Developing the OBTL curriculum with blended learning to enhance student learning effectiveness in the undergraduate ECE program

Background: The project included continuous assessment, group presentation, self-learning, and individual assignment to assess students’ learning outcomes. A self-learning system was set up as e-learning for students to monitor their learning progress during the semester, including two online exercises and a checklist of learning outcomes. The presentation was assessed by selfevaluation, peer evaluation, and lecturer evaluation. Aims: The study aimed to develop an OBTL curriculum in early childhood education (ECE) to demonstrate exemplary cases of effective teaching and learning in the undergraduate ECE program. Method: An action research, dual-scaling analysis, and focus group interviews were conducted to reveal students’ learning effectiveness in the study. Seventy-eight Year 3 full-time BEd (ECE) pre-service students (75 females, three males) and 92 Year 1 full-time (all female) BEd (ECE) students were invited to participate in the study. The CLEI (College Learning Effectiveness Inventory) was used to measure student learning effectiveness during the study. Results: The results indicated that the more learning outcomes students achieved, the higher the scores in academic performance achieved. Conclusion: This implies that clear and well-stated learning outcomes can help students learn better. As regards learning effectiveness, students’ academic self-efficacy was significantly improved by the end of the two courses. Students showed higherorder cognitive ability to reflect on past experiences and make personal choices based on management of time, goal, and priority setting. Copyright © 2012 New Horizons in Education.