Exploring Theoretical Frameworks of Problem Based Learning Through Aoki’s Curriculum-as-Plan and Curriculum-as-Lived

Abstract

In this chapter I will explore the theoretical understandings and commitments that inform problem based learning (PBL), as it is understood and promoted in different disciplines and places but will link this theoretical work to the specific PBL-based teacher education cohort at the University of British Columbia (UBC) now known as TELL-PBL that is the focus of this book. Taking seriously the distinction raised by curriculum scholar Ted Aoki between curriculum-as-plan and curriculum-as-lived, I will consider PBL as plan through engaging with PBL scholarship that outlines and develops PBL’s educational objectives and commitments but then will specifically consider how this curriculum and related pedagogy manifest as lived practices in this particular program at UBC. Within this curricular discussion, I will attend to historic and contemporary trends in educational theory and teacher education and locate PBL as plan and PBL-TELL as lived at UBC within broader discussions in educational theory.