ABSTRACT
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an innovative instructional method for better preparing students for real-world challenges. It was first conceived in medical education in the 1950s in response to the students' unsatisfactory clinical performance (Barrows, 1996; Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980). This deficiency was attributed to students' ill-established clinical problem-solving and lack of lifelong learning skills (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993; Barrows, 1996). Its implementation began in medical education (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980; Schmidt, 1983). Currently, approximately 80 percent of medical schools in the US and the majority of medical schools in Canada implement pure PBL or hybrid PBL curricula (Karimi, 2011). With the positive results from implementing PBL in medical education, it has also been embraced by numerous disciplines in higher education (see, for example, Arts, Gijselaers, & Segers, 2002; Woods, 1996; Bridges & Hallinger, 1996). Furthermore, in introducing PBL into K-12 education, Barrows and Kelson (1993) systematically developed PBL curricula and teacher-training programs for all high school core subjects. Since then, PBL has been implemented to enhance K-12 students' problem-solving skills, higher order thinking, collaborative learning skills, and ability to apply various subject content knowledge (for example, Barrows, 2000; Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV), 1993; Linn, Shear, Bell, & Slotta, 1999; Kolodner, Camp, Crismond, Fasse, Gray, Holbrook, Puntambekar, & Ryan, 2003; Jacobsen & Spiro, 1994; Maxwell, Mergendoller, & Bellisimo, 2005; Gallagher, Stepien, & Rosenthal, 1992; Torp & Sage, 2002).
