Teaching Public Management within problem-based educational approach. What works and what does not?

Teaching Public Management faced a new set of challenges in the recent years. Increased competition among universities (within countries, within EU and from outside), increased student mobility, a constant attempt to... [ view full abstract ]

Teaching Public Management faced a new set of challenges in the recent years. Increased competition among universities (within countries, within EU and from outside), increased student mobility, a constant attempt to strengthen the practical relevance of Public Management as scientific field have led to a variety of educational improvements . These educational developments aimed both towards the design and the teaching within the programmes, using techniques ranging from flipped classrooms to MOOCs, from pecha-kucha presentations to blended learning.
The University of Twente switched university- wide to a problem-based educational approach during the academic year 2013-2014. At organization level, the change encompassed the re-structuring of the teaching process from 5 EC individual courses to 15 EC (10 weeks) modules, in which students work in small groups towards solving on particular problem. The problem is addressed within a project weighed usually to a third (or more) of the work volume. Within the module, students are offered additional theoretical elements aimed to provide the theoretical background needed to address the problem posed within the project. The elements and project combine together in order to provide a more hands-on learning experience for the students.
Since the academic year 2014-2015, the Module Public Management is scheduled in the first quartile of the second study year at the programme European Public Administration offered at the University of Twente. The current paper aims to summarize and reflect on the experiences, successes, and challenges of the last three academic years of running the module. How to organize the transition from an individual-based teaching approach to a group based approach? What kind of coordination is needed? How to balance out the clarity of the scientific message in an interdisciplinary field like Public Management with the diversity of the scientific perspectives? How to monitor ones’ own teaching performance within the (teacher’s) group performance? How to support student individual and group learning and prevent free-riding? How to foster the motivation for independent research and These are only a few of the issues that were tackled during these past three years which will be reflected on in this contribution.