The Use of Learning

Contract to Develop a

Student-Centered

Learning, Reflection, and

Participation in an Italian

Academic Course.

The Italian academic context

The decrease in the number of degree programs does not allow to

develop a student centered learning and limits the possibility to participate

in individual learning activities due to the high number of enrolled students.

(National Council of Universities [CUN], 2013)

Nu

mb

er

of

Pro

gra

m D

eg

ree

The relation between number of instructors and number of students.

In Italy there is an average of 19 students per instructor against an average for the

OECD countries of 15.6 and an average for the European country of 15.9. Only

five nations have a worst ratio: Indonesia, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Belgium

and Slovenia.

The Italian academic context

Since 2011 we are engaged in trying to improve the situation giving our students

a more active role in their learning. With this mission we introduced in our

courses the Malcolm Knowles’ model of Learning Contract (LC).

This presentation reports our second attempt to introduce a methodology to allow

students’ independence and personalization in learning.

We are trying to understand:

• In which ways are LCs meaningful for students in the learning process?,

• How can LC facilitate students’ learning?,

• How we can use it in our context?

Our previous reports (Fedeli, Felisatti, & Giampaolo 2012; and Fedeli,

Giampaolo, & Coryell, 2013) describe the initial attempt we did in creating LCs

with Italian students.

The Learning Contract as

possible solution

The Learning Contract as

possible solution

Malcolm Knowles’ LC is an instrument (formatted as tables divided in columns) that

specifies the learning objectives, the learning resources and strategies to

accomplish these objectives, the target date for their accomplishment, the evidence

to accomplish the objectives, and the criteria to judge the evidence (Knowles, 1986).

Using a LC the “negotiation relationship between learners and instructors is

established” (Knowles, 1986. p.149).

“Learning Contracts are agreements negotiated between students and teaching

staff regarding the type and the amount of study to be undertaken and the type and

amount of assessment or credit resulting from this study” (Stephenson & Laycock,

1993, p. 17)

Participants

The research involved students enrolled in the second year of the

Master of Science Degree in Continuing Education at University of Padua.

The students attended the course called “Organizational Behavior” which lasted

42 hours, lasted four months from October 2012 to January 2013.

Students who created a LC were 17 out of 19 (14 F, 3 M), with an age range

between 23 and 48 years and an average of 35.5.

Procedure

Familiarization(introduction)

CreationPresentation

and assessment

Negotiation

(sharing)

Narration

(feedback)

Data collection and analysis1. The questionnaire with open and closed questions:

2. The on line discussion forum in which learners shared their opinions,

questions, and doubts about the use of LC.

• The number of answers to open questions (34 sentences) to analyze give a

clear idea of students’ opinion without necessity for the researchers to calculate

an inter rater reliability.

• The single sentence as unit of analysis (Stemler, 2001).

• Closed questions gave students the opportunity to answer on a four-point

ordinal scale where 1 = no agreement and 4 = strong agreement. We chose

to use a scale with 4 levels to divide “undecided” into favorable and contrary

(Lalla, 2001)

• Dedoose, a user friendly web based software developed for qualitative and mixed

method analysis.

• The single sentence as unit of analysis (Stemler, 2001).

• The value of the Pooled Cohen's Kappa coefficient, which shows the overall result

for the reliability tests that include more than one code

(de Vries, Elliott, Kanouse, & Teleki, 2008), was of .68.

Major themes identified

• Using LC to develop a student centered learning

Using LC to develop a student centered learning

Engagement in finding other resources to

develop and create their evidences

The use of LC in other different

contexts

Some example of students’ answer

“I have also found other resources on

internet like this one http://www.studiculturali...”

“I have also the possibilities to find an

Adult Education expert at the

University of Trieste”.

“Now, in my work, during the

preparation of each didactic module

I ask myself which are my

objectives? ?, which resources

I can use?, which criteria to validate

the evidences I will use?...”

Major themes identified

• Using LC to develop students’ reflection.

The Learning Contract offers the possibility to activate reflexive

strategies (Fedeli et al., 2013).

• Some example of students’ answer

“I realized that this methodology helps me to focalize the starting point and the result

that I want to achieve through a continuous learning process”.

“I’m discovering my emotional cycle of learning, I have the motivation and tension

toward something that I want to analyze”

“Creating my Learning Contract I had the possibility to understand again what I’m

learning in practice and reflecting on what I’m learning”.

Major themes identified

• Using LC to develop students’ participation

Using LC to develop students’

participation

Debate with peersCollaboration with

the instructor

“I lived an Initial confusion and uncertainty

solved with the help of the instructor and the

sharing with others students”

“The creation phase has been challenging.

I waited for my colleagues sharing their

Learning Contracts and for their feedbacks”

“The facilitator clarified our doubts,

specifying to not only focalize our

attention on the delivery date, but

on the active participation and on

the learning process we are

producing”It is important to share not only the final evidence they

realized but also the evidence in progress to receive

suggestions.

Results to closed questions

The answers to the closed questions support the theme of a LC as a tool which

allows a student centered learning

41%

59%

The LC allows to organize your learning

strongly not inagreement

not in agreement

in agreement

strongly inagreement

47%53%

The LC helps to fit the contents of the course with your interests

strongly not inagreement

not in agreement

in agreement

strongly in agreement

Results to closed questions

The possibility to develop reflection is supported by the answers to closed questions

24%

76%

the LC allows to reflect on your learning

strongly not in agreement

not in agreement

in agreement

strongly in agreement

6%

35%

59%

The LC allows an evaluation of your learning

strongly not in agreement

not in agreement

in agreement

strongly in agreement

Conclusions

In conclusion we sustain that learning contracts are a very effective didactic

tool to develop a personal learning process

1) We can observe that LC is very useful to centered learning on

students’ needs, allowing each student to design his/her personal project of learning

2) We can report the possibility to stimulate in students an in depth reflection on the

learning process, to reinforce and to develop the awareness of the students

regarding the importance of learning for their whole life

3) We can observe that LC facilitates the interactions between pairs and with the

instructor.

WeaknessThe understanding of what really a LC is (general guidelines for a continuous

learning process and not a table to fill in) and why the instructor proposes this tool

is fundamental.

The future of our practice

It is important to underline for the future of our practice two other dimensions to

research more in depth:

(a) the size of the class, we had the possibility to test learning contracts with a

small group but we have to explore more and understand if it works with larger

class size.

(b) we have to continue to give more attention to relationships and to a

conducive climate in class but we have to reinforce communication and

relationships also outside of it.

To practice with us:

monica.fedeli@unipd.it

mario.giampaolo@studenti.unipd.it

The Use of Learning Contract to Develop a

Student-Centered Learning, Reflection, and

Participation in an Italian Academic Course.

Thanks for your attention !

Grazie per l’attenzione !