fields to jointly assist in sustaining national development, which not only depends on the earth’s resources but also on worker’s skills and expertise to preserve those resources. Keene & Blumstein (2010) argue that changing environmental education requires the cooperation of various organizations and academic disciplines. The National Higher Education Strategic Plan, which was launched in 2007, prioritizes the transformation of higher education. The plan aims to achieve excellence and sustainability in higher education beyond the year 2020 (Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi, 2011) and outlines seven main foci related to that goal. Among the plan’s stated goals is the effort to improve the quality of teaching and learning to produce innovative and ethical individuals with the capacity to think critically and who are committed to a common moral standard.
What is the problem in PBL means? It is a question or issue given to students during the teaching and learning process, which happen in their surroundings. The students are then required to resolve the problem by using knowledge they learned previously. According to White (1995), problems that are given to students should be the issues or situations that actually happened in real-life, sequential and have to be appropriate for students to undertake the problem in a group that lasted for a week or more. In the PBL approach, problems are given earlier before the lecture is given. This is different from the conventional teaching method whereby the problems are given to students at the end of each section being taught in the classroom. Dunlap (2005) stated in his paper that PBL as an exercise to the real problems that help students to acquire knowledge and skills in the workplace. At present, professional workforce of innovative, competitive and highly skilled are much required. To enhance these talents, educators need to provide an appropriate learning environment that can lead to the learning process that stimulate students’ critical thinking toward solving the real problems in the workplace.
The PBL learning process requires all students to be actively participate in the classroom. However, this may be difficult for a class with a large number of students of more than 100. During the PBL process, students are required to work in small groups (3 to 5 students in each group) so that they can exchange knowledge and mutually help each other. They cannot only depending on text books alone, but will also gather information from other sources such as websites, journals, newspaper and interviews. The students will then solve the problem based on the information and knowledge that were obtained from their findings.
The teaching and learning approach based on the PBL is a key component in the current education system in Malaysia, which is the Outcome-Based Education (OBE). OBE emphasized on the “results” or the outcomes. Each course offered has its own course objectives and the “results” are to be achieved by the students at the end of the course or upon completion of their studies at the university. In implementing an effective teaching and learning at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the Faculty of Engineering has provided a series of seminars, lectures and workshops on OBE teaching and learning approach to all lecturers. This is to provide exposure and knowledge to lecturers on how to implement an effective teaching and learning using the concept of PBL. Lecturers may obtain new ideas so that they can apply PBL innovatively in their teaching process, which also include the evaluation of the outcome by measuring of the students’ achievement.