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SAMPLEABSTRACT1:EDUCATIONALRESEARCH
AbstractNo.
ACase‐controlStudyEvaluatingtheEffectivenessofanExtendedInductionProgrammeina
Fully‐integratedPBLCurriculum
BRIDGES,S.M.*,McGRATHC.,DYSON,J.E.,LEUNG,W.K.,WEBSTER,B.(TheUniversityofHong
Kong)
OBJECTIVE: Programme‐level evaluations of student perceptions of the learning experiences in PBL curricula
have found that theearly yearsof the curriculum experience lower levels of satisfactionthan the final years.
This could be seen as a natural process of adjustment to university life in general and the demands
of PBL
curricula in particular. Additionally, generic student evaluations of university learning experiences can be
problematicforafully‐integratedPBLcurriculum.How,forexample,canstudentscommenton‘courses’when
learningis fully integrated? Clear goals and standards scalesmay also provide problematic data for beginning
students when problem scenarios
are deliberately ‘ill‐defined’. METHODS: University‐wide data on first‐year
studentevaluationsoflearningwasusedtoinformcurriculumdesignforone fully‐integratedPBLprogramme.
In particular, first‐year student evaluation data from the 2006‐07 academic year was used to review how the
transitionintouniversity life
andaPBL programme could be enhanced for first‐yearstudents. As a result, the
established1‐weekinductionwasfurtherdevelopedandextendedacrossthefirstyear.Thesystem‐generated
student evaluation was repeated at the end of the 2007‐08 academic year and results on items related to
attainment
ofuniversitygoalsitemswerecompared.RESULTS:Comparisonofthetwogroupsfoundsignificant
improvementsinfirst‐yearstudents’perceptionsthatthePBLprogrammewashelpingthemachieveuniversity‐
level educational outcomes. The greatest improvements, measured using Cohen’s d, were seen for items
relatedto‘interculturalunderstanding’ (d=.77);‘critical
self‐reflection’(d=.60);‘globalcitizenship’(d=.52);and
‘criticalintellectualinquiry’(d=.51).Additionally,itemsrelatedto‘greaterunderstandingofothers’(d=.36),and
‘collaboration’ (d=.33) also showed improvements. CONCLUSION: An extended induction in a fully‐integrated
problem‐based learning curriculum can assist first‐year students’ transition into
a PBL curriculum thereby
improvingprogramme‐levelevaluationsofthefirst‐yearexperience.