The effect of problem-based learning on students’ learning attitude in tertiary level education: A case study of the college system in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study was initiated to explore the effect of problem-based learning on learners’ attitudes among tertiary level students. The decision to concentrate on a sample from Bangladesh was motivated largely by that country’s poor record to date in pedagogical innovation, meaning that the experiment could take place in the closest thing to an uncontaminated laboratory as this type of research permits. That students’ attitudes towards learning were positively influenced by PBL to a statistically significant degree can be taken as a decisive endorsement of the method as a vehicle for teaching and learning. Clearly, the students who made up the sample have an appetite for constructivist approaches that place them at the center and redefine the teacher as a facilitator, rather than an orator. As a contribution to the debate about future educational directions in Bangladesh, this is highly persuasive.