The initial grassroots faculty effort to share with colleagues the renewed excitement they found in teaching using PBL has cascaded into a thriving faculty-driven reform of the undergraduate experience at the University of Delaware. Fellows of the Institute receive hands-on experience in employing these strategies, as well as individual mentoring from faculty experienced with these techniques. To date, over 25 percent of the faculty have participated either in this Institute or in workshops on problem-based learning. More than 150 courses have been or are targeted for transformation. Program Objectives and Implementation Problem-based learning has many multidirectional interactions.
Professors acting as senior learners guide the students in the learning process.
An especially powerful feature also employed in a number of PBL classrooms at UD is the use of peer tutors. After training, these advanced undergraduates help guide student learning groups under faculty supervision. Peer tutors serve as role models for novice learners trying to adjust to the intellectual expectations of the university and benefit themselves with their own capstone learning experience. To leverage implementation of PBL, introductory-level courses have been targeted for PBL to help students develop critical habits of mind as early as possible and to stimulate excitement and demand for more courses like them. This is helping to spread the reform effort throughout the curriculum, as is faculty support at all ranks and nearly every discipline.