Research on PBL Practice in Engineering Education

The success of Problem Based Learning and Project Organised learning (PBL) as an educational method in the field of Higher Engineering Education is clear and beyond any doubt. An increasing number of Universities of Technology all over the world applies PBL in their curriculum. There are many sound arguments for changing to PBL, such as enhancing students’ motivation, integration of practice oriented competences, improved retention of students, augmenting the quality of education, collaboration with industry. Moreand more educational research is supplying evidence to sustain these arguments. Engineers create innovations to improve the quality of our life. It just makes sense that the institutes of Higher Engineering Education want to know what educational innovations contribute to the quality of engineering education. To promote research on PBL the UNESCO chair in Problem Based Learning in Engineering Education (UCPBL) organised the first Research Symposium on Problem Based Learning in Engineering and Science Education, June 30th-July 1st, 2008 at Aalborg University. This book contains a selection of papers from this research symposium, which have been reviewedand further developed.