Developing higher-order thinking through blended problem-based learning

Mr TONG, Edmond Tak FaiSchool of Nursing,

Dr Paula HodgsonEducation Development Centre,

Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Blended learning

face-to-face mode

online mode

Background

• Year 3 students of a four-year Bachelor of Science (Nursing) programme

• Class of 124 students• Five groups were randomly formed• 3 cases were reconstructed from real

cases and each case was split into 3 parts.

• Case analysis: Face-to-face tutorials & online tasks (5%):– Based on each case, students posted

topics, issues and hypotheses, peer group members were to post subsequent threaded discussions.

Blended PBL

Bloom’s taxonomy

Categories in the cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)

Source: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+and+ICT+tools

4 categories of learning challenge

Remember

Understand

Apply / Analyze

Evaluate / Create

Results and findings

• Group participation (5 groups)

• Referencing sources (websites, books, and journals)

• Distribution of the four categories modified from Bloom’s taxonomy in online forum discussion

Group participationN=124

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5

Remember

Understand

Apply/Analyse

Evaluate/ Create

Most active

Least active

Online case discussion Discussion topics created by students of Sophie’s case• Sophie may suffer from left tympanic bone facture (8 postings)• The fluid in her left eye (2 postings)• The initial management of head injury (17 postings)• Brain death of Sophie (13 postings)• The organ donation card (3 postings)• Consequences of CSF leakage & Temporal bone fracture (1 posting)• Assessing her level of consciousness in hospital (2 postings)• Patient and Family Psychological Support (3 postings)• Alcoholic Effects on the Brain (6 postings)• Mechanical Ventilation (1 posting)• Management on ventricular cartherter (6 postings)• Craniectomy (3 postings)• More information about Craniectomy (5 postings)• Management of Increased ICP in Part 2 (28 postings)• Shivering ??? (13 postings)• The cause of vertigo (7 postings)• Purpose for using steroid and side effects related to appearance (6 postings)• …

Supporting discussion with references

Referencing sources

Use of referencing material

0

50

100

150

200

250

S1 S2 S3

Scenario

Website

Book

Journal

Distribution of the four categories identified from student postings in 3 cases

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Remember* Understand Apply/Analyse* Evaluate/ Create

S1

S2

S3

Significantly different between cases

• “Remember” were significantly different between cases, c2 (2, N = 559) = 28.0, p < .001

• Similar findings were seen in the postings categorized as “Analyse/Apply” with c2 (2, N = 559) = 8.66, p < .013

Mapping top / low 10% students in examination with uses of referencing materials in online forum

Use of referencing material among the top & low 10% performers

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Journal Book Website

LOW

HIGH

Distribution of the 4 categories of top / low 10% students examination with student participation in online forum

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Remember Understand Apply/Analyse Evaluate/ Create

Low

High

Conclusion

• Nurturing supportive and open learning environment is essential

• Students were engaged in graded tasks• Increased percentage of postings for three cases:

S1 (31 percent)S2 (32 percent) S3 (37 percent)

• Improved quality of discussion gradually emerges An increase in the number of postings in

‘apply and analyse’ in S2 and S3 A decrease in the number of postings in ‘remember’ in S2 and S3

• Continuing support from facilitator