Beyond the rhetoric of problem-based learning: emancipatory limits and links with andragogy

Problem-based learning (PBL), sometimes referred to as enquiry-based learning, is an approach to education that has gained increasing usage within health care in recent years. Its origins very much lie within medical education. The bulk of literature on PBL is optimistic about its potential, especially in relation to nurse education. It is argued here that the benefits of PBL are that it moves toward student-centred education and process-oriented methods that have been taking place for at least 16 years. There are clear links with andragogy although this is not always acknowledged, but the potential move away from emancipatory education inherent in PBL if used without reflection, is inconsistent with andragogy. This article takes a more critical view of the concept and argues that there are significant limits which need to be considered carefully. Apart from the possible move away from the emancipatory aims of education, there is commonly an implicit support of the medical model within PBL which is inappropriate at a time when the limits of medicine are becoming increasingly clear. It is concluded that further debate and research on the approach is necessary, but that as a facilitative strategy PBL does hold some promise. However, it would be inappropriate to use it as a curriculum model if only because it lacks the diversity required of a postmodern curriculum and would not respond effectively to differing student learning styles.