Scaling Up Research-Based Education for Undergraduates: Problem-Based Learning

In answering the call of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1990) that “science should be taught as science is practiced at it’s best,” instructors and institutions across the country have systematically begun to lower the barriers to students’ active engagement in learning science by introducing new strategies into their classrooms. For a nucleus of science faculty at the University of Delaware, problem-based learning (PBL) allowed us to join in this reform by directing our skills as scientists to finding solutions for our dissatisfaction with “business as usual” in our classrooms.