The Future of Education

Higher institutions in Bahrain operate in a highly competitive education environment, they compete on the quality of education and the employability of its graduates. The institutions can differentiate itself from its competitors by meeting the demands of 21 Century job market, utilizing appropriate and innovative range of teaching, learning and assessment strategies. Within this context, there is a variety of experiential learning that can be brought into higher education to reinforce how real world works. Project-based learning (PBL) is a form of experiential learning designed with forms that facilitate the insights of learners towards application of discipline-specific knowledge, therefore most of International and national accreditation agencies included project-based learning as a criterion of quality of education. The researchers introduce a dynamic framework for effective PBL in aligned with the needs of students, faculty and Industry towards graduating competitive generation for the 21th-century job market. The framework represents a triangle active interrelationship between three parties: student, faculty and industry where the student is placed in the center of all relationships and interactions. Hence the student benefits from getting real-world experience that requires creativity, critical thinking, and application of learning and knowledge from multidiscipline to solve real problems which help him to be competitive in job market, in addition to it helps students state their career and their own preferences of work style. Faculty who apply PBL also enjoy the benefits of reaching the industry, where new learning and development opportunities for PBL or future research can arise for their academic careers as well. While the business accommodating PBL benefits from the fresh minds and discipline-specific knowledge of the student and faculty. The research investigates the challenges and opportunities of project-based learning from the point of stakeholders including students, faculty and the industry. Therefore quantitative and qualitative methods are applied through questionnaire surveys and interviews with learners, faculty, and representative of industries. The results clarify and confirm the opportunities for facilitating, margining and improve the practice of PBL among the stakeholders.

Keywords: Project-Based Learning, 21th Century Job Market, Framework.

References:
[1] Adams, Della Rae, (2018) "An Empirical Study on Teachers' and Students' Perception of Project-Based Learning" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 2764.
http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/27
[2] The Charter Institute for IT (2020). Guidelines on course accreditation Information for universities and colleges, pp1-45
[3] Zancul, E. S., Sousa-Zomer, T. T., & Cauchick-Miguel, P. A. (2017). Project-based learning approach: improvements of an undergraduate course in new product development. Production, 27(spe), pp1-14 e20162252.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0103-6513.225216