The many faces of problem-based learning: a framework for understanding and comparison

There is much literature on problem-based learning (PBL), both within and outside medical education. The literature addresses such questions as what is PBL and how does it work, and many examples are given; yet it is often difficult to determine from these descriptions whether the educational approach being described is actually PBL. The goal of this article is to provide planners and/or assessors of PBL curricula with a framework that would facilitate analyses of this educational approach. We propose to categorize educational activities as PBL or non-PBL according to three core principles: (1) the problem acts as a stimulus for learning; (2) it is an educational approach, not an isolated instructional technique, and (3) it is a student-centered approach, and four criteria concerning their effect on student learning: (1) active processing of information; (2) activation of prior knowledge; (3) meaningful context; and (4) opportunities for elaboration/organization of knowledge). Beyond this, PBL curricula vary along a set of dimensions that is useful to analyze, to describe and to compare different PBL practices. The usefulness of this analytical framework is illustrated with examples from three different schools.