Supporting university student proactivity for social and academic well-being: What PBL can do

1. Research background
Globally, postsecondary education institutions are increasingly giving attention to youth well-being. International research over the past decade documents that young people, to an increasing degree, are experiencing well-being challenges socially and academically, with the symptoms of anxiety, stress, uncertainty, and loneliness, which can influence their persistence and success in their studies and perpetuate inequalities into adult life [1-3]. In Denmark, recent years have presented challenges regarding youth mental well-being and completion of postsecondary education. At Aalborg University, students have also exhibited early departure tendencies, citing difficulties fitting in, lack of support, and unsatisfactory study environments. Students in transition, such as first-year students, in particular, struggle increasingly with adapting to and appreciating teamwork due to perceived psychological safety issues and negative career expectations [4]. The core of the AAU PBL model has largely remained unchanged for many years, but the pedagogical features are experienced differently by the new generations of students. The increase in psychological distress and insecurity in these student groups might be linked to recent school reforms with the increased focus on learning outcomes and testing, societal changes leading to individualization, and new multicultural educational contexts, but this remains largely unexplored [5]. Dansk Forsk 2025 [6] report underscores the significance and immediacy of supporting youth well-being through quality education. To make an improvement on these challenges, following Mazzucato’s and Dibb’s mission-driven framework [7], the mission of this proposal is to explore new ways of education, in particular with pedagogical characteristics of Problem and Project-based teamwork learning (PBL) can do to foster and support student well-being.
While acknowledging student well-being is a complex matter including several mutually influencing aspects, we emphasize their academic and social well-being within digitalized educational settings in our research focus. We, therefore, conceptualize student well-being in our context as a dynamic state encompassing students’ positive emotions and satisfaction with their educational choice and study environment, including physical, emotional, social, and contextual aspects [8]. In postsecondary education, literature has delved into conceptualizing and assessing student well-being from psychological and medical standpoints. This body of work has revealed various mental health challenges students face, offering insights into the multifaceted components of well-being [9]. Particularly amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, students’ encounters with stress, loneliness, and uncertainty within the learning environment detrimentally impacted their academic well-being, overall learning, and health [10]. Conversely, feelings of accomplishment and social belonging played crucial roles in fostering social and academic well-being, with these sentiments heavily influenced by peer interactions, communication with faculty, learning activities, and the physical study environment [11].
However, it remains unclear how the learning environment, encompassing both physical and social aspects, along with curriculum design, offers diverse resources to bolster student learning and enhance their academic and social well-being. Therefore, this proposed research agenda seeks to develop a sustainable methodology to support student well-being through PBL. Thus, this project aims:
1) To identify factors that contribute to youth well-being in Denmark, focusing on the aspects of social and academic well-being.
2) To identify pedagogical/educational characteristics that can contribute to youth wellbeing, in particular with a goal of study persistence and career development.
3) To design, implement/pilot, and evaluate (providing evidence of) educational interventions that support student proactivity for their academic and social well-being with a goal of study persistence and career development
4) To provide recommendations to educators, researchers, and students regarding how to develop proactivity and agency for one’s own academic and social well-being within the schooling system.

2. The research activities and educational interventions
2.1 Significances
The proposal contributes to the topic of youth well-being with its innovativeness in three aspects:
1) Emphasizing prevention over treatment through creating teacher-student co-construction in improving youth academic and social well-being within, and throughout the formal schooling system, which has been recently criticized for its failure in keeping students and in meeting their needs.
2) Underlining the design-based research characteristics in the development, implementation, and evaluation of educational interventions through international and interdisciplinary collaboration.
3) Highlighting youth learning characteristics by adopting gamification and AI to develop digital tools for the interventions.
The initial pilot will be conducted at Aalborg University (AAU), the experience of which can be further extended to a larger number of educational institutions in Denmark. The proposal contains three educational interventions through PBL, which are assumed to interplay and support each other to contribute to student academic well-being together from different emphases. While planning the piloting within AAU, we also seek external partnerships (primary, secondary, and vocational schools) through different joint external grant applications.

2.2 Intervention Description
1) Storytelling: Story sharing between younger students with senior students and early career professionals in a regular, structured, and guided mode, in collaboration with experts from Stanford University.
2) Fearless teamwork for creativity: Toolkits designed for creativity in team aligning creating psychological safety framework by Edmondson with the following stages: 1a) setting the stage, b) inviting participation, c) responding productively.
3) Career development strategies
2.3 Intervention Settings
1) AAU: a) Students – Most of the UCPBL and IASPBL colleagues are teaching PBL courses/workshops to first-year or senior students; b) PBL supervisors – selected program will pilot the PLC method.
2) Vocational schools: Tradium vocational school and Aalborg Tech, both of which are in collaboration with StudentPulse company products.

2.4 Mixed-method research designs and instruments for data sources for three Interventions
1) Qualitative Approach: a) Narratives, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews with students, educators, and leaders; b) Ethnographic studies with teaching and learning sessions.
2) Q Methodology: a) Q design for social belonging; b) Q design for fearless teamwork for creativity; c) Q design for constructive feedback, and follow-up interviews.
3) Quantitative Measures: Student self-reflection check-ins including psychological safety, creativity in team, and academic well-being, and career anticipation (a scale developed by the research team and to be validated)
4) Beyond this one-year proposal, this research project will also involve longitudinal study: Follow up after each cohort to examine the long-term influences – 1) Persistence in university and preparation for transition to the workplace; 2) Long-term impact of self-perceived career readiness and meaningfulness in life.