How can a teacher change this tired scene? One way may be to include a problem-based service learning element in his/her teaching plan.

What is PBSL?
Problem-based service learning (PBSL) is a pedagogy that encourages students to use their academic learning to address a community situation or problem. While some service learning models are predominantly service and thus closer to volunteer work, PBSL focuses closely on academic goals

Why try PBSL techniques?
Research demonstrates that "what is learned depends on how it is learned. Separating content from context simply doesn't result in successful learning... " (Gordon, 2000, p. 4). The learning process of humans requires that we assimilate new information by organizing into patterns and connecting it to our prior experiences and knowledge. What we see and understand is influenced by our emotions and by our reflection on that experience. Thus, while some learning can take place through the accumulation of data, the stronger piece of learning occurs when a learner constructs knowledge in a meaningful context.

How does PBSL work?
Problem-based service learning is a form of experiential learning, but it is requires some structure and some planning on the teacher's part. It is usually not successful to put the students into an experience and hope that they will learn what the teacher wants them to. Sometimes this works, but the results are not reliable.

Instead, PBSL is organized around eight facets:

1. Project design
The teacher asks him/herself "What is it I want the students to know or to be able to do when they finish my course?" In this way, the teacher focuses on the specific outcome(s) he/she wants the students to attain. He/she narrows the scope of the project to ensure completion and considers the different ways in which students could achieve the outcome.

2. Client relations
The teacher searches for a community partner who could provide a real life situation or problem to which students could apply academic knowledge. When students move from the classroom to the community, they engage in workplace standards and values. They begin to see that their abilities have real use for others and that their education can actually make a difference.

3. Community building
The teacher using PBSL strategies also creates a classroom community in which learners feel comfortable. This community allows a student to learn about his/her limits and to find ways to transcend those.

4. Capacity building
Students in PBSL work also must build the capacity to tackle tasks that are multi-dimensional. A teacher in a PBSL course learns to assess student capacity early in the work and to find ways to build strengths that the student does not have.

5. Problem statement
The PBSL work encourages students to apply their abilities to a specific problem or situation. Thus a teacher using PBSL will pay close attention to the scope of the problem. Working with the client, the teacher crafts the problem statement so that problem is neither too large nor too small.

6. Project management
Project management is part of all PBSL work. The teacher's role shifts from being solely the "sage on the stage" to include being an observer, a coach, a liaison between students and client, and a manager who checks to see if the desired learning results are being achieved.

7. Assessment
Academic settings require assessment of student learning, but PBSL teachers learn to provide a range of assessment techniques. A multiple choice test or an essay question can hardly capture the range of what students in PBSL will learn.

8. Reflection and transfer
In the final stage, the teacher asks students to reflect on their work and to assess what they learned and what they need to learn next. It is in the stage that students often understand the richness of their learning and begin to connect it to what they've learned before. In this way, the academic content becomes thoroughly integrated and thus useful to the student.

Gordon, Rick. (Ed.). (2000). Problem Based Service Learning: A Field Guide for Making a Difference in Higher Education, 2nd ed. Keene, NH: Antioch New England Graduate School, Education by Design.