Problem-Based Learning And Teaching Mathematical Subjects: An Attempt At Bridging The Gap In Maastricht

Abstract

One strategic hallmark of Maastricht’s university is its problem-based teaching and (more importantly) learning method. During classes attention is directed to a context rather than a subject, and the main actors are students rather than a lecturer. The aim of the method is to activate, test and refine latent prior knowledge present with students, and to stimulate their spontaneous “urge” to learn more. This aim is pursued by enticing small groups of students to pool, sharpen and develop their ideas about some issue in a familiar context in which they share an intrinsic interest. The success of the method therefore depends on the nature of the subject matter. It is relatively easy to entice discussion on subjects about which participants have firsthand experience, or about which introspection will tell them something, as might be the case with social phenomena, philosophical reflections, or the working of the human body and mind. Likewise, business-minded students may have absorbed a mass of worldly information through the media, and acquired related modes of reasoning. It is less easy to motivate and develop a general mathematical theory or a statistical technique by reference to everyday experience or introspection. Furthermore, when these subjects play only an ancillary role in the curriculum, the time devoted to them may be too short to allow such a natural learning process.