Do We Teach What We Preach? An International Comparison of Problem- and Project-Based Learning Courses in Sustainability

Arnim Wiek,Katja Brundiers

doi:10.3390/su5041725

Abstract

Problem- and project-based learning (PPBL) courses in sustainability address real-world sustainability problems. They are considered powerful educational settings for building students’ sustainability expertise. In practice, however, these courses often fail to fully incorporate sustainability competencies, participatory research education, and experiential learning. Only few studies exist that compare and appraise PPBL courses internationally against a synthesized body of the literature to create an evidence base for designing PPBL courses. This article introduces a framework for PPBL courses in sustainability and reviews PPBL practice in six programs around the world (Europe, North America, Australia). Data was collected through semi-structured qualitative interviews with course instructors and program officers, as well as document analysis. Findings indicate that the reviewed PPBL courses are of high quality and carefully designed. Each PPBL course features innovative approaches to partnerships between the university and private organizations, extended peer-review, and the role of knowledge brokers. Yet, the findings also indicate weaknesses including paucity of critical learning objectives, solution-oriented research methodology, and follow-up research on implementation. Through the comparative design, the study reveals improvement strategies for the identified challenges and provides guidance for design and redesign of PPBL courses.

Highlights

The field of sustainability science is at an important junction having reached a first stage of consolidation as an academic field [1,2,3]
Four of the six problem- and project-based learning (PPBL) courses initially indicated that they define the problem as a sustainability problem using sustainability criteria
When presented with a set of criteria derived from the literature [2], they acknowledged not using explicit criteria—which is in line with previous evaluation results [11,39]

Summary

Introduction

The field of sustainability science is at an important junction having reached a first stage of consolidation as an academic field [1,2,3]. Recent literature shares the conviction that contextual, constructivist, and collaborative learning approaches on developing solution options to real-world sustainability problems involving stakeholders are best suited to building students‘ sustainability expertise [4,5,6,7]. Sustainability and other programs around the world have begun to offer problem- and project-based learning (PPBL) courses that often involve collaboration with stakeholders [8,9,10,11,12]. PPBL courses are considered important educational settings for students as:

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion