iCTLT 2016

Recent educational researchers have illuminated the positive impacts of technology on teaching and learning. Despite these studies, little research exists on how the Internet enhances classroom teaching in art, especially in Singapore’s context. This case study explored Singapore secondary art teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) specific to Internet use, and how Internet use can enhance students’ visual literacy.

Using the Internet in teaching encompasses a broad spectrum of technologies and related pedagogical concepts. The concept of a WebQuest, a structured inquiry lesson format, was selected to scope the study. This study has three purposes: first, to see if there was a difference in students’ visual literacy learning when WebQuests were used; second, discover teaching strategies related to student achievement with and without technology; and third, derive a fuzzy generalization from the findings of how Singaporean art teachers’ might hone their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK).

Two Secondary art teachers and four of their art classes were selected for this case study in 2012. Data collected included students’ work collected from a quasi-experiment and semi-structured teacher interviews. The data analysis followed an inductive process involving individual case analysis and cross-case analysis. The study had three key findings: first, students learned aspects of visual literacy just as well with or without WebQuest; second, teachers’ conviction, training, practice, collegial and student support contributed to their confidence of using the Internet in teaching; third, Information Communications and Technology (ICT) serviceability and accessibility, availability of time, and routines and rules specific to students’ ICT use affected art teachers’ decision and use of the Internet.

This empirical research also identified potential benefits and limitations of using WebQuests to enhance students’ visual literacy. A WebQuest allowed students to revisit the material at their own time. The effectiveness of a WebQuest to support student learning is limited by the quality of web-based materials selected as well as the design of the performance task. The study had two implications on teachers’ professional learning on TPCK and future research on the use of the Internet to enhance students’ visual literacy. First, an action learning cycle might guide teachers’ professional learning to use ICT. Second, future research on the topic could include uses of ICT to communicate, collaborate and create, rather than just using the Internet to access of information.

The purpose of this paper is to share our efforts to leverage on learning analytics to enhance students’ learning of Science.  From the perspective of faculty members, learning analytics can help identify at-risk learners and provide interventions, transform pedagogical approaches, and help students gain insight into their own learning (Long and Siemens, 2011).  However, Wright et al (2014) noted that it was a challenge to utilize large data analysis for actionable and effective interventions in the classroom.  This sharing attempts to identify strategies for educators to leverage learning analytics to guide them in monitoring their students’ progress and plan suitable intervention strategies.  It is hoped that the provision of real-time information of each student’s progress to teachers would lead to greater and more personalised support for every learner in our schools.

Recognising the influence that learning analytics can have on teaching and learning, MOE-ITB and NCS collaboratively embarked on a study to make available learning analytics systems to schools in an attempt to identify teaching practices that enhance students’ learning through the use of analytics.  As part of our study, 15 schools have been provided with training and access to Toktol (a Science-based learning system with built-in learning analytics tool).  Teachers integrated the use of Toktol into their teaching and made use of the data generated on students’ learning to guide their lesson planning and delivery.

With the first phase of the study completed in Nov 2015, it is hoped that analysis of the data gathered from the study will shed some light on the benefits of analytics systems, especially in helping teachers visualise their students’ learning and facilitating lesson planning.  At the same time, it is also hoped that the data gathered will provide useful information on the design of future learning analytics systems, and identify critical datasets that are able to provide teachers with data on students’ learning.

e-Learning is practised widely in Singapore schools. However, is computer-mediated interaction as good as face-to-face interaction? This study compares the effectiveness of two forms of e-learning; an e-learning package with a teacher-led online forum was compared with an e-learning package with a face-to-face follow-up lesson.

Two classes of Secondary Three (Express) GCE O Level Science (Physics) students in a mainstream government school accessed an online independent learning package on Thermal Properties without teacher input, after which an online pre-test was administered. Class A later went on to participate in a 40-minute teacher-led online forum while Class B had a one-hour lesson in class with their subject teacher. Both classes subsequently took their post-test. A survey was subsequently administered to Class A to obtain their perspective of their learning in the online forum. Statistical analysis of the pre- and post-test data revealed that Class A scored significantly better than Class B, showing that computer-mediated interaction via an online forum produced better test scores than face-to-face learning.

The survey results suggest that the improvement to student learning was perceived to be due to the novelty of the learning mode, better participation rate in an online setting and the chapter being suitable for e-learning. This study suggests that schools can conduct e-learning for suitable topics without any follow-up face-to-face lessons, saving precious curriculum time.

This presentation shares the case studies of using a meaningful Mobile App game and explores the process of making, wRiteFormula, to help beginner Chemistry students master ionic bonding nomenclature with less arduous memory work through gamification, timely feedback, and principles of discovery-learning in a social context. Impactful case studies and findings will be shared by project schools, on how they have successfully integrated the Mobile App game in their student-centred classrooms, with high levels of motivation and engagement observed, and learning gains attained.

Chemistry nomenclature is important as it provides a method for identifying chemical substances clearly and systematically, thus facilitating communication. However, beginner secondary school students often find nomenclature rules complicated, confusing and uninteresting, and are unmotivated to practise using these rules effectively and efficiently, thus hindering their progress in learning chemistry as they can neither communicate clearly nor ask productive questions.

The game was developed with funding from the National Research Foundation, Singapore, and is jointly managed by the Educational Technology Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore and the National Institute of Education, Singapore.

“Everyone is a genius” a quote by Einstein. This applies best to our students in the normal stream. Through professional practice and experiences, we have observed that students’ performance in the normal stream differs that of express students. They  lack motivation and enthusiasm to excel in their studies. Thus we believed that the key to success lies in the mode of assessment.     

A pilot project was carried out for one secondary one Normal Technical class. The traditional pen-and-paper assessment was replaced with the use of Patchwork Assessment. However this does not suggest that Patchwork Assessment is a panacea for all the students' ills. The sole aim was to raise students’ self-efficacy and interest in science education and create an authentic curriculum that encourages active participation and learning.

Some of the key characteristics of the Patchwork Assessment are:

1. Accommodate individual differences and multiple modes of representation in assessment;


2. Allow students to receive feedback on their learning and the feedback received has 'social dimension';


3. Provide students with opportunities to reflect on their learning.

The lower secondary science assessment weighs heavily on project-based assignments, self and peer reflection and the use of daily work in class.

The use of Google Drive was selected based on its user-friendly interface and the possibilities of adding on the various apps such as Popcorn Maker, ConceptBoard, Lucidchart and Mindmeister. This creates a coherent and systematic platform for greater feedback for learning. It also creates opportunities for students to share ideas and refine their projects for continuous learning. It also paves way for collaboration among students which will eventually leads to improvement in students’ learning outcomes.

A survey was also conducted for the students to better ascertain the benefits of Patchwork Assessment in the area of self-directed learning, engagement level and academic scores.

Oral presentation is important in day-to-day communication and is part of summative assessment in schools. Students taking Chinese language face difficulties in developing oral descriptive narratives in a coherent and organized manner and tend to omit details. Oral practices are often conducted in traditional classroom setting, involving rote-learning that is teacher-centred. Students do not have sufficient opportunity to practise their oral skills. Weaker students who have other concerns such as lack of self-confidence may be neglected in the classrooms.

Launched in 2013 by the Ministry of Education, the iMTL Interactive Portal leverages on the info-communication technology and aims to strengthen students’ language skills through the use of authentic language tasks. The purpose of this lesson study was to resolve pedagogical issues that are experienced in conventional classroom teaching. The two-cycle lesson study was started in 2014 with two Primary Five medium-ability classes in Lakeside Primary School. This lesson study explored the use of the web-based iMTL Interactive Portal and its effectiveness in optimising students’ learning. A learner-centred pedagogy is adopted to encourage self-directed and collaborative learning, giving every student the opportunity to express himself. Individual student can develop his personal oral skills at his own pace. The lesson study revealed that Components such as consideration of the students’ readiness, questioning techniques, design of scaffolding instruction, selection of topic and stimulus, choice of collaborative mode, and grouping of students, are important in optimising the effective use of the iMTL Interactive Portal.

Classroom observations, focus group interviews and surveys revealed that students were positive about the use of the ICT tool, and they benefited from peer-to-peer learning. The weaker students modelled after their peers in developing their own speech, while the stronger students would help to correct their peers before and during recording. The selected video was related to the students’ real experiences and this motivated them to learn. Peer evaluation encouraged a two-way learning process, whereby students learn from others and develop their self-reflection skills.

The lesson study encountered various challenges at the different stages: from the development of the lesson plan to the delivery of the lesson. Main challenges included adjustments to the conventional pedagogical beliefs, such as shifting from teacher-centric to student-centric learning, and the role of the teacher. This, in turn, affected the design and delivery of the lessons, and management of time as well as technical glitches.

This presentation builds on MOE’s sharing (“Developing Student Leadership in Cyber Wellness Through Peer Advocacy Approach”) on their promotion of the peer advocacy approach for cyber wellness education amongst students in Singapore schools. It will focus on sharing Innova Junior College’s own experience in developing a comprehensive Cyber Wellness education programme at the Pre-University level utilising a “for students, by students” approach.

Since 2012, this peer advocacy approach has been developed through the engagement of student advocates in a wide range of internal and external events and activities of varying complexity, from the delivery of lessons to the conceptualisation of campaigns and learning resources. While some aspects of the programme remain teacher-driven, the main thrust of the college’s Cyber Wellness initiatives is now focused upon student-led approaches – ranging from student-led lessons to student-designed school campaigns and also student-led national Cyber Wellness conferences.  The collaborations with partners such as MOE and MDA/MLC also provided useful insights on cyber wellness and media literacy issues.

The key advantage of partnering students in cyber wellness education is the age-appropriate insights and experiences they bring into the discussions and learning resources. Feedback gathered over the years suggest that these student-led initiatives are consistently well-received, with high numbers (over 90%) of students polled finding the issues covered, relevant to their current day context.  Over 90% of students also liked the idea of having their peers conduct such lessons and/or running such events. For instance, participants shared that student-led lessons were a good idea as it was “very entertaining” and the fact that his/her peers were conducting the lesson “really captured the audience’s attention.”

Overall, this presentation hopes to share with participants the college’s experience in developing Cyber Wellness student ambassadors and working with them and external partners for a range of digital citizenship learning experiences. It will be closely aligned to one of the strands of iCTLT 2016: Inspiring Deep Learning with ICT in Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy, and is underpinned by the belief that a bottom-up (rather than top-down) approach could allow students more ownership and is more effective for cultivating core values in our students. Through this, it hopes to highlight the increasing need to move beyond just academics to ensure that our young can navigate this new digital age adroitly with respect, decency and a sense of civic responsibility.

Fuhua Primary School brands herself as the Singapore SMART School of the Future. The school aims to provide a student-centric and values-motivated curriculum which develops the students holistically, harnessing technology to prepare the students to be future ready.

Learning analytics is the analysis and reporting of information within a digital learning product to reveal information and connections that can predict and advise on learning.

Recognising the different learning abilities of students and their diverse levels of understanding mathematical concepts, learning analytics provides students with suitable differentiated content to work on, keeping them attentive and interested and as a result, they are able to learn at their own pace and take charge of their own learning. The content recommended spans across grade levels so as to ensure that each student gets the advancement or remedial required.

Teachers in Fuhua Primary School leverage learning analytics to diagnose and surface learning gaps. With such insight, teachers can evaluate, analyse and improve on their teaching pedagogy; focus on addressing students’ identified needs in targeted areas in each topic and provide targeted feedback and focused remediation.

In this way, learning analytics empowers teachers to prioritise their limited time while providing personalised support for learning for every student in every class that they teach.