was hailed as a major curriculum innovation, with the promise of enormous gains in learning outcomes. Very quickly, ecclesiastical debates arose as what was…

Practitioners in the field of pharmacy are often confronted with ill-structured problems. Specifically, pharmacists are tasked with making patient-specific recommendations that are both safe and effective, which requires combining knowledge from the biomedical, behavioral, and pharmaceutical sciences. Given the dynamic nature of pharmacy as a…

Accredited engineering degrees call upon students to develop a wide range of knowledge and skills. These range from technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge, through to transferable skills such as communications, teamwork, business acumen and critical analysis. Through a faculty-wide curriculum development programme we have sought to…

The paper focuses on the comparative analysis of professional competences development in public management and administration university programmes and the possibilities of implementation of international experience in Ukraine. Using the methods of comparative and system-functional analysis, synthesis and generalisation, the authors concentrate on…

The economic, financial, and political trends such as stagnating standards of living, fiscal pressure, and an escalating mistrust of government were set in motion during the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the duration of the trends, the magnitude, but not the nature, of the challenges confronting the health care, nonprofit and public sectors has changed.…

This paper explores the purpose of designing and using projects with real world application in a M.B.A. managerial accounting class. Included is a discussion of how and why the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Project has been used in classes to link theory with practice by providing real world application of the BSC framework. M.B.A. students represent a…

This paper reports a problem-based learning model for the training of university students in the area of industrial energy efficiency, and discusses its context, contents, and the results from its implementation. The impact has been significant, with hundreds of university graduates trained and many of them now working in industry, leading their…

For students who are not science majors, problem-based (PB) laboratories for first-year chemistry provide a more comprehensive experience than conventional expository ones. Implementing PB labs is reasonably easy, as the lab experiments may not need to change; what changes is the way the lab manual is set up and how the actual session is carried…

Use was made of adapted problem-based learning (PBL) practical exercises to address the disengagement of apprentices with the existing assembly-style electronic laboratory programme. Apprentices perceived the traditional routines as having little real-world relevance. This detracted from the value and benefit to them of the practical component of…

Our understanding of how people learn is continually changing. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences revolutionized the field education, because it accounts for a broader range of human potential in children and adults and suggests that individuals learn in a multitude of ways. Gardner's theory suggests there are a variety of…

In this article, the authors support problem-based learning (PBL) based on its high level of alignment in addition to providing learners in engineering with an additional opportunity in learning process competencies, as contained within the South African National Critical Cross-field and Developmental Outcomes (COs). Constructive alignment…

Within Education Queensland's recent "new basics" curriculum initiative, Education Queensland developed 20 transdisciplinary learning and assessment tasks for Years 1 to 9, called "rich tasks". This paper critiques two of the rich tasks that were most closely aligned to knowledge and skills within the health and physical…

University course evaluations are replete with student comments expressing frustration with taking time out of work, paying money for, and putting energy into field education projects that lack authentic "real-world" problem-solving objectives. Here, we describe a model for field school education that borrows on pedagogical tools such as…

In this paper it is argued that the current trend of making assessment criteria more explicit in higher education may have a deleterious effect on students' learning. Helping students to concentrate on assessment criteria paradoxically means that they may take a strategic approach and end up focusing on the superficial aspects of their assessment…

Staff observing undergraduate students enrolled on the BSc Hons Textile Design and Design Management programme in The School of Materials, The University of Manchester, identified difficulties with knowledge retention in the area of constructed textile design. Consequently an experimental pilot was carried out in seamless knitwear design using a…