Grand Challenges - A Route to Multi-Disciplinary, Problem Based-Learning

Cardiff Business School welcomed more than 20 delegates to a joint event hosted with the British Academy of Management (BAM) on Friday 28 October 2016.

The full-day event brought together a distinguished panel to discuss and debate the roots, progress, impact and benefit of a variety of problem-based approaches on student learning and development.

It has been argued that this approach produces students with greater levels of motivation, enhanced collaboration, critical analysis and communication skills, and a deeper understanding of business and management. The tutor becomes the facilitator of rich reflective contexts while students are coached to become self-directed learners.

The event programme included perspectives from across Cardiff University and beyond:

• Problem-based Learning: A student’s perspective on Maastricht University’s seven-step model (Anna Galazka, Cardiff Business School)
• Design-led teaching around grand challenges in Architecture (Dr Andrew Roberts, Welsh School of Architecture)
• The impact of global challenges on the curriculum and student experience in the One Planet MBA (Professor Nicolas Forsans, University of Exeter Business School)
• Bringing ‘Decent Work’ into the classroom (Professor Pete Turnbull, School of Economics, Finance and Management, University of Bristol)

Cardiff Business School’s Dr Sarah Hurlow, senior lecturer in leadership, was the academic lead for the event: “This was a hugely successful event, that addressed the challenges of design and implementation of problem based learning. It stimulated thoughtful debate around the many varieties of PBL.

“The event’s theme is highly relevant to our work here at Cardiff Business School. Our Public Value strategy, promoting and delivering social value alongside economic value, is delivered through a dynamic, interdisciplinary and challenge-led curricula. We believe this approach encourages our students not to accept the status quo, but to think and act differently."

Cardiff Business School’s Public Value strategy was launched in 2015 and informs its teaching, research and engagement activities. The School is committed to an interdisciplinary approach driven by the grand social challenges of our time.