MOE drafted a set of teaching and learning guidelines for the use of ICT in pre-school centres. The draft guidelines provide position statements with regard to teacher’s use of ICT in the classroom for children from 4 to 6 years. Based on the belief that children learn best when they engage in concrete, hands-on experiences and quality interactions, the teacher’s role is critical in ensuring that the use of ICT is thoughtful and intentional. The presentation would highlight the important findings from the literature and country scans which have informed the drafting of the guidelines. Examples of meaningful and appropriate use of ICT in pre-school classrooms and considerations to safeguard children’s health and social emotional well-being would also be shared at the presentation.
Harvard Graduate School (2007) advocates visible thinking, which makes extensive use of learning routines that are thinking rich. These simple structures can be used over and over again, across various grade levels and content, so that they become a process of learning for students.
This project aims to make thinking visible by training pupils in thinking routines using their senses to develop greater confidence and clarity of thoughts when presenting ideas, opinions and experiences in the learning of English and Mathematics.
Carruthers, Martinovic and Pearce (2014) observed that students who use screencasts to create their own artefacts or share their work with others exude more confidence and have the desire to progress. Although students can go to the white board and share their work in a traditional classroom setting, the hesitant ones are often reluctant to exhibit their weaknesses. However, sound pedagogy and instructional skills are necessary before embarking on the use of technology.
Leveraging the use of ICT tools, students make their thought processes visible by communicating their thoughts in speech and writing through annotation and visualisation in problem solving and Stimulus-based Conversations (SBC). Teachers can understand pupils’ thought process through the videos created when misconceptions, prior knowledge, reasoning ability and degrees of understanding are uncovered. Teachers can then address these challenges and extend pupils’ thinking.
Low to high progress lower to upper primary learners benefit from this approach as evidenced by both the quantitative and qualitative results gathered. Learners emerge confident of their problem-solving skills and certain of their thought processes.
Through the presentation of this paper, participants would gain exposure in the use and effectiveness of these screencasting apps in the disciplines of English and Mathematics. It is the belief of the team that this learning could be transferred across disciplines to nurture a confident person, a self-directed learner and an active contributor; 21st Century Competencies that our students would require to face the challenges of globalisation, changing demographics and technological advancements in the future.
MOE drafted a set of teaching and learning guidelines for the use of ICT in pre-school centres. The draft guidelines provide position statements with regard to teacher’s use of ICT in the classroom for children from 4 to 6 years. Based on the belief that children learn best when they engage in concrete, hands-on experiences and quality interactions, the teacher’s role is critical in ensuring that the use of ICT is thoughtful and intentional. The presentation would highlight the important findings from the literature and country scans which have informed the drafting of the guidelines. Examples of meaningful and appropriate use of ICT in pre-school classrooms and considerations to safeguard children’s health and social emotional well-being would also be shared at the presentation.
