Ac 2007-952: Gender Inclusiveness in Engineering Education: Is Problem-based Learning Environment a Recipe?

Based on two PhD studies on gender recruitment at an engineering univeristy in Denmark, this paper discusses whether and how a PBL environment have been functioning in the recruitment of engineering students. The research findings from both studies show that the PBL environment can be regarded as a learning environment that is friendly to students of both genders. However, it did not witness dramatic increase of women’s presence in the past twenty years. Both studies agreed that gender recruitment is not only based on pedagogic model. Therefore, this paper concludes that PBL environment itself is not enough to be used as a recipe for recruiting women to engineering studies. Gender inclusiveness in engineering education is more complex than just establishing a friendly learning environment, and it involves not only increasing the number of women, but also the content aspect towards more contextual learning.