Use of and attitudes towards Problem-Based Learning as a teaching method at Lund Institute of Technology

Abstract

Traditionally, teaching at higher education level includes lecturing, laboratory practice, and exercise. But in the last few years new teaching methods has become popular, including case teaching, inquiry learning and problem based learning (PBL). At some education programs, PBL has become the main method used whereas others do not use it at all. In this study, the use of PBL at LTH has been examined along with the attitudes the teachers have towards PBL. The method used for the investigation was by sending questionnaires to teachers at different departments at LTH. The results show that the great majority of the teachers know what PBL is whereas 31% of the male and 35% of the female teachers use PBL. The most common opinion towards PBL is that it gives the students a deeper understanding in the subject studied and that they remember what they learnt. The greatest obstacle is that it is a resource demanding way of teaching.