Implementation of PBL in Engineering Education: Conceptualization and Management of Tensions

Abstract

Engineering educators are facing high demands as they are being challenged to create learning environments that not only better teach technical skills, but also incorporate process skills and foster other desirable attributes. Problem-based learning, known as PBL, and its variants have been deemed effective as an instructional strategy in a variety of different disciplines including engineering. With pedagogical innovations like PBL, however, comfortable routines related to the structure and flow of classroom activity is disrupted for both educators and students. In addition to having to manage changes within their classroom processes and routines, engineering educators must also interact and operate within the larger systems in which their classrooms are embedded, the university. The structure and culture of the university system may facilitate or hinder the teaching intentions and goals of educators, as this larger system can impose its own set of tensions. In this paper, we report findings of a research study which investigated conceptualizations of PBL, tensions as experienced when implementing PBL and strategies to manage the tensions.