Assessing the effect of IB curriculum and local curriculum on primary students’ knowledge of Self-Directed Learning Dr Penny Van Deur [email protected].

Assessing the effect of IB curriculum

and local curriculum on primary students’ knowledge of Self-Directed

Learning

Dr Penny Van Deur

[email protected]

Flinders University Adelaide-Australia

School curriculum and inquiry• School curriculum, a set of planned learning experiences

( Marsh, 2004; Braggett, 1997),is the foundation of instruction and assessment that takes into account valued learner qualities (Fogarty, 1997).

• Curriculum documents need to provide the basis for teachers to plan development of inquiry through classroom activities.

• Curriculum could provide guidance for teachers to plan, implement and monitor the development of inquiry in classrooms (Marsh, 2004).

Self-Directed learning and Curriculum

• A database search showed little to no attention has been given to discussions of assessing the processes of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) in relation to curriculum in Australian schools.

• Constructivist-based local curriculum framework has been implemented in South Australian primary schools

• An increasing number of government and independent schools are adopting the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme

• IB is based on constructivist views of learning and has an inquiry approach to much of the curriculum.

• An inquiry approach is important for the development of SDL since it provides motivation to carry it out.

IB and Local curriculum

The IBs Primary Years Programme (PYP) has an explicit focus on inquiry

-IBs PYP explicitly supports development of inquiry and students’ knowledge of SDL

Local curriculum framework has an implicit focus on inquiry.

-Local curriculum framework may be providing less support for teachers to develop inquiry and students’ knowledge of SDL.

IB literature outlines the benefits of IB approach- this claim needs research support

IB-PYP- structured inquiry (Hill, 2006)

• ‘Programme of Inquiry’ run as part of the ‘Primary Years Programme’ (PYP).

• PYP uses a student profile as a reference to help teachers and students to establish goals, plan units of inquiry and assess performance.

• PYP Profile -students are inquirers who will be able to conduct purposeful, constructive research, be risk takers able to explore new roles, ideas and strategies, and be reflective as they consider their own learning by analysing their personal strengths and weaknesses in a constructive manner. (IBO, official literature, 2000)

Programme of Inquiry- an explicit focus on inquiry

• The ‘Programme of Inquiry’ (50% of the school program) stresses that students should develop skills for research and self-management, attitudes of confidence and independence, and be able to carry out reflection.

• Teachers and students in this program try to answer three questions:

• What do we want to learn? • How will we learn it? • How will we know when we have learned it? (IBO official literature, 2000).

• Teachers and students in PYP schools which run the ‘Programme of Inquiry’ are in an educational context in which inquiry is a fundamental part of the school curriculum.

Self-Directed Learning is a learning process

• Through SDL teachers help students “learn how to set goals, identify resources, develop learning activities, make decisions and evaluate ideas and create and share products.” (Treffinger,1993, p. 438)

• In order to carry out SDL, students need to be aware of what they do and do not understand, be able to set learning goals, identify what they need to learn more about, plan and select strategies and be able to monitor whether or not goals have been met (Hmelo-Silver, 2004).

SDL as an inter-relationship between the

roles of ‘self’ and ‘other’ variables. • ‘Self’ variables - attitudes and dispositions which influence the way

students approach tasks, their initiative, effort, and persistence when difficulties arise.

• Individual motivation exerts an influence through the processes of self-efficacy and causal attributions, which act to encourage students to make an effort to carry out SDL strategies, find resources, and persist when running into difficulties.

• Meta-cognitive strategies of planning, checking and reflecting are used as an inquiry is being carried out.

• Knowledge of SDL is one of the ‘self’ characteristics, and is built up as students engage in SDL and incorporate this knowledge into their self-regulated learning strategies.

• The ‘other,’ or external influences comprise the school context’s role in supporting inquiry requiring SDL which gives students the opportunity to take responsibility for their learning.

Objectives of the study

• Hypothesis: that knowledge of SDL is related to school curriculum

• Objectives• 1.to identify the effectiveness of teaching and assessing

knowledge of SDL in schools with the local curriculum and schools with IB-PYP.

• 2.to investigate whether there were differences in primary students’ knowledge of SDL related to curriculum

Method• Participants 6 schools were selected to participate in the teaching intervention

and assessments (three with local curriculum and three with the IB-PYP curriculum)

• Three pairs: local curriculum (77 students in 3 schools) and IB curriculum (73 students in 3 schools) matched on the basis of having the same or nearby postcodes and similar school enrolment numbers.

• In this two-stage stratified sampling, a student’s chance of being selected depends on whether or not the school attended was selected in the first instance.

• 150 students (mean age 10 years 6 months) in Year 5

• Students were taught as a whole group in intact classrooms that represented their regular learning environment.

• The four assessments were analysed according to curriculum groups.

Instrumentation• Learning At School Questionnaire• The Learning At School Questionnaire (LASQ)

developed to assess primary students’ knowledge of SDL.

• LASQ has 46 items grouped in sub-scales of:• Motivation -statements about attitudes to SDL that

contribute to dispositional orientation which influences behaviour & statements about self-efficacy, causal attributions, and persistence.

• Strategy -statements about learning strategies that can be employed in SDL

• Context -statements about support available in the school environment for SDL.

Learning At School Questionnaire(LASQ)

• Students completed the LASQ assessment on four occasions over six months (pre-test, immediate post-test following four lessons on SDL, delayed post-test at three months and delayed post-test at six months).

• • Students responded to 46 statements in LASQ by circling one of

three response categories (Disagree scored 0, Unsure scored 1, Agree scored 2).

• This scoring is consistent with the Rasch model of ordered categories where three categories are used to gain an indication of the respondent’s ideal point (Andrich & Luo, 2003).

• High scores in any of the three sub-scales are interpreted to mean a high level of knowledge, while low scores mean a low level of knowledge.

• The scores were analysed by curriculum groups.

Primary School Characteristics Inventory

• Three subscales (50 items)• Motivation for student inquiry (31 items- assuming that students

have some responsibility for learning, & that teachers are encouraging or scaffolding them to assume appropriate levels of responsibility for their learning

• eg No 19.‘The interests of students are evident in the work displayed’)

• Organisational structures that support inquiry (8 items- assume that school administration has responsibility for external aspects that influence opportunities for inquiry learning in the school

• eg. No 2.’The management structures have been designed to involve all staff in decision making’ )

• Structures supporting inquiry strategies in school (11 items-assume students can use strategies to summarise, reflect & evaluate their learning at school

• eg. No 21. ‘Students are encouraged to give their opinion about topics.’)

Instrumentation• ‘Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices’ (Raven, 1956)

• Assessed students’ reasoning ability• Raw scores computed and standard scores calculated according to

the Australian manual (Raven, Court & Raven, 2000). • Mean scores were calculated using SPSS (2001, Version 11.0 for

Windows), for students grouped by curriculum ( IB & not IB).

• ‘Teacher’s Rating of Student Self-Directed Learning’ • 6 class teachers rated all 150 students as self-directed learners at

school by responding with a rating to the statement:• “(child’s name) is a self-directed learner at school”.- Likert scale with a low rating of ‘1 ‘(never), a medium rating of ‘3’

(sometimes) and a high rating of ‘5’ (always).

• The teachers’ ratings were completed once, before the lessons, and were analysed by curriculum groups.

Procedure•  Primary School Characteristics Inventory• School staff in each of the six schools completed the PSCI by responding to 50

statements. High scores = high school support for inquiry; low scores = low school support for inquiry. Schools were grouped according to Primary School Characteristics Inventory scores as ‘Low,’ ‘Moderate’ and ‘High’ in support for inquiry.

•  • Learning At School Questionnaire (LASQ)• Students completed the LASQ assessment on 4 times over six months (pre-test,

immediate post-test following four lessons on SDL, delayed post-test at three months and delayed post-test at six months). High scores in any of the three sub-scales are interpreted to mean a high level of knowledge, while low scores mean a low level of knowledge. The scores were analysed by school curriculum categories.

•  •  The teaching intervention• Intact classes of Year 5 students in six schools were taught about SDL in four one-

hour lessons in which active learning was encouraged. The students carried out activities and discussions in pairs, small groups and as class groups. Data on the students’ knowledge of SDL and its development were collected on four LASQ assessments and analysed in relation to school curriculum category. This was done so that conclusions could be drawn about the relationship of this school factor to knowledge of SDL.

Data analyses

• Each sub-scale of the LASQ was Rasch scaled (Sheridan, Andrich &

Luo, 1997) in order to convert the raw scores to an interval scale on which the scores could be compared.

• Descriptive analysis was carried out followed by Partial Least Squares (PLS) path analysis, that was employed to identify the strength of any influence of curriculum on knowledge of SDL.

Partial Least Squares path analysis, with latent variables, is a simple, powerful and flexible tool, for modeling relationships in complex social systems, such as schools.

• LASQ subscales: Motivation, Strategy and Context

ResultsDescriptive analysis

Primary School Characteristics Inventory

• A total score was calculated for the teachers’ ratings for each of the six schools and each was assigned to a category of High (87% agreement), Moderate (71-86% agreement) or Low inquiry (70% agreement or less).

• Schools with the IB-PYP curriculum, support for inquiry -1(High), 2 (Moderate )

• Schools with local curriculum -2 (Moderate ), 1(Low ).

•  

Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices

• When schools were compared the students were of similar reasoning ability.

•  The mean reasoning scores on ‘Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices’ for school curriculum -Not IB, 106.08 ; IB, 107.83.

• An SPSS analysis showed that class teachers in Not IB schools rated students at a mean score of 3.32 and teachers in IB schools rated students at a mean score of 3.48. This indicated that teachers perceived students in the IB schools to be slightly more self-directed than those in Not IB schools.

•  

Results

• MANOVA identified that there were no significant differences between Not IB and IB schools on each LASQ sub-scale or over the four testings but scores for Motivation, Strategies and Context were higher in IB schools.

Due to the inconclusive results of descriptive analysis further exploration of the relationship of curriculum to knowledge of SDL was carried out using Partial Least Squares (PLS) path analysis.

PLS path analysis tests the proposition that knowledge of SDL is related to school curriculum, and teachers’ views of students as self-directed learners at school.

•  

Partial Least Squares path analysisPLS-Partial Least Squares (PLS) path analysis, that was employed to

identify the strength of any influence of curriculum on knowledge of SDL.

PLS path analysis, with latent variables, is a simple, powerful and flexible tool, for modeling relationships in complex social systems, such as schools.

LASQ subscales: Motivation, Strategy and Context

In the analysis the criterion variable was students’ Knowledge of SDL comprised of three sub-scales of Motivation, Strategy and Context. The antecedent variables were Gender and Reasoning while Engagement, School Context (comprised of school support for inquiry and curriculum) and Teacher operated as mediating variables.

PLS path model• The final path model shows the strength of student and school

influences on knowledge of SDL. • Predictive relationships are shown in the model by single headed

arrows. • Latent variables 3, 5 and 6 are endogenous variables that were

influenced by one or more other variables in the model.

• The latent variables of School Context, Gender and Reasoning were exogenous variables that functioned as antecedent variables and not as effects. They have values that may be influenced by variables that are not shown in the model (Vogt, 1999).

• The lines from latent variables (Gender, Reasoning, Teacher, School Context, Engagement) indicate significant paths with the standardised coefficients shown.

• The path coefficient is considered to be significant when it is more than twice its jack-knife standard error as it can be said to be replicable or repeatable.

6Knowledge of

SDL

3School Context

5Engagement

4Teacher

1Gender

2Reasoning

Boy or Girl

Class teacher’s rating of each

student as a self-directed learner

Raven’s Matrices raw score

Total frequency of lesson work-sheet

responses

Curriculum School inquiry (PSCI raw scores)

Motivation

Strategy

Context1.0

1.0

1.0

1.0

0.87 0.96

0.86

0.87

0.80

0.93

0.77

0.92

0.12

0.10

0.18

-0.18

0.17

0.16

0.18

0.320.40

0.22

0.130.299

1 R2= 0.127, Q2=0.1092 R2=0.415, Q2=0.4023 R2=0.159, Q2=0.148

 PLSPATH model of knowledge of SDL for all times 

PLS path model of knowledge of SDL for all times

• The final PLS path model shows significant paths from:• -School Context (0.10) to Knowledge of SDL• -School Context (0.29) to Engagement• -School Context (0.13) to Teacher -Teacher (0.22) to Engagement -Engagement (0.12) to Knowledge of SDLThe combined effects of variables in this model explained only 13 % (R2 =.127)

of the variation in the outcome between school and student influences. Although the amount of variance explained is small, 13 per cent is not trivial and still provides an indication of the factors influencing Knowledge of SDL.

The stability of the outcome measure reflected by the difference between R2 and Q2 (0.018) indicates that since R2 is 0.127, the model has satisfactory predictive relevance

Results –PLS path analysis

• There were significant influences on students’ knowledge of SDL exerted by school factors of school support for inquiry, curriculum focus on inquiry and teachers’ ratings of students as self-directed learners.

• --An explicit focus on inquiry in the curriculum (IB) promoted knowledge of SDL

• --An implicit focus on inquiry in the curriculum (Not IB-local curriculum) did not promote knowledge of SDL

• This result is important because it shows that there are influences on students’ knowledge of SDL following a teaching intervention related to curriculum.

Discussion • School Context, comprised of Curriculum and School Inquiry, had a

significant influence on knowledge of SDL indicating that an explicit focus on inquiry in the curriculum (IB) promoted knowledge of SDL.

• The result suggests that teachers in schools with an explicit curriculum focus on inquiry, such as IB schools with the PYP, are likely to have greater school support for involving students in inquiry and increasing knowledge of SDL.

• If SDL behaviour is selected based on knowledge of SDL, then schools with an explicit curriculum emphasis on inquiry, such as the IBs PYP, are likely to provide more support for students to become self-directing than nearby schools with the local curriculum.

• Further research…• Additional research is needed on assessment and teaching of SDL

with a large sample of matched schools where one school has the IB-PYP curriculum and the other has the local curriculum.

References • Andrich, D. & Luo, G. (2003). Measuring attitudes by unfolding a likert-style

questionnaire. In J.P. Keeves (Ed.), International handbook of educational research in the Asia-Pacific region (Vol.2). (pp. 409-424). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publisher.

• Braggett, E. (1997). Differentiated programs for primary schools. Melbourne, Victoria: Hawker Brownlow Education.

•  • Fogarty, R. (1997). Problem-based learning and other curriculum models for the

multiple intelligences classroom. Melbourne: Hawker Brownlow Education.

• Hmelo-Silver. C.E. (2004). Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review. 16(3), 235-266.

• Hill, I. (2006). Do International Baccalaureate programs internationalise or globalise? International Education Journal. 7(1), 98-108.

•  International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). (2000). Diploma Programme, Middle Years Programme, Primary Years Programme. Geneva, Switzerland: IBO.

• Marsh, C. (2004). Becoming a teacher. (3rd.ed.) Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.

References• Noonan, R.D. & Wold, H (1988) Partial Least Squares Path Analysis. In J. P. Keeves

(Ed.), Educational Encyclopedia. (pp.710-716). Oxford: Pergamon.

• Raven, J. (1956). Standard progressive matrices. New York: Psychological Corporation.

• Raven, J., Raven, J. C. & Court, J.H. (2000). Section 3: Standard Progressive Matrices. Oxford, England: Information Press Ltd.

• Sheridan, B., Andrich, D. & Luo, G. & (1996). RUMM. Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Models. Perth: Murdoch University.

• SPSS (2001). SPSS for Windows, Version 11.0. Chicago, Illinois: SPSS Inc.

• Treffinger, D. J. (1993). Fostering effective independent learning through individualized programming. In J. S. Weaver-Hightower, M. (2003). The ‘boyturn’ in research on gender and education. Review of Educational Research, 73, 471-498.

• Vogt, W. P. (1999). Dictionary of statistics and methodology: A non-technical guide for the social sciences. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.