A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS of PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING APPLICATIONS in ENGINEERING and TEACHER EDUCATION: A BRIEF REVIEW

Abstract

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an alternative instructional method used to help students acquire scientific and technical knowledge. It has various uses in different disciplines ranging from language learning to nursing. Considering the effectiveness and common usage of problem-based learning, this study is a brief literature review that focused on the use of PBL in two different disciplines, namely, in engineering and teacher training. To this end, the researcher chose 4 articles that are among the most cited studies on Google scholar's web page. The review was conducted to identify the research areas such as scope, research questions, methodologies, common emergent features and overall implications of those studies. As for analysis, coding and categorizing the themes were done in all studies to find common aspects. The emergent themes were discussed, and implications were examined successively. The results showed that applications and utilization of PBL in engineering and teacher training were proven to be beneficial both for the educators and the students of the target area. The study also demonstrated that while analytic thinking, quick decision making, and synthesizing were the primary targets of the use of PBL in engineering, collaboration and comprehension skills are targeted by the practice of PBL in teacher training.