Keynote for Problem-Based Learning Business Meeting at AERA 2020

Dear SIG Members,

We welcome you to join us for our Problem-Based Learning Business Meeting at AERA 2020. We are honoured to have Professor Diana HJM Dolmans as our business meeting keynote speaker, and we enclose below the keynote abstract and biographical statement for your reference. More information about AERA 2020 can be found here (AERA 2020 website link).

Kind regards,
Lesette Wijnia, Ph.D.
Chair of the PBE SIG, AERA

Meeting Details

AERA 2020
April 17 – 21, 2020
San Francisco, CA, USA
Keynote Speaker: Professor Diana HJM Dolmans
Problem-Based Education, Special Interest Group SIG 78

Keynote Abstract

How can we look at PBL practice and research differently?

PBL has been implemented worldwide in various institutions and disciplines. Despite this worldwide implementation, PBL nowadays appears in many different forms. Many institutions no longer stick to a one-size-fits-all or copy-paste approach to PBL. Instead, they have adapted and redesigned their PBL practices to better fit their context and to stimulate students to take a deep approach to learning. Today, we consider PBL to be part of a family of related student- and task-centered approaches to learning. Some wonder if these variations indeed represent hybrid solutions or rather a move away from the original principles and underlying philosophy. Others wonder how we should investigate these diversified practices. In addition to explaining the underlying principles of PBL, in this keynote I will present educational design research that combines redesigning theory-based PBL practices with investigating these practices in close collaboration with various stakeholders to advance our understanding.

Diana H.J.M. Dolmans, School of Health Professions Education (SHE), Department of Educational Development and Research, Faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, d.dolmans@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Diana HJM Dolmans is a full professor in the field of innovative learning arrangements and a staff member of the School of Health Professions Education (SHE) at Maastricht University. Her research focuses on key success factors of innovative curricula within higher education. She holds an MSc degree in Educational Sciences and a PhD degree in problem-based learning. She takes a special interest in understanding how to optimize the learning environment. Her topics of interest are problem-based learning, faculty development, and quality assurance. Her line of research within problem-based learning is internationally well acknowledged. She is the scientific director of the Interuniversity Center for Educational Research (ICO), a research school in which 15 Dutch and Flemish universities collaborate in offering a training program to their PhD candidates in educational sciences. Finally, she is an editorial board member of several international journals, has published over 150 peer reviewed manuscripts in many refereed international journals, and she has supervised 17 PhD candidates through to completion.