Problem-based learning (PBL) has emerged as a response to the widespread strive for more innovative teaching aiming to promote greater students’ engagement and thus leading to deep-learning. This case study presents insights from semester-long experience of applying the PBL approach into teaching an undergraduate course on the subject of European integration. It thus explores the experience of learning how to teach by using the PBL approach. This paper is divided into three parts. The state of the art on PBL reviews its underlying methodology and its application into course designing particularly with the reference to the area of political science and European studies. The second part presents the process and challenges of the PBL-based course designing into a pre-structured course. Due to administrative constraints, the implemented course did not strictly adhere to the PBL methodology in the sense that the problem was defined on the basis of the pre-selected subjects and that the students were assessed in the thus far traditional forms of group presentation and essay writing. The hybrid approach combing the PBL approach in using a carefully designed problem as a base for group presentations might be a solution in case of some pre-structured courses. The subsequent part of the paper focuses on the implementation phase and presents findings based on the self-observation in the classroom and final feedback forms submitted by students. Some arising problems are discussed and followed by some suggestions how they could be addressed.
The project is a result of the ECPR summer school Teaching and Learning Politics and its one year coaching/mentoring follow-up program.
