Institutional Difference: A Neglected Consideration in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning?

Abstract

Although SoTL research provides results documenting the efficiency of problem-based and project-based learning, the process of change at the institutional levels all over the world is slow. Based on research and experience from the UNESCO Chair work all over the world, I point out seven premises for changing to PBL: governance and educational policy, research and political pragmatism, change at institutional and individual level, leadership, implementation, trust in students' learning and global societies. These are premises at very different levels; however, in the global society they all play a role in the process of changing higher education. This essay places PBL in a SoTL framework of inquiry, research, application, and change, and explains that PBL is beneficial for students learning key skills.