As the discovery of penicillin from a 'failed' medical experiment illustrates, it is good practice to revisit apparent teaching and learning 'failures'. Two Hong Kong case studies are here reviewed for they report educational 'failures' evidenced by students displaying a negative learning experience while undergoing Problem-based Learning (PBL). The first case study involved Primary Four and Five pupils; while the second investigated post-Secondary school students. An analysis is, provided of these two negative learning experiences followed by a critique of possible solutions. The findings are intriguing 'Problem-based Learning is shown to provide a flexible, responsive pedagogy that reflects Hong Kong's current learning priorities. It is argued that the reported educational 'failure' reflects a tension between learner diversity and educational: priorities, which raises the possibility that these 'failures' indicate not a 'problem with PBI'; but rather a 'problem with: education'.[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]
