Originating from medical education, problem-based learning is increasingly used in other types of professional education. Tempted by the many successful experiences elsewhere, we have taken a bold step to try out this teaching approach in a course on apparel merchandising. We started with a pilot project with the objective to enhance students' experience so as to to encourage lifelong learning and benefit the apparel business as a whole. This paper describes in details the reasons behind our decision to adopt this teaching strategy. Various factors like students' prior learning experience and the availability of resources in the planning of a hybrid PBL course structure are also discussed. Based on the planned course structure, problem cases are identified and developed with reference to various PBL concepts and experiences. The guidelines and concept maps, which determine the contents of the problem cases, are outlined.

The Hong Kong University Master of Social Work programme is designed to be a socially sensitive and responsive programme to train competent and continuously developing professional social workers who can make contributions both to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and internationally. The values, knowledge and skills conveyed in the programme should enable social workers so trained to deliver social services to individuals, groups and the community in an appropriate, competent, ethical and humane manner, and be committed to self- directed life-long learning to maintain the high standards achieved upon graduation. In view of rapid changes in modern societies and the increasing complexity involved in helping people to survive psychosocial challenges, there should be corresponding adjustments in professional training to keep up the necessary performance standard. This paper reports on the efforts made by a team of enthusiastic social work teachers over the summer of 1999 to change an established Master of Social Work programme into problem-based learning mode and includes some initial feedback from the staff and students concerned. Certain useful strategies as well as some points for improvement will also be discussed.

As is typical of distance learning institutions, the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) provides regular face-to-face tutorials to facilitate students' learning in addition to the self-instructional course materials. Attendance is non-compulsory, so there is often little similarity in the group of students attending from one tutorial to the next. The nature of tutorial support is contingent upon the needs of each individual course, but the basic requirement is that students must have the option to seek he from the tutor to resolve any problems being faced in the course. Consequently, although tutors are urged to encourage student involvement and are discouraged from lecturing teacher-centred learning is still dominant in the face-to-face sessions. Whereas, in conventional settings, most PBL activities are conducted in and around tutorials, at OUHK it is less straightforward to do this because of the time constraints and students' expectations of assistance. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explore the place of PBL in OUHK tutorials, and the compromises that need to be made to enable it to be used successfully. Many studies have placed emphasis on the roles and responsibilities of PBL tutors in conventional face-to-face learning. However, little research has been done on the tutor's role as facilitator in a distance learning PBL environment, and how this can be balanced with the role of help-giver. As a preliminary investigation of this issue, a group of tutors was asked to introduce some PBL activities into their tutorials. Apart from observations, data about tutors' perceptions of using PBL in this context was gathered from semi-structured interviews. The difficulties that tutors experienced during the PBL tutorials and suggestions for modification have been highlighted in the paper.

This paper reports the implementation of PBL in a student preparatory course at City University of Hong Kong in 1999. In Hong Kong, as well as elsewhere, students often enter university with limited understanding about university education and ineffective learning strategies which can create frustration and difficulties in their transition to university life. There is a pressing need for universities to provide students with support to increase their chances of experiencing success during this critical period of transition. In responding to this need, City University of Hong Kong started in 1996 to offer first-year students a course "Learning to Learn" to help prepare them better for university study and lifelong learning.
Students who have attended the course find it worthwhile and beneficial. Research on the course offered during 1997 to 1999 (Kwan, 1998 and 1999a) has indicated positive effects on students' learning attitudes and skills. In particular, students were more aware of the importance of being an active learner and managing their study time. They also reported an increase in their self-efficacy in these two areas. However, if this course is to develop students as lifelong learners, students need to go through a process in which they are helped to develop the process skills which are essential for lifelong learning (Kwan, 1999b). Since PBL is a powerful strategy for providing a learning environment that "embodies most of the principles that we know improve learning" (Woods, 1996), the course team decided to have the course adopt a PBL format in 1999.
Preparatory tasks, including restructuring the curriculum, making resources available, developing problems, piloting, and preparing tutors and students have been completed Students who participated in the Pilot Programme of the PBL version of "Learning to Learn" have reported that they have become better learners. They have strengthened their attitudes towards lifelong learning. They also believe

This study adopts a contemporary research approach and seeks to identify, analyse, and address some specific process related problems that third year undergraduate translation students' experience when learning law and solving legal problems. This study sought to answer the following question: Is there any change in the affective outcomes of undergraduate translation students with respect to their bias towards surface and deep approaches to learning before and after the problem-based learning intervention? The students' progression in problem solving was measured before and after the problem-based learning intervention to check for change. The second research question addresses students attitudes to learning environments before and after the problem-based learning intervention.

In the design of the B.Sc. (Surveying) curriculum at The University of Hong Kong, there are two major components: the academic core subjects and the Surveying Studio. We identified economics, law, management, and construction as four main subject areas. Subject-based and instructor-centred lectures and tutorials provide the academic underpinning of the curriculum. In addition, the Surveying Studio is designed to integrate and apply the academic knowledge in a professional manner. A multidisciplinary and student-centred learning approach is employed. Students, working in small group, are responsible for their own learning, individually and in collaboration with peers. Based on real world case studies, problem scenarios are designed and developed. A problem scenario is an open-ended and ill-structured problem in an authentic context. It allows students to explore different viewpoints, different pathways to different solutions, and different learning styles. Students work through problem scenarios to achieve the desired learning objectives. This paper outlines the concepts behind our student-centred learning framework for the Surveying Studio. Our experiences related to the benefits achieved and problems involved in the implementation process are discussed.