Problem-driven learning on two continents: Lessons in pedagogic innovation across cultural divides

While internationally there is an awareness that we need new, innovative approaches to engineering education, it is unclear whether a pioneering pedagogy within one cultural context will readily transfer and find acceptance in a very different cultural context. In this paper, we report on a three-site, collaborative experiment in using problem-driven learning in an introductory engineering class. Our three sites are universities in the United States, Abu Dhabi and China. In each location, first year students in biomedical engineering begin the major by joining a team of students who tackle real-world, open-ended problems. Our paper will report on 1) the development and exchange of problems across the three sites, 2) the different constraints, realizations and outcomes of the problem-driven approach at each of using problem-driven learning as a transnational pedagogy for 21
^st
century engineering education.