A pilot systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of problem based learning

Various claims are made about the benefits of PBL concerning knowledge, understanding, thinking, communication, teamwork and satisfaction. The three existing systematic' reviews of PBL (Vernon and Blake 1993, Albanese & Mitchell 1993 and Berkson 1993) are difficult to interpret due to their methodological limitations. The reviews included a very similar range of literature but came to different conclusions. For these reasons there was a need for a systematic review of PBL that was specific in terms of the 'intervention' that was being evaluated, comprehensive in terms of strategy employed to identify potential evidence and methodologically rigorous in terms of the criteria used to evaluate the quality of evidence.

This paper reports on the development and piloting of one such systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of PBL by an internal group of teachers and researchers convened under the auspices of the Campbell Collaboration. The review manager was Mark Newman, Research Fellow, Middlesex University and Dr Jean Mckendree, Learning Development Officer was a member of the review group.

A subject centre mini-project grant was awarded to help fund this work and the subject centre published the report. To request a hard copy of the report, please contact us at

enquiries@medev.ac.uk.

A pdf version of the report is available.