As Japan’s population ages and its birth rates decline, the meaning of higher education in this country is increasingly being questioned. In this context, the learning methodology known as Project-Based Learning or simply PBL, continues to attract global attention and generate excitement. PBL has multiple international roots including John Dewey’s (1897) notion of ‘learning by doing’ but Future University Hakodate (hereafter ‘FUN’) is an early adopter in Japan’s educational context with its PBL coursework having been in operation for almost two decades. Already, the effects and benefits of PBL are being strongly felt since the year 2000 when PBL first became a reality at FUN, a learning institution specializing in the Information Sciences.
For details of PBL at FUN, please read the series of articles based on the book “The Design of Project-Based Learning – Learning Methodologies to Transform Our Futures”