Problem-oriented and project-based learning (POPBL) as an innovative learning strategy for sustainable development in engineering education

European Journal of Engineering EducationVol. 33, No. 3, June 2008, 283–295

Problem-oriented and project-based learning (POPBL)as an innovative learning strategy for sustainable development

in engineering education

M. Lehmann*, P. Christensen, X. Du and M.Thrane

Aalborg University, Department of Development and Planning, Fibigerstraede 13,DK-9220 Aalborg East, Denmark

(Received 24 December 2007; in final form 27 March 2008 )

In a world where systems are increasingly larger, where their boundaries are often difficult to identify,and where societal rather than technical issues play increasingly bigger roles, problems cannot be solvedby applying a technical solution alone. It thus becomes important for engineers to be skilled not only interms of their particular technical field but also their ability to identify non-technical aspects of problems,the interaction between these aspects and possible solutions. Introducing and integrating these aspects intoengineering education is certainly not an easy task and requires innovative approaches. In this article, focusis placed on the so-called Aalborg Model, a problem-oriented and project-based learning paradigm utilisedat Aalborg University (Denmark), and the mutual benefits that this particular learning strategy providesfor students, faculty and communities. The article discusses the concept of sustainable development;accounts for the general capabilities of engineering education graduates, and discusses the integration ofnon-technical issues into various environmental engineering curricula. On the basis of this discussion, itunderlines the importance of applying a problem-oriented rather than a subject-oriented approach in orderto create a balance between problem occurrence (or identification) and innovative problem solving. Weconclude that, in order for engineers to be able to handle sustainability-related problems, their educationneeds to allow for interplay, mix and diversity; aspects that a problem-oriented and project-based learningapproach will involve.

Keywords: sustainable development; Aalborg model; PBL; innovation; engineering education

1. Introduction

Sustainable development (SD) may be understood as a continuous process that requires a balancebetween (the emergence of) problems and our capacities and capabilities to solve these problems.Sustainability thus “. . . refers to a process and a standard – and not to an end-state – eachgeneration must take up the challenge anew, determining in what directions their developmentobjectives lie, what constitutes the boundaries of the environmentally possible and the envi-ronmentally desirable, and what is their understanding of the requirements of social justice.”(Meadowcroft 1997:37).

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ISSN 0304-3797 print/ISSN 1469-5898 online© 2008 SEFIDOI: 10.1080/03043790802088566http://www.informaworld.com

284 M. Lehman et al.

Once, engineers may have been tool-making individuals who solved the technical problemsconfronted by society through a combination of knowledge of science, mathematics, and technicalskills. However, in a world where systems gradually become larger, the boundaries for engineeringknowledge and skills are increasingly more difficult to identify and define. As an integral part ofa global society, engineers are today expected to master a combination of disparate capabilities –not only technical competencies concerning problem solving and the production and innovation oftechnology, but also interdisciplinary skills of cooperation, communication, project managementand life-long learning abilities in diverse social, cultural and globalised settings.Added to the moretraditional engineering skills, this will require that present and future engineers are able to analyse,develop, create and form part of cognitive and social interrelations among human beings, with theaim of facilitating the development of technology and analysing its positive and negative impactson society. Thus, new engineering competencies are needed and this may challenge existing andtraditional educational lecture-based approaches to teaching and learning.

As a strategy for educational development, problem-oriented and project-based learning (PBL)provides a possible answer to these challenges. Worldwide, an increasing number of institutionshave changed or are in the process of changing their traditional teaching methods and movingtowards a variation on PBL. Thereby, they provide the students with the possibility of achievingsustainable and transferable skills, while at the same time exposing them to the complexities ofglobal and cultural issues (Kolmos 2006).

This article discusses the concept of SD and how PBL is related to this. The authors present theexperiences of employing Problem-Oriented and Project-Based Learning (POPBL) as an educa-tional philosophy and a way of creating a constructive learning environment in which students areable to integrate SD into engineering. Based on the experiences related to the educational designof the study programme of Environmental Management at Aalborg University, Denmark, thispaper illustrates how sustainability-related problems can be integrated into the curriculum. Byconducting project work, students are expected to manage complex problems that are related to thereal world. We evaluate this educational design by analysing examples of students’ project workand reports, and discuss this innovative approach vis-à-vis the students’ gain of inter-disciplinaryknowledge and development of the skills needed in order to tackle SD challenges.

2. Sustainable development and multi-disciplinarity

SD is understood as a continuous process requiring a balance between problems, on one side,and the societal capacities and capabilities to solve these problems, on the other. This balancemay also be seen as the maintenance and accumulation of different types of ‘capital’. Althoughit may be problematic to use the term ‘capital’, since that particular notion often implies the ideaof a homogenous stock which can grow and decline, it is, however, quite commonly used. Inthis context, the notion may be thought of as a collection of different and rather diverse itemsrather than as a homogenous stock. Thus, the meaning applied here entails a ‘potential’ that canchange over time depending on how it is put to use, developed or exploited. Furthermore, there isalso the question to which extent one kind of potential (or capital) may compensate for another,i.e. the notions of weak vsersus strong versus balanced sustainability, see e.g. Neumayer (2003),Kjærgård and Bondesen (1997) and Steurer et al. (2005).

However, if SD is seen as a continuous process which increases – or as a minimum does notreduce – the natural potential, the human and intellectual potential, the production potential andthe social potential on which society depends, it becomes apparent that in order to continuouslybe able to solve problems, a broad understanding of how the various problems relate to eachof the four potentials noted above is required. The natural potential is traditionally referred toas the ecological dimension; the human and intellectual potential as the social dimension; the

European Journal of Engineering Education 285

Figure 1. The Prism of Potentials for Sustainable Development (adapted from Spangenberg & Bonniot 1998).

production potential as the economical dimension; and finally, the social potential is seen asan institutional dimension sometimes referred to as a ‘second-order requirement’ (Konrad et al.2006). The four potentials are visualised in Figure 1. (The term natural potential refers to naturalresources and eco-systems; human potential refers to the health, education and competences ofpeople; production potential is the stock of buildings, tools and machines used in the productionof goods and services. Social potential, finally, is composed of the institutions (referring to itssociological meaning, cf. for example Scott 2001; Edquist and Johnson 1997), which form thelanguage, trust and networks that make continual social interaction possible.)

In Figure 1, the SD play ground is illustrated as a prism able to maintain linkages betweenthe four types of potentials. In quantitative terms, the volume of the prism defines society’ssustainability potential. Thus, the consequence of one potential withering away will show thefailure of a given society to sustain itself – the prism simply collapses.

Our ability to understand and solve problems is very much linked to our knowledge; and ourpotential is thus linked to our knowledge of SD, problems and possible solutions.

Understood in this way, the concept of sustainability almost becomes synonymous with acommon definition of ‘innovation’: “(…) it is the process of matching the problems (needs) ofsystems with solutions which are new and relevant to those needs (…)” (Rickards 1985:28).

The increasing complexity of these problems requires cross-disciplinary and contextual knowl-edge and a higher diversity of skills. In turn, this must lead to multi-dimensional solutions ratherthan one single-truth answer. Introducing and integrating knowledge and skills from differentdisciplines and contexts is, however, a challenging task and requires innovative approaches toeducational design.

3. Multi-disciplinarity, engineering skills and POPBL

Educational transformation is an ongoing activity in all engineering education addressingfuture needs for technological capacity. In the European context, expectations of new engi-neering skills have been put on the agenda of the current practice, for example, clearlystated in the Accreditation of European Engineering Programmes and Graduates (EUR-ACE)http://www.feani.org/EUR_ACE/EUR_ACE1_Main_Page.htm).

Responding to this, most of the engineering educational institutions in Denmark are in anongoing process of transformation from the traditional paradigm, which is discipline-oriented,lecture-centred, and based on basic and applied technical knowledge; to a new paradigm, whichis interdisciplinary, contextualised, student-centred, and based on a complex understanding of


technological knowledge. The approach used by the institutions is the implementation of problem-oriented and project-based curricula. This is due to the fact that the shift from teaching to learningis considered the most important innovative aspect of this educational concept, and consequently,the task of the teacher is altered from transferring knowledge into facilitating the learning processof the students (Kolmos 2006).

In terms of theory, the understanding of PBL takes it point of departure in the constructivist-sociocultural approach of understanding learning and education (Kolmos and de Graaff 2007).Many different variations of PBL practice may be identified, ranging from large-scale imple-mentation of PBL at a departmental or institutional level, to small-scale implementation in asingle course. In general, de Graaff and Kolmos (de Graaff and Kolmos 2003, Kolmos and deGraaff 2007) summarise the main learning principles in three approaches: cognitive learning,collaborative learning and contents, as Figure 2 shows.

(1) The cognitive learning approach means that learning is organised around problems andwill be carried out in projects. It is a central principle for the development of motivation.A problem provides the starting point for the learning process, places learning in a context,and bases learning on the learner’s experience.The fact that learning is also project-basedmeans that students have to work with a unique task involving complex and situated problemanalyses and problem-solving strategies.

(2) The contents approach especially concerns interdisciplinary learning, which not onlystresses but also spans traditional subject-related boundaries and methods. It is exemplarypractice in the sense that the learning outcome provides a good example of the overall objec-tives. Furthermore, it supports the relation between theory and practice by demonstrating thefact that the learning process involves an analytical approach using theory in the analysis ofproblems and problem-solving methods.

(3) The social approach is team-based learning. The team learning aspect shows the learningprocess as a social act in which learning takes place through dialogue and communication.Furthermore, the students are not only learning from each other, but they also learn to shareknowledge and organise the process of collaborative learning. The social approach also coversthe concept of participant-directed learning, which indicates a collective ownership of thelearning process and, especially, the identification of the problem.

PBL has become increasingly accepted as a useful concept in education. It can be employed asa contextualised approach to integrate knowledge across disciplines and develop diverse skillsamong students by bridging university and society. The advantages of problem-based learning are

Figure 2. The PBL learning principles (Based on the works of Graaff & Kolmos 2003, Kolmos & Graaff 2007).


especially identified as the articulated outcome of engineering education which aims to providestudents with the expected professional competencies (de Graaff and Kolmos 2003).

In relation to SD in engineering education, this theoretical background paves the way for theemployment of PBL as an innovative strategy for educational design. In the following, this papershows how an international study programme of environmental management by use of PBL as apedagogic method has been developed to deliver cross-discipline knowledge and help engineeringstudents to gain the skills needed for SD.

4. PBL practice in the study programme of Environmental Management

At Aalborg University in general, the key concept in both research and teaching is trans-disciplinarity, and all study programmes are organised around problem-oriented group work.A special feature of Aalborg University is the fact that around 2/3 of the teaching is centred onproblem-based project work. Using this student-centred and interdisciplinary approach, the aimis to enable the students to think and write clearly, to apply theory to practical problems, and tomaster the difficult art of collaboration within a group.

The concept of ‘learning by doing’ applied in practise takes its point of departure in ‘reallife problems’ that the students find interesting. Most often, students are in direct contact withcompanies or organisations outside the university. The contact is, in many cases, facilitated and/orsupported by lecturers and supervisors, but otherwise the students are on their own.

Project work is initiated at the beginning of the semester and runs continuously until the date ofsubmission of the project. The project is assessed in a comprehensive oral examination at the endof the semester on the basis of a 75–100-page type-written report. Out of the 30 ECTS available,the project normally corresponds to 26 ECTS of which an average of 10 ECTS corresponds tolectures and the remaining part to group work. (Note: European Credit Transfer andAccumulationSystem is a participant-centred system based on the workload required in order for the participantto fulfil the objectives of a programme of study. ECTS is based on the principle that 60 creditsmeasure the workload of a full-time participant during one academic year; in most cases between1500–1800 h of study.) Projects begin with a practical problem or theoretical topic, which relatesto the course work and the theme of the semester. The topic of the project is chosen in co-operation with the supervisor. It must comprise a theoretical perspective and have an empiricalbasis as well.

The group begins meeting early in the semester to identify the problem and formulate theresearch question, discuss the methodology that will be used to solve the problem, and identifyand analyse relevant theories and their application to the problem. The group meets to plan theproject work assignments and review and comment on drafts. Each group is assigned a projectgroup room throughout the semester. The project group also meets twice a month with theirproject supervisor to discuss theories, methodological problems, etc. These meetings are anotherform of facilitating learning. The project supervisor usually helps to identify research literature,comments on and criticises drafts, and occasionally mediates differing points of view. The projectis supported by a number of courses that relate to the topics dealt with on the semester, normallycomprising 3–5 courses and 6–10 ECTS.

In the two-year MSc programme in Environmental Management (120 ECTS), Danish and for-eign students are mixed and the programme is of course taught in English. Out of approximately30 students a year, 25–50% are Danish and have mostly all followed the undergraduate stud-ies of Planning & Environment (cf. http://www.planogmiljo.dk/) or Environmental Engineering(http://www.bio.aau.dk/en/environmental_eng/). The remaining part of the students come fromall over the world and have a quite varied mix of engineering or science undergraduate degrees.The courses of the curriculum require a trans-disciplinary approach and knowledge of theories,


concepts and methods that are drawn from a number of different fields. The combination of natu-ral and technical sciences and human and social sciences is crucial to these studies (Jamison andNielsen 2005). Focus is placed on how firms, governments, and other organisations can supportSD in an economically efficient and socially acceptable manner. On the first semester, focus is onenvironmental management from a company perspective, while the second semester focuses ona societal perspective.

Box 1 presents an example of project work during the 1st semester.

Box 1. The case of exchange students and a local company.

Environmental management in a local company

At the master’s programme in Environmental Management, the first semester involves anintroduction to environmental management in industry as well as to the PBL practised here.

A group of four Cameroonian students with different educational backgrounds, i.e. environ-mental engineering, geography and agricultural science, chose to work together on a projectwith a local textile industry, i.e. in Aalborg. This industry has worked with student groupsbefore and has been a partner in some university research projects on the implementation ofEnvironmental Management Systems (EMS) in industry.

First, the students and their supervisor had at meeting with the company’s environmentalmanager. After being introduced to the company’s production, its regulation and its manage-ment applying a rather streamlined EMS, which was not certified according to ISO 14001 orEMAS, the students systematically examined the production processes of the company.

In the following 2 months, the students visited the company 4–5 times. The group madedetailed descriptions of the different departments and formed a general view of where tofocus the company’s efforts. They also tried to focus on the problems with high temperatureand moisture in the department where the garment was washed.

Unfortunately, the language barrier between the Danish workers and the Cameroonianstudents made them give up the use of a questionnaire. The students finalised their projectby writing a 100-page report summing up their findings and providing recommendations onhow the company could improve its EMS. Academically speaking, it was a good report; thestudents learned a lot from their work in the company. The company was also satisfied withthe work and found it worthwhile and beneficial to its future work.

Following the same PBL way of making projects, these students have, during the last twoyears, made a series of different projects including traineeships (in Cameroon, and at theWuppertal Institute) and research projects (EIA of Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline) and are nowfinishing their theses in diverse fields such as the environmental management of companies inDenmark and Cameroon, an LCA of municipal solid waste management and water planningin Africa.

The students achieve hands-on experience with a range of practical techniques in such areasas environmental planning, environmental policy, environmental management and life cycleassessment. The programme also provides an understanding of the social, cultural and politicalimplications of planning and management within the environmental field. This includes an


understanding of the relationships between companies and stakeholders, the environmental chal-lenges faced by businesses operating on international markets, and an introduction to varioustypes of environmental regulations. The following are examples of courses given to support theproject work:

• Corporate Environmental Management (2 ECTS)• Organisation Theory (1 ECTS)• Environmental Impact Assessment (1 ECTS)• Politics of Sustainable Development (2 ECTS)• International and EU green policies (2 ECTS)

The 3rd semester can be used for a traineeship in organisations all around the world (and withor without host university support) or at other universities. The fourth semester is dedicated topreparing, submitting and defending a research-based thesis.

Box 2 presents examples of 3rd and final semester projects carried out in close collaborationwith industry and host and home universities.

Box 2. Collaborative case study involving host and home universities, students and business.

Environmental management and university-business collaboration in Thailand

A number of Thai and Danish students, the faculty of a Danish and a Thai university, andstaff and management from a local industry were involved in a research project focusingon how to improve the traditional production of SAA-paper (mulberry-bark paper) throughthe introduction of cleaner production, environmental management, and the optimisation ofon-site wastewater treatment.

One of the Danish students continued with the project in the writing of his master’s thesis. Intotal, the research co-operation lasted approximately one year.

The company benefited in many ways. It was provided with insights into the optimisationof resource use in several of the production steps, suggestions for optimised wastewatertreatment, an overview of the environmental aspects of the production, and a strengthenedcapacity/capability to deal with environmental issues related to the production (Larsen andLehmann 1998, and Larsen 1999). The results are considered to be important steps on theway to sustainable development. The research was conducted in close co-operation with localcounterparts, i.e. staff and management from the factory as well as students and faculty fromthe university. Part of the research was presented and published at a conference in Thailand(cf. Sopajaree et al. 1999).

The research project provided the Danish students with deeper insights into developmentaland environmental issues as well as into the social and cultural aspects of working abroad. Thestaff, faculty and students from the Thai university were introduced both to a new and differentways of learning, e.g. problem-based learning, and to students with a critical and ‘enquiring’approach. The exchange has later been characterised as an ‘eye-opener’ and has resulted ina paradigm shift in the teaching methods applied by Thai faculty members (Bregnhøj andLehmann 2000).


5. Data and discussion

The curriculum design of the above-mentioned study programme is based on the PBL principles.An analysis of students’ project reports suggests that students develop diverse process competen-cies in addition to technical knowledge and skills through the learning processes, as illustratedin Table 1.

Table 1. Knowledge and competencies achieved through POPBLapproach.

PBL principles Knowledge and competencies gained

Cognitive learning Problem-solvingProject managementContextual analysis

Contents Subject knowledgeTechnical skillsCross-disciplinary knowledgeKnowledge management

Collaborative learning CollaborationCommunication (oral and written)Project management and planning

These skills form part of the learning goals as set up by the study board and approved by theFaculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine. Inherently, graduating implicates that the studenthas acquired these skills at an adequate level.

Based on archives of reports from 2004–2006 (3 years), the following tables (Tables 2–6)provide some insights into the geographic focus of topics and problems dealt with, the outreach(collaboration with partners outside the department), and the cultural diversity and range of groupsizes. (Currently, the authors are looking into the educational backgrounds of students to identifylevels of transdisciplinarity. Furthermore, an analysis of student reports is currently made in orderto identify progress in the understanding of sustainability-related problems.) In the next section,this data is related to the three PBL principles outlined in Table 1.

Table 2. Geographical focus of student projects, 2004–2006.The figures show the number of projects.

Topic 1st semester 2nd semester 3rd semester

International 0 10 5National 4 3 17Local 11 0 0Total 15 13 22

Table 3. Sector focus of student projects, 2004–2006. The figures show thenumber of projects.

Topic 1st semester 2nd semester 3rd semester

Industry 12 2 8Branch/sector/supply chain 2 6 4Public Authority 1 4 10NGO/International Org. 0 1 0Total 15 13 22


Table 4. Group size and national mix; 1st semester (61 students intotal). The figures show the number of groups.

Group size Mix; continental Mix; country Same nationality

1 person 0 0 02 persons 2 0 03 persons 0 2 04 persons 4 2 05 persons 0 3 06 persons 1 1 0

Table 5. Group size and national mix; 2nd semester (56 students intotal). The figures show the number of groups.



Table 6. Group size and national mix; 3rd semester (23 students intotal). The figures show the number of groups.



Cognitive learning: at the beginning of each semester, students form project groups based ontheir shared interests in solving professional problems. To get the project started, students needto search for information about the background and context of the particular problem; to findrelevant literature; to read theoretical articles; to discuss the subject with supervisors or peoplewho know the area; and they may also need to contact industries or companies for interviews orobservations to gain field knowledge. When the students have collected sufficient materials, theystart to analyse the contextual situation and identify the problem. The next stage is to find out how tosolve the problem and choose a solution in relation to the given context, and this involves the sameprocedures of searching, reading, discussing, and writing as in the initial process described above.Contents: During the semester, students are facilitated with knowledge from literature, lectures,and supervision; however, they are expected to relate these different knowledge resources totheir particular project. They need to develop different strategies to gain theoretical knowledge,methods, and context knowledge in order to solve the problem, which very often requires aprocess of integrating knowledge from different disciplines and relating these to practice. In otherwords, only parts of the puzzle are presented to the students and they must become able notonly to find the missing pieces, but also to put them together in a way that presents a somewhatcoherent picture. Their ability to do so is part of the education and is assessed through projectexams. In terms of the master’s programme in Environmental Management shortly presentedhere, the principle of sustainable production and consumption and the sustainable managementof resources constitute the underlying principles. Through core courses, a number of building


blocks are presented relating to the four potentials described in Figure 1, however, certainly notall blocks are presented. Remaining blocks that are required in order to solve the problem at handare found throughout the project period and in interactions within the project group as well aswith supervisors and external contacts.Collaborative learning: Instead of following procedures designed by lecturers, students areexpected to manage the project planning on their own. To conduct the project work in an efficientway, students need to divide it into different tasks. Therefore, doing group work involves individ-ual work, working in sub-groups and working in the project group as a whole. Many groups putup both long-term (normally a semester, for the whole project) and short-term plans (either oneweek or two weeks) on the wall in their group room. For the long-term plan, they enter a series ofmilestones in a semester calendar, which may be kept flexible for modification along the way. Forthe short-term plan, students very often make ‘to-do’ lists each day or each week. This processinvolves developing skills in planning, entering of agreements, division of work, cooperation, andcommunication. Social and communicative skills play an important role in building up a sup-portive and motivating atmosphere, which can lead to effective learning. Peer learning throughgroup work can be rather constructive, since it provides mental support as well as developingresponsibilities.

Teaching and research experiences (Du 2006, Du and Kolmos 2006) also show that a progressionprocess takes place in which students gradually learn from reflecting on their experiences in suchway that they improve and self-direct their own learning. During the first-year programme, thestudents participate in a course on development of process competencies called Cooperation,Learning and Project Management (CLP), where they learn methods for cooperation, planning oflearning process and how to handle and develop their own project management systems. DuringCLP courses, students are not only provided with opportunities of experimenting different kindsof tools, but are also encouraged to develop their own systems independently. In this process,students increase an awareness of developing contextualized learning strategies - not only duringthe first-year programme, but also during the rest of the semesters.

Assessment plays a powerful role in students’ learning process (Gibbs 1999, Biggs 2003).Therefore, it is essentially important to establish assessment systems that are constructively alignedwith the learning goals and can be used strategically to enhance students’learning outcomes. Thereare primarily two types of exams at Aalborg University: project examinations, which normallytake place two-four weeks after the submission of the report; and examinations of study courses(approximately four ECTS), which are normally in the written form and take place immediatelyafter the completion of the courses.

The exam of the report also covers the project courses and thus amounts to approximately 26ECTS being examined. The exam, which is open to the public, will take 2–4 h depending on thenumber of students in the group. The exam starts by a presentation of the project made by thestudents. This presentation puts the project into perspective, and lasts for 20–45 min dependingon the size of the group. After the presentation, both the supervisor and the examiner give someoverall comments on the presentation, not in relation to the specific contents but more in relationto the form, the slides and the information value. After a short break, the examination continuesas a group examination where the report is discussed in view of the problem being addressedand the SD context, cf. Figure 1, forming the basis for an assessment of the individual students.The students’ abilities to infer linkages, consider and discuss the problem, they have focused on,and place this within the theme of the semester is a requisite for a good grading. Immediatelyafter the examination, the supervisor and examiner decide on the individual grades and informthe students. After giving the grades, further comments may also be given from supervisor andexaminer to the group.

Several studies have shown that this approach has resulted not only in high skills within thecore aspects of engineering but also in higher innovation skills and creativeness as well as in the


candidates’ abilities to establish co-operation and solve a given problem, all of which have greatvalue for the industries employing engineers (Ingeniøren 2004).

6. Conclusions and perspectives

Traditionally, engineers have been educated in order to contribute to the production potentialof societies. With the acknowledgement that the SD of today’s societies relies on more than thispotential, it inherently becomes necessary for engineers to contribute with other potentials as well.

However, core engineering skills today still focus on the production potential. PBL adds tothese skills by providing (and promoting) the linkages to and the understanding of other itemsand dimensions of the sustainability potential through context-based, interdisciplinary learning.This enables the engineers to solve complex and situated problems. In other words, in engineeringeducation, PBL adds interplay, mix and diversity to the core skills and thus creates the basis fora more integrated approach. This approach is needed in order for engineers to be able to discuss,understand and decide whether or not the progress in one potential may take place at the expenseof other potentials. In the end, PBL paves the way for innovation as defined by Rickards (1985),thus matching and solving the problems of systems.

In this article, examples have been given to illustrate this (cf. Boxes 1 and 2). Furthermore,the examples show that the problem and research-based approach provides opportunities for anincreased outreach of education, i.e. learning to the benefit of communities, university faculty,and students. Figure 3 illustrates this and provides the core of the lessons learnt in terms of SDand engineering education at Aalborg University, namely the fact that at the centre of a need or aproblem (in this case SD) is knowledge about either but that to be able to gain that knowledge,you need to collaborate with a mix of partners.

These partners - be they local businesses, university lecturers, civil servants or politicians – can,in turn, provide you with knowledge and learning opportunities that you would have difficultiesin accessing without defining an integrated problem to address.

As a conclusion, this innovative approach can help learners gain inter-disciplinary knowledgeand develop diverse skills needed in order to tackle SD challenges. In future research, the focus

Figure 3. Exchange of knowledge as a learning strategy.


on the development of singular students’ knowledge, from the enrolment stage up until theirgraduation and through their first years as professionals, may provide much needed informationwith regard to the success of the coupling of PBL and SD. The first steps have been taken in thisregard, and in the coming years, we will report on the findings of this research.

The main message presented here is thus that knowledge for SD is perhaps less concerned with‘know-how’ and much more with ‘know who’, ‘know what’ and ‘know why’.

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Biographies

Martin Lehmann, MSc, is currently finalising a PhD on Sustainable Development & Public-Private Partnerships. He ispart-time assistant professor at the Department of Development & Planning, Aalborg University, and works part-time


at the Region of Southern Denmark within the field of sustainable regional development. His research interests includeenvironmental management, institutional and organisational change, and innovation systems; in particular their (inter-)relations to sustainable development and networks. He is focusing his research on industrialised as well as developingcountries, especially Thailand, where he has long first hand working experience. [email protected]

Per Christensen, PhD, is Professor in environmental planning at the Department of Development & Planning at AalborgUniversity, Denmark. He has for many years studied the implementation of environmental regulations in a broader contextencompassing among others the inspiration from institutional theories. This has mainly concerned the implementationof new forms of regulation related to the topic of sustainable consumption & production as well as experiences onimplementing environmental management systems in industries. Lately, these interests are moving more in the directionof how to develop EMS into Life Cycle Management. This is coupled with research on environmental planning with afocus in agriculture, groundwater protection and [email protected]

Xiang-Yun Du, PhD, is academic staff in UNESCO Chair in Problem Based Learning in Engineering Education, and assis-tant professor in Department of Development & Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. She is involved in establishmentand development PBL Global Network in research and education practice. She conducted her PhD project on gender andengineering education in a PBL setting in the Danish context. Currently, her main research focuses are intercultural learn-ing, development of social competencies, innovative education, gender studies, and Problem-based & Project-organizedlearning in higher education (in particular) engineering education. [email protected]

Mikkel Thrane, PhD, is associate professor at Department of Development & Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark.Mikkel’s research interests include life-cycle assessment and management, eco-design, life-cycle thinking, environmentalmanagement and corporate social responsibility. He is member of the Rector’s Environmental Management Committeeat Aalborg University. [email protected]

Documents

Problem-oriented and project-based learning (POPBL) as an innovative learning strategy for sustainable development in engineering education