To produce competent students who can support the rapid changes occurring in natural resource management you need to get them to do more than listen: students must read, write, discuss, analyse, synthesise, evaluate, solve problems and work together. There is a growing need to include other strategies and skills development in classroom teaching. Both authors have attempted to use problem based learning (PBL) to strengthen and develop student competencies in the areas of information literacy, communication and solving "real-world" problems. Our teaching approach is to integrate knowledge acquisition and teaching strategies to actively engage students in the learning process. The authors present class activities and student and lecturer evaluations of PBL in two units: Land Evaluation and Land Degradation (Lobry de Bruyn), and Rural Extension Science (Prior).

The use of PBL has identified some generic learning issues in a natural resource management context and they include: • Students often feel uncomfortable in being presented with "messy" ill-defined problems which is characteristic of the “fuzzy” nature of the PBL environment. • The nature of the problem solving skills required – a range of problem solving skills or tools (eg. critical thinking, strategic planning) must also be taught (or developed) as part of PBL exercises. • The nature of the group/team skills required – most PBL exercises are conducted within student groups or teams. Thus students must develop team skills and perspectives in order to successfully undertake the PBL exercise.

To develop a successful PBL teaching framework requires frequent monitoring of student learning progress and perceptions, and a considerable degree of responsiveness on the part of the teacher. In conclusion PBL can provide effective strategies for strengthening and developing student competencies in a number of desired learning areas.