Abstract:

Since the academic year of 2018-2019, a series of reform projects of innovative curriculum design have been devised and conducted in USTL (University of Science and Technology Liaoning). These reforming projects are initiated and administrated by the authors of this dissertation, serving the study needs of domestic and inbound international undergraduates majoring in engineering related professional directions, for instance, Mechanical Engineering and Automatics, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, etc.

The research hypothesis is that engineering-majored undergraduates of China are very reluctant to fulfill necessary bibliographic search, scientific literature readings, new technology presentations, and academic writings in foreign languages. The above hypothesis is supported by a mobile phone survey result. According to the responses from Chinese undergraduates, social English, academic English, scientific English literature readings, cross-cultural communication with English are key capabilities that they are eager to gain. To match students’ study needs, the project team has reformed the General English curriculum and delivered all courses in a blended teaching method. It is in experimental practice stage that a neglected but crucial research question arises. In order to achieve the utmost optimistic effectiveness and efficiency of blended teaching, what lesson format could be employed to cope with natural shifts between online and offline learning resources.

This dissertation aims to examine BOPPPS lesson plan model in a circumstance of multicultural classroom, meanwhile, applying to the requirements of blended teaching method. BOPPPS is a planning model originated from the teachers’ skills training in Canada, which is outcome-oriented and student-centered. BOPPPS is an acronym representing the various components of an active learning lesson plan, including Bridge-in, Outcomes (or Objectives), Pre-assessment, Participatory learning, Post-assessment, and Summary.

To embody BOPPPS in the blended teaching designs, relevant studies involve OBE (Outcomes-based Education) educational concept, blended teaching mode, and cross-cultural communication.

The application cases of BOPPPS model to blended-teaching courses of China’s higher education institutions are evaluated and analyzed. A skeleton framework has been deduced and applied to the reformed English courses offered in multicultural classes. The six steps of BOPPPS are conducted with classroom and virtual teaching tools. In experimental stage, Students’ performance and learning results are assessed according to data recorded at every single phase of BOPPPS. In other words, BOPPPS leads to an innovative assessment weight designs in blended teaching mode. Comparison of study achievements between the experiment group and the control group induces the conclusion of the project.

In conclusion, the application of BOPPPS to lesson plans according to English curriculum holds considerable practical values. In a blended teaching course, BOPPPS model ensures the teaching effectiveness and content efficiency, which avoids the fragmented learning experience caused by unordered shifting between online and offline tasks. Moreover, this project set an alarming signal to counterpart researches in other countries. When designing lesson plans to involve virtual learning resources, the integration of one class hour is crucial to the realisation of optimistic study outcomes.

Keywords:

BOPPPS, OBE, blended teaching mode, English teaching.