Celebrating 50 years of problem-based learning: progress, pitfalls and possibilities

Fifty years ago, McMaster University’s Faculty of Medicine (as it was known at the time) embarked willy-nilly on a pedagogical experiment that, unbeknownst to its conceivers, would reverberate through higher education across the globe in the ensuing decades. The characteristics of that experiment have been described at length elsewhere (Servant-Miklos 2019a; Spaulding 1991), but what is most remarkable about it is the extent to which it shaped medical education research, and then spilled into all areas of higher education, from engineering to liberal arts, and from Brazil to China. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of problem-based learning goes beyond just acknowledging the contribution of the pioneers of PBL to medical education (though this definitely can and has been done). It really plugs us into key current debates about pedagogy and education research in and beyond the health sciences education sphere.