| Problem-based learning (PBL) has had a significant impact across subjects and disciplines in educational practice since it was first introduced as an innovative medical education curriculum at McMaster University in 1969 (Boud & Feletii, 1997; Camp, 1996, Newman, 2006). As a learning environment "that results from the process of working toward the understanding or resolution of a problem" (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980, p. 18), PBL focuses on setting up a learning context in which students take part in collaborative problem solving to learn beyond their potential with a deep understanding of the subject matter and to develop their higher-order thinking (Savery, 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine one group's activities in a PBL course to delineate the students' problem-solving process and to identify the collaborative patterns and issues in the process.;The study takes an instrumental case study approach (Stake 1998). The case in the study is a group of students in an undergraduate business logistics course in a northeastern university. The case study allows for in-depth descriptions of the actual activities from the perspectives of the researcher and the group members. The study uses multiple sources of evidence including direct observations, interviews, and physical artifacts to enable triangulation of the data (Yin, 1994). The study aims to increase understanding of the "collaborative problem solving" phenomenon within the specific cultural and contextual settings in a PBL course.;The findings of this study suggest that the problem solving activities that students engaged in were governed by the goals and motives derived from their roles in different dimensions in the PBL process, that is, as a learner, an international logistics consultant, and a group member. As group members, students had different perceptions of their membership and identity, and consequently their perceptions influenced their participation in the cognitive construction. Also, the extent to which students engaged in the social negotiation of meaning was greatly influenced by the content of interpersonal conflicts, and how students interacted to resolve the conflicts. Moreover, the physical, logical and cultural constraints in the learning context caused different actions in the knowledge building activity. |
