PBL has been used since the 1950’s.

While it originated in universities today,

PBL is used extensively in elementary,

secondary and tertiary education

institutions worldwide, and has also been

adopted in various fields of professional

training, such as nursing, engineering and

architecture, among many others.

• PBL was pioneered in the health sciences at

McMaster University in the late 1960's and

subsequently it has been adopted by other medical

school programs (Barrows, 1996) and also been

adapted for undergraduate instruction.

•Until recently the PBL approach has flourished

mainly in medical and professional schools. Slowly

the sciences in general have begun taking it up, and

even more slowly, the humanities.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a total approach to education that challenges students to learn through an active engagement in real life problems.

Problem-based learning is learning that results from working with problems. Official descriptions generally describe it as "an instructional strategy in which students confront contextualized, ill-structured problems and strive to find meaningful solutions."

•Problem-based learning is an instructional method

that challenges students to “learn to learn”, working

cooperatively in groups to seek solutions to real world

problems (Duch et al., 2001).

•In a problem-based learning (PBL) model, students

engage complex, challenging problems and

collaboratively work toward their resolution. PBL is

about students connecting disciplinary knowledge to

real-world problems—the motivation to solve a

problem becomes the motivation to learn.

Recent research concluded that traditional

teacher-centered learning models are more

likely to result in surface level learning.

Additionally, research indicates that higher

quality learning is more likely to come from a

morestudent-centered approach to study

(Entwistle 1998).

Based on the statement mentioned above we need tochange our teaching approach from a teacher-centered model to a more student-centered onein order to encourage our students to adopt a deeplevel approach to their learning, and to encourage them to master a competence in problem solving.

Thus, the solution can be Problem-based learning (PBL) which places greater emphasis on student’s self-directed learning (SDL) and training students’research ability while learning.

In problem-based classrooms of language learning, the teacher acts as a cognitive coach or facilitator of activities that students carry out themselves so their role include the following steps:

. Preteach

· Introduce the Problem and the Language Needed to Work on It

· Group Students and Provide Resources

· Observe and Support

· Follow Up and Assess Progress

With PBL, your teacher presents you with a

problem, not lectures or assignments or exercises.

Since you are not handed "content", your learning

becomes active in the sense that you discover and

work with content that you determine to be necessary

to solve the problem.

Several medical schools have incorporated

problem-based learning into their curricula, using

real patient cases to teach students how to think

like a clinician. More than eighty percent of

medical schools in the United States now have

some form of problem-based learning in their

programs.

•Maastricht University offers its whole program in

PBL format only, as does the University of Limerick

Graduate entry medical school in Ireland.

The key characteristics of PBL are that it involves team- work and communication skills, a problem-solving capacity, critical, analytical and creative, as well as individual research.

Learning is driven by challenging, open-ended, ill-defined and ill-structured problems.

Students generally work in collaborative groups.

Teachers take on the role as "facilitators" of learning.

students divided into groups

real problem is presented and discussed

students identify what is known, what

information is needed, and what strategies or

next steps to take

individuals research different issues, gather

resources.

•resources evaluated in group

•cycle repeats until students feel the problem has been

framed adequately and all issues have been addressed.

•possible actions, recommendations, solutions, or

hypotheses are generated.

•tutor groups conduct peer/self-assessments

greater recall of knowledge, retention

interdisciplinary, can require accessing and using

information from a variety of subject domains;

better integration of knowledge

development of life-long learning skills:

how to research, how to communicate in groups,

how to handle problems

increased motivation, interest in subject areas

increased student-student interaction, and

student-instructor interaction.

•become more flexible in processing information and

meeting obligations .

•Develops critical thinking, writing, and

communication skills

• Demonstrates the power of working cooperatively

practice skills that you will need after your education

Unfortunately no single education strategy is

perfect for all educational situations and PBL has

several significant disadvantages.

One of the disadvantages that has been reported

in relation to the PBL process is that it is a very

different teaching process to the one that students

have already received and, as a result, it can be

stressful and disorienting (Mills, 2008).

•Knowledge acquired through PBL being less

organized than knowledge acquired through traditional

learning.

•There is a difficulty of training facilitators and the

scarcity of teaching faculty with the skills of

facilitating rather than the skills of traditional

teaching.

•Takes longer time in contrast to the other approaches.

This can be particularly problematic for time-poor

faculty and teachers who are being asked to teach and

learn within an increasingly crowded curriculum.