Consulting projects where students are tasked to propose solutions to a client issue are a common feature in many business courses. Whether scenario-based or dealing with real clients, students engaged in consulting tasks tend to focus on solution development without giving due consideration to the underlying process by which they derive their…

It is desirable that reasoning, problem-solving and decision-making skills should form an integral part of our private and professional lives. Here we show how these skills can be improved through the use of the ARDESOS program. To test the effect of the program, we have also developed an assessment test (PENCRISAL). Our results are going in the…

The Spanish educational system will require certain changes in order to achieve the Bologna objectives for the European Higher Education Area, including a more professional profile, with new activities and roles for both students and teachers, who must assume new skills that will affect concepts and attitudes related to the teaching and learning…

The third annual conference of the National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL) was held at Trinity College Dublin on 11-12 November 2009, and was attended by over 300 delegates. The theme--"Research-Teaching Linkages: Practice and Policy"--was timely and generated some fascinating papers, workshops and…

Research spanning the last thirty years confirms that people learn better by active enquiry, collaboration and experimental problem solving than by passive reception and acceptance of information. Empirical evidence, as well as the pressing demands of pervasive social and technological change, requires learning and teaching approaches that combine…

Two approaches for teaching a student how to define a problem, acquire pertinent data, generate possible solutions, and optimize them for the patient are described: guided design, originating in engineering education; and problem-based learning, which has roots in medical education. (Author/MLW)

Problem-based learning is an approach that can be used to increase student participation while promoting the development of skills for lifelong learning. In solving problems learners acquire two types of knowledge--knowledge of concepts, principles and facts; and procedures for how to use them. (Author/MLW)

Courses designed to teach problem-solving and creativity, which are relatively new additions to college curricula, are discussed, along with their intellectual foundations and research on these two processes. The teaching of these processes involves the following course goals: teaching a specific subject, generally useful skills, and professional…

Use of problem-based learning in a large upper-division general education class at McMaster University (Canada) provides opportunities for students to identify and practice skills for inquiry into societal problems and solutions. Classroom techniques and processes preserve the essence of problem-based learning despite the fact that the class is…

A new approach to introductory accounting at the University of Southern California teaches students to view issues from varied perspectives, broadens exposure to unstructured problems with more than one solution approach, and places accounting in real-world context. It has increased enrollment and persistence and attracted new students to the…

Calculus can be taught using meaningful problems and active participation, with provocative problem situations and large-scale projects. An Ithaca College (New York) introductory calculus course uses this problem-based learning approach to develop understanding of central concepts (differentiation, integration, approximation) with less of the…

Discussion of the problem-based learning approach in higher education looks at its origins in medical curricula, characteristics of the original method, the variety of educational objectives possible with this approach, problem-based curriculum development, advantages of the method, and its use outside the medical domain. (MSE)

Three principles based on research in cognitive psychology explain the potential power of problem-based learning: (1) learning is a constructive, not a receptive process; (2) metacognition affects learning; and (3) social and contextual factors influence learning. These principles are more likely to be activated when specific teacher behaviors and…

Reports a study of motivation among 36 University of Hong Kong first-year students during their first exposure to problem-based learning, with data drawn from student journals, pre- and post-semester measures of learning-style preference, and course evaluations. Results indicate significant changes in learning-style preference, from…

Outlines possible advantages and disadvantages of traditional approaches to undergraduate psychology instruction, outlines the rationale for problem-based learning (PBL), and describes a PBL program in occupational therapy at Brunel University College (England). Notes some classroom techniques for using PBL in undergraduate psychology, and…