A Refreshed Pedagogical Agenda for PSMs

Problem Structuring Methods (PSM) offer an approach to systemically handle complex social situations. Within a learning context this invites the question of how PSMs can be used. Two situations are presented. The first relates to the explicit embedding of PSMs into a postgraduate Business Analytics course, whereby student are given an appreciation of how PSMs can contextualise any analysis. The second relates to the tacit use of a PMS to guide the design of a postgraduate Research Methods course, focusing attention upon the difficult challenge of how to establish a research question as well as how to close off the research. Both applications highlight the important contribution they make in dealing with messy situations. This calls for more attention to PSMs, their embedding into university courses and the development of student capabilities for dealing with real world complex organisational situations.