Closing Summer Course Plenary Week 2: Lecture by Prof. Jeroen van Merriënboer, PhD

An Instructional Design Perspective on Problem-Based Learning

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is often seen as one instructional method among alternative methods such as project-based education, the case method, competency-based education, and others. This lecture will use the four-component instructional design model (4C/ID) as a tool to compare and contrast these different methods from an instructional design perspective. It will be argued that all methods use four components for building curricula: learning tasks (e.g., problems, projects, cases, and authentic tasks), supportive information, procedural information, and part-task practice. But, there are also important differences between methods. Pros and cons of the different methods will be discussed and their strong points are used to formulate guidelines for the innovation of PBL.

Jeroen van Merriënboer is full professor of Learning and Instruction at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, where he is heading the research programme of the Graduate School of Health Professions Education (SHE). He holds a Master's degree in experimental psychology from the VU University of Amsterdam and a PhD degree in instructional technology from the University of Twente. Van Merriënboer specializes in cognitive architecture and instruction, instructional design for complex learning, holistic approaches to instructional design, and adaptive e-learning applications. He has published over 150 scientific articles in the areas of learning and instruction and medical education. His prize-winning book Training Complex Cognitive Skills (1997) describes his four-component instructional design model, and his book Ten Steps to Complex Learning (2007, 2nd Ed. 2012) describes a systematic approach for building curricula from the four components.

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