A Problem-Based Learning Implementation to a Psychology Course in Higher Education

Abstract

The present work describes a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) activity implemented in an undergraduate course of Psychology of Groups. Additionally, considering the findings on the effects of PBL on cognitive and motivational components, we also explored the effect of the PBL activity on students’ information processing strategies and intrinsic motivation using a pre-post design. Only 28 students (25% men) completed the measures at both point times (pre and post-activity). Although no significant pre-post differences was found for any of the measured variables, the observed trend of change revealed mixed results. While for some cognitive strategies (e.g., critical thinking, information management, information transference) a trend towards improvement could be observed between the pre-post phases, for strategies of information elaboration and information acquisition the trend was reversed. Despite the non significant results, the present work contributes to the field of research on PBL in higher education by describing and testing the effects of a PBL activity implemented in a social discipline, a field in which PBL implementation is rather scarce.