RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING
Resource based learning is an educational model designed to
incorporate many resources in the attempt to foster learning. The model
incorporates several aspects of blended learning Orey(2002) and is is based on
the principle that students will gravitate towards the resource that best
matches their learning style. Resource-based learning is not tied to
a single learning theory or to any specific pedagogy (Hill & Hannafin,
2001; Ling, 1997. This paper is a summary of a peer-reviewed article
entitled THE EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING. The
author of this article is a teacher in a small, mixed, rural secondary school.
She teaches home economics to a group of five boys and nine girls. Her problem
is trying to manage all the resources related to the teaching of her home
economics class. Specifically, she wants to teach her class how to use their
resources more effectively because she feels as though there might be
inadvertent omissions of learning goals from her syllabus. Another problem that
the teacher was undergoing were time constraint issues. She felt under pressure
to concentrate on examinations so she initially used a more traditional method
for delivering the material. The students were under pressure to basically
memorize information as opposed to investigation. The time factors usually
dictated that the teacher give student’s answers rather then allowing them time
to explore. She felt as though the students were becoming passive rather than
active recipients.
They also seem to lack independent thinking skills. The work
became timetable sensitive because of student’s mixed ability. Her desire was to
discover possible management actions that would create a learning environment,
which would encourage each pupil, regardless of ability, to develop more
confidence and competence in the acquisition and applications of knowledge. The
results of the teacher’s questions forced her to think more critically on the
amount and the validity of the resources available, which forced her to
consider the first step of a resource based learning unit. According to Campbell,
L., Flageolle, P., Griffith, S., & Wojcik, C. (2002), teachers must choose
the available resourses that will be used
and create an evaluation method during the initial steps of creating a
resource –based learning unit. Students now had a more focused set of
resources and an idea of how they would be accessed. The teacher went from a
32% success rate to a 78% success rate of students actively participating in an
acceptable manner. After analyzing her new results the teacher determined that
students could use a variety of resources but that they had trouble
interpreting graphs. The teacher was able to clarify students understanding of graphs
and the students proceeded with their inquiries. Ultimately the teacher
experienced more success using the resource based learning model for several
reasons. One, students appeared interested and therefore
enthusiasm is easier to sustain. Two, they were more interested in finding
their own answers rather than being 'spoon fed' and third, less emphasis was
needed on committing information to memory.
Reference
Mullan, A. (1995). The Effective
Implementation of Resource-Based Learning. British Educational Research
Journal, (3). 387.
Retrieved <2-10-2015>,from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=73a17a83-a068-42ae-9a7e-6879d565a8d9%40sessionmgr111&vid=6&hid=127&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.1501654
Campbell, L., Flageolle, P., Griffith,
S., & Wojcik, C. (2002). Resource-based learning. In M. Orey (Ed.),
Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved
<2-10-2015>, from http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/
Orey, M. (2002). Definition of blended
learning. [On-line]. Available: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~mikeorey/blendedLearning/
Hill, J. R., & Hannafin, M. J.
(2001). The resurgence of resource-based learning. Educational Technology,
Research and Development, 49(3), 37-52.
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