EDITORIAL: Challenge Based Learning in a Sustainable Learning Society

Welcome to this special issue where we explore possibilities of challenge based learning (CBL) in higher education (HE) as a way to provide students and teachers with a readiness to handle complex challenges. Originally, CBL is collaborative and hands-on, asking students to work with peers, teachers, and experts in their communities, and to ask good questions, develop deeper subject-area knowledge, accept and solve challenges, take action, and share their experiences (Nichols & Cator, 2008). In the CBL-concept of Malmö University, education, research, and innovation are integrated as co-creative processes, with societal partners and based on theories of learning (Leijon et al. 2021). Included in the approach are three domains: diversity & inclusion; co-creation & collaboration; and change agents & contextual challenges. Higher education institutions must enable students to develop the capacity to identify, initiate, inquire into, and lead the process of societal change (Christersson et al. 2022).

Since 2013, when CBL was first introduced at Malmö University, staff and students across all faculties have, together with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and with support from leadership, contributed to innovative designs for teaching and learning to build a sustainable global learning society. Our international networks, such as INU (International Network of Universities), SGroup, and InclusU, have been essential in developing CBL from multiple perspectives, and in our European Alliance UNIC, CBL is prioritised.

Today, Malmö University offers courses applying CBL at different levels, both on campus and online. At the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Master’s level course ”Perspectives on and Approaches to Challenge Based Learning” is repeatedly offered to university teachers, both in Swedish and in English. In these courses, it is deeply appreciated that we practice CBL across all activities, emphasizing the learning benefits through collaboration and co-creation.

We are now very grateful to be able to present to you an interesting diversity of contributions that emanate both from the international workshop on CBL, hosted by Malmö University in 2023, and collected project ideas from our CBL course. The five articles cover both institutional and course perspectives, as well as promotion of individual development through CBL.

It is encouraging to note that in some of these papers, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are connected to the discourse of CBL in higher education and to societal change. Promising is also the elaboration on how we, through CBL, engage not only cognitive goals in education but also the affective goals addressed by the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) as a means for making it possible to reach the SDGs.

In the first paper by Heimgartner & Weckop, “From Research-Based to Challenge-Based Learning: Enhancing Competence Development at Ruhr University Bochum”, we gain a clear insight into how an institutional strategic project, together with stakeholder workshops, supports professional development and acceptance of an integrated CBL framework. Through a new assessment tool, students’ competence gains from CBL showed significant improvements in practical knowledge application, teamwork, and problem-solving. Another promising piece of evidence is that CBL enhances student engagement and employability by bridging academic learning with real-world challenges.

In the following article, “Course Introduction to a Challenge-Based Curriculum using Challenge-Based Learning (CBL),” Gummesson & Lundegren demonstrate the relevance of introducing dental students already at study start to CBL through a series of learning challenges. This introduction shows how CBL is well-suited to address diversity and inclusion from a student perspective, and that, through collaboration, co-creation, and contextual challenges, CBL promotes socialisation and learning together, thereby fostering acceptance of CBL.

“Developing Collaborative Skills in Teacher Education through Challenge-Based Learning” by Prelevic proposes that CBL can provide teacher educators with the opportunity to collaborate with students in innovative, creative, and dynamic ways. CBL can be the means of setting a collaborative, inclusive environment in both schools and universities, where teachers’ and students’ own experiences and knowledge strengthen diversity of perspectives and strategies to reach the SDGs. Students will be engaged in meaningful learning, while learning practices and revised forms of assessment will also be understood as learning opportunities for all.

In the fourth article, “Exploring New Pathways for Teaching Friluftsliv and Promoting Inner Development Goals through Challenge Based Learning,” Vikman reflects on how CBL as a transdisciplinary framework can be applied to connect outdoor education with the SDGs and the IDGs. CBL in outdoor settings will require students to collaborate, reflect, and co-create solutions. Friluftsliv is proposed as the experiential foundation through which CBL can promote both students’ personal development and collective well-being, preparing them to thrive in a complex and rapidly changing world.

The last contribution by Ulceluşe, “Contextual Migration and Inequality: A Case for Challenge-Based Learning in Higher Education,” proposes integrating CBL into an existing second-year bachelor’s course at Malmö University, to enhance students’ deeper engagement in real-world problems together with local stakeholders. CBL is argued not only to enhance disciplinary understanding but also to cultivate civic awareness and critical agency. The article’s closure resonates perfectly with Malmö University’s approach to CBL, as it supports the “broader mission of higher education to empower students as autonomous thinkers and active contributors to democratic society, the society shapers of tomorrow.”

These innovative contributions to approaches to CBL in HE clearly demonstrate the need for diversity and, at the same time, serve as examples of a commitment to societal transformation through sustainable global learning.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who critically, creatively, and consistently contributes to improving and aligning teaching, learning, and research in higher education to build a global, sustainable learning society.

Cecilia Christersson and Patricia Staaf

References

Christersson, E. C., Melin, M., Widén, P., Ekelund, N., Christensen, J., Lundegren, N., & Staaf, P. (2022). Challenge-Based Learning in Higher Education. International Journal of Innovative Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 3(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITLHE.30665

Leijon, M., Gudmundsson, P., Staaf, P. & Christersson, C. 2021. ‘Challenge Based Learning in Higher Education– A Systematic Literature Review’. Innovations in Education and Teaching International 59 (5): 609–18. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2021.1892503.

Nichols, M. & Cator, K. 2008. ‘Challenge Based Learning White Paper’. Cupertino, California: Apple, Inc