Problem-Based Learning (PBL), in various formats, has contributed significantly to transformation of higher education, particularly in areas of professional education, promoting higher learning and change of educational focus from knowledge acquisition to knowledge application to satisfy governments’ Knowledge-Based Society policies of the mid-1970s to mid-1990s. However, PBL in its widely applied standard format was developed more than twenty-five years ago, and governments in the developed world have since moved on to Innovative Society policies. These new policies include expectations that graduates will have highly developed innovative and inventive abilities, particularly in design. Standard models of PBL are unable to achieve these more recent expectations, however this paper shows that a modified form of PBL, more closely aligned with best postgraduate research training practice, has achieved highly innovative and inventive students and graduates. This modified PBL model retains the benefits of PBL and has also overcome criticisms of PBL related to alleged high cost, while also significantly improving more general education reform issues of quality assurance, alignment, transparency, and student satisfaction.
DesignEd Asia 2010 Conference. Asian Culture: Preserve the Past Create the Future. DesignEd Asia Conference 2010: Conference Proceedings (Hong Kong 30 November - 1 December, 2010)