Problem Based Learning (PBL)

Problem based learning (PBL) is an student-centred approach to teaching that supports creative and complex problem-solving. It seeks to address open-ended problems and real-world scenarios that researchers and industry encounter in professional practice and can be adopted to work in almost all disciplines. Ash Tierney has written this blog post outlining more detail about PBL and the benefits it can bring.

A few programmes in the University have already adopted PBL as their main pedagogy (MB21 in Health Sciences and programmes from the Centre for Innovation) but there are still many students who do not encounter this way of learning.

The way you implement problem-based learning changes completely depending on your discipline – it is impossible for us to provide an single approach for all. However, there are a few points to consider when creating any problem-based learning activity:

• Google shouldn’t be able to give an answer to the problem
• There probably isn’t a single correct/incorrect answer
• The problem takes more than a minute to solve

We’ve pulled together some top examples from each discipline and listed them below.

Discipline-specific resources 

University Case Studies

• Building confident and engaged researchers through active partnership and problem-based learning (Chris Kent, PowerPoint) 
• Introducing problem-based learning in Engineering (DEOxFaculty of Engineering)
• Supporting graduate learners: Optimising the physical and digital environment for case-based learning in veterinary education (Bristol Vet School: Emma Love, Lindsey Gould, Chloe Anderson, Sheena Warman, Simon Atkinson)