Most questions will be answered by this FAQ section. But feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments.
General
- HOW CAN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY HELP?
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The buy-in from teachers, students and their families enables a quick adoption and reduces resistance to change. Those who are interested in investing in education in Palestine, can, for a minimal donation push the implementation of xLOBs to more Palestinian schools. We have an ambassador program for individual donations. Please visit our xLOBs ambassador program. (link to xLOBs ambassador webpage).
- WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEACHING UNDER XLOBS AND THE CURRENT METHOD?
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The traditional methods are mostly teacher to student one-way teaching. There is no feedback loop from students to teachers except for their test results and by that time it is too late to help students who did not gain the knowledge required by the textbook. Under xLOBs methods, there is high interaction between the teacher and students. Students use practical examples to understand the subject and thus understand as opposed to memorise the knowledge needed. There are other differences which are equally important, please refer to the about page ( link to about\traditional methods) for all key differences.
- WHAT IS A CREATIVE COMMON LICENSE?
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CC BY-NC
xLOBs as open educational resources are licensed under a creative commons license (Attribution-Non-Commercial) which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon xLOBs for non-commercia projects, and although their new works must also acknowledge Bir Zeit University CCE and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
- HOW ARE XLOBS BETTER?
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Top three reasons why we think xLOBs are better:
1. xLOBs are driven by on-going research and development
2. They have a transformative impact while working through the existing educational systems
3. They have immediate national impact reaching out to 10s of thousands of students at a timeRead more about other xLOBs Features (link to xLOBs Features webpage).
- WHAT LOBS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED SO FAR?
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Please, download our pdf file for the full list of xLOBs (link to pdf file) that are ready and in circulation. All the xLOBs listed are available for immediate deployment and usage.
Teachers
- I DECIDED TO ADOPT XLOBS. WHAT ABOUT THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM?
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xLOBs are fully aligned with the requirements of the Palestinian curriculum. For each unit in the Palestinian official textbooks, xLOBs are developed to match the objectives of this unit. The strength of xLOBs is that they work in a complementary manner with the existing educational system, however offering teachers entirely different learning strategies to achieve the high-quality outcomes.
Read more about xLOBs (link to about webpage).
- WHAT TYPE OF TRAINING IS NEEDED TO APPLY XLOB IN MY CLASS?
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Teachers that implement the xLOBs only require training on how to facilitate learning with xLOBs and do not require intensive pedagogical training because most teachers have already received such training either through various in-service and/or pre-service programs. Thus the xLOBs training they receive will be on how to apply the various pedagogical strategies designed into xLOBs in the classroom. Both offline (face to face) and online training components is used in training. Teachers with limited access (female teachers with extra responsibilities, those with special needs and those with restrictions on movement) will benefit most from online resources. The online components will also keep instructions and resources up to date and cater for those who only require minimal training.
Read more about xLOBs Training (link to xLOBs Processes/xlobs_training webpage).
- WHAT TYPE OF SUPPLIES WOULD I NEED TO APPLY XLOBS?
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It depends on the xlobs, but in general there are two types of supplies that is used in xLOBs, one that is already included in the xLOB free of charge such as, instructional videos, photos, articles, and the second are petty supplies like cardboard, glue, plastic bottles that are readily available or can be purchased for a small price.
Read more about xLOBs Production (link to xLOBs Processes/xlobs_production webpage).
- IS THE STANDARD STRUCTURE OF XLOBS?
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Each xLOB is related to a unit in the official curriculum textbook. More than one xLOB may be designed to cover the whole unit. The xLOB itself is a document with instructions on how to use the xLOB, description of the activities to perform with students, and the objects that are needed in the activities.
Read more about xLOBs Production (link to xLOBs Processes/xlobs_production webpage).
- WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO TEACHERS FOR IMPLEMENTING XLOBS?
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xLOBs enhance teacher professionalization by using xLOBs as a highly applied and effective means for teacher professional development. The theory of change behind this approach is based on the fact that practically all teachers undergo various teacher training programs in which they study the various modern educational theories and principles. What teachers typically lack is support and mentoring in the design of good, stimulating and pedagogically sound lessons and how to apply them in the classroom. With xLOBs, teachers receive initial intensive training on the design principles behind xLOBs. This serves to refresh their knowledge on modern educational principles and practices, and provides them orientation on how to use good teaching principles to facilitate learning with xLOBs in the classroom. Throughout the year, the teachers will receive on-going mentoring, support, and will engage in reflection workshops and communities of practice. As teachers work with xLOBs, they will become exposed repeatedly to good educational designs in every unit they teach. Teachers will be required to continuously reflect on the xLOBs and teaching practices, critique them, propose alternative approaches, and eventually design their own xLOBs.
Read more about xLOBs Benefits (link to xLOBs benefits/teachers_benefits webpage).
- AM I EXPECTED TO STICK TO THE CONTENTS OF THE XLOB WHILE TEACHING?
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No. As a matter of fact, teachers are encouraged to build on the xLOBs, innovate and build on them.
Read more about xLOBs Processes (link to xLOBs processes/maintenance webpage).
Students and Parents
- HOW DO I KNOW THAT XLOBS WORK?
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The xLOBs initiative is founded on an on-going research development process. Research findings are constantly being fed back to the xLOBs design teams to carry out any necessary modifications and/or to address specific issues in future designs. We, also, conduct on-going monitoring and evaluation of every aspect of the design process and the implementation of xLOBs in schools with emphasis on the measurement of learning outcomes, acquisition of skills and teacher practices. Every research study showed a significant improvement compared to traditional approaches and compared to previous research findings.
Read more about xLOBs Processes (link to xLOBs Processes\xlobs_research webpage).
- WHAT ARE THE SKILLS TAUGHT WITH XLOBS?
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xLOBs encompasses the LSCE Framework, life skills and citizen ship education (LSCE) that was developed by UNICEF in partnership of stakeholders in the MENA region
There are 12 different skills grouped under four categories: 1- learning, 2- employability, 3- personal empowerment and 4- active citizenship. The 12 skills are:
• Creativity
• Critical-Thinking
• Problem-Solving
• Cooperation
• Negotiation
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management
• Resilience
• Communication
• Respect for Diversity
• Empathy
• Participation - HOW MUCH TIME WILL IT TAKE TO IMPLEMENT AN XLOB?
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xLOBs have been designed so that hat the time required to implement an xLOB is almost the same as the time required to cover a unit in the text book the traditional way. This way, teachers using xLOBs will not require additional teaching loads (or costs) inside or outside the classroom. This is an extremely important feature of xLOBs because it makes learning subject much more interesting and provides a context within which skills are taught and emphasized while students are covering the curriculum during the regular school hours - without demanding additional time from teachers, the school and/or the children.
Read more about other xLOBs Features (link to xLOBs Features webpage).
- WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO STUDENTS IN IMPLEMENTING XLOBS?
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The main beneficiaries of xLOBs are the students learning under its methods. The following is a summary of key benefits to students learning under xLOBs.
• Achieve significantly higher learning outcomes
• Are motivated much more to learn because xLOBs create meanings for students: it gives them a “cause” to learn.
• Develop various skills and continuously reinforce them as they learn the various subject matter areas
• Are required to be active learners
• Learn with gender responsiveness and without bias
• Have a rich diversity of learning objects that matches their different learning cognitive preferencesRead more about xLOBs Benefits (link to xLOBs benefits/students_benefits webpage).
School Administrators
- WHAT IS THE PRICE OF IMPLEMENTING XLOBS AT OUR SCHOOL?
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xLOBs are open educational resources that are licensed under the Creative Commons license (link to cc) and placed on an open learning online-platform: Learning Objects Portal (link to portal). xLOBs are “packaged” in a way so they only demand limited training or orientation from teachers to implement effectively and deploy the learning objects at school allowing low cost and fast scaling. The cost of scaling xLOBs to Palestinian schools and children is less than $1 per child. The only additional cost to schools would be the not-included-supplies in xLOBs that they might already have and use.