Different conceptions of problem orientation – challenges in project pedagogy

Abstract

With Aalborg University as a case, the article sheds light on how the special Danish variant of problem-based learning (PBL) has changed from the 1970s until today. As an alternative to the form of teaching and learning at the ‘traditional’ universities, PBL in Denmark is about problem-oriented project work, where the students work on a self-chosen problem for an entire semester.

However, this problem-oriented project work discourse is already from the outset a challenge in terms of defining what a problem is, and what the relevance criteria entail. This article argues that these challenges have not subsequently been neither clarified nor resolved. On the contrary, what a problem is has been diluted, and what personal and societal relevance entails has been narrowed. Consequently, today’s the problem-oriented project work discourse is more about goal-oriented learning than problem-based learning.