Integrating Learning Objectives Research Articles

How to Support Parent-Educators Homeschooling by Open Projects? A Case Study of Two Families Developing Strategic Knowledge

The COVID-19 pandemic allowed several parents to immerse themselves into homeschooling. In the province of Quebec (Canada), homeschooling is on the rise, increasing from 6,000 children in 2019 to 14,000 in 2021. While integrating learning objectives prescribed by current educational curriculum, parents who act as educators also wish to prioritize pedagogical strategies that are congruent with their preferences and values, such as undertaking open projects involving the whole family. However, these parents face challenges in linking learning goals with their projects. As a result, they require support with project design, among other things, through effective planning, autoregulation, and evaluation mechanisms. Therefore, a study involved six novice families who started homeschooling because of the pandemic impact on the provincial school system. Interviews were conducted with the parent-educators before and after providing them with pedagogical support over a 12-week period, during which a metacognitive guide served as a modelling tool. Our findings reveal that continued support is crucial, particularly for two mother-educators who developed strategic knowledge that set them apart from the other participants. This exploratory study motivates further research on homeschooling, given the renewed interest in this form of education and the need to ensure quality education for all children.

Learning Objective and Assessment Linkage: Its Contribution to Meaningful Student Learning

Any instructional activity begins with introducing the lesson topic and learning objectives to the students. Learning objectives are the expected behavioral outcomes of the students at the end of a certain instructional process, and assessment is the process of gathering evidence or information about the students' learning to check whether or not the students achieved the stated learning objectives. Before beginning a certain instruction, the teacher has to communicate the learning objectives to the students for various reasons. But there are often gaps in integrating learning objectives with assessment at different education levels. To have meaningful student learning, assessment and learning objectives should be linked. Therefore, the objective of this review article is to clearly outline and discuss the link between learning objectives and assessment and its contribution to students' learning. This study is a review of different literatures in the area of teaching, learning, and assessment. The resources included in the review were identified by manual searches from online databases and library catalogues. From the review, it is concluded that writing clear and meaningful learning objectives is a necessary skill that teachers need to have in the academic environment and the proper linkage of learning objectives and assessment plays a significant role in the success of students' learning.

Science Integrating Learning Objectives: A Cooperative Learning Group Process

The integration of agricultural and science curricular content that capitalizes on natural and inherent connections represents a challenge for secondary agricultural educators. The purpose of this case study was to create information about the employment of Cooperative Learning Groups (CLG) to enhance the science integrating learning objectives utilized in secondary agriculture programs. The objectives of the study were to determine if CLGs were an effective means for increasing: a) the number of science integrating learning objectives utilized in agriculture courses; and b) the number of science integrating learning objectives that require higher levels of cognitive processing in agriculture courses. Overall, the findings revealed that the CLG process lead to an increase in the total number of science integrating learning objectives and an increase in the number of science integrating learning objectives that require higher levels of cognition. Matched-sample t tests revealed that the increases in the number of science integrating learning objectives and objectives that require higher levels of cognition were statistically significant. It is recommended that researchers investigate methods for improving the specification, revision, and implementation of science integrating learning objectives used to guide student learning experiences in secondary agricultural programs of study.

Helping medical students to acquire a deeper understanding of truth-telling

ProblemTruth-telling is an important component of respect for patients’ self-determination, but in the context of breaking bad news, it is also a distressing and difficult task.InterventionWe investigated the long-term influence of a simulated patient-based teaching intervention, integrating learning objectives in communication skills and ethics into students’ attitudes and concerns regarding truth-telling. We followed two cohorts of medical students from the preclinical third year to their clinical rotations (fifth year). Open-ended responses were analysed to explore medical students’ reported difficulties in breaking bad news.ContextThis intervention was implemented during the last preclinical year of a problem-based medical curriculum, in collaboration between the doctor–patient communication and ethics programs.OutcomeOver time, concerns such as empathy and truthfulness shifted from a personal to a relational focus. Whereas ‘truthfulness’ was a concern for the content of the message, ‘truth-telling’ included concerns on how information was communicated and how realistically it was received. Truth-telling required empathy, adaptation to the patient, and appropriate management of emotions, both for the patient's welfare and for a realistic understanding of the situation.Lessons learnedOur study confirms that an intervention confronting students with a realistic situation succeeds in making them more aware of the real issues of truth-telling. Medical students deepened their reflection over time, acquiring a deeper understanding of the relational dimension of values such as truth-telling, and honing their view of empathy.

Learning Objects and Geometric Representation for Teaching “Definition and Applications of Geometric Vector”

Often during the teaching of mathematics, students have difficulties to understand some abstract concepts. That's why it is necessary to show the student the concepts as clearly and definitely as possible. The proposal of this project is a teaching strategy. It is the use of Geometric Representation integrated Learning Objects for the internalization of concepts. The research process involves the design, development, and evaluation of Learning Objects and how it promotes understanding of the contents of the topic “Real Geometric Vectors and their application”. At the beginning of this article are the context and the latest research concerning to this project. Then an overview of the theoretical framework that supports this work is shown. Finally, the paper describes the methodology used in the project, results of data, expected contributions and conclusions.

Student-led development, delivery, and assessment of an integrated learning activity focusing on acute myocardial infarction

Background Our school adopted a new curriculum in 2009 that uses integrated, active learning sessions to help students apply concepts learned in didactic lectures. Selected fourth-year pharmacy students have the opportunity to assist in these sessions. Objective: To describe the results of a fourth-year student research project that included the design, delivery, and evaluation of a new active learning session for first-year students. Material and Methods: Using criteria provided by faculty, the student developed a patient case–based activity integrating learning objectives from three first-year courses that related to myocardial infarctions. The activity was delivered to 128 students and then evaluated using a pre/post-test design to examine change in knowledge and an attitudinal survey to evaluate student perception of learning. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The pretest was completed by 127 students (99.2% response); the post-test and survey were completed by 124 students (96.6% response). Post-test scores reflected up to a 41.5% improvement in correct responses on individual questions; a paired t-test indicated that the average score was statistically significantly higher after the activity than that on the pretest ( p < 0.01). Most students agreed that the activity contributed to their learning, was relevant to pharmacy practice, improved their confidence and ability to provide pharmaceutical care, and reinforced didactic lecture material. Conclusion: An integrated, active learning exercise developed and delivered by a fourth-year pharmacy student was successful for helping first-year students reinforce and integrate didactic content related to myocardial infarctions.

Learning objects in practice: The integration of reusable learning objects in primary education

AbstractThe study described in this paper investigated the use of The Le@rning Federation's learning objects by students in primary school education. The study focused on how students engaged with and responded to the learning objects and how the objects supported student learning. A collective case study design allowed the researchers to investigate how students from two different classrooms within the site school were using and responding to learning objects. Data in the form of classroom observations, student work and student focus group interviews were collected in order to learn about students' experiences and perspectives. The data revealed that in general the learning objects impacted positively on students. Students exhibited high levels of engagement and motivation in their learning, although expressed negativity towards some design aspects that restricted the intended learning outcomes. The study's major findings highlight the significant role of the teacher in scaffolding and integrating learning objects in order to best support student learning outcomes, reinforcing the notion of learning objects being only part of the whole learning experience.

Learning objects and the development of students' key competencies: A New Zealand school experience

&lt;span&gt;This paper outlines a study investigating the impact of the use of learning objects on the development of two key competencies from the revised New Zealand Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Education, 2007). It specifically focuses on the key competencies of 'thinking' and 'relating to others', and explores how teachers in an urban intermediate school (year 7 and 8) planned and integrated learning objects into a wider 'community' social studies topic, and the impact this integration had on student competency development. Outcomes from the study indicate that learning objects can, for some students, provide a motivating and engaging learning experience through which thinking capabilities and relationship skills can be enhanced, but that such development is dependent upon several factors including the design, content, and level of interactivity of the objects, how closely they align with learning goals, the careful selection of student groupings, and how access to the learning objects is organised and managed. The study also revealed some issues with the use of new digital data collection tools, particularly related to the accuracy of coding of visual information, and how to best translate this into text format for publication without 'diluting' its richness and meaning.&lt;/span&gt;

A Taxonomic Description of the Science Integrating Learning Objectives in Career and Technical Education Programs of Study

A Taxonomic Description of the Science Integrating Learning Objectives in Career and Technical Education Programs of Study

Understanding learner acceptance of learning objects: The roles of learning object characteristics and individual differences

AbstractMany organisations and institutions have integrated learning objects into their e‐learning systems to make the instructional resources more efficient. Like any other information systems, this trend has made user acceptance of learning objects an increasingly critical issue as a high level of learner satisfaction and acceptance reflects that the users are more willing to continue to use the technology. In this study, an extended version of technology acceptance model (TAM) with two external variables (learning object characteristics and individual differences) was developed to investigate the underlying factors and causal relationships in predicting learners' acceptance of learning objects. This study called for the respondents to progress through two phases of learning object participation: introduction and direct‐use experience to investigate the students' perceptions in terms of usefulness and ease of use while utilising learning objects. The findings show that both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are determinants of behavioural intention to use learning objects. Learning object characteristics influence both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of learning objects; individual differences appear to have no influence upon intention to use learning objects.