PBL and the Postmodern Condition - Knowledge Production in University Education

Abstract

In this article we discuss the contemporary conditions for running the Aalborg Problem Based Learning-model (PBL). We try to pinpoint key characteristics of these conditions emphasising Lyotard’s conception of knowledge production referred to as the move towards a postmodern condition for knowledge. Through discussions of this alleged condition for university curricula development we investigate its connections to the PBL-model. Some of the explored conditions highlight strong potentials for the PBL-model but the postmodern condition also raises a number of changes and challenges in relation to the original PBL-model as an educational setting.

Keywords

• PBL
• Problem Based Learning
• Postmodern condition
• university education
• knowledge production