Lee Ahram, Jung Eunju
Graduate School of Education, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Education, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 29;16:1618997. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1618997. eCollection 2025.
With the rapid change in society and advancements in technology, higher education needs to focus on cultivating students' generic skills to foster adaptability in this ever-evolving society. Problem-based learning (PBL) is acknowledged as an effective approach to engage students in self-directed, real-life-based learning experiences that enhance generic skills. The current study investigated how university students subjectively experienced PBL and explored generic skills associated with their learning.
University students' reflection papers were used as document data for analysis. A total of 58 reflection papers were collected from three PBL courses offered at a 4-year university in Seoul, Korea, between 2022 and 2023. Students were provided with open-ended questions that prompted them to give detailed descriptions of their learning experiences during PBL. The content of the papers was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.
The analysis revealed four key themes related to students' experiences with PBL: collaboration within the team, personal growth, higher-order thinking, and connection to the real world. Each theme included three sub-themes, and these themes were discussed in relation to associated generic skills.
The findings offer insights into students' experiences during the PBL process and highlight how these experiences foster the development of cross-cutting skills applicable to various domains of life. This study extends the existing body of research, which has largely focused on quantitative measures of specific competency changes through PBL, by inductively exploring students' subjective experiences and deriving relevant generic skills.
随着社会的快速变革和技术的进步，高等教育需要专注于培养学生的通用技能，以促进他们在这个不断发展的社会中的适应能力。基于问题的学习（PBL）被认为是一种有效的方法，能让学生参与以自我导向、基于现实生活的学习体验，从而提高通用技能。本研究调查了大学生对PBL的主观体验，并探索了与他们学习相关的通用技能。
大学生的反思论文被用作分析的文档数据。2022年至2023年期间，从韩国首尔一所四年制大学开设的三门PBL课程中收集了总共58篇反思论文。向学生提供了开放式问题，促使他们详细描述自己在PBL过程中的学习经历。使用归纳主题分析法对论文内容进行分析。
分析揭示了与学生PBL体验相关的四个关键主题：团队内协作、个人成长、高阶思维和与现实世界的联系。每个主题包括三个子主题，并结合相关的通用技能对这些主题进行了讨论。
研究结果为学生在PBL过程中的体验提供了见解，并突出了这些体验如何促进适用于生活各个领域的交叉技能的发展。本研究通过归纳探索学生的主观体验并得出相关的通用技能，扩展了现有的研究范围，现有研究主要集中在通过PBL对特定能力变化的定量测量上。
