What is the problem? Chew it as food for thought … lessons for workplace learning

Abstract

Purpose

The article explores problem‐based learning (PBL) as an emerging approach to workplace learning. It discusses the role of PBL in the workplace, factors influencing its successful implementation and its potential application to organizational dynamics.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative study was conducted in Singapore using a purposeful sampling of 50 professionals who had some experience using PBL in their organizations. Views were sought through semi‐structured interviewing and further supported by the expert opinion of ten PBL consultants.

Findings

Breaking away from the comfort zone is a fundamental approach to appreciating the fullness of uncertainty that confronts employees in today's workplaces. Looking within for answers is a first step to generating more questions for subsequent collaborative inquiry.

Research limitations/implications

The interpretive process of PBL is challenged by the structured nature of each learning phase. Such systematization produces a learning that demands a capacity to balance the dichotomy of amplifying and constraining effects. An integrated epistemology can be further pursued.

Practical implications

Although driven by a shared problem, PBL requires a unique distribution of ownership to the problem such that it means something specific to the learner before diversity of perspectives can be further facilitated. PBL induces reflective practice.

Originality/value

Although a pedagogical methodology, PBL has great potential for redefining workplace learning. It is a process that amalgamates a variety of familiar learning activities yet, in totality its distinction is realized in the mutually‐implicating elements that are unique on their own.

Citation

Yeo, R.K. (2009), "What is the problem? Chew it as food for thought … lessons for workplace learning", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 5-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777280910951531