Students generally face challenges in answering reading comprehension questions, especially inferential questions. They have difficulty in understanding the key points in the passage. This is further compounded by their difficulty in pronouncing and understanding the vocabulary used.
The presentation will bring together the use of the 10’C pedagogical approach, the teaching of visible thinking skills and ICT tools in the 10’C portal, to bring about the desired learning outcomes and engaged learning. Participants can learn to design lessons to help students improve their comprehension skills.
The 10’C pedagogical approach consists of 3 processes, namely delivery, reinforcement and output. In delivery, visible thinking skills are taught. Students learn to identify key points using the 4Ws (who, where, when, what) so as to understand the key content of the passage. They also learn to make inferences behind dialogues and reactions of characters in the passage. In reinforcement and output, work is assigned to students on the 10’C portal to reinforce their learning.
Students generally face challenges in answering reading comprehension questions, especially inferential questions. They have difficulty in understanding the key points in the passage. This is further compounded by their difficulty in pronouncing and understanding the vocabulary used.
The presentation will bring together the use of the 10’C pedagogical approach, the teaching of visible thinking skills and ICT tools in the 10’C portal, to bring about the desired learning outcomes and engaged learning. Participants can learn to design lessons to help students improve their comprehension skills.
The 10’C pedagogical approach consists of 3 processes, namely delivery, reinforcement and output. In delivery, visible thinking skills are taught. Students learn to identify key points using the 4Ws (who, where, when, what) so as to understand the key content of the passage. They also learn to make inferences behind dialogues and reactions of characters in the passage. In reinforcement and output, work is assigned to students on the 10’C portal to reinforce their learning.
Differentiated instruction (DI) has been gaining attention in recent years as educators realize its potential in classroom teaching and learning. As educators recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching, there is a need to understand that pupils enter the classroom with varying degree of differences in their readiness levels, interests and learning profiles. Therefore, pupils will learn more effectively and efficiently when teachers differentiate their instructions in class according to the content being taught, process of learning or pupil’s product according to each pupil’s needs. In order to better facilitate DI, ICT could be integrated into such lessons to further enhance pupils’ learning.
As uses of tablets (for example, iPads) become increasingly widespread, it would be beneficial for educators to tap into its potential affordances for teaching. Tablets are interactive and their capability to run various multimedia functions could better engage pupils during the learning process. They are also mobile, which allows for traditional classroom lessons to be carried out outdoors or on-the-go. Their ability to stay connected to the internet through cellular data also allows teachers to monitor and assess pupils in real-time. As pupils are familiar with tablets and their functions, this will enable lessons to be conducted smoothly. Lastly, the large repertoire of applications that is readily available could also be taken advantage of. This session aims to create an Upper Primary English lesson by harnessing the affordances of a tablet in developing a seamless DI lesson. We will be utilizing the following application – Nearpod for the demonstration. Within the application, pupils are able to draw images, take photographs and answer questions in various formats. Their responses would then be submitted to the teacher who is able to check and assess their progress simultaneously. The teacher is also able to dispatch each of the responses to all pupils through the application for discussion.
As the session aims to explore the possibility of creating differentiated activities within an ICT platform, participants are encouraged to suggest and experiment with possible modifications to the activities. It also aims to look into how pupils will get to experience both self-directed and collaborative learning through the various differentiated activities. Lastly, the session will end by discussing the benefits and sustainability of conducting a DI lesson using Nearpod or other related applications on a tablet.
Students generally view collaborative learning (CoL) as something that is manageable and productive when it is carried out in the form of face-to-face interaction rather than in a virtual environment. Studies show that students show 'moderate enthusiasm for working in groups and the participants disclose both positive and negative experiences of this of working' (Cantwell & Andrews, 2002).
The main focus of this paper is to address students' point of view of the use of ICT for CoL and to understand why they feel this way. One of the reasons for this perspective is because of the way a learning task is designed – when no opportunities are given to students to work through activities that involve ongoing efforts in meaning negotiation and the establishment of shared understanding among them. The discourse that is critical for CoL is often short-changed in the classroom (face-to-face) because of time-tabled time allocated for lesson delivery. Besides these students also generally see each lesson/session as a complete unit rather than an extension of learning that goes beyond the lesson proper.
Another reason for students’ skewed view of ICT supported CoL is because of the way the affordances of ICT is harnessed. Technology selected should support pedagogy, delivery of content and development of knowledge at the same time.
The lack of awareness of the curriculum designers of what is required to encourage 'practices of meaning-making in the context of a joint activity' and 'the ways in which these practices are mediated through designed artefacts' harnessing the affordance of technology (Koschmann, 2002) will promote active learning online, and in the process will promote the use of ICT for collaborative learning and also make learning useful.
The use of Google Spreadsheet, Google Docs, Google Slides and Wix were introduced to promote active collaboration beyond the classroom over period of more than 14 weeks of project work in the Sec 1 classroom. This helped to promote joint activities within each group that required students to collect data, share and analyse followed by a research on the health indicator they selected as a group. Students completed an oral presentation, a report and a digital poster collaboratively.
Teachers as facilitators provided the guidance, scaffolds and challenged the students to stretch their potential. On the other hand students were able to learn at their own pace, challenge themselves to do their best and were self-motivated to complete their work on time.
Our teachers observed that students have varied and mostly inaccurate conceptual understanding of how the world around them works. These misconceptions must be corrected before the students can assimilate new information introduced to them. At other times, well-prepared students with preconceived answers may also become close-minded and hinder the spirit of inquiry learning.
This presentation focuses on how the science teachers of Palm View Primary School attempt to leverage on the affordance of technology to challenge students' conceptual understanding as a form of engagement, facilitate discussion and collaborative learning to bring about conceptual understanding and change.
Posner, Strike, Hewson and Gertzog (1982) suggested four essential conditions for conceptual change. They are: (1) Dissatisfaction - students realize there are some inconsistencies when their way of thinking does not solve the problem at hand. (2) Intelligibility - students get opportunities to argue their own interpretations of events and relationship so that they become aware of their pre-instruction conceptions. (3) Plausibility - students get opportunities to apply the concepts in a new context. (4) Fruitfulness - the new concept opens up new areas of inquiry.
This presentation is based on an on-going study on two Primary 3 and 4 Science class comprising students of mixed abilities. The teachers incorporate students’ daily activities and experiences as units of their learning design. These insertions ensure that the learning experiences are contextualised and act as relevant triggers to help students begin the process of conceptual change. Leveraging on the affordances of mobile devices and cloud-based tools, the students were able to extend their learning experiences from the class, to the school compound, leading eventually to personal learning spaces out of the school. This provides the students with a pool of rich and diverse life experiences which they can share and harness as ideas and learning resources to be gained in one context and applied in another.
Our preliminary results suggest that in such learning environment, students are more able to address scientific misconceptions. Every student had to reflect and resolve the conceptual conflict before integrating and applying the new understanding and concepts into their lives. Teachers who embarked on this study agree that the students were engaged and demonstrated dispositions of inquiring minds. The students had also expressed that the experience had allowed them to rectify many misconceptions that they previously assumed was true.
Students generally find it challenging to generate ideas in composition writing. This affects the content of their essays. They also do not receive sufficient feedback rapidly as it takes time for a teacher to complete marking the entire class’s work. Apart from the speed of the feedback received, students usually get feedback only from their teachers. Therefore there is currently little or no self or peer feedback given to students.
Henceforth this project involves the design and implementation of a framework centered on experiential learning together with self and peer feedback. The experiential learning, which is based on Kolb's learning cycle, will help the students to generate ideas for content. Thereafter students will be introduced to Automated Marking Tools that provide immediate and substantive feedback to address shortfalls in spelling, punctuation, basic grammar and sentence structure. Students will also engage in self and peer feedback using Making Thinking Visible (MTV) tools with specially designed checklists.
Despite the challenges faced, this approach successfully addressed the concerns in composition writing.
High school chemistry students find learning of chemistry concepts, especially abstract chemical phenomena, challenging. Students have to process new information and understandings in descriptive form and to relate them to sub-microscopic understandings while using a range of symbolisms to represent what they understood.
This paper describes how Collaborative Science Inquiry (CSI) facilitated by technology is used to deliver a systematic approach to teach and learn the concept of of acid strength in organic chemistry. Students are empowered to visualise concepts and construct conceptual knowledge to deepen their learning.
A CSI teaching and learning platform based on model-based guided scientific inquiry was co-designed in collaboration with Technologies for Learning Branch, Educational Technologies Division (ETD), Ministry of Education, Singapore. ICT tools such as Google site with a suite of web 2.0 tools are harnessed to create a constructivist learning environment. The 5E approach (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) is used to guide a sequence of learner-centred activities to develop the concept of acid strength using collaborative working spaces, core thinking routines and multimedia artefacts.
The CSI learning environment is versatile enough to support a variety of teaching strategies and learning experiences for both self-directed learners and collaborative learners with teacher facilitation.
Preliminary observations showed that the questioning pedagogy and core thinking routines were effective in raising students’ curiosity and motivating students’ questioning to resolve misconceptions and to extend learning. Students became active learners, engaging in dialogic classroom discourse with their peers and teacher. This made both the teacher’s thinking and students’ thinking observable. Questions asked by students provided the teacher with feedback and insights into students' thinking and conceptual understanding. Analysis of both formative assessment and summative assessment data also indicated positive impact on students’ learning outcomes.
Participants would benefit from the sharing of the collaboration experience with ETD officers, and the key pedagogical and technological considerations in the customisation of CSI to deepen subject mastery and to develop 21st century competencies.
The sharing also aims to increase understanding of the role of teacher as a designer of learning experiences and environments and how the practice of CSI enhances teaching practice and development of pedagogical-content knowledge.
Findings from this pilot study would be discussed with recommendations for incorporation of more interactive web 2.0 tools, improvement of CSI implementation process, development of teacher facilitation skills and enhancement of students’ group processes for collaborative learning.
In conventional Chinese language (CL) teaching, teachers tend to place emphasis on teaching reading and writing skills through rote learning. As such learning process hinges on mechanical memory. This often results in students not finding the learning of CL interesting and engaging.
With greater emphasis on developing 21st Century Competencies (21CC), the CL teachers at Bukit View Secondary feel strongly that developing students’ critical thinking abilities will have a profound impact on students’ speaking, reading and writing skills.
In collaboration with Educational Technology Division, the team identified learning gaps in reading comprehension at Secondary One and adopted Problem-based learning (PBL) approach empowered with ICT for designing learning as researches have shown that PBL is an effective pedagogical approach to developing learners’ critical thinking (Chung & Chow, 2004; Hung, et al., 2008; Iwaoke & Rhee, 2010; Neo & Neo, 2005).
A curriculum intervention was designed to facilitate students on learning how to conduct problem analysis with scaffolds, assuming ownership to explore and solve the prescribed problem, and collaborating with peers to co-construct and revise ideas. Redesign for Assessing Critical Thinking (ReACT), an e-PBL portal was harnessed and integrated as part of the curriculum intervention.
During intervention, students worked in pairs to unpack the issues, analyse the characters and issues in the passage, and formulate ideas and recommendations through the five defined PBL process (identify, explore, analyse, apply and evaluate). The PBL process, influenced by the work of Lynch & Wolcott (2001), and supported with cognitive scaffolds (include Cognitive Research Trust Thinking strategies) were embedded within ReACT portal.
After two cycles of curriculum intervention, findings revealed an improvement in various aspects of comprehension ability and critical thinking skills. Students were able to analyse problems critically and identify issues from diverse perspectives. They were able to articulate their thinking and arguments with a certain degree of depth. They were also more engaged as they owned their learning.
Findings from this study suggested the necessity for CL teachers to look beyond the current way of lesson delivery. Furthermore, there exists value pondering about the intended student outcomes especially in the spirit of nurturing the younger generation to become confident and effective communicators who are ready to take on the world.
Over the past 10 years, the digital revolution has displaced many manual tasks in our daily lives. From driverless cars to clever household gadgets, innovations that already exist could destroy jobs that have largely been untouched. Is the education industry immune to this tornado of change that is coming?
The new digital divide will be between those who know how to use technology and those who don’t; the latter will be left behind. As an educator of the future generation of users, it is important to speak the same language as your students to engage them. Spark joy in their learning and inspire them to develop the love for learning through the use of technological enhancements in the classroom.
