Made by Adam Skręta & Adrian Snarski

1. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL)
Adam Skręta
Adrian Snarski

2. CONTENT
 General concept of
PBL
 Basic principles
 Benefits of PBL
 Critics and
shortcomings
 Examples of
employment
 PBL and foreign
language teaching

3. GENERAL CONCEPT OF PBL
 The essence is to learn about a subject
through the experience of problem solving
 It is an active form of learning; PBL focuses
on such skills as: self-learning, collaboration
or self-motivation
 PBL was introduced in the late 60s at
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada by Howard Barrows

4. BASIC PRINCIPLES
 Student-centered learning
 Learning process is done in small groups (6-
10 people)
 Teachers (tutors) are meant to support and
guide rather than teach
 A problem as the main stimulus for the
learning process and the cognitive skills
development
 New knowledge is obtained through self-
learning

5. BENEFITS OF PBL
 A possibility to master many skills
simultaneously
 A possibility to prepare tasks which closely
resemble real life situations
 Students have an opportunity to comprehend
the complexity of the problem-solving
process.

6. CRITICS AND SHORTCOMINGS
 Cognitive load - learners may find it difficult
to process a large amount of information in a
short amount of time.
 Demanding process of implementation which
requires a lot of planning and organization.

7. EXAMPLES OF EMPLOYMENT
 More than 80% of the medical schools in the
USA implement some form of PBL in their
curriculum.
 In 2008, Parramatta Marist High School ,a
secondary Catholic school in Australia employed
the methods of PBL in their teaching for year 9
and 10 boys.
 In Malaysia, an attempt is being made to
introduce a problem-based learning model in
secondary mathematics.

8. PBL AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
 The PBL model ensures that language skills are
strengthened by experience with a broader
scope of disciplines at the same time.
 By combining language with new professional
content knowledge using PBL, language skills
are reinforced through group dynamics,
workplace reality, and content area knowledge.
 Language learning and logical thinking are
linked to future endeavors and their fields of
work.