A Short Intellectual History of Problem‐Based Learning

This chapter proposes an intellectual history of the origins and development of PBL, with a particular focus on the early years of the founding programs of McMaster University Medical School in Canada and Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Some of the key intellectual and historical antecedents of PBL, such as the ideas of John Dewey and the Harvard Case Method, will be discussed, after which a historical account of the development of PBL will be given. Finally, contemporary parallel developments in problem-oriented education in other fields will be contrasted with the models we have discussed to provide a point of historical reference for PBL.