ABSTRACT
Many studies on learning and cognition indicate that learning is an active process of constructing knowledge, rather than a passive process of memorizing information (Bruning, Schraw, & Ronning, 1995; Glaser, 1991). Information is stored in memory in meaningful, dynamic structures (Anderson, 1990), and adding new information to a meaningful structure results in a richer structure in which many relations exist among the concepts included in the structure. The richer a structure is, the more can be done with the information. This theory implies that educational programs should be developed that encourage students to develop rich knowledge structures. Problem-based learning (PBL), an instructional approach consistent with such research findings on learning and cognition, sets out to do just that.
