We advocate for problem-based learning (PBL) as a rhetorical pedagogy for business communication. Briefly put, classic PBL inverts the typical instructional sequence; rather than presenting concepts first and then asking students to apply them, PBL creates situations in which students must learn the concepts in order to solve a “problem” constructed for that purpose. Thus, students learn in an iterative process as they cycle through the three key questions: “What do we know?” “What do we need to know?” and “How will we learn it?” We advocate emphasizing three key elements inherent in classic PBL: rhetoricity, locality, and change.
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