Problem-based learning and mainstream economics: post-Keynesian economics to the rescue?

Problem-based learning has real-life problems as a point of departure. Subsequently, theory and methodology need to be tailor-made to the problem under investigation. Students making problem-based economically oriented projects need to construct their own theoretical framework, often by combining different economic paradigms, linking to other social sciences and consulting previous, often interdisciplinary, research concerned with the problem at hand. These requirements constitute a challenge for mainstream economics, where theories are built on assumptions that are often very remote from real-life economics. Real-world economics, like Post-Keynesian economics, is far better suited to problem-based work, because they employ open-system analysis, which can be supplemented from other schools of thought and social sciences. Often problem-based learning-students deal with problems which require them to relate to previous studies of the problem at hand as well as mainstream and heterodox economic theory. This complexity makes students dependent on the advice and guidance of their supervisor, which needs to be open-minded, pluralistic and familiar with different economic paradigms.