Articles
ENABLING STUDENTS’ RESEARCH IN FRESH-FOOD CHAIN MANAGEMENT – EXPERIENCES WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING INTO THE CURRICULA OF SELECTED UNIVERSITIES
Article number
920_4
Pages
39 – 44
Language
English
Abstract
Two EU-projects within higher education (ValueLead and DOCUMAP) were launched with the objective of facilitating students at our African and Asian partner universities to be educated in sustainable and quality-oriented fresh-food chain management (FFCM). The projects focus on poverty alleviation and on meeting needs of the agri-food sector.
Target groups are lecturers of the partner universities.
The project enables them to introduce Problem-Based Learning (PBL) into existing curricula.
Central to Problem-Based Learning is that it is a student-centered method-ology to encourage students to solve problems by themselves.
Furthermore lecturers are trained in conveying teamwork and problem-solving skills necessary for PBL. With improvement of the didactical skills of academic staff, students will have better skills in problem solving and interdisciplinary research.
However, cooperation between universities also offers a basis for North-South and South-South academic partnership networks for continuous development of the food-chain management concept in general and its adaptation to African and Asian realities.
Collaboration with stakeholders in the agri-food sector of partner countries should ultimately enable these actors to develop sustainable partnerships and networks in coordinated value chains.
To achieve the objectives several interrelated activities are implemented.
This paper focuses on the ValueLead project, analyzing the experience and results whilst integrating PBL into the project.
Target groups are lecturers of the partner universities.
The project enables them to introduce Problem-Based Learning (PBL) into existing curricula.
Central to Problem-Based Learning is that it is a student-centered method-ology to encourage students to solve problems by themselves.
Furthermore lecturers are trained in conveying teamwork and problem-solving skills necessary for PBL. With improvement of the didactical skills of academic staff, students will have better skills in problem solving and interdisciplinary research.
However, cooperation between universities also offers a basis for North-South and South-South academic partnership networks for continuous development of the food-chain management concept in general and its adaptation to African and Asian realities.
Collaboration with stakeholders in the agri-food sector of partner countries should ultimately enable these actors to develop sustainable partnerships and networks in coordinated value chains.
To achieve the objectives several interrelated activities are implemented.
This paper focuses on the ValueLead project, analyzing the experience and results whilst integrating PBL into the project.
Authors
K. Wenz, S. Hofmann-Souki , W. Bokelmann
Keywords
problem-based learning, higher education, university cooperation, value chains
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