Problem-Based Learning
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a concept borrowed from the medical field. It is a training strategy in which
students, working in groups, take responsibility for solving professional problems. The instructor creates a hypothetical
situation for the students (called a project) and then takes a back seat as an observer and an advisor while the students work out
a solution. Pertinent problems can be the hiring of a new teacher, the creation of an AIDS-education program, or
the construction of a school-improvement plan.
PBL was developed at Stanford University by Edwin M. Bridges and field-tested at Vanderbilt University by
Philip Hallinger. These two researchers/professors fully explicate the PBL instructional strategy in two books available from
the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational
Management: Problem-Based Learning for
Administrators (1992) and Implementing Problem-Based Learning in Leadership Development
(1995).
The following paragraphs are excerpted from Implementing Problem-Based Learning in Leadership Development:
Underlying Assumptions
The assumptions underlying traditional preparation in educational administration contrast sharply with those in
PBL. Traditional preparatory programs view teaching as transmission of knowledge and learning as acquisition of that
knowledge. Program designers for traditional programs make four assumptions about this knowledge:
(1) the knowledge is relevant to the students' future professional role;
(2) learners will be able to recognize when it is appropriate to use their newly acquired knowledge;
(3) application of this knowledge is relatively simple and straightforward; and
(4) the context in which knowledge is learned has little or no bearing on subsequent recall or use.
Program designers further assume that knowledge is learned most effectively when it is organized around the
disciplines (for example, the legal basis for education and educational finance) and taught through lecture and discussion.
Finally, those responsible for the professional development of administrators assume that the central purpose of student
evaluation is to ascertain whether students recall the knowledge to which they have been exposed. PBL rests on an
entirely different set of assumptions. PBL proponents assume that learning involves both knowing and doing. Knowledge and
the ability to use that knowledge are of equal importance.
Program designers also assume that students bring knowledge to each learning experience. Moreover, PBL
adherents assume that students are more likely to learn new knowledge when the following conditions are met:
(1) their prior knowledge is activated and they are encouraged to incorporate new knowledge into their
preexisting knowledge;
(2) they are given numerous opportunities to apply it; and
(3) they encode the new knowledge in a context that resembles the context in which it subsequently will be used.
PBL teachers further assume that the problems students are likely to encounter in their future professional
practice provide a meaningful learning context for acquiring and using new knowledge. These problems supply cues that
facilitate future retrieval and use of knowledge acquired during their formal education. Finally, PBL instructors assume that
evaluation can play a major role in fostering the ability to apply knowledge if evaluation serves learning (that is, if it is
formative) and is based on performance of tasks that correspond to the professional tasks students will face after
completing their training.
Content
Knowledge (content) in a PBL curriculum is organized around high-impact problems of professional practice.
PBL adherents follow this maxim: first the problem, then the content. Problems are used as the stimulus for learning
new content instead of the context for applying previously learned material. One major criterion guides the selection of
content. The content should be functional in fostering understanding of the problem, possible causes for the problem,
constraints that must be taken into account when considering solutions, and/or possible solutions.
Problem-relevant knowledge comes from a variety of sources: the disciplines, the relevant expertise and practical
wisdom of practitioners, the policies and practices of the local district, and the students themselves. Although the
instructor may suggest pertinent reading material, students exploit an array of sources that may assist them in understanding
and dealing with the focal problema practice that is consistent with the type of on-the-job learning that PBL seeks
to develop.
Instructional Process
In a PBL curriculum, students assume major responsibility for their own learning. The process by which they learn
the content mirrors the realities of the workplace and the instructional goals. Accordingly, the process affords
students repeated opportunities to practice and refine the skills needed to lead today's schoolsskills in promoting
collaboration, cooperative problem-solving, and implementation of change.
Unlike traditional educational administration programs, the basic unit of classroom instruction in PBL is a project.
Embedded in each project are a high-impact problem, a set of learning objectives, and a collection of reading materials
that illuminate different facets of the problem. The problems are usually messy, ill defined, and representative of the
problems the students will face as principals.
Students are assigned to project teams that are responsible for framing the problem and deciding how to use the
knowledge gleaned from the readings and other resources to deal with it. Each team usually has five to seven members and
a fixed period of time-nine to fifteen hours spread over a period of two to three weeks-to complete the project. One of
the students is designated as the project team leader; other team members take turns acting as process facilitators and
recorders.
Class sessions are treated as meetings of the project team, and the leader in consultation with the facilitator develops
a tentative agenda for each meeting. The agenda for each session reflects what the team intends to accomplish and how
it plans to proceed. Following each class session, the recorder prepares minutes of the meeting and distributes them to
other team members.
During each meeting (class session), the instructor acts as "an unobtrusive guide on the side, rather than as a sage on
the stage." At times the instructor may raise questions, answer questions, engage the students in reflecting on their
process, or provide feedback to students about their use or understanding of the problem-relevant knowledge. If instructors
sense that the team is headed in the wrong direction, they do not intervene. Missteps or mistakes represent occasions for
learning and often provide valuable insights into the problem, the problem-solving process, the solution, the
implementation, the group's functioning, or the students' own sense of self.
As we have argued in this opening chapter, PBL represents a bold, radical departure from the traditional way of
preparing educational administrators. In our judgment, this approach can play an important, instrumental role in ensuring
the success of educational reforms now under way. Administrators, like teachers, are being asked to move away from
command-and-control models of leadership to "transformational" styles. Moreover, the kinds of teaching and learning
advocated by reformers (teaching and learning for understanding) require administrators who act in ways consistent with
these expectations and understand what active learning comprises. Problem-based learning holds promise for preparing
the kind of leaders who can facilitate, rather than obstruct, these reforms.
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