Effective Teaching and Learning: Integrating Problem-based Learning in the Teaching of Sustainable Design

The need for integration of the sustainability agenda in education has led to the development of several new courses and revision of existing curriculum. Research has also been initiated in an attempt to provide answers to the question of what constitutes a sustainable design education. Most academics will agree that education is not just about acquisition of knowledge, but the ability to apply that knowledge in the work place and ideally throughout all aspects of life. The teaching of sustainability involves discussing the serious environmental issues facing the world today, but also the practical solutions that we could apply by integrating real-world situations into our teaching and learning (e.g. through problem-solving exercises). This small-scale research investigates the effectiveness of integrating problem-based learning as a teaching tool for a string of units focusing on design for the BSc (Hons) course of “Sustainable Design and Environmental Management ” in the Department of Environmental Design and Management in the University of Portsmouth and it draws some valuable conclusions based on students ’ unit evaluation and peer observation.