Dealing with real problems, cases, specific situations, and developing projects to understand theory and economic models. That's the Problem Based Learning or Project Based Learning (PBL), new pedagogical model that FGV's São Paulo School of Economics (EESP) started using in the undergraduate classes this semester.PBL is a method that promotes constructive learning for students, based on the knowledge that they already have, through cooperative and collaborative discussion among them and in group studies, explains the coordinator of EESP's undergraduate course, Mayra Ivanoff Lora, highlighting that the model requires the participation of students in the learning process.  PBL develops the skill of 'learning how to learn' in students, in addition to encouraging others, such as leadership, communication, time management and negotiation, she exemplifies.Another advantage of the method ? which emerged in Medicine schools and was improved by the universities of Maastricht (Netherlands) and Aalborg (Denmark), where it is fully adopted ?  is to enable students to be constantly updated on the subjects they learn. The PBL encourages students to maintain the content updated, minimizing the little effective study which is done just the day before the exams, says the professor.Mayra further adds that the PBL was adapted to teach Economics. Adaptation is carried out for any course or even discipline, but it is a method that has the flexibility to do it. In our case, students learn how to identify problems and to translate them into questions to then be able to solve them with models and theories provided by the Economic Science, she explains.The students who enrolled for 2013 already begin with a new curriculum, reformatted for the PBL. The students who entered São Paulo School of Economics before this change continue with the traditional method. The only 'intersection' between the two curriculums occurred for the 2012 freshmen class who took three pilot-disciplines in PBL, despite being part of a traditional curriculum, recalls Mayra.Click here and learn more about the adoption of PBL at EESP. (In Portuguese)