Abstract
This chapter investigates problem-based learning in multicultural interdisciplinary groups. It focuses on the “opening” of PBL project work, or the construction of an ill defined interdisciplinary problem that is expected to guide the research process for the project group. This chapter discusses the aspects of interdisciplinary, group-organised project work that may be specifically challenging for students raised in non-Western educational cultures: criticality, student direction of project work, and openness characterising the construction of a research problem. Ultimately, this chapter suggests that PBL can be seen as an epistemic game (Collins and Ferguson, Educational Psychologist, 28(1), 25–42, 1993). In multicultural project groups, this epistemic game both demands and fosters epistemic fluency (Goodyear and Zenios, British Journal of Educational Studies, 55(4), 351–368, 2007).
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Jæger, K., Jensen, A.A. (2019). Opening the PBL Game: Problem Construction in Interdisciplinary Project Work in Multicultural Groups. In: Jensen, A., Stentoft, D., Ravn, O. (eds) Interdisciplinarity and Problem-Based Learning in Higher Education. Innovation and Change in Professional Education, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18842-9_8
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