Problem-based learning is topic of forum

Deborah Allen, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware, will speak on Problem-Based Learning: Building a Community of Learners Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 3:30 p.m. in the Walker Ames Room, Kane. The event is the fall Quarterly Forum on Teaching and Learning.

In 1992, Allen and a small group of science faculty at the University of Delaware began to adapt problem-based learning (PBL) to their courses in the introductory sciences. Their efforts became the impetus for a faculty-driven reform of undergraduate education there, which continues under the auspices of the university’s Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education. The institute, of which Allen is a founding leader, was recently awarded a TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award Certificate of Excellence.

Allen has developed a two-semester PBL course in introductory biology, which received the University of Delaware Excellence in Teaching Award. The materials and methods used in that course have been published in the book, Thinking Towards Solutions: Problem-Based Learning Activities for General Biology (Saunders 1998). Allen has also been involved in the development of a program for undergraduate PBL peer group facilitators as well as programs for engaging pre- and in-service teachers in inquiry-based biology projects. She has presented more than 50 invited workshops and talks on active, group-based strategies.

Organizers ask that those wanting to attend send their name, department and campus mail box number to: rsvp@cidr.washington.edu. Information about Problem -Based Learning will be forwarded to those who RSVP.