Flexible Facilitation in PBL – Expanding the Facilitator Role Across Modules, Classrooms, Digital Spaces and Physical Learning Environments

Abstract. This paper argues for an expanded understanding of facilitation in Problem-Based Learning (PBL), moving beyond its traditional anchoring in the project-supervisor relationship. Drawing on a literature-driven conceptual methodology (Jaakkola, 2020), the paper revisits classical PBL theories outlining how facilitation in PBL historically has been enacted primarily through close dialogic supervision of project groups. The paper identifies a persistent misalignment between the ideals of PBL and the broader educational practices students encounter in courses, classrooms, digital platforms, and physical learning spaces. By reframing facilitation as a multi-contextual pedagogical principle rather than a supervision-bound practice, we argue that facilitation must be intentionally orchestrated across preparation, enactment, and consolidation phases of teaching to ensure coherence and development of key PBL competences. The paper positions course teaching, classroom activities, hybrid formats, digital infrastructures, and spatial design as legitimate and necessary sites of facilitation that complement and strengthen project work. Through this theoretical reorientation, we propose an expanded facilitation ecology that supports learner agency, variation, interdisciplinary capability profiles, and adaptive inquiry. The paper concludes by outlining key areas requiring further conceptual and practical development and proposes directions for a future framework capable of guiding flexible facilitation across diverse educational contexts.