Effectiveness of Term Projects in Helping Students to Connect Theory with Practice: an Evaluation of Students′ Perspectives.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of term project in helping students to connect theory with practice. A term project is a hands-on assignment that require students to apply ideas, theories, concepts, or principles learned or studied in class to a new situation/real life scenario. Term projects in ENVS 4413 Principles of eco-industrial development are designed to help students connect theory with practice. The aim is to enhance students' learning of the course materials and to give them experiential knowledge of how the course materials are applied in the workplace. Students' survey and students' reflective journals are among the data gathering methods used. They were incorporated components of the ENVS 4413 course. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in analyzing how term project help students to connect theory with practice. The survey data was statistically analyzed to provide quantitative evidence on whether term project helps students to connect theory with practice or not. Reflective journal provided observational data for an explanation of survey findings. Data analysis showed that students found the term project helpful in connecting theory with practice. They found industrial visit to partnering companies to be the most helpful aspect of the term project. Data collection and conceptual model development were the least interesting aspect to them. It can be concluded from students' perspectives that term project is helping students to connect theory with practice. This assures the compliance of the Bachelor of Applied Environmental Science (BAES) degree program with the original program design and facilitates the success of MRU's BAES degree students.

A Self-Directed in Learning among Undergraduate Nursing Students’ in School of Nursing and Midwifery, TUMS, Tehran, Iran

“…The present study revealed that the majority of undergraduate nursing students (90.52%) have high level of SDLR(score ≥150).This agree with ,Safavi et al(2010) who stated that majority of Jordanian and Iranian nursing students had high level of SDLR and perceived themselves as independent learner (14).In addition, the majority of students through SDL was a teaching method used alongside other methods, rather than a representation of beliefs about the adult self-learning (15). However, these results contradicted with the study of Lestari and Widjaja kusumah (2009) in Indonesia who indicates that 50% of the students had low to moderates scores for SDLR (16,17,18).These scores are slightly higher than those reported from previous studies in other countries. The mean reason may be: this study indicated that understanding the different components of SDL which are carried out by undergraduate nursing students are very important as study finding students can be adjust their SDL to direct the needs of the students, due to the undergraduate nursing students' state to look at Self-control in self-directed learning during their learning process.…”

An Assessment of Students' Learning from Term Projects

“…Each group then presents their findings to the class at the end of the three weeks period. The term project component of ENVS 4413 course itself consisted of five activity-based reflective journals, an industrial visit, group discussions, final report writing, and a group presentation [3].…”

“…Moreover, term projects have explicit goals and it is teacher facilitated but not directed. They are designed to make a connection between activities and the underlying conceptual knowledge that one intend to foster [2][3][4][5]. Employment of term project instrument in environmental education became necessary in view of some changes in post secondary education policy in Alberta some years ago.…”

“…The applied degree program was designed to provide a good balance of theory, applied coursework, arts and science courses, and hands-on experience. The principles of eco-industrial development course (EID) is a fourth year capstone applied coursework designed to facilitate students ability to not only be able to connect theories learned in the course but in other courses taken by students in the program with their real world applications [3].…”