Seemingly a cross between a role-play and a simulation, this relatively new method is more experiential than either. You assign large-scale problems to teams of students to solve. The problems should be realistic ones like those that students are likely to encounter in their career or personal life—problems in administrative communication, poor organizational morale, unfavorable public relations, a moral dilemma, a challenging policy implementation, or local disaster recovery/relief.

Systematic Procedures

The students play professionals, members of a committee, or themselves, depending upon the problem. To tackle the problem, they follow a systematic series of procedures (Bridges, 1992; Pregent, 1994, pp. 86-87):

1. Review the problem as a group and clarify the meaning of terms they do not understand.
2. Analyze and formulate the problem.
3. Identify the knowledge they need to acquire to solve the problem.
4. Classify this knowledge.
5. Establish objectives for outside research.
6. Divide the work.
7. Conduct the assigned research individually by agreed-upon deadlines.
8. Continue to meet, share research findings, and conduct additional research as needed.
9. Merge all useful research findings into a solution in a finished product.

Sound Pedagogy

Pedagogically, PBL has impeccable credentials. It activates prior knowledge, imparts new knowledge in the context in which it will later be applied, and builds in enough redundancy to ensure the knowledge is well understood and retained (Bridges, 1992). It is based on the well-tested principle of having the students learn by doing, and even the simplest projects have them do a variety of things: lead, facilitate, record, compromise, cooperate, schedule, conduct meetings, discuss, prioritize, organize, plan, research, apply, integrate, evaluate, make decisions, persuade, negotiate, and resolve conflict.

Realism

The realism of problem-based learning is grounded not only in the problems, the roles, and the activities, but also in the time factor. Each project proceeds in real time. Solving one problem can entail weeks of lengthy meetings, inside and out of class. In fact, a substantial problem could absorb an entire semester. However, you can design and pose problems that take only a couple of weeks to solve. (Mini-PBL exercises can even fit into one class period for simple problems for which resources are at hand.)

Supplementary Activities

• Mini-press conferences
• Interviews (in person, via e-mail, or over the phone)
• Field observation
• Progress reports