(2019 Publication, 3rd VOLUME)
Content Foreword CRITICAL THINKING IN ACTION! Title
Subject Area
Page
Enhancing critical reading and viewing
English Language
8
Fostering critical thinking using SLS to enhance students’ understanding of HOT questions in subjective comprehension
Malay Language
51
Applied Learning
65
Character & Citizenship Education
77
Social Studies
102
Inter-Disciplinary
121
Chemistry
157
Using paper planes to enhance thinking in Applied Learning Programme Using lesson study to explore if the strategy of perspective-taking will enhance student engagement in G2 modules Promoting critical thinking in Social Studies through Issue Investigation via Moot Parliament Programme Investigating the impact of using making thinking visible routines to foster critical thinking in students Improving the academic achievement of Secondary 3 Pure Chemistry students through lesson packages on card games
2
ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING IN ACTION! Title
Subject Area
Page
An exploratory case study of practices and challenges of Computer Applications
Computer Applications
169
Using ICT (Student Learning Space) to facilitate instant feedback for students’ learning, engagement and improvements
Chinese Language
185
Investigating the effects of alternative assessment in students’ Learning
Physics
196
Developing the Brooksian leader’s facilitation skills through the Leadership Competency Index (LCI) tool
Student Leadership Development
214
Boosting Secondary 4/5 NAPFA results through a 3 pronged - “DEP” approach
Physical Education
245
Drama Social Studies
271
Science
292
Effect of drama infusion in Lower Secondary Normal Technical Social Studies on the learning experience of students. Effect of alternative assessment and improved processes on the learning experience of Lower Secondary Science students
3
ACADEMIC TENACITY IN ACTION! Title
Subject Area
Page
Effect of teaching actions on students’ academic tenacity through the learning of Mathematics
Mathematics
304
Increasing student motivation to achieve academic tenacity: An exploratory study
Mathematics Geography
319
Standardised approaches towards management of students with special needs (SEN)
Special Education Needs
338
Enhance students learning and engagement in game design & sports climbing through gamification via an augmented gaming wall
Physical Education Computer Applications
349
A study of the impact of instructional and motivational scaffolding to strengthen academic tenacity in a classroom
Mathematics
359
Examination of the effects of game-based learning on Lower Secondary students’ motivation for reading their Literature set-text
Literature
376
Use of electronic game board to promote joy of learning during Food and Consumer Education lesson
Food and Consumer Education
406
Flexible Learning Space: How much autonomy might we give students to change the physical setup of the Art studio through the duration of their coursework?
Art
422
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Foreword I am elated to share that we have collated our third educators’ research and inquiry papers completed in 2019. Our 3rd volume of Quest@Northbrooks (QN), a research and inquiry monograph publication, is a 2019 compilation of all Northbrooks educators’ experimentation in new and innovative Teaching & Learning strategies and depicts our commitment to continual deep learning and reflection. It covers three main themes which reflect our current focuses in Teaching & Learning over in Northbrooks: Critical Thinking in Action, Assessment for Learning in Action and lastly, Academic Tenacity in Action. This publication serves a multitude of purposes: it enables us to keep our saw sharp by honing our teaching actions in relation to Singapore Curriculum Philosophy, underpinning theories and goals from our Singapore Teaching Practice (STP); in addition, it allows us to learn from within (Northbrooks’ Philosophy of ‘Learning with Others’ and ‘Learning from Others’) where the community of reflective practitioners learn from one another throughout the year via structured PLT sessions, department/ committee meetings and sharing of good practices during staff meetings. Through encouraging informal conversations
across
cross-functional
teams,
various
innovative
ideas
and
experimentations sprung out from such unique interactions of internal and external agencies. Our Quest@Northbrooks documents our professional work to address the three big ideas of Professional Learning Community: ensuring that students learn, a culture of collaboration and a focus on student outcomes. As shared by Richard DuFour, “The success of the PLC concept depends not on the merits of the concept itself, but on the most important element in the improvement of any school—the commitment and persistence of the educators within it.” Indeed, moving forward with a stronger emphasis on Critical Inquiry and data-driven/ informed practices, commitment to continual learning within teams and sharing of good practices, and assessing our efforts on tangible results, we are poised to strengthen our class engagement and transfer of learning through our professional practices. We need to stay hungry for evidence of student learning and continually reflect and use that evidence to inform and improve our practices.
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I hope that this publication can serve as a reminder for all Northbrooks educators to question norms and current teaching practices, and seek to experiment and search for new ways to sharpen our craft. This effort serves as our continuous deliberate effort for us to “Learn, Unlearn and Relearn” as a community of learners so that we can improve year after year, learn from fellow practitioners’ good practices and connect to potential colleagues who are interested in the same topics of interest. Undergirded by the Singapore Teaching Practice’s reflection and application continual process, we aim to become better reflective practitioners. Let us achieve both the ‘Joy of Learning’ by students and the ‘Joy of Teaching’ by educators so as to achieve the ‘Champion Learning Mindset’ which we hope to instil in every single one of our Brooksians. To conclude, Northbrooks will like to thank our entire Northbrooks Family and Partners for their efforts in our educators’ growth and professional development.
Soaring Yet Rooted. Nick Chan Principal Northbrooks Secondary School
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CRITICAL THINKING IN ACTION!
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Enhancing Critical Reading and Viewing Cinda Wee Carolyn Leong Sangeeta Tamilarasan Rosnani Said Sukhdev Singh Jasvindar Jeyalaxmy Ayaduray
8
Abstract The team observed that many students in the school usually face problems unpacking comprehension passages, especially that of narrative texts. Often, some of the problems involved the encountering of difficult vocabulary, figurative language and a lack of contextual knowledge of the passages involved. To address these issues, the team decided to help students make sense of these texts using Reciprocal Teaching, in particular the use of Reader Roles. This reading technique is said to promote metacognition and students’ understanding of their thinking processes. This ultimately may help to improve reading comprehension. The team carried out the use of Reader Roles with one Secondary 3 Express class, in two lesson study cycles.
Focus of the Inquiry How can teachers enable their students to read and view narrative texts more critically and effectively? Introduction The PLT members engaged in many professional conversations with Master Teacher Jeyalaxmy Ayaduray during our PLT meetings beginning from January 2019.
We referred to the Reading and Viewing Learning Objectives (LOs) and Skills, Learner Strategies, Attitudes and Behaviour (SSAB) in EL Syllabus 2020. We were guided by the LOs and SSAB in Table 1 in crafting lessons that would use Reader Roles to promote metacognition and greater comprehension of comprehension texts for students.
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Table 1: Reading and Viewing LOs and SSAB
SSABs LO2 : Close Reading and
● Use prior knowledge
Viewing
● Skim for the gist/main idea
Process age-/year
and
comprehend
level-appropriate
texts at literal and inferential
● Scan for details ● Make inferences to draw conclusions ● Summarise ideas
levels LO3: Critical Reading and
contextual information, writer’s point of view, implied
Viewing Analyse,
● Make interpretations from the text as a whole based on
evaluate
and
appreciate age-/year levelappropriate texts by focusing
information. ● Examine a text, break ideas / topic into smaller parts and consider how they relate together
on implied meaning, higher-
● Recognise writers’ intentions
order thinking and judgement
● Analyse organisational patterns in a text for the flow of ideas ● Compare and Contrast ideas ● Establish criteria for responding to texts ● Make generalisations from -
connections within / across texts
-
transference of understanding to new contexs.
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Literature Review The team believes that students can develop close and critical reading and viewing skills, if they can become Strategic Readers. The term strategic reading refers to thinking about reading in ways to enhance learning and understanding … typically we think of strategic readers as proficient readers who have a plan of action that moves them towards their goal or purpose of reading (Harvey & Goudis, 2007).
One learner strategy make students strategic readers is
through the application of Reader Roles. ‘Reader Roles’ (Luke & Freebody, 1997) is a Reciprocal Teaching pedagogy that provides students with comprehension learner strategies (Comprehension fostering strategies and comprehension monitoring strategies).
When students play the 4 Reader Roles; Predictor, Clarifier, Questioner and Summariser as they interact with the given texts, they become actively engaged and an opportunity is created for them to demonstrate the following reading processes when reading and viewing a text: (a) Shift between sources of information (what they know and what the text says), (b) Elaborate meaning, (c) Check their interpretation (revising when appropriate), and (d) Frame their understanding within a situational context. (adapted from Walker, 2008)
In addition, through teacher modelling and scaffolding, students can be explicitly taught Reading and Viewing learner strategies. In this PLT Lesson Study, the team used Gradual Release of Responsibility: I Do, We Do, You Do (the work of Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey, 2007) to
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demonstrate and enable student application of reading and viewing skills when closely analysing a text, paragraph by paragraph.
Empowering students as Strategic Readers and the use of Reader Roles is one learner strategy that promotes metacognition. The EL 2020 Syllabus has also stated that it is important that teachers pay increased attention to metacognitive skills in order to help students achieve 21st century competencies across all areas of language learning.
This involves raising students’ awareness and understanding that language learning involves cognitive information processing and the use of metacognitive strategies before, during and after learning.
Students also become self-directed learners when they exercise control over their learning and deploy strategies and resources in processing and responding to information. When teachers demonstrate how good learners actively apply their use of learner strategies and modulate their thought processes before, during and after learning in response to information, students are guided in acquiring the habits of self-directed, independent learning as they learn and manage new learning. In facilitating cognitive information processing, teachers will direct students to apply metacognitive strategies to strengthen and regulate their own learning.
The EL 2020 Syllabus also has stated that metacognition involves the following steps: (i) modelling the process involved in a task and gradually releasing responsibility.
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(ii) guiding students to draw on learner strategies that can be employed before, during and after each phase of the language learning / use process. (iii) providing time and space for students to reflect on their learning and plan how to better meet future learning needs.
Methods Class Profile Two lesson study cycles on the use of Reader Roles were carried out with a Secondary 3 Express class made up of 23 students. The students in the class is a mixed-ability, with most of them slightly above average in terms of their English language proficiency.
Lesson Study Cycle 1 The lesson studies were conducted in Term 3 2019. Before the lesson studies were conducted, a survey was done to find out what were the problems faced by the students when reading comprehension text. The team looked into the following reader role strategies: i)
contextual clues in the text
ii) activating students’ prior knowledge iii) crafting questions in facilitating discussions eg See-think-wonder iv) self-reflection
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The team employed the use of reciprocal teaching where students take ownership of their learning through taking the four Reader Roles. Lesson study approach After identifying a narrative text (Annex A) that was within the grasp of the students, the teacher set to ask specific questions that would cause the students to think about the passage they would be reading. The passage chosen was about an expatriate’s first experience taking public transport for the first time in Singapore. To create interest for the students regarding what they would be reading, a picture of an overcrowded bus was used to trigger students’ thoughts. They were asked about their own experiences riding on public transport in Singapore or overseas. Next, the students were encouraged to look at the preamble of the passage and for them to predict what the passage would likely be about. The purpose was to set the students in their thinking process. Students were then given a few lines of the first paragraph and they were posed with specific questions to draw from their prior knowledge, such as what do you think happened? The students also had to predict what would happen next in the passage. As the students continue to read the rest of the paragraph, they started to have some questions about the text. They may not understand a specific word or a phase and may even question the intent of the writer for using certain words or phrases. At this point, the use of padlet encouraged the students to write what they understood about the paragraph and to post their questions. This enabled everyone in the class to see what was written. What students posted in the padlet is at Annex B. Instead of the teacher answering the students’ questions, the teacher facilitated the discussion and the students’ questions were answered by their peers.
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After this segment was done, the teacher asked the students what the gist of the paragraph was about. All these were carefully planned so that without specifically telling the students what were the four Reader Roles, the students have actually played out these four roles. The teacher then explains what the four Reader Roles were - predictor, questioner, clarifier and summariser. A guide on possible questions to think about for each role was given to the students. (Annex C). When students predict, ask questions, clarify as well as summarise, they were engaging in their thinking process. They were thinking critically because they were trying to understand the ideas the writer is conveying in the writing. Now that they Reader Roles were explained to the students, the next step was for the students, in groups of 4, to apply the Reader Roles to the second paragraph of the text. Each of them took a specific Reader Role and a worksheet (Annex D) was given to collate the information they have gathered in their specific roles. A presentation was given by each group and this was to check students’ understanding. At the end of the lesson, the students had to reflect on what they have learnt and what they felt was challenging. The lesson plan can be found in Annex E. In the next lesson, the students were given the whole passage and this time, the students had to understand the passage using the four Reader Roles they have learnt in the previous lesson and also for them to answer the comprehension questions related to the passage (Annex F). The teacher modelled how to apply the Reader Roles in the first question when attempting to answer inference type of questions. The second question was used and this time, the teacher did the question together with the students. In this sense, the Gradual Release of Responsibility was applied. The students were placed in groups of 4 again and this time all of them had to play all four roles. They had to interact with their group mates and decide on the answer to the rest of the questions. At least two groups would be given the same questions to answer. The groups then 15
presented their answers. Interesting, some groups derived at a different answer to the same question. What was more important was the understanding of the students thought process and the other students could challenge that process until both the final correct answer was given. Lesson Cycle Study 2 In the next lesson study cycle, a more difficult passage (Annex G) where six paragraphs in total were chosen to find out if the students were able to fully apply the four Reader Roles. In this lesson, it was very much a student-centred focus where the teacher was just a facilitator and the students learnt from each other as they interacted with the text. The students were placed in groups of 4 again. Some of the groups had to study the first three paragraphs of the text (Set A) and the other groups were given the last three paragraphs of the text (Set B). Both groups were given the preamble to the passage. They were also given the respective questions to the paragraphs they were reading (Annex H) and all of them could contribute to what they understand when they apply the four Reader Roles. In this sense, the students attempt to use the Reader Roles they have learnt to apply their understanding of the paragraphs and then transfer their understanding by answering the comprehension questions.
Results Analysis & Findings [data-driven significance] Through the data collected in the pre-intervention survey, Sec 3G students tend to be selfdirected in understanding a text. They try to manage the text first through looking for contextual clues, checking the dictionary before seeking help from friends.
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Pre-Intervention
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Post-Intervention (a) Students’ behaviour in dealing with comprehension passages
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(b) How do students feel about the Reader Roles?
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Why?
Role
Reasons
Predictor
Easier to predict most texts, No limit to what we can predict, like predicting what is going to happen next, good imagination, use of creativity, many possibilities.
Questioner
Easier to ask questions, I ask questions about certain words/phrases , I am a curious person ‌I am always asking questions, I like to ask questions, helps to list down all doubts and gives a better understanding of what to look out for when reading again, easy, very helpful.
Clarifier
I like to think deeply, easy, very helpful.
Summariser Can better understand a paragraph. It summarises the passage, making it clearer.
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Why?
Role
Reason
Clarifier
Ambiguous, Need to answer the questions and be the one who understands the passage the most in order to clarify the doubts, How to clarify if we don’t know the answer? Have to read in between lines. Hard to answer when there is nothing much stated. Very hard to find answers.
Summariser
My understanding might be different. It is difficult to grasp the main point of the passage. Need to summarise in a short paragraph. Need to (fully) understand first before writing the summary. Weak in vocabulary.
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Discussions [limitations and recommendations] We analysed the different data sources to study the impact of Reader Roles on our students.
The following section discusses the analysis of the data:
(i) Students found the use of Reader Roles helpful As seen from the post-intervention survey, more students started using the Reader Roles when they found difficulties understanding a passage, or a word. Among the roles introduced to them, the most preferred roles used by students were the Predictor and Questioner roles. 9 students mentioned that they will use the Questioner and Predictor roles to help them better understand the passage. These were also the two most preferred roles. Students surveyed found that the Questioner and Predictor roles were the easiest to undertake. 13 students also agreed that the Reader Roles generally helped them to better comprehend the passage at the end of the lessons.
(ii) Students were more mindful of using contextual clues when approaching narrative texts Another question posed to them which was also asked at the pre-intervention stage was ‘Which do you use the most to help in your understanding (of narrative comprehension texts)?’. At the pre-intervention stage, the most popular strategy chosen by students (9 students) to help them understand the text was the use of contextual clues for the passage. At the post-intervention stage, this strategy remained the most popular and there was an increase in the number of students 23
who chose this strategy (13 students). This could suggest that the students were paying closer attention to the details in the text and also interacting more with comprehension passages, due to the awareness of Reader Roles.
(iii) Students found the Clarifier and Summariser roles most difficult to undertake At the post-intervention stage, 12 students indicated that they found the Clarifier role the most challenging. Some said that they found it difficult because they had to read between the lines and they found it hard to find the answers. 8 students indicated that they found the Summariser role the hardest because they found it challenging to grasp the main points of the passage, especially if they did not fully understand the passage due mainly to weak vocabulary.
Limitations 1. The team only managed two lesson cycles which were not sufficient to fully enable the students to master the Reader Roles in understanding comprehension texts. However, the lesson study has brought about an awareness for the students to use Reader Roles to help them to understand the text they are reading. The team believes this awareness can be built on further.
2. In enabling metacognition in students, it is important to allow them the time and space to reflect on their learning and plan how to better meet future needs (EL 2020 Syllabus). However, students were only given about 5 minutes for reflection. We recommend that a
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longer duration of time is needed for a more in-depth reflection on how to apply the Reader Roles to texts for them to fully appreciate and interact with them.
Conclusion It is definitely worth introducing the Reader Roles across every level so that this strategy can be applied by students in understanding the text they are reading, This does not just limit to the reading of comprehension passages but also to any type of reading. The idea of making the students thinking process visible is in how the teacher posed specific questions. Questioning techniques used by the teacher is crucial. These questions were aimed at drawing students’ prior knowledge, triggering their curiosity and getting them to question what they are reading and why the writer used certain words or phrases in describing a situation or emotion.
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References: Curriculum Planning and Development Division. (2010). English Language Syllabus 2020. Singapore: Ministry of Education. Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2007), The Formative Assessment Action Plan (pp. 120–122), section heading “Gradual Release of Responsibility Instructional Framework.” Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Harvey, S. & Goudis, A. (2007). Strategies that Work. Ontario: Pembrook Publishers Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1997). Shaping the social practices of reading. In S. Muspratt, A. Luke, P. Freebody (Eds.), Constructing critical literacies: Teaching and learning textual practice (pp. 185 – 225). Cresskill, Nj: Hampton Press. Walker, B.J. (2008). Diagnostic Teaching of Reading: techniques for instruction and assessment. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
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Annex A
27
Annex B
28
Annex C
29
30
Annex D
31
Annex E Lesson Plan for Lesson Study 1
Time
Activity
10
[Powerpoint Slide 4]
Process
Remarks
min Trigger: Picture of an overcrowded bus in India
1)What are your thoughts when you see this scene?
Getting prior knowledge
2) What are their experiences in riding on a public transport in Singapore or overseas?
5 min
Paper Slip 1 – the
[Powerpoint Slide 5]
preamble Look at the preamble to a passage.
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How do you think the expatriate’s experience will be like?
Prediction
Why do you think that way?
Thinking process
Paper Slip 2 –
[Powerpoint Slide 6-7]
min
Lines 1 - 5 Provide Paragraph 1 till line 5.
Thinking process
Why do you think the expatriate entered from the back
Prediction
door?
32
How do you think the story will progress?
15
[Powerpoint Slide 8]
Questioner
min
Paper Slip 3 – whole of para 1.
As you read the paragraph, are there any questions you would like to ask?
(get answers first)
If no questions, start prompting by asking: Why were the
Use padlet for the
people quiet?
students to key in their question
Is there such thing as bus etiquette?
Why did the writer use suffocated rather than crowded?
What exactly is the colour of scarlet? And why did the writer use it to describe his embarrassment?
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[Powerpoint Slide 8]
min Anyone want to attempt to answer the question?
Clarifier
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5 min
[Powerpoint Slide 9]
Summariser
Can a person from each group summarise what the passage is about? Just provide the main ideas without the details
5 min
[Powerpoint Slide 10]
Consolidation
Explain the role of predictor, questioner, clarifier and summariser.
When students predict, ask questions, clarify as well as summarise, they are engaging in their thinking process. They are thinking critically because they are trying to understand the ideas the writer is conveying in the writing.
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[Powerpoint Slide 11]
min
Instructions for
Worksheet and
reader role
reader role bookmark
[Powerpoint slide 12]
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10
[Powerpoint slide 13]
min
Check if students played their role
Presentation correctly.
Check for understanding.
5 min
[Powerpoint Slide 14]
Student’s Reflection
Reflection
on lesson.
Worksheet
35
Annex F
36
37
38
39
Annex G
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
Fostering Critical Thinking using KWL Framework to Explicate Subjective Comprehension Text in Order to Enhance Students’ Understanding of HOT Questions
Nur Fadillah Nuruljannah Dian Farhana Mr Omar Muhammad Zuraidah
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Abstract Subjective Comprehension is one of the components tested in Malay Language Paper 2. A high weightage (15% of the overall exam) is allocated for Subjective Comprehension. Initial survey done by teachers, showed that students usually do not score well for this component. Students also lacked confidence in answering Subjective Comprehension questions as they do not understand the text or are not focused when reading the text. This is the reason why they are not able to answer the questions given. Hence, this would be the focus of the project. In addition, Student Learning Space (SLS) will be used as an online tool in aiding students’ learning experience in this project. Through this online tool, students would be able to take ownership of their own learning, and hence will be more selfdirected. The findings gathered shows that this framework did help students in understanding the text better, therefore improve their grades.
Introduction
The focus of the project is to enhance the critical thinking skills of students when answering higher order thinking questions in Subjective Comprehension (Q5 & Q6). For these two questions, students are required to understand the text in order for them to answer the questions. Apart from that, students are also required to provide at least two main ideas and evidence to support their claim. This project aims to study the effectiveness of ICT in self-directed learning. The objectives for this project is to ensure that students are able to understand the demand of the questions asked. At the end of the project, students should be able to provide at least two main points and evidence to support their answers. Based on the initial survey done, students are mostly weak in answering higher-order thinking questions due to various reasons. The questions for Subjective Comprehension is based on Blooms’ Taxonomy.
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INQUIRY PROBLEM AND QUESTIONS
The rationale for choosing Subjective Comprehension is to help students improve their performance during examination. This component carries a weightage of 15% for the overall exam. The students usually have difficulty scoring well for this component. It is hoped that with this strategy the students could understand the text better and thus help them answer the comprehension questions more effectively.
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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND / OR LITERATURE REVIEW
Critical thinking skills is an essential skill that is required by all beyond the school. Barak and Dori (2009) defined critical thinking as clear, rational, logical, and independent thinking.
The Pearson article The Importance of Teaching Critical Thinking to Students mentioned:
“Critical thinking is the foundation of strategic thinking, creative thinking, good judgement and good decision making. Good critical thinking results in the ability to draw the right conclusions more often. The good news is that there is substantial evidence showing that critical thinking can be improved with training. Research also suggested that improving critical thinking ability has a knock-on effect in improving problem-solving ability, openness, creativity, organisation, planning and making the right choices in life.”
‘Thinking with sketch’ is one of the effective methods to use to encourage critical thinking skills. Though we are inherently visual learners, it can be challenging to communicate an idea without words effectively. Nevertheless, translating thoughts to picture form encourages critical thinking beautifully. It guides students to think using a different mental skill set. In addition, it is also a great way to get them truly invested in an idea.
Using ICT, is also one of the methods to promote critical thinking skills. The use of ICT has been widely spread in the education industry as it is believed to make teaching process more efficient for both teachers and students. However, a lot of questions lingers in ensuring that critical thinking skills can be developed through the use of ICT.
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MODES OF INQUIRY
The team will be using lesson study for this research. The research group would be Secondary 2 Express stream students. These students are of mixed ability.
Previously, the Malay Language unit used the paragraphing method when getting students to understand the subjective comprehension text. This method is the simplest and easiest method for students to use, where they jot down the key points of the specific paragraph at the side of the text.
In order to ensure students’ understanding when reading the comprehension text, the Malay Language unit imparted the PLOT strategy as well as the Know-What-Learnt (KWL) strategy in this project.
To begin the project, students were given a pre-activity survey. In this survey, students gave responses on their ability to answer subjective comprehension questions. Students will attempt a pretest (Subjective Comprehension) before the actual lesson for teachers to gauge their initial performance.
After the research lesson, students will attempt the same test (Subjective Comprehension) to determine the effectiveness of the lesson in developing critical thinking skills.
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METHODS USED
The students have to unpack the comprehension text using PLOT strategy: IntroductionConflict-Climax-Resolution-Ending. As the students have been exposed to this strategy in Narrative Composition, they would have some prior knowledge on how to identify the flow of events as well as listing down the characteristics of a chosen character from the text and provide moral of the story. This also involves Know-Want to know-Learned (KWL), where students think about what they already Know (K) and what they Want to know (W) about the text and what they have Learned (L).
In the lesson 1.
students read the text given
2.
students unpack the text using PLOT (K)
3.
students think of what they want to know further (W)
4.
teacher go through the text by consolidating students’ responses
5.
students take note of what they have learnt (L)
6.
students answer the comprehension questions.
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FINDINGS
We conducted a pre-activity survey before conducting the lesson using PLOT and KWL strategies. The results from the survey are as follows:
Q1: From 1-5, indicate your level of competency in terms of answering subjective comprehension questions. (1 being poor and 5 beyond expectation)
Students were asked to indicate their level of competency when answering subjective comprehension questions. Most of them indicated their level of competency as 3 to 4. Based on their responses as well as their daily work on Subjective Comprehension, this may vary in terms of the text that they receive.
Q2: What challenges did you face when answering subjective comprehension questions?
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Based on the survey results, most students were not able to identify and understand the demand of the questions. As a result, they are not able to acquire the full marks, especially for higher order thinking questions.
Q3. Ways on how you answer subjective comprehension questions.
Students have the tendency to read the comprehension text first before attempting to answer the questions. They could have been exposed to this method of answering comprehension questions in primary school. In primary schools, the students are mostly taught to use the SQ3R technique. This technique requires students to read the text briefly first, followed by the
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questions. Students would then need to re-read the text to find the answers. While this method works for some, it is ineffective for some others. They might be put off by the storyline and not understand the full storyline especially if the story is too long or complicated.
Q4. State 2 most difficult questions in subjective comprehension.
Our project focuses more on answering higher order thinking questions in Subjective Comprehension (Q5 & Q6) as this requires students to think critically. This was also reflected in the pre-activity survey where students stated that they found these two questions the most difficult out of the entire subjective comprehension questions.
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Students’ Results:
Student
Pre-test
Marks Post-test
Marks Conduct
/30
/30
A1
14
18
đ&#x;ĄŠ
B2
11
19
đ&#x;ĄŠ
C3
8
17
đ&#x;ĄŠ
D4
10
12
đ&#x;ĄŠ
E5
10
16
đ&#x;ĄŠ
F6
17
16
đ&#x;ĄŠ
G7
9
12
đ&#x;ĄŠ
H8
18
9
đ&#x;ĄŠ
I9
19
18
đ&#x;ĄŠ
J10
12
13
đ&#x;ĄŠ
K11
10
10
-
L12
7
12
đ&#x;ĄŠ
M13
9
14
đ&#x;ĄŠ
N14
7
7
-
O15
6
13
đ&#x;ĄŠ
P16
9
10
đ&#x;ĄŠ
60
Q17
7
9
đ&#x;ĄŠ
R18
4
13
đ&#x;ĄŠ
S19
13
13
-
T20
7
13
đ&#x;ĄŠ
U21
14
17
đ&#x;ĄŠ
V22
8
12
đ&#x;ĄŠ
X23
6
15
đ&#x;ĄŠ
Total number of students who improved in marks: 17 students
Post-Activity Survey Findings: Q1.
Are you able to understand the
Q2. Is the KWL technique beneficial to you
comprehension text better after this
in answering Subjective Comprehension
lesson?
questions?
After going through the lessons, students found it beneficial for them, as they were able to understand better the comprehension text. Hence, this would help them to answer Subjective Comprehension questions better.
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Q3. Would you apply KWL technique to answer Subjective Comprehension questions in the future?
From the survey, majority of the students also indicated that they would apply KWL technique to answer subjective comprehension questions in the future. For the End-of-Year Examination, 20% of the students applied this strategy and there was an average increase of 5 marks in their Subjective Comprehension component.
REFLECTIONS/CONCLUSION
Use of SLS The use of Student Learning Space has proved to be effective in increasing students’ focus and encouraging engagement in the lesson. The students were given time to read their peers’ work after submitting their own assignment. This allowed the students to better comprehend the text by cross-checking on their own understanding of the text.
PLOT and KWL (Think, Puzzle, Explore) Strategies The use of these strategies is proven to encourage students to think deeper while reading the comprehension text. They were able to understand the text better, after applying this strategy. Ultimately, they were also able to answer the comprehension questions, especially the higher-order thinking questions.
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This strategies also has its limitation especially during examinations. The students felt that they may not be able to apply this strategy during the examination due to time constraint. However, over time, with constant practice, students will be more familiar and able to adapt the strategy naturally.
RECOMMENDATION
One of the recommendations is to create Design Map when using SLS as a tool in teaching and learning. This allows teachers to plan a more comprehensive lesson aligned to the SLS Framework. Teachers can also make use of SLS as a tool to teach other topics such as composition writing.
After going through this lesson, teachers can encourage more students to apply this strategy in their daily work and examinations. This can be done through monitoring of students’ work. Apart from that, this lesson can also be taught at the start of the year, to ensure that this strategy is consistently taught so that students will be more familiar with this strategy.
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REFERENCES
Barak, M. & Dori, Y. J. (2009). Enhancing higher order thinking skills among in service science teachers via embedded assessment. Journal of science Teacher Education, 20, 459-474.
Dainel Phua, Ramna Johana (2015). “Penerapan Paul’s Wheel of Reasoning dalam Perbualan Berdasarkan Video”, page 300-308, dalam Seminar Bahasa Melayu 2015, MLCS, Singapore
Manisah Osman (2016). “Meningkatkan Kemahiran Menjawab Soalan Kefahaman”, page 176-185, dalam Seminar Bahasa Melayu 2016, MLCS, Singapore
Mohamed Zain Mohamed, Nur Ashikin Sapri (2016). “Strategi Pengakaran Kefahaman dengan Menggunakan Bahan Visual”, page 503-512. dalam Seminar Bahasa Melayu 2016, MLCS, Singapore
Paul, R., (1995) Critical Thinking: How to prepare students for a rapidly changing world, Foundation for Critical Thinking, Santa Rosa
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Using paper planes to enhance thinking in Applied Learning Programme
Annamalai Kumar
Foo Weng Choy
Liow Kum Wah
Ramthan Ab Wahid
Shaun Tan Toy Loy
Venugopal Ramasamy
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Abstract This project aims to infuse thinking in the ALP classroom by virtue of folding paper planes and observing their flight path. The experiment is repeated with adjustments made to the shape of the paper plane and then, predictions, observations and explanations are made by students to determine the changes in the path. This takes them away from the usual doing routine in the classroom and instead wants to engage their thinking skills.
Introduction Why do it? The Applied Learning Programme has been part of the lower secondary curriculum in Northbrooks Secondary since 2014. The programme consists of enthusing students in Aerospace. In Sec 1, they are taught the basic theory of flight using traditional methods such as direct teaching and guided experiments to learn the 4 forces of flight. After that, they are guided on making their own wood chuck glider and they test their glider’s flight path. In Sec 2, they are taught to make and fly their own quadcopters. While this methodology has served its purpose in helping students become interested in Aerospace, it is more of a “doing� class and does not encourage students to become thinking learners. Aerospace is a non-IP subject as such, students often just are there to go about the motions and leave the classroom without having a chance to see the gravity of the subject at hand.
Thus the project team came up with an idea to start the process of thinking in the classroom by using the simplest yet unexplored method of folding paper planes to understand how the shape influences the movement of paper planes.
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How was it done? The project is done using the methodology of Lesson Study. Unlike the usual PLT Lesson Study where the lesson is taught, studied, refined and retaught and analysed, the ALP classroom does not have the luxury of doing this, as the number of lessons are fixed in the semester. This would render the idea of repeating the lesson quite impossible. To get around this problem, the team picked 2 different classes of similar calibre for the purpose of the study. For the first iteration, 1G was chosen. After the lesson was taken back to the drawing board and refinement was done, the lesson was repeated with 1I. Details are shared as follows.
Lesson 1 An introductory lesson is done and serves as an overview of the parts of the airplane, such as the nose, flaps, ailerons, rudder and stabilisers.
The functionality of the parts was not taught here, as this comes in to infuse the thinking during the next lesson, where the proper lesson study is done. The students have to then fold an airplane according to instructions. They then launch the airplane and study the movement. After this, they are told to try adjusting the nose, ailerons and tail and note the difference in movement. A Predict-Observe-Explain pedagogy is used here to facilitate checking of learning.
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Lesson 2 This was a modified lesson based on the discussion the team had after the first lesson was done. For this lesson, there was some degree of teaching instead of pure discovery. Students were introduced to key terms such as roll, yaw, dive and stall. The first experiment was guided and the students were given a “delete the wrong word� scaffolding. After this, the adjustments were made to the paper plane in a certain order for the students to be guided. Based on this, students were asked to discuss and answer.
The lesson plan for Lesson 2 is shown below.
Tim
Lesson Development
Rationale
e
Planned
Resources
Questions
15
-Teacher to recap 4 forces
min
of flight with students. -Teachers to introduce 3 Need students to What causes the 1 glider axes of rotation of an learn and use the airplane to turn airplane. -Teacher
technical terms for in the specified Axial to
also the
explanation fashion?
rotation
video
introduce and demo the part. meaning of dive and stall. -After this, students to be taught the
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10
Activity 1
-
min
Does the way a 120 gsm paper -Teacher students
to to
guide Step-by-step fold
paper plane is -paper
the guidance is needed folded influence folding video
experimental paper plane. for this 20
plane
how it flies?
Activity 2
min Students to investigate the 4 different scenarios for
the
experiment.
Students to be grouped into groups of 4 for this.
This
is
students
to
get Refer
to Worksheet
to
get worksheet
on questions
For first case students to acclimatized to the predictions and folded be guided on the 1st case, degree
of explanations
and paper
plane
both flaps up. They are to explanation launch and then teacher is required. to guide them for this step.
Prediction
is
a
scientific way of For second case, students getting students to to fold both flaps down. form Students to try to predict preconceptions
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before launching. After this, they are to launch, record their predictions and
make
their
explanations.
Similarly for the last 2 cases,
they
are
to
proceed.
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Literature Review Critical thinking is the ability to exercise sound judgement after analysing the evidence available in a given situation or a set of situations. It is a self-reflective and judgmental process which heavily relies on the data available in a scenario. Further to this, it is a systemised approach to the reasoning process.
Critical thinking is essential in students as the future will entail new problems which require new ways of approaching the situation that they would face. Instead of just posing questions which require minimal levels of thinking, it would be important for them to be taught how to think and formulate a solution. With this, a move away from questions with only one answer is needed. Rather, questions which may have several answers to the problem, depending on the chosen approach, would be necessary.
Furthermore, critical thinking should involve the correct level of scaffolding when the questions are being posed. Excessive scaffolding leads to a shortening of the thinking process while too little of it makes the problem to be not answerable for the secondary school student. Also, students should be allowed to discuss and reason among themselves before they present their solutions.
Several models of paper airplanes were tried out by the team, in order to form the most pliable plane. It had to be one which could be easily folded in the shortest time and the least number of steps and at the same time, one in which alterations could be made in order for the experiment to take place.
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CL Research Methods
The research was based on a lesson study method. To facilitate this, the lesson was taught and the Predict-Observe-Explain pedagogy was used to test the degree of learning.
The following questions were used:
Was student prediction correct, near correct or wrong? Are students able to answer given questions with reference to technical terms? Did students required a large amount of scaffolding to answer the questions? Number of questions that were well-answered
The rubrics to check on thinking were based on the following matrix.
Prediction
No prediction seen
Generalised prediction is seen
Specific prediction is seen
Answering
Answers are incorrect
Answers are incorrect but based on technical terms
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Answers make sense but not Answers are correct and based based on technical terms
Scaffolding
Students
on technical terms
require Students
demonstration
require
some
and guidance or hints
explanation to proceed
No scaffolding needed
Self-initiated.
Discussion The initial lesson had insufficient scaffolding, as it was observed that the students were struggling with technical terms and were unsure of the predictions too. While the lesson was able to stimulate thinking among the students as evidenced by the discussions happening, students were not able to come out with the expected depth of explanations. Many left blanks and did not attempt writing. As the time was spent on deliberating on what to write, the lesson could not be completed in time.
The team then met up and decided that more scaffolding was needed and the lesson plan had to factor in some explicit teaching in order for students to digest the prerequisites first before getting them to do the experiment and the questions.
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The modified lesson plan was able to stimulate students thinking with the correct level of scaffolding as almost all students were able to answer with the correct terminology.
The following charts are based on the questions that were asked and on the designed rubrics.
Student prediction 18%
82% Generalised prediction
Specific prediction
Chart 1: Alignment of Prediction
Chart 1 showed that the prediction that students made were based on some level of technicality. Most avoided making vague predictions and were able to make predictions based on their learning of the terms used during lessons.
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Students responses 3% 15%
12%
70% Incorrect Incorrect but with technical terms Answer make sense without technical terms Answers are correct with technical terms
Chart 2: Student Depth of Reasoning
Chart 2 shows the amount of reasoning that students could provide with their answers. 70 percent of them could produce answers with the proper technical terminology. This showed some evidence of critical thinking among them to a certain extent.
The team felt shared the following points for improvement.
Students perhaps could be given time to share their learning points during the lesson, as they did not have ample time to reflect upon. The space to conduct the PLT experiment was limited, as the ALP rooms were the only venues that we had. Perhaps, a bigger indoor space would have been better. To facilitate this, the hall would be a better venue.
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Conclusion The team felt that for a non-examinable subject like the Applied Learning Programme, getting students to think and reason was not an easy idea. This was a humble attempt to see if it could also lead to thinking, reasoning and discussions just like in a typical classroom. The conclusion is that, with the proper level of stimulation and scaffolding, thinking could also take place even it was not an IP subject.
More such opportunities are needed for the students in order to build up their selfconfidence, in order to better develop themselves for the future economy.
References Edward M. Glaser 2017. "Defining Critical Thinking". The International Center for the Assessment of Higher Order Thinking (ICAT, US)/Critical Thinking Community. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
21st CC Competencies 21 Oct 2018 https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/education-system/21st-century-competencies
Show Origami 1 Aug 2016. “The plane that flies long� https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PlkNStPDQU
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Using lesson study to explore if the strategy of perspective-taking will enhance student engagement in G2 modules. Jane Lee Linda Marie d/o Gunalan Lee Wen Lin Nicolich Ann Melissa Nuraida Bte Ajmaain
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Abstract Strategic Objective (SO) 2.1 ‘Developing a Customised and Engaging CCE Programme’ in the school’s strategy map inspired this PLT to explore perspective-taking in G2 [G.I.F.T.E.D. & Guidance (Education & Career Guidance, Cyberwellness & Sexuality Education)] modules. This study involved the use of various activities to support the strategy of perspectivetaking to promote student engagement and thereby realising SO 2.1.
Introduction Perspective-taking has been shown to be a critical component of character-building and giving students the opportunity to take stands in peer discussion through activities would hence allow them to not only be engaged during lessons but also exposed to the views of others. The Character and Citizenship Education Branch (CCEB) provided a list of activities to facilitate strategies such as perspective-taking, responsible decision-making and moral reasoning during CCE lessons. Through the use of lesson study approach, some of these recommended activities were utilised to further support and enhance selected G2 lessons in order to engage students, particularly in the strategy of perspective-taking for CCE. Research also has shown that cooperative learning enables students to accept other viewpoints during discussions. Data stems and survey questions were conceptualised for both teachers and students to draw meaningful triangulation of a data-driven analysis in this lesson study - via teachers’ surveys, students’ surveys and lesson observations.
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Literature review: Student engagement which includes a behavioural, emotional, and cognitive subcomponent. (Fredricks and McColskey 2012) Behavioural engagement draws on the idea of participation and includes involvement in academic, social, or extracurricular activities. (Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Finn, 1989) Emotional engagement focuses on the extent of positive (and negative) reactions to teachers, classmates, academics, or school. (Finn, 1989; Voelkl, 1997) cognitive engagement is defined as student’s level of investment in learning. It includes being thoughtful, strategic, and willing to exert the necessary effort for comprehension of complex ideas or mastery of difficult skills (Corno & Mandinach, 1983; Fredricks et al., 2004; Meece, Blumenfeld, & Hoyle, 1988).
These findings draw similarity to that of another research by Handelsman, Briggs, Sullivan, and Towler’s (2005). It found four factors of students engagement namely how students devote time and energy in the classroom: skills engagement (keeping up with readings, putting forth effort); emotional engagement (making the course interesting, applying it to their own lives); participation/interaction engagement (having fun, participating actively in small group discussions); and performance engagement (doing well on tests, getting a good grade) (Handelsman et al., 2005, p. 187).
Methods for studying student engagement (Quantitative & Qualitative) were discussed in Fredricks and McColskey (2012). Self-report survey measures are the most common method for assessing student engagement. In this methodology, students are provided items reflecting various aspects of engagement and select the response that best describes them. Self-report methods are particularly useful for assessing emotional and cognitive engagement which are not directly observable and need to be inferred from behaviors.
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Another method for assessing student engagement is teacher checklists or rating scales. Teacher ratings of individual students’ engagement, when averaged across students in their classrooms, offer an alternative perspective on student engagement from that reported by the students themselves. Some studies have included both teacher ratings and students’ selfreports of engagement in order to examine the correspondence between the two measurement techniques (Skinner, Marchand, Furrer, & Kindermann, 2008; Skinner et al., 2009b).
Observational methods at both the individual and classroom level have also been used to measure engagement. At the individual level, observational measures have been developed to assess individual students’ on and off task behaviour as an indicator of academic engagement (Volpe, DiPerna, Hintze, & Shapiro, 2005). The prime advantage of using observation techniques to study engagement is that they can provide detailed and descriptive accounts of the contextual factors occurring with higher or lower engagement levels. Observational methods also can be used to verify information about engagement collected from survey and interview techniques.
Method: The team adopted the critical inquiry method of Lesson Study in order to carry out the project. As Lesson Study motivates teachers to examine classroom practices and study the lesson instruction to determine how students gain knowledge the best, this method was selected to find out if the enhancement activities did increase the engagement of the students during G2 lessons through the strategy of perspective-taking. 16 G2 lessons were selected to be enhanced with activities such as ‘conscience alley’ and ‘wandering flipchart’ and at the end of the lessons, student surveys and teacher surveys were conducted. These lessons were also observed by Year Heads, HOD/ CCE and ST/ CCE (Ag), who also completed the teacher surveys at the end of the lessons.
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Survey Results Analysis Summary of enhanced lessons and strategies No.
Term/Wk
Date
Level
Guidance Module/Topic
Strategy
1
T1W7
18/2/2019
Sec 2
SEd1 - Lesson About Love ‘4 Quadrants’ & S2SED2 - Lesson About Love
2
T1W7
18/2/2019
Sec 4
GL7 Professionalism @ Role Play Work
3
T1W8
27/2/2019
Sec 1
CW3
Expression: ‘Conscience
Discovering
Self
and Alley’
Growing with Others 4
T1W9
6/3/2019
Sec 3
ECG3 Know it, Plan it, Do Wandering it
5
T2W2
1/4/2019
Sec 2
Flipchart
ECG4 - It's Not Just About ‘I Used to know, Now I know’
Me 6
T2W2
3/4/2019
Sec 3
CW1
Handling
online ‘Step Inside’
content and behaviour 3 7
T2W2
3/4/2019
Sec 4
SEd3 At the Crossroads
‘4 Quadrants’
8
T2W7
8/5/2019
Sec 1
ECG1 Who Am I? &
Wondering
ECG2 Work S.M.A.R.T
flipchart
81
9
T3W3
15/7/2019
Sec 1
GL5 Thinking Heart, ‘Brainstorming‘, Feeling
- ’Think-Pair-Share’
Mind
Courage to Stand Firm 10
T3W3
15/7/2019
Sec 5
and ‘Theatre Forum’
Online ‘Think-pair-share’,
CW1 Relationships 5
‘4 Quadrants’
11
T3W7
14/8/2019
Sec 2
CW2 Cyberbullying
‘Stepping In’
12
T3W7
14/8/2019
Sec 5
GL14 Peacekeeping
‘Hot Seat’, ‘Gallery Walk’
13
T3W8
19/8/2019
Sec 1
SEd3 Lesson About ‘Deciding
Line’,
Love - A Touchy Issue ‘Stand Up, Hand up, Pair Up’. 14
T3W8
19/8/2019
Sec 3
SEd4 Lessons about ‘Deciding Line’, ‘I Love
used to think, Now I think’.
15
T4W1
16/9/2019
Sec 2
GL13
Respect
for ‘I used to think, Now I think’
Wildlife
‘See-ThinkWonder’ 16
T4W1
18/9/2019
Sec 3
GL11 & 12 Shared ‘Hot Seat’ Responsibility United
We
& Stand,
Divided We Fall
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In Term 1 of this academic year (2019), there were four enhanced G2 lessons (Sec 1 to Sec 4). All lessons were enhanced with various strategies to enhance student engagement.
Sec 2 SEd & Student Sec
Staff
4
G.I.F.T.E.D . Lessons
18 Feb 2019
The Sec 2 Sexuality Education lesson on love and Sec 4 G.I.F.T.E.D. lesson on professionalism at work on 18th February 2019 were enhanced with the strategies ‘4 Quadrants’ and ‘Role Play’ respectively. The Sec 2 lesson was enhanced with the strategy of 4 Quadrants to encourage all student participation in decision making when faced with a risky situation where students had to choose which perspective they strongly agreed with by moving to a corner of the classroom before sharing and discussing their perspectives as a class. The Sec 4 lesson was enhanced with the strategy of role play to allow students to act out a short skit to illustrate their understanding of good work ethic. This was with the purpose of getting students to demonstrate their learning in an active manner instead of the conventional static question and answer model in most CCE lessons in the past.
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Survey results from these two lessons showed that the majority of students found the lesson engaging as 75% of students agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 88% agreed that lesson enabled them to view the issue from a different perspective. From these two lessons, the staff were unanimous with 100% of staff agreeing that lesson was exciting for students and strategies allowed students to share opinions. Student
Staff
Sec 1 CW Lesson
27 Feb 2019
The Sec 1 Cyberwellness lesson on “Discovering Self and Growing with Others” on 27th February 2019 was enhanced with the strategy ‘Conscience Alley’ aimed at getting students to analyse a decisive moment and share their thoughts and advice on the matter. This was facilitated by having the class form two lines facing each other before the teacher walked between the two lines as each member shared their thoughts or advice.
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Survey results from this enhanced lesson showed that the majority of students found the lesson engaging as 92.7% of students agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 96.4% agreed that lesson enabled them to view the issue from a different perspective. Staff was unanimous with 100% of staff agreeing that the lesson was exciting for students and that the strategy of ‘Conscience Alley’ allowed students to understand different perspectives and share their opinions which increases student engagement.
Student
Staff
Sec 3 ECG Lesson
6 Mar 2019
The Sec 3 Education and Career Guidance (ECG) lesson on ‘Exploring and Understanding the Education Landscape’ on 6th March 2019 was enhanced with the strategy ‘Wondering Flipchart, aimed at increasing student engagement by having students plan a given student’s education pathway in groups and having that plan passed around the class for other groups to write comments/suggestions until every group had commented on other groups’ plans.
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Survey results from this enhanced lesson showed that the majority of students found the lesson engaging as 82.7% of students agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 78.6% agreed that lesson enabled them to view the issue from a different perspective. Similarly, 76.9% of staff agreed that the lesson was exciting for students and 76.9% agreeing that the strategy of ‘Wandering Flipchart’ allowed students to understand different perspectives and share their opinions which increased student engagement.
Overall, both survey data from students and staff of enhanced lessons in Term 1 indicated that strategies resulted in exciting lessons with student engagement as strategies allowed students to understand different perspectives and share opinions in lessons.
In Term 2 of this academic year (2019), there were four enhanced G2 lessons (Sec 1 to Sec 4). Once again, lessons were enhanced with various strategies to enhance student engagement.
Sec 2 ECG Student
Staff
Lessons
1
April
2019
86
The Sec 2 ECG enhanced lesson conducted on 1 April was on acquiring self-awareness and applying self-management skills to achieve personal well-being and effectiveness in exploring and planning for post-secondary opportunities. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘I Used to know, Now I know’ where students reflected on any new discovery on the requirements of higher institutions of their choice.
Survey results showed that a fair portion of students found the lesson engaging as 51.5% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share their opinions and 72.8% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. 100% of staff agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed the students to share opinions while 85.7% of staff agreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives. There was one staff or 14.8% of staff who however disagreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives.
Sec 3 CW Student Lessons
3
Staff (no data)
April
2019
(no data)
87
The Sec 3 CW enhanced lesson conducted on 3 April was on handling online content and media. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘Step Inside’ where students discussed within groups the different perspectives a student might have on the ethical and legal considerations in creating and sharing information using online media.
Survey results show that a large percentage of students found the lesson engaging as 66.6% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 88.3% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. There were no responses from staff.
Sec 4 SEd Student
Staff
Lessons
3
April
2019
88
The Sec 4 SEd enhanced lesson conducted on 3 April was on Gender Role and Identity. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘4 Quadrants’ where students chose actions to commit to with regard to gender role stereotypes. They then explained their decision and shared with other students who chose the same quadrant.
Survey results show that the majority of students found the lesson engaging as 85.1% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 93.6% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. The staff survey showed that the strategy used encouraged fruitful interaction where opinions were shared and the students demonstrated the ability to take on various perspectives.
Sec 1 ECG Student
Staff
Lessons
8 May 2019
89
The ECG enhanced lesson conducted on 8 May was on Self-Awareness & SelfManagement. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘Wondering Flipchart’ where students were in different groups to receive feedback on their group’s SMART goals after which they reviewed and improved on their own SMART goals.
Survey results showed that the majority of students found the lesson engaging as 85.4% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 91.4% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. 87.5% of staff agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed the students to share opinions while one staff or 12.5% of staff disagreed on that. 75.0% of staff agreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives. There were two staff or 25.0% of staff who however disagreed and strongly disagreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives.
Overall, both survey data from students and staff of enhanced lessons in Term 2 indicated that strategies increased student engagement as students were able to understand different perspectives and shared opinions in lessons.
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In Term 3 of this academic year (2019), there were two enhanced G2 lessons (Sec 1 and Sec 5).
Sec
1 Student
Staff
G.I.F.T.E.D . Lessons
15 Jul 2019
The Sec 1 G.I.F.T.E.D. lesson on courage to stand firm on 15th July 2019 was enhanced with the strategies ‘Brainstorming’, ‘Think-Pair-Share’, and ‘Forum Theatre’ where students brainstormed with their partners on positive and negative peer pressure influences and why students give in to them. In Forum Theatre, groups of students were given scenarios and instructed to act out to the class on ways to stand up against unhealthy influences.
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Survey results show that a great portion of students found the lesson engaging as 82.2% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share their opinions and 92.4% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. 100% of staff agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed the students to share opinions and agreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives.
Sec 5 CW Student
Staff
Lessons
15 Jul 2019
The Sec 5 CW enhanced lesson conducted on 15th July was on challenging online interactions, using online flaming as an example. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘Think-pair-share’ where students shared their possible responses to challenging online interactions. Subsequently, the strategy ‘4 Quadrants’ was used where students chose which action to commit to recover from the situation while upholding integrity and practising empathy. They then explained their decision and shared with other students who chose the same quadrant.
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Survey results show that a large percentage of students found the lesson engaging as 92.9% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share their opinions and 100% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. Staff showed positive responses to the engagement level of the students and their ability to view an issue from various perspectives.
Sec 2 CW Student
Staff
Lessons
14
Aug
2019
93
The Sec 2 CW2 enhanced lesson conducted on 14 August was on cyberbullying. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘Stepping-in’ where students shared their possible responses if they were to step into the shoes of the bully as well as those being bullied.
Survey results show that a large percentage of students found the lesson engaging as 83.3% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the activities in the lesson allowed them to interact with their peers while 66.6% shared their opinions and 85% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. 100% of staff agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed the students to interact with one another, shared their opinions and enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives.
Sec
5 Student
Staff
G.I.F.T.E.D .Lessons
14
Aug
2019
94
The Sec 5 G.I.F.T.E.D. lesson on courage to stand firm on 14th August 2019 was enhanced with the strategies ‘Hot Seat’ and ‘Gallery Walk’ where students were shown a video to better understand the various demands, challenges and contributions to the missions that SAF personnel undertake and then to consider the various stakeholders / people involved. A few students were invited to take the roles of the various parties in the hot seat. After discussions, groups of students were invited to put up the various scenarios and the responses were shared with the rest.
Survey results showed that a great portion of students found the lesson engaging as 92.9% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share their opinions and 100% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. 100% of staff agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed the students to share opinions and agreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives.
Sec 1 SEd Student
Staff
Lessons
19
Aug
2019
95
The Sec 1 SEd enhanced lesson conducted on 19 August was on Lesson about love - A Touchy Issue where The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘Deciding Line’ where students indicated their thoughts on whether they found the public display of affection shown in each photograph was acceptable or inappropriate by standing along the Deciding Line. Once everyone had found a spot along the line, they shared with the class their decision.
In the subsequent strategy that was used, ‘Stand Up, Hand up, Pair Up’, students were expected to stand up, raise their hand or wave at a friend and pair up with another classmate for the lesson.
Survey results showed that the majority of students found the lesson engaging as 95.6% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 97.4% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. 100% of staff agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed the students to share opinions and agreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives.
96
Sec 3 SEd Student
Staff
Lessons
19
Aug
2019
The Sec 3 SEd enhanced lesson conducted on 19 August was on Lessons about love. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy ‘Deciding Line’ where students had to indicate their thoughts on which stage of life is appropriate for the scenarios in the slides shown and standing on the Deciding Line according to the category which they thought was appropriate. Finally, the strategy of ‘I used to think, Now I think’ was used to get students to reflect individually on this line and share their thoughts with their classmates.
Survey results show that the majority of students found the lesson engaging as 88.2% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share opinions and 89.2% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from different perspectives. 100% of staff agreed or strongly agreed that the lesson allowed the students to share opinions and agreed that the lesson enabled the students to view the issue from different perspectives.
97
In Term 4 of this academic year (2019), there were two enhanced G2 lessons (Sec 2 and Sec 3).
Sec
2 Student
Staff
GIFTED Lessons
16
Sept
2019
The Sec 2 G.I.F.T.E.D lesson conducted on 16 September covered respect for wildlife. This lesson was enhanced with the strategies ‘I used to think, Now I think’ and ‘See-ThinkWonder’. Both strategies were included to encourage students to share their experiences and opinions on treatment of wildlife, ask questions and discuss the topic from multiple viewpoints or perspectives.
Survey results showed that 44.7% of students agreed and 18.9% strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share their opinions during the lesson while 80% of teachers agreed and 20% strongly agreed that students’ sharing of opinions were present during the lesson. Additionally, 49.2% of students agreed and 40.9% who strongly agreed that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from a different perspective while teachers were unanimous in this aspect.
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Sec
3 Student
Staff
GIFTED Lessons
18
Sept
2019
The Sec 3 G.I.F.T.E.D lesson conducted on 18 September covered shared responsibility as Singapore citizens. The lesson was enhanced with the strategy of ‘Hot Seat’. Hot seat was included to facilitate students to consider an issue from multiple perspectives. The question and answer format of Hot Seat encouraged students to verbalise their questions and opinions on this matter which increased student engagement.
Survey results showed that 58.1% of students agreed and 27.6% strongly agreed that the lesson allowed them to share their opinions during the lesson while 100% of teachers agreed that students’ sharing of opinions were present during the lesson. Additionally, 58.1% and 34.3% of students agreed and strongly agreed, respectively, that the lesson enabled them to view the issue from a different perspective while teachers were unanimous in this aspect.
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Analysis and Conclusion: Apart from analysing data from the surveys done by the students and teachers, it was evident from the lesson observations by Year Heads and CCE Committee that students appreciated new and different strategies and participated to their best. Teachers also welcomed the robust and deeper discussions through these strategies and reinforced teacher-student relationships. In conclusion, this PLT project allowed students to be exposed to perspective-taking as they got opportunities to not only share their opinions in class during the enhanced lessons, but also listen and comment on their peers’ suggestions and views. The enhanced lessons have met the objective of improving student engagement via the various strategies deployed to encourage perspective-taking. Limitations and Recommendations: Upon enhancements with new strategies, some of the lessons took slightly longer than 2 periods to complete and teachers had to rush for time in order to complete the Survey. Future enhancements of lessons could factor in more time for discussions and less content on slides so as to facilitate completion of the Surveys as well. In the busyness of Semester 2, Year Heads, HOD/ CCE and ST/ CCE (Ag) were themselves involved in other CCE lessons and hence were unable to be involved in observing enhanced lessons. Deployment for lesson observations in Semester 2 in 2020 could be carried out more rigorously so that all enhanced lessons are observed. Only a few new strategies were utilised for lesson enhancements this time and some were repeated in lessons in other levels. For the next round of lesson enhancements, the team could explore looking into other CCE strategies to encourage student discussion and increase student engagement.
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References 1. Fredricks, J. A., & McColskey, W. (2012). The measurement of student engagement: A comparative analysis of various methods and student self-report instruments. In S. L. Christenson, A. L. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 763-782). New York, NY, US: Springer Science + Business Media.
2. Handelsman, M. M., Briggs, W. L., Sullivan, N., & Towler, A. (2005). A Measure of College Student Course Engagement. The Journal of Educational Research, 98(3), 184-191.
3. Skinner, E., Furrer, C., Marchand, G., & Kindermann, T. (2008). Engagement and disaffection in the classroom: Part of a larger motivational dynamic? Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(4), 765-781.
4. Volpe, R. J., DiPerna, J. C., Hintze, J. M., & Shapiro, E. S. (2005). Observing Students in Classroom Settings: A Review of Seven Coding Schemes. School Psychology Review, 34(4), 454-474.
5. Connell, J. P., & Wellborn, J. G. (1991). Competence, autonomy, and relatedness: A motivational analysis of self-system processes. In M. R. Gunnar & L. A. Sroufe (Eds.), The Minnesota symposia on child psychology, Vol. 23. Self processes and development (pp. 43-77). Hillsdale, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
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Promoting Critical Thinking in Social Studies through Issue Investigation Via Moot Parliament Programme
Chee Yuan Leng Kerina Tan Shi Yun Sharmila d/o Sivalingam
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Abstract The Moot Parliament is a replica of how a Parliamentary session is carried out. The objective of the Moot Parliament is designed to build on the critical thinking aspect of students. In this PLT, students are assigned a role in the Parliament to discuss about the sustainability of Singapore’s foreign manpower policy. This is in line with the Social Studies syllabus on the increasing diversity in Singapore. Results show that students were able to do perspective taking and understand the structure of the legislation process.
Introduction In the Social Studies syllabus, students are required to complete an Issue investigation which explores societal issues and supplements students’ understanding in interpreting sources and perspective taking. Our project focuses on conducting a Moot Parliament on the motion statement – Is the foreign manpower policy in Singapore sustainable?
The issue is pertinent to the Singapore’s context today, as the Singapore government has implemented a series of immigration policies to encourage the entry of foreigners into Singapore to build Singapore’s economy. This issue also complements Issue 2 – Living in a Diverse Society, where students explore the various factors leading to a multi-cultural Singapore and the challenges and benefits that come along with it. Moreover, the Moot Parliament is an extension of the Secondary Three students learning journey to Parliament House. The Moot Parliament allows active learning to take place.
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Literature review
Critical Inquiry
Critical inquiry is the process of gathering and evaluating information, ideas, and assumptions from multiple perspectives to produce well-reasoned analysis and understanding, and leading to new ideas, applications and questions. This is a key pedagogy used in the Social Studies Syllabus and one application of this approach is Issue Investigation.
The Critical Inquiry continuum has three types of guided Inquiry and for distinct stages. The three types of guided inquiry are, teacher directed, teacher guided and student directed, with teacher directed providing the most scaffolding and student directed providing the least. The 4 stages for each of these are Sparking Curiosity, Data Gathering, Exercising Reasoning and Reflective thinking.
The 3 types and 4 stages of critical inquiry is the basis on with this Issue investigation is designed. Issue investigation as a pedagogy is used to develop skills and dispositions that cannot be wholly assessed through conventional modes of assessment. It provides a platform for students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills that the social studies syllabus aims to teach.
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Issue Investigation Purpose of Issue investigation The inquiry approach develops skills and values that cannot be wholly assessed through conventional pen-and-paper assessment modes as students are required to integrate the knowledge, skills and values learnt and demonstrate them in the classroom. Thus, the outcomes of the approach are better exemplified through their participation in learning activities. As a performance task, Issue Investigation provides a platform for students to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and values needed for active citizenship. As students conduct investigations on societal issues of meaning to them, they extend their inquiry skills by working as a group to: •
identify a societal issue that is a cause of concern;
•
gather data that reflects multiple perspectives;
•
analyse the data gathered to surface trends and patterns that help address the issue;
•
arrive at well-reasoned and substantiated conclusions;
•
consider possible recommendations to the societal issue; and
•
reflect on their understanding of the societal issue and examine personal assumptions and beliefs about the issue.
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The different stages of Issue Investigation, i.e. Sparking Curiosity, Gathering Data, Exercising Reasoning and Reflective Thinking, allow students the opportunity to apply a combination of knowledge, skills and values to inquire and address the societal issue they have chosen. Perspective Taking A skill students will use while preparing for the moot parliament is perspective taking.
Perspective taking is the ability to look beyond your own point of view, so that you can consider how someone else may think or feel about something.
Perspective Taking involves setting aside your thoughts, feelings, motivations & intentions, momentarily, considering others’ thoughts, feelings, motivations & intentions, determining whether or not your behavior should change based on that information and making any necessary changes.
Studies have shown that students who improve their perspective taking are better able to:
●
interpret the needs and wants(motivation) of others
● demonstrate consideration and empathy toward others ● safely navigate around people who may have ill intentions ● adjust their behavior so that others’ feel comfortable
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â—? interpret assignments at school (especially reading and writing assignments) by understanding the perspective of the characters studied or the person who will be reading their writing â—? share in the happiness of others even without sharing the same level of interest in the topic, purely because they like the other person â—? think critically about social situations and relationships and engage in personal problem solving Methods A lesson study approach was used in the CI research. Lesson Study is a teacher-driven practice in which teachers collaboratively set goals, plan, research, and study their lesson instruction as a way to determine how students learn best. In this PLT, lesson study was used to investigate if the Moot Parliament programme would help the students think critically and take perspectives. The teachers in the PLT set goals, i.e. getting students to think critically about a societal issue and to see the different perspectives the issue brings. The teachers also brainstorm the lesson plan and craft materials to support the implementation of the Moot Parliament. We would gather our data from the Secondary 3 Express students and their Social Studies subject teachers on the effectiveness of the Moot Parliament session. Moreover, the Moot Parliament exercise would also be video recorded for teachers to view after the session. This would help to provide findings on the aspects that need to be improved for Moot Parliament Programme 2020.
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Process A total of 80 Secondary 3 Express students participated in this Moot Parliament. They are sorted into 4 different classes based on their electives (History/ Geography/ Literature in English).
In Term 2, students visited the Parliament House in Singapore to learn more about the legislation in the country. This is relevant to the Social Studies syllabus Issue 1- on Citizenship and Governance. During this Learning Journey, students are introduced to the Parliament Seating as well.
Students were first introduced to the Moot Parliament in Term 3, in conjunction with their content learning in Issue 2. In the first session, every student was allocated a role1) Minister for Manpower 2) Minister for Trade & Industry 3) Opposition Party 1 4) Opposition Party 2 5) Nominated Member of Parliament (Business)
The topic of foreign manpower is relatable to the Government Ministries as they are involved in ensuring that Singapore remains a competitive country whilst protecting the rights of Singaporeans. NMP (Business) will also be concerned about this issue as it affects their costs and production efficiency. On the other hand, the Opposition Parties may be against the sustainability of foreign manpower in Singapore. The Population White Paper in 2013 had sparked outcry over
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creating a Singapore for Singaporeans; hence the sustainability of foreign manpower may be a controversial issue.
Students were tasked to complete an online assignment in their groups. The online assignment consisted of 4 sections - Background Information, Argument, Conclusion and Rebuttal (Annex A). This was designed to complement students’ learning in the examinable Source-Based Case Study, which evaluates students’ critical thinking and inferential skills. Students were required to do independent research in order to complete the assignment. Thereafter, a Moot Parliament was conducted during the Post-Exam Activities in Term 4 with the teacher as the facilitator and moderator of the session.
Results Analysis & Findings
Both quantitative and qualitative assessments were conducted after the Moot Parliament session for two categories – teachers (Annex B) and students.
94.6% of the cohort agreed that the Moot Parliament enabled them to understand the multiple perspectives towards the foreign manpower policy in Singapore. As mentioned in the earlier segment, students were allocated different roles to address the issue of foreign manpower in Singapore.
69.6% of the cohort agreed that the Moot Parliament honed their confidence in public speaking. During the Moot Parliament, students are required to rotate to present their speeches. Thus, 75%
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of the students had the opportunity to present during the Moot Parliament. This translates to 93.2% of the students who presented during the Moot Parliament gaining more confidence by presenting in a public setting.
83.9% of the cohort agreed that the Moot Parliament enabled them to think more critically about societal issues. During the course of the Issue Investigation, students had to take on multiple perspectives and consider these aspects in their rebuttal segment. This allowed them to weigh both sides of the inquiry question before coming to a conclusion.
98.2% of the cohort agreed that the Moot Parliament was enjoyable and engaging. The Moot Parliament sessions were able to raise the students’ engagement level as they participated actively in the debate. It allowed them to own their learning.
The teachers also agreed that the Moot Parliament exposed students to more real-world societal issues and the independent learning challenged students to be more critical in their source selection and perspective taking.
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Discussion (Limitations & Recommendations)
A pre-assessment could be conducted prior to the Issue Investigation to find out about students’ understanding towards a Moot Parliament. This will enable us to find out the effectiveness of Moot Parliament in enhancing perspective thinking due to the Issue Investigation, and not due to other factors.
Materials given across the level should also be synchronised across all classes, as additional reading or analysis material provided may affect students’ understanding towards the issue. A document which states the proceeding of the Moot Parliament exercise would need to be enhanced (Annex C), so that the experience would be uniformed across the classes. Moreover, it is recommended that all Social Studies teachers teaching Secondary 3 would need to be briefed and trained on the conduct of the Moot Parliament exercise. This is to ensure that teachers conducting the Moot Parliament exercise for the first time would be familiar with the proceedings and moderate the exercise effectively.
The Moot Parliament exercise was carried out in individual classes. Hence, students may have had different experience within their own classes and resulted in the feedback we received. For Moot Parliament 2020, it is recommended to get students to experience it in their own classes and then have an inter-class Moot Parliament Competition to be held during the Mid-Year PEA duration.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, the Moot Parliament as an Issue Investigation Process is effective in encouraging critical thinking. Our PLT shows that it is a way to discuss multiple perspectives and allow students to build on their awareness relating to source provenances and content. Moving on, an improved version will be to advance the class activity to a level-wide activity.
References (APA format)
[1] Academic Affairs. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.usca.edu/academic-affairs/generaleducation-requirements/critical-inquiry-afci-101
[2] CPDD Upper Secondary Teaching and Learning Guide
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Annex A Motion Statement: Is the foreign manpower policy in Singapore sustainable?
Background information (about 200 words) Guiding questions: 1) Describe what is the foreign manpower policy in Singapore about 2) Why did the government implement the foreign manpower policy? 3) What are the positive views from the public? 4) What are the negative views from the public?
Argument (about 500 words) -
What is your group’s stand?
E.g. The foreign manpower policy in Singapore is sustainable/ not sustainable.
-
What are the reasons for your group’s stand?
E.g. Firstly, the policy is sustainable/ not sustainable because Singaporeans depend on migrant workers because they help us in building the infrastructure of the country, so there is less burden for Singaporeans. Secondly, the policy is sustainable/ not sustainable because Lastly, the policy is sustainable/ not sustainable because ….
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Suggestions (Choose either Q1 or Q2) (about 300 words)
Q1: If your group feels that the foreign manpower policy in Singapore is SUSTAINABLE, what are some ways you can implement to educate the Singapore population about the issue?
E.g. Moving on, we will discuss the ways to educate the Singapore population about the issue. Firstly, one way is …. because... Another way is … because...
Conclusion (about 100 words)
E.g. In conclusion, (insert your ministry/party) feels that the foreign manpower policy in Singapore is sustainable/ not sustainable because …. (You may reiterate your points)
Rebuttal 1) What are some arguments you think the opposition will come up with? 2) How are you going to counter these arguments? Explain your counter arguments.
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Annex B
Name of teacher: _________________________
Teacher’s Survey: Issue Investigation through Moot Parliament
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
1. The process of Issue Investigation has helped my students to view the issue on foreign manpower through multiple perspectives.
2. The process of Issue Investigation has helped my students think critically on the issue of foreign manpower in Singapore.
3. The Moot
Parliament session has
enabled my students to express their arguments
and
counter
arguments
confidently.
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4. How has the Issue Investigation been beneficial for students?
5. How has the Issue Investigation aided you in your teaching process?
6. What processes can be improved for the Issue Investigation?
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Annex C Teacher Guide to Moot Parliament 2019
Slide 1
Introduction to Moot Parliament
20 mins
E.g. Today we will be conducting the Moot Parliament. Previously, you have completed the online assignment in your groups. You will be presenting your points today. Slide 2
Slide 3
Layout -
Set up the class in the format as shown in the slide.
-
Ensure that students are sitting with their group members.
Flow of Moot Parliament -
Get students to select one representation for each segment, except rebuttal.
-
There will be a total of three representatives per group.
-
The first representative (Background Information + Argument) will be sitting in the middle of the class first.
Slide 4
Expectations -
Slide 5
Go through the expectations
Speaker -
60 mins
Introduce yourself as the speaker of this session
E.g. I will be the Speaker for today’s session. I will regulate and enforce the rules of this session. I will inform you when it is your turn
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to speak. I will not participate in the debate, neither will I cast a vote at the end of the session. Each representative will be given a stipulated time. Please adhere to the time on the slides. Slide 6
Motion Statement
Slide 7
Round 1 E.g. We will now begin Round 1: Background Information and Argument. Each representative has 3 minutes. At 2 minutes, I will ring the bell once. At 3 minutes, I will ring the bell twice.
Slide 8
E.g. May we now invite the Minister for Manpower to speak. You have 3 minutes.
Slide 9
E.g. May we now invite the Minister for Trade and Industry to speak. You have 3 minutes.
Slide 10
E.g. May we now invite the representative from Opposition Party 1 to speak. You have 3 minutes.
Slide 11
E.g. May we now invite the representative from Opposition Party 2 to speak. You have 3 minutes.
Slide 12
E.g. May we now invite NMP (Business) to speak. You have 3 minutes.
Slide 13
E.g. We have now come to the end of Round 1. Thank you speakers. We will begin Round 2. Please send Representative 2 from each group to the middle.
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We will now begin Round 2: Suggestions. Each representative has 2 minutes. At 1 minute, I will ring the bell once. At 2 minutes, I will ring the bell twice. Slide 14
E.g. May we now invite the Minister for Manpower to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 15
E.g. May we now invite the Minister for Trade and Industry to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 16
E.g. May we now invite the representative from Opposition Party 1 to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 17
E.g. May we now invite the representative from Opposition Party 2 to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 18
E.g. May we now invite NMP (Business) to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 19
E.g. We have now come to the end of Round 2. Thank you speakers.
It is now time to prepare for the rebuttal session. It will be open to everyone, including those on the floor. If you wish to raise a point, please raise your hand. Please also state which side you wish to rebut before you list your points.
You have 10 minutes to prepare within your groups. Slide 20
We will begin Round 3: Rebuttal.
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Time allocated is 10 minutes. At 8 minutes, I will ring the bell once. At 10 minutes, I will ring the bell twice. Is there anyone who wishes to raise a point? Slide 21
E.g. We have now come to the end of Round 3. Thank you speakers. We will begin Round 4. Please send Representative 3 from each group to the middle. We will now begin Round 2: Suggestions. Each representative has 2 minutes. At 1 minute, I will ring the bell once. At 2 minutes, I will ring the bell twice.
Slide 22
E.g. May we now invite the Minister for Manpower to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 23
E.g. May we now invite the Minister for Trade and Industry to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 24
E.g. May we now invite the representative from Opposition Party 1 to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 25
E.g. May we now invite the representative from Opposition Party 2 to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 26
E.g. May we now invite NMP (Business) to speak. You have 2 minutes.
Slide 27
E.g. We have now come to the end of Round 4. It is now time to cast your vote.
Slide 28
Teacher concludes
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Investigating the impact of using Making Thinking Visible Routines to foster Critical Thinking in students
Diana Ghazali Foo Weng Choy Kesavan s/o Thangam Nurnadia Bte Abdolah Tang Weng Yee Zuraidah Abdul Karim Sasidharan Indra Devi
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ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of using Making Thinking Visible routines as a way to foster critical thinking among students. Thinking Routines from the book ‘Making Thinking Visible’ by Ron Ritchhart were used as instructional strategies in lessons to guide learners’ thought processes and encourage active learning in the classrooms. Making Thinking Visible (MTV) is a research-based conceptual framework, which aims to integrate the development of students’ thinking with content learning across subjects. This book, thus served as a guide for the team of teachers to carry out their study. The routines were used in English, Social Studies, History, Design and Technology, Art, and Malay lessons. INTRODUCTION The team was formed based on interest as all of us wanted to explore strategies that would promote active learning in the classroom. We wanted our students to be not just passive learners but also active participants in learning. What is active learning and why is it important? Analysis of the research literature (Chickering and Camson 1987), confirms that students must do more than just listen in a classroom. They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. Most importantly, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing. Our teaching experiences revealed that our students were generally passive learners than active learners in class. There was a need to adopt strategies that would promote active 122
learning among students in class. The routines from the book ‘Making Thinking Visible’ is reputed to promote engagement, guide learners’ thought processes and encourage active learning in the classroom. Thus, the decision was made to read and employ these strategies in class. For this study, the team has chosen to explore selected routines from the book and highlight how these routines helped to promote the development of students’ thinking and active learning in class. The team believes that these routines serve as good scaffolds to guide students in their process of thinking and learning. The profile of students in this study are students from different streams and level and of mixed ability. The team used the following routines during lessons: a) Routines for Exploring Ideas b) Routines for Synthesizing and Organising Ideas c) Routines for Digging Deeper into ideas The lesson plans and video compilation of the team members’ lessons show how MTV routines were used in different subjects to promote active learning in the classroom. The video and lesson plans will serve as teaching resources for teachers who are interested to apply the thinking routines in their classrooms.
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RATIONALE FOR USING THE MTV ROUTINES IN THE VARIOUS SUBJECTS a)
Social Studies (Sec 4NA) The main reason for selecting a graduating class for this lesson study was primarily
due to their familiarity with all the topics in the Social Studies syllabus and it was believed that they would be able to provide fair judgement and opinion on the topic of inquiry. The inquiry topic was to discuss whether Singapore is an inclusive society through the use of three authentic sources: two online newspaper articles and a documentary segment from, “Regardless of Race”. The crux of the lesson study was to elicit responses on the inquiry question and gather students’ frank opinion, employing the Tug-of-War, MTV routine. b)
Malay (Sec 2 Exp) The rationale for choosing Subjective Comprehension was to help students improve
their performance during examination. This component carries a weightage of 15% for the overall exam. The students usually have difficulty scoring well for this component. It is hoped that with using the Think-Puzzle-Explore MTV routine, students could understand the text better and answer the comprehension questions more effectively. c)
Design & Technology (Sec 3 Exp) A mechanism is usually a piece of a larger process or mechanical system. Multiple
mechanisms form machines. Students have difficulties to identify, integrate and apply different mechanisms into their learning. It is difficult to study mechanism in silo without understanding its’ integration conceptual application. Hence, we attempted to use the Connect - Extend – Challenge MTV routine to synthesize and organise core ideas of the mechanism system so that students can build their understanding around it. 124
d)
English Language (Sec 1 Exp) The rationale for choosing Comprehension as a topic for this inquiry is because the
Comprehension Weighted Assessment held in term 2, revealed that students were still weak in this area despite the practices done in class. From the answers given by the students in the tests, two conclusions were derived. The students tend to either take the first answer they think is correct or they did not consider the context the question was set in. Thus, it was felt that the students need to learn to substantiate their answers before deciding on the final answer. It was felt that the students need to question their answers and learn to defend their answers with the necessary evidence from the comprehension passage. Thus, the MTV routine, Claim-Support-Question was chosen as the thinking routine to help the students be more selective when choosing their answers for the various comprehension questions. e)
English Language (Sec 1NT) Think-Puzzle-Explore was chosen to teach the students on how to write an
eyewitness account. As the students have been exposed to writing Personal Recounts in Semester 1, they would have some prior knowledge of language features expected of a recount. However, the focus of using Think-Puzzle-Explore is to get the students to think about what they already know and make the link to the difference between writing a recount and an eyewitness account. Both writing types share similar qualities yet very different in nature. The routine enables teachers to have a sense of the students’ current understanding of the topic and therefore, influence the shape and structure of the lesson.
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f)
Art (Sec 3 Exp) Genuine inquiry in Art encourages connections and personal meaning making,
teaches curiosity and cultivates critical thinking skills. The focus is directed on the Secondary 3 students as they begin to prepare for the National Level coursework in which they require to create Art with meaning. As students learn about art, they are led to understand art as a form of human expression and communication, and that art engages the imagination. As students puzzle through artistic processes and materials, they problemsolve, reflect and take sensible risks. In observing and sharing interpretations of famous artworks as well as one another’s artworks through the use of thinking routines during an “Art Gallery walk�, students practice attention to detail, inference, and the ability to consider multiple perspectives, think for themselves as well as listen to others. Ultimately, the objective would be for the students to be able to develop a strong vocabulary to articulate their interpretations and ideas as they look, as well as to create, Art. g)
History (Sec 3Exp) One key concept in History is Perspective Taking. Perspective is the viewpoint from
which someone thinks about an issue. Understanding the perspectives of historical personalities play an important role in studying the past. It also helps students understand why certain events happen in a certain way. The routine Circle-of-Viewpoint identifies different perspectives that could be present in an issue. This routine also helps to promote critical thinking in students.
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4.
MODES OF INQUIRY The team adopted Learning Circle as the mode of inquiry to guide us through the
whole process. A Learning Circle is a collaborative problem-solving tool that facilitates effective discussion through: Reflection, Dialogue and Critical Friendship. This mode of inquiry enabled us to learn from one another’s rich experiences in the classroom. It also provided us a platform to discuss and examine classroom practices as well as increase our awareness of the way we teach the MTV routines to students and how students learn. The team also invited one another to observe the lessons being conducted in class and gathered feedback from colleagues. The process also enabled us to reflect on our own practices in the classroom, both before and after implementing the thinking routines. LITERATURE REVIEW The development of critical thinking skills in students is crucial for increasing a country’s capacity and effectiveness to cope with the changes of a transient economy in the light of globalisation. In the case of Singapore, attempts have been made as early as 1997, to promote critical thinking in schools. For example, the Thinking Unit in the Ministry of Education (MOE) was set up in 1997 as a vehicle for change in developing a learning environment that includes educational institutions, teachers, parents and industries. In the same year, the “Thinking School, Learning Nation” (TSLN) initiative was launched, focusing on key strategies such as infusion of critical and creative thinking skills into the school curriculum. Subsequently, there were attempts by schools to incorporate Critical Thinking as part of their strategic initiatives as it’s one of the key components of the 21st century competencies.
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Critical Thinking allows people to open-mindedly, evaluate incoming information by determining the basis for and the validity of the views being expressed. Critical Thinkers use logic to solve problems, they plan strategically for dealing with the issue by clarifying the problem and its components, by considering the viability of alternative solutions. (Ron Ritchart, 2002, p. 29) Critical Thinking is not something that comes naturally to students. To develop a culture of thinking, there must be scaffolds that lead students to the disposition towards thinking. Making Thinking Visible (MTV) is a research-based conceptual framework, which aims to integrate the development of students’ thinking with content learning across subject matters. ROUTINES USED TO ENCOURAGE CRITICAL THINKING IN THE CLASSROOM
a)
Social Studies (Sec 4NA) The Tug-of-War MTV strategy was selected as the central pedagogy for this inquiry
lesson. For this lesson, students were presented with a dilemma that can be considered from multiple perspectives. In this case, students were presented an inquiry question. Students choose a “Yes” or “No” response with the reason clearly stated in a post it. Next they were given sources to read. After reading each source, students provided their response in a post it regarding the issue that was presented. Students were then given more sources to read. After reading all the required sources, students were to give their final judgment on the inquiry question, where they are allowed to make changes to their previous responses. The Tug-of-War strategy enabled students to share their opinion in a de-privatised classroom platform and also offers flexibility in changing their initial opinion/ judgement. 128
b)
Malay (Sec 2 Exp) The Think-Puzzle-Explore routine invites students to connect to their prior
knowledge, be curious and generate ideas and develop curiosity. This routine which involves Know-Want to know-Learned (KWL), is to get students to think about what they already Know and what they Want to know about the text (Think-Puzzle) and what they have Learned (Explore). Think-Puzzle-Explore was chosen to teach Subjective Comprehension. The students have to unpack the comprehension text using PLOT strategy: Introduction-Conflict-Climax- Resolution-Ending. As the students have been exposed to this strategy in Narrative Composition, they would have some prior knowledge on how to identify the flow of events as well as listing down the characteristics of a chosen character from the text and provide moral of the story. In this lesson, students read the text given and then unpacked the text using PLOT (KThink). Students think of what they want to know further (W-Puzzle) and teacher go through the text by consolidating students’ responses. Students would then take note of what they have learnt (L-Explore). As assessment, students answer the comprehension questions. c)
Design & Technology (Sec 3 Exp) In this lesson, students learnt a new topic on Mechanism. Students were briefed on
how to use Making Thinking Visible (MTV) Connect - Extend – Challenge (CEC) tool and what to be expected from a video related to mechanism. The intention is to help students to make connections between new ideas and prior knowledge. It also encourages them to excavate and think of challenges, puzzle and misconception as they reflect on what they are going to learn.
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After watching the video, students were tasked to fill up the "Connect" segment of the chart. Students were to relate their prior knowledge and connect to the video content. Thereafter, scaffolding questions were given to students to fill up the "Extend" segment in the chart so that they can check if they were able to extend their understanding from the video. In the last segment, students were tasked to pen down the challenges or confusion that they might have. Students, then shared and carried out discussion to summarize the learning and to connect the key learning points. Learning was reinforced with theory behind the mechanism application shown in the video.
d)
English Language (Sec 1 Exp) Claim-support-question was used as the routine to promote critical thinking during
the lessons. During the lesson, the students were presented with 3 to 5 answers for each comprehension question for a passage. The students were asked to look through the answers and decide if the answers given answered the question satisfactorily. (Refer to worksheet ‘Diagnosis of Comprehension Answer’). Students look at the ‘Claims’ made. The claims are the respective answers given in the worksheet. The students need to decide which answers were wrong, correct or partially correct and give evidence to back up their judgement. Students look for evidence to support the ‘Claims’ and decide if the ‘Claims’ are valid or not. If the student feels that the ‘Claim’ is wrong, they then need to question what is not right about the claim and back up their judgement with evidence. If the student feels that the ‘Claim’ is right, then they need to question if there are any other evidence to say otherwise. If the questioning leads to a confirmation that their judgement is correct, then the ‘Claim’ is probably correct. 130
The main idea was to get the students to be more critical when reading the comprehension passage and when looking for the answers to the comprehension questions in a comprehension passage. e)
English Language (Sec 1NT) The Think-Puzzle-Explore routine invites students to connect to their prior
knowledge, be curious and generate ideas and develop curiosity. In the Think-PuzzleExplore document, students are generally sharing their thinking at each step before moving on to the next one, building on each other’s thinking and creating room for discussions to take place. When carrying out the lesson, it begins with a short skit performed by a few classmates, as a stimulus to activate their prior knowledge. After the skit, ‘Think’ immediately begins, as students try to make sense of what they have witnessed. And to think of the next step, they should witness an incident as shown in the skit in real life. In ‘Think’, it provides the opportunity for the teacher to become aware of misconceptions students may have about writing out a recount. After teacher led questioning to derive their ideas and opinions, Think and Puzzle started where students were divided into groups and given two different eyewitness accounts. They are to distinguish the better piece of writing, after which, the teacher will start to question the reasons. The questions will also direct the students to brainstorm on what are the language features of an eyewitness account, as seen from the sample given. Finally, in ‘Explore’, the students with the guidance of the teacher, explore the importance of writing eyewitness accounts, its language features and the skit is performed once again. This time, as the students have gone through the lesson, they have a clearer idea of what to look out for before starting to write out their eyewitness account in detail. 131
f)
Art (Sec 3Exp) Well-constructed questioning strategies that initiate inquiry and critical thinking has
a positive correlation with students’ learning and development (Armstrong, 1993). Through tapping on visible thinking routines, a set of planned questions were used as a scaffold to guide students’ thinking processes. The teacher’s role was not only to guide students into thinking and verbalising their thoughts, but to probe and encourage further artistic discourse in the classroom. The following are some of the thinking routines incorporated into the flash cards: ▪
See Think Wonder
This routine encourages students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations. Some students require scaffolding questions before moving on to the next question stem. For example, a student might be overwhelmed by the visual information and would require some prompts to direct one’s attention to certain components of the artwork. This strategy was used in class to gather students’ responses.
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▪
Circle of Viewpoints This routine encourages students to examine various ways of looking at art.
Whilst attempting to analyse and discuss from different perspectives, students recognise that others may think and feel differently.
▪
What makes you say that? This routine promotes evidential reasoning as students are encouraged to support
their interpretations with what they see or know from the artwork. Similar to the “Circle of Viewpoints”, there is a sharing of different interpretations thus conveying a message to students that there are multiple perspectives in art. The process of visual inquiry aims to develop our students into more self-directed individuals as they learn to assess and evaluate their own works and works around them. 133
‘Teaching kids to understand a sophisticated evaluation that considers purpose, intersubjective agreement, relation to history and present, and your own feelings, your own felt response–it's a very delicate dance and very important.’ (Studio Habits, n.d.)
g)
History (Sec 3Exp) Students explored the impact of Hitler’s rule for this lesson. The routine Circle of
View Point helps learners to identify and consider different and diverse perspectives involved in and around a topic, event or issue. This process creates a greater awareness of how others may be thinking and feeling and reinforces the fact that people do think differently about the same thing. To help students identify the different perspectives during Hitler’s rule, the following strategies were adopted based on the Circle of Viewpoint Routine. Students were required to take on a character that lived during Hitler’s rule and then explore these perspectives further, using the prompts as a starting point. The following statements were used as a scaffold to help students in the activity. ▪
I am thinking of (name of event/issue) from the point of view of …
▪
I think … (describe the topic from your viewpoint. Be an actor- take on the character of your viewpoint) Because … (explain your reasoning)
▪
A question/concern I have from this viewpoint is …
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FINDINGS FROM THE VARIOUS LESSONS CONDUCTED a)
Social Studies 4NA The inquiry question on whether Singapore is an inclusive society, got students
excited as they found the issue relatable and may have authentic personal experiences on the issue. All students who participated in the post lesson survey stated that they enjoyed the lesson. Many of them also mentioned that they felt the lesson was effective and engaging. Based on the preliminary Kahoot survey done in class, the majority of them felt that Singapore is indeed a very inclusive society that is able to integrate people of all walks of life and of different backgrounds. After reading/ viewing the three sources, students ultimately changed their stand on the issue. Majority of them believed that Singapore may not be inclusive to certain segments of the society. b)
Malay (Sec 2 Exp) To begin the project, students were given a pre-activity survey. In this survey,
students gave responses on their ability to answer subjective comprehension questions. Students attempted a pre-test (Subjective Comprehension) before the actual lesson for teachers to gauge their initial performance. After the research lesson, students also attempted the same test (Subjective Comprehension) to determine the effectiveness of the lesson in developing critical thinking skills.
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Students’ Results:
Student
Pre-test Marks /30
Post-test Marks /30
Outcome
A1
14
18
increase
B2
11
19
increase
C3
8
17
increase
D4
10
12
increase
E5
10
16
increase
F6
17
16
decrease
G7
9
12
increase
H8
18
9
decrease
I9
19
18
decrease
J10
12
13
increase
K11
10
10
-
L12
7
12
increase
M13
9
14
increase
N14
7
7
-
O15
6
13
increase
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P16
9
10
increase
Q17
7
9
increase
R18
4
13
increase
S19
13
13
-
T20
7
13
increase
U21
14
17
increase
V22
8
12
increase
X23
6
15
increase
Total number of students who improved in marks: 17 students
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Post-Activity Survey Findings:
Q1. Are you able to understand the
Q2. Is the KWL technique (TPE
comprehension text better after this
routine) beneficial to you in
lesson?
answering Subjective Comprehension questions?
After going through the lessons, students found it beneficial for them, as they were able to understand better the comprehension text. Hence, this would help them to answer Subjective Comprehension questions better.
Q3. Would you apply KWL technique (TPE routine) to answer Subjective Comprehension questions in the future?
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From the survey, majority of the students also indicated that they would apply KWL technique (TPE routine) to answer subjective comprehension questions in the future. For the End-of-Year Examination, 20% of the students applied this strategy and there was an average increase of 5 marks in their Subjective Comprehension component.
c)
Design & Technology (Sec 3 Exp) Post lesson survey was conducted to try to get a sense of how students are making
their sensible thinking visible through the application of Connect - Extend – Challenge (CEC) tool. Majority of the students have demonstrated via their CEC charts that they viewed this new learning experience with interconnectedness to the relevance of mechanism applications. Though the sharing as well, students were also able to verbalise their deep curiosity pertaining to mechanism in the “Challenge� portion; hence capturing the essence of an important conceptual complexity for the topic.
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Some of the findings are evident below: Design & Technology (Sec 3 Exp)
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d)
English Language (Sec 1Exp)
English Language (Sec 1 Exp) A comparison of the percentage passes of the End-of-year comprehension paper 2 and the comprehension test done as WA 3 was done.
Percentage Passes for
Percentage
Percentage
WA 3
Passes for
difference
EOY P2
1G
62
89%
27%
1F
37
80%
43%
While the results may not be totally conclusive, there is a possibility that the use of the thinking routine Claim-Support-Question have helped the 1F students improve in the comprehension component and helped them to catch up in terms of percentage passes. In terms of quality passes, 1G did much better than 1F. Of the 28 students who took part in the survey, 93% of the students were able to articulate the thinking process they learnt. 53.6% of the students who responded said that the thinking routine was useful. About 53.6% of the students stated that the routine ‘Claim-Support-Question’ was easy to use. This is a possible indication that the students found the routine easy to apply and that this helped them to activate the thinking process easily.
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e)
English Language (Sec 1NT) In the survey, 100% of the students agreed that the skit captured their attention to
the topic and helped them create a sense of direction in the lesson. In using Think-PuzzleExplore, 80% of the students felt that the Think-Puzzle-Explore strategy enabled them to understand the lesson better as it was more interactive and fun compared to normal writing lessons. 92% of the students agreed that it enabled them to deepen their thinking, and use their prior knowledge to create a better understanding of writing an Eyewitness Account. Overall, majority of the students would want teachers to use such strategies when teaching writing lessons. After the lesson, the students were required to come up with a writing piece of an Eyewitness Account with the scenario given at the start of the lesson. Unlike other writing practices, where students will always copy from the visual stimulus given, this time, the students were able to craft out the ideas on their own and submitted better writing pieces. All the students passed and overall, there was an obvious improvement in the quality of their writing. f)
Art (Sec 3 Exp) Students seemed to be very engaged during the warm-up activity in which they
discussed some paintings done by other artists. Students seem to be very intrigued by the artworks shown and paid full attention. Although a couple of students were engaged in their own conversations once in a while, they were in fact discussing about the artworks. Students were more confident about the message and intention behind their painting after having the opportunity to share their thoughts out loud, and discussing their methods with the class.
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g)
History (Sec 3Exp/3NA) Post lesson survey was conducted to gather feedback from students on the
application of the routine. 96% agreed that they enjoyed the lesson and that it enabled to deepen their thinking. 96% also expressed that the use of the routine helped them understand the topic better. The survey results highlighted that students enjoyed the lesson. General Response from students Some key responses that were observed based on the questions posed.
Questions
Some of the Students’ Responses (Taken from survey responses)
Did you enjoy the lesson?
● As it was an interactive way of studying ● It allow me to see the topic from different side of the thing that happen in Germany or Russia ● The method is useful and also it is fun doing it is like playing while studying. ● It allowed me to understand the lesson with ease and didn't take long for me to memories
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Did the strategy enable
● It makes me think more
you to deepen your
● It helped deepen my understanding
thinking?
● It makes me think more deeply during lesson and gain more understanding ● It simplifies my thinking ● It help us focus on one viewpoint at a time. Which help us to think deeper into a single viewpoint. Which like us know better on that person viewpoint
Negative Responses
● As much as it did help. I feel it was still lacking. Or not enough. The problem may be the timing. ● Because not really helpful as only some parts were understood ● Quiet Boring
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Survey Findings
Did you enjoy the lesson?
Did the strategy enable you to deepen your thinking?
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Did the strategy help you to understand the topic better?
Would you want your teachers to use these strategies in future lessons?
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TEACHERS’ REFLECTIONS a)
Social Studies (Sec 4 NA) The PLT lesson on whether Singapore is an inclusive society proved to be
interesting and intriguing for students as it provided an authentic platform to discuss their opinions on an issue that is rarely discussed is a classroom setting. More of such discussions should be introduced in the Social Studies curriculum in the upcoming years. Teachers could employ multiple strategies to make their discussions interesting and engaging.
b)
Malay (2Exp) The use of this routine is proven to encourage students to think deeper while reading
the comprehension text. They were able to understand the text better, after applying this routine. Ultimately, they were also able to answer the comprehension questions, especially the higher-order thinking questions. This routine also has its limitation especially during examinations. The students felt that they may not be able to apply this routine during the examination due to time constraint. However, over time, with constant practice, students will be more familiar and able to adapt the routine naturally.
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c)
Design & Technology (Sec 3 Exp) For any new strategy, we have to establish the relevant topics that provide
opportunities for students to ask questions and to clear their misconceptions, if any. For example, coursework (the practical aspect of it) topic may not be a good choice as every student will be embarking on different non-linear learning processes. For this teaching action, I am using Connect - Extend – Challenge routine to attempt to connect new learning/ideas (Mechanism) to their prior knowledge and students’ visible thinking alive. It is not possible to use this thinking routine without explaining and running through with the students on how to use it collaboratively. In fact, I did two reruns to get students to tune into this routine to ensure that students are familiar; comfortable with it and it is effective for teaching and learning. As in the first run, students were not comfortable with the routine would make the lesson less effective. Students were not sure what to do for the Connect - Extend – Challenge activities. Hence, it is crucial to prepare my students before using this thinking routine. Upon the second run, meaningful data collected showed that majority of the students found it useful and help them to understand the topic better. Instead of letting students receive pieces of mechanism information bit by bit that causes them to view important learning ideas as isolated, Connect - Extend – Challenge routine is able to draw students’ thinking on paper. For example, students were able to bring out the combination of type of movement, closed loop system and relate then such knowledge to the jumping Cheetah mechanism. Hence, students were able to see and understand that through the integration of many mechanism systems, machines are able to function as intended.
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With that deepened knowledge, students surfaced more challenging questions as well as misconceptions that required further discussions. These are visible from the students’ responses in their Connect - Extend – Challenge Chart. For example; students were asking higher order questions and wondering how do engineers apply or select the appropriate type of linkages to use in a mechanical system. Apart from these, students also surfaced various confusions, queries and puzzles pertaining to the topic. Hence, forming the basis for next lesson discussion and learning development. These showed that the students are making sense of ongoing, collective ideas that matter to the understanding of the topic through connections and extension they shared. d) English Language (Sec 1 Exp) The results of the End-of-year comprehension paper showed that the students have improved in the comprehension component. However, revisits had to be made to the thinking routine to ensure that the students used the routine regularly. There was also one instance when a teachable moment allowed the teacher to get the students to use the thinking routine ‘Claim-Support-Question’ routine to assess a situation that happened in class. It was interesting too that some of the students applied the same thinking routine in other subjects after they were encouraged to do so by the English teacher. e) English Language (Sec 1NT) Overall, positive feedback was received as most students found the lesson “fun”, “interesting” and “very interactive”. However, the students felt that more time could have been spent in the Explore section of the lesson, as they felt that due to time constraints, some of them wanted more practice before they write out the eyewitness account. In future, students commented that they would want to try writing out the eyewitness account in groups first, before producing individual work. However, majority agreed that they felt that 149
Think-Puzzle-Explore created room for a more interactive lesson, which enabled them to deepen their understanding of writing an Eyewitness Account. f)
Art (Sec 3 Exp) Although a couple of students were engaged in their own conversations once in a
while during warm-up, they were in fact discussing about the artworks. However, when asked for any responses, the students did not seem confident to share their thoughts and interpretations. As students were than tasked to apply the thinking routines in reading/interpreting their classmates’ works, they seem hesitant to provide constructive feedback for their classmates’ artworks, afraid of saying anything that may offend their classmates. Students may also not have felt confident enough in their own judgement or capabilities to provide points for improvement. Students still had some difficulty to extend their vocabulary beyond simply describing the works as “nice”. Students needed some prompting by teachers as to how to describe the elements or principles of Art that is applied in the artwork to explain what makes the work effective. As they return to their own artworks to write the writeup/synopsis of their own artworks after the art gallery and constructive critique session, some of the students were also unsure of how to begin on their write-ups. g)
History (Sec 3Exp) Students enjoyed the interaction, sharing and discussion in class. Students were
also engaged during the lessons. However, there were certain limitations to this study. Although students responded positively to the survey questions, most of the answers in that they presented were very predictable. Much time was spend doing research in class and there was also not much expansion of viewpoint. This affected the quality of the answer. Students were also not comfortable to explore different viewpoints other than 150
what was stated in the textbook. This was expected as they were not used to using the thinking routine regularly.
DISCUSSION (LIMITATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS) The recommendations of each teacher is captured in this section. For Design and Technology, the teacher felt that it will be beneficial for the students if more scaffolding questions are structured to reinforce the main triggers, especially for the low progress learners. Relevant content preparation is also crucial to derive meaningful learning from students. Learning content must be carefully selected so that opportunity for exploration for a specific learning intent is accessible by the students. For Malay, one of the recommendations is to create Design Map when using SLS as a tool in teaching and learning. This allows teachers to plan a more comprehensive lesson aligned to the SLS Framework. Teachers can also make use of SLS as a tool to teach other topics such as composition writing. After going through this lesson, teachers can encourage more students to apply this strategy in their daily work and examinations. This can be done through monitoring of students’ work. Apart from that, this lesson can also be taught at the start of the year, to ensure that this strategy is consistently taught so that students will be more familiar with this strategy. For the English Language lesson in the Sec 1 Express class, the teacher felt that it will be good to continue to track the same group of students to see if they continue to use the ‘Claim-Support-Routine’ as they move up to secondary two. It will also be interesting to see how far the impact of the use of the routine can have on their other subjects. It will also be good to carry out a similar investigation on another group of students with similar
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challenges to see if the routine is able to help the students be more critical when attempting comprehension questions. The teacher who used the routine in the Sec 1 NT class expressed that it would be beneficial to move from a pen-paper Think-Puzzle-Explore session, to a more interactive medium, such as SLS. Using SLS will enable students to comment on each other’s thought processes and also, offer an avenue for feedback as students can comment directly on each other’s work. It would also take less time for the teacher to go through students’ ideas as it can be shared on the screen, rather than getting each group to present their ideas on paper. Think-Puzzle-Explore could also be applied in teaching other writing types such as Informal Letter Writing and Formal Letter Writing as in English, many writing pieces have similar features where students can at times, get confused with. It is a good way to tease out students’ prior knowledge and tapping on that, to form new understanding of a new writing piece. In addition, it has proven to be a more fun and interactive way to capture students’ attention seeing as how students are usually weaker in Paper 1 (Writing) than Paper 2 (Comprehension). For Art, the teacher expressed that this was the students’ first session of an “Art critique”, it is understandable that the students probably felt a little shy to share their thoughts out loud. However we believe that the students will develop more confidence through more art critique sessions. What may have been done at the beginning was to preempt students with the understanding that the purpose of the discussion is to help and guide one another, and to provide a conducive space where they can also learn from one another. They also need to understand that it is important to look at an artwork carefully as that will also give value to their own sense of art appreciation, as well in their own art-making
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processes. Therefore, they should understand the importance of being open to feedback, as well as to play a more active role in providing feedback as well. Students can be given a list of vocabulary that they can refer to. More Art criticism can be practiced and recorded down into journals, so that students would be able to develop the habit of looking at an artwork analytically. It would be good for them to recap on the thinking routines, or write down a mind-map or outline prior to beginning. Another possible option is to provide some templates/ questions/ sentences that students can refer to. For History, the teacher felt that more time could have been spend doing this thinking routine to familiarise students on the expectations. Students made attempts to take a viewpoint and to think of the issue based on the character that they were adopting, however, very often the teacher had to intervene to push students’ thinking. Rather than to have each student stand and read, it’s possible to have one student to share and then ask others who have the same viewpoint to add to that response until the class has built up a good understanding of that viewpoint. This will encourage more active listening and processing of the information rather than students just waiting their turn. To assess the effectiveness of students’ understanding of the whole topic, students answer to the inquiry question could have been tracked to check for understanding and improvement.
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CONCLUSION The Harvard Project Zero was a project to explore how to cultivate thinking dispositions in school settings. The routines that were developed were simple strategies for scaffolding thinking. Through this study, the team agreed that thinking routines would be a good starting place for teachers to begin their own thinking about forces shaping classroom culture. A thinking culture will thrive in an environment that fosters student’s engagement and promotes independence as well as interdependence among students. In order to promote thinking and discussion, teachers will need to ensure there is a Positive Classroom Climate. The Singapore Teaching Practice would serve as an additional resource for teachers who are interested to try out these thinking routines in their classroom.
REFERENCES MALAY Barak, M. & Dori, Y. J. (2009). Enhancing higher order thinking skills among in service science teachers via embedded assessment. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 20, 459474.
Dainel Phua, Ramna Johana (2015). “Penerapan Paul’s Wheel of Reasoning dalam Perbualan Berdasarkan Video”, page 300-308, dalam Seminar Bahasa Melayu 2015, MLCS, Singapore
Manisah Osman (2016). “Meningkatkan Kemahiran Menjawab Soalan Kefahaman”, page 176-185, dalam Seminar Bahasa Melayu 2016, MLCS, Singapore
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Mohamed Zain Mohamed, Nur Ashikin Sapri (2016). “Strategi Pengakaran Kefahaman dengan Menggunakan Bahan Visual�, page 503-512. dalam Seminar Bahasa Melayu 2016, MLCS, Singapore
Paul, R., (1995) Critical Thinking: How to prepare students for a rapidly changing world, Foundation for Critical Thinking, Santa Rosa
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY Ritchhart, Ron,, Church, Mark, Morrison, Karin. (2011) Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass, page 132-139 ART A Look at Lois Hetland's Eight Studio Habits. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2016, from http://www.everyarteverychild.org/assessment/studiohabits.html Addison, N. (2010). Understanding art education: Engaging reflexively with practice. London: Routledge. Armstrong, C. (1993). Training in an art production questioning method on teacher questioning and responses, Studies in Art Education, 34(4), Summer, 1993, pp.209-221. Freedman, K. J. (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York: Teachers College Press. Hetland, L. (2007). Studio thinking: The real benefits of visual arts education. New York: Teachers College Press.
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Project Zero. (n.d.). Visible Thinking. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html Star Post (Art). (2014, February). Retrieved September 23, 2016, from http://www.star.moe.edu.sg/star/slot/u3049/STAR-Post Art Archive/starpost2014_art_1.pdf
HISTORY Bonwell, Charles C., and James A. Eison. 1991. Active Learning; Creating Excitement in the Classroom. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 91-65608 ISSN 0884-0040 ISBN 1-878380-08-7
Project Zero. (n.d.). Visible Thinking. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html Ritchhart, Ron,, Church, Mark,Morrison, Karin. (2011) Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass
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Engaging and Improving the Academic Achievement and Engagement of Secondary 3 Pure Chemistry Students through Lesson Packages on Card Games
Celine Goh Ambikai Veeramurugan Carine Lim Michelle Tan Lau Shu Wei
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Abstract Chemistry has often been thought of as a dry and conceptual subject matter to grasp. Through the infusion of games, the learning of difficult chemistry concepts could be immensely improved. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of teacher-made instructional card games on the learning of chemistry concepts in Secondary 3 Pure Chemistry students. Qualitative data was obtained from students’ reflection whereas quantitative data was analysed using the Excel statistical analysis tool. The pre- and post- test results indicated that there was a significant difference between teacher-made card games with the traditional teaching method. Playing had a significant role in the learning of abstract concepts and the understanding of chemistry concepts was facilitated through creating excitement and joy, as well as interaction amongst students.
Introduction The complex and abstract nature of Chemistry makes learning and teaching of the subject difficult for students and teachers (Johnstone, 1993). Most students struggle with the learning of Chemistry at Upper Secondary. An area of difficulty for students is the inability to relate the microscopic (concepts) to the macroscopic aspects (phenomenon) of Chemistry. In our Action research project, Chemistry card games were used as tools to review what has already been learned and to diagnose any weaknesses and misconceptions students might have. The review lessons were organized to stimulate the thinking and the creativity of students. Except the retention of the material learned, the review lessons offered new experiences for students and increased interest of the learned topic. Therefore, usage of chemistry games in the classroom can be considered as a part of interactive lessons that provide practice in acquiring knowledge and skills. The advantage of card games used in this study is the fact that the 158
explanation and preparation time was minimal and no computer requirement was necessary. Our expectation is that the games tested would be valued positively by students and teachers, thus leading to positive perceptions about their usage in the teaching and learning process. Literature Review Game-based approach is based on a constructivist theory of learning (Driver & Oldham, 1986). Through the use of Chemistry card games, students are challenged and engaged and each student is enabled to construct his/ her own knowledge. The interaction with other students plays a great role in developing new knowledge and skills. The collaborative or cooperative learning allows participants to exchange information in order to solve a certain problem which can result in the production of new ideas. This approach enables face-to-face interaction, selfconfidence and decision making. It also improves information acquisition and retention as well as development of higher-level thinking skills. Working in groups fosters students’ self-esteem and lessen the sense of failure. The teacher has an active role in this process – moderates the activity and advises students, unlike the passive function the teacher has in a traditional education. Well-designed educational games stimulate active participation in class and have a positive outcome regarding collaborative and social skills of students. (Costa, 2007). Gamebased learning enables students to find out the necessary information for themselves (Oakman, 2016). It should not come as a surprise that students using games for learning do better in achieving learning objectives than students using traditional instructional methods (Betts, 2015). Game-based learning further provides feedback to the students, increases inquiring and problem solving skills, promotes critical, creative and higher-order thinking, encourage communication and collaboration and causes the students to be active learners, rather than passive recipients (Kaya, 2010). This process can be applied to the classroom to support the variety of learning outcomes and to create curious minds. The key purpose of the card games
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is to design learning activities that introduce or explain concepts while discussion is the key factor in improving the problem-solving skills, clarification and correction of potential misunderstandings and misconceptions. Therefore, teachers should discuss with the class how to arrive at correct answer or correct understanding of the process or a phenomenon. These card games can be applied in Chemistry teaching either as a part of a development lesson or a review lesson. It means that they can be used as an introduction to the new material or as a platform to revise the material and practice skills that have been previously taught. Review sessions enable students to reflect on the material, practice and have fun (Kavak, 2012). Methods In this paper, we offer several good practice examples of chemistry card games that can be used in the classroom. We hope to design more games that will find its place in the teaching process and to find ways to disseminate this idea to the teachers in the fraternity. Our project attempts to address the following research question: What is the impact of Chemistry card games in enhancing students’ academic performance?
A Secondary 3 Pure Chemistry class of 23 students were involved in this study. The students were introduced to 3 types of card games for 3 Chemistry topics. Prior to each card game activity intervention, a pre-test was administered to the students. The pre-test was marked, however, the solutions to the pre-test was not discussed with the students. After the intervention, the students were required to sit for a post-test. The question paper for both the pre- and post-tests were the same to allow the team to compare and contrast the pre-test and post-test scores in this Action Research study. A quantitative analysis of the scores was done by using mean and paired sample one-tailed t-test to study the effectiveness of the Chemistry card games in enhancing students’ academic performance.
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The card games played in the classroom were (a) Chem Attack, (b) Quiz-Quiz Trade and (c) Indian Poker. We had chosen these 3 games for students to play in the classroom as a part of their review lesson on the topics of (a) Topic 2: Separation Techniques, (b) Topic 4: Elements, Compounds & Mixtures (ECM) and (c) Topic 6: Chemical Bonding respectively. The learning objectives important for the card games review activities were briefly summarized in the following table. Table 1: Learning Outcomes of the Chemistry topics Section
Topic
Learning Outcomes
The
2: Structure
Describe the differences between elements, compounds and
Particulate
and
mixtures
Nature
of properties of
Matter
materials
Experimental 4: Methods
Describe methods of separation and purification for the
Chemistry
components of mixtures
of purification
Suggest suitable separation and purification methods, given and analysis information about the substances involved in the types of mixtures Interpret paper chromatograms including comparison with ‘known’ samples and the use of Rf values Explain the need to use locating agents in the chromatography of colourless compounds
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Deduce from given melting and boiling point data the identities of substances and their purity Explain the measurement of purity in substances used in everyday life The
6: Ionic
Describe the formation of ions by electron loss/gain to
Particulate
bonding
obtain the electronic configuration of a noble gas
Nature
of Describe the formation of ionic bonds between metals and
Matter non-metals State that ionic materials contain a giant lattice in which the ions are held by electrostatic attraction Deduce the formulae of other ionic compounds from diagrams of their lattice structures Relate the physical properties of ionic compounds to their lattice structure. 6: Covalent
Describe the formation of a covalent bond by the sharing of
Bonding
a pair of electrons to gain the electronic configuration of a noble gas Describe, using ‘dot-and-cross’ diagrams, the formation of covalent bonds between non-metals and deduce the arrangement of electrons in other covalent molecules
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Relate the physical properties of covalent substances to their structure and bonding
Table 2: Brief Description of the Card Games Review Activities Name of Card Game
Brief Description
Chem Attack
Students work in threes, 4 cards each. Rules of the game is the same as Heart Attack. Once any student has a set of 4 cards that matches any of the category (Elements/Compounds/Mixtures), the student will say “Chem Attack� and show the cards to the groupmates to check.
Quiz-Quiz Trade
Students work in pairs, 1 card each. Students stand-up, hands-up and pair-up.
Partner A quizzes, partner B answers. Partner A coaches or praises. Switch Roles.
Partners trade cards and raise their hands to find new partners.
Indian Poker
Students work in fives, 1 card each. Student is not allowed to look at his/her own card. Each student will bring the card to his/her forehead, face out. Students will work out the sequence based on the short phrases on their cards.
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Results Analysis & Findings Pre- and post-tests on the three topics were introduced to students to diagnose students’ previous knowledge and to get insights into students’ misunderstandings and misconceptions in this study. Data on the pre- and post-tests were collated and analysed. Mean and standard deviation of the test scores were calculated for each individual. The results are shown in Table 1. Mean and paired sample one-tailed t-test was then used to determine whether there was any significant increase in the achievement level of the students in terms of the quality of their practical observations. Another focus of this study was to collect the opinions and perceptions of students and teachers concerning the use of educational games in the chemistry class. The information obtained by the informal discussions with both students and teachers was considered beneficial for further in-depth research in this field and represents a valuable tool for improving particular aspects of the study. Table 3: Mean and paired sample one-tailed t-test results Mean
t-value
p-value
Significance
Conclusion
Topic (a):
Pre: 6.32
-3.42
0.0007
p < 0.05
Significant
ECM
Post: 8.45
Topic (b):
Pre: 11.44
-1.06
0.15
p ˃ 0.05
Insignifican
Separation Techniques
Post: 12.33
Topic (c):
Pre: 8.6
Chemical Bonding
Post: 14.25
t -7.32
0.00001
p < 0.05
Significant
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The data from the pre- and post-test of the 3 topics showed improvements in the scores, however, the data collected generally yielded both significant and insignificant increase in the post-test scores for the card games review activities. For the topic on ECM, the one-tailed pvalue is 0.0007 and t-value is -3.42. For the topic on Separation Techniques, the one-tailed pvalue is 0.15 and t-value is -1.06. For the topic on Chemical Bonding, the one-tailed p-value is 0.00001 and t-value is -7.32. For the topics on ECM and Chemical Bonding, the increment of 2.13 and 5.65 respectively from the pre- to the post-test scores showed a significant difference in the improvement of the test scores. Consequently, it can be said that the revision lessons through card games were effective in enhancing students’ academic performance for these 2 topics. For the topic on Separation Techniques, the increment of 0.89 from the pre- to the posttest scores showed a less significant difference in the improvement of the test scores. Consequently, it can be said that the revision lesson through card games were less effective in enhancing students’ academic performance for this topic.
Discussion For better comparison, an independent t-test for the pre- and post-intervention test can be carried out for all the 3 topics. One possible reason to account for part of the insignificant findings is the duration of the intervention. The students involved in this study were not exposed to game-based learning long enough to bring about a change to their ability to enhance their academic performance. Moreover the sample size in this study is small, thus the results from the test scores may not be useful to generalise the impact of the use of card games for revision to enhance students’ academic performance.
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Conclusion This study aims to investigate if the use of card games for revision would enhance students’ performance in academic performance. Based on the results of this study, the differences in the pre- and post-test scores for 3 topics using the game-based approach indicated in a differential improvement in the students’ performance of the Chemistry syllabus.
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References: 1. Betts, B. (2015). Game-based learning. In R. Hubbard (Ed.), The Really Useful eLearning Instruction Manual: Your toolkit for putting eLearning into practice (pp. 175−194). John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 2. Costa, M. J. (2007). Carbohydeck: A card game to teach the stereochemistry of carbohydrates. Journal of Chemical Education, 84(6), 977–978. 3. Driver, R., & Oldham, V. (1986). A constructivist approach to curriculum development in science. Studies in Science Education, 13(1), 105−122. 4. Johnstone, A. H., (1993). The development of chemistry teaching: A changing response to a changing demand. Journal of Chemical Education, 70(9), p. 701-705. 5. Kavak, N. (2012). ChemOkey: A game to reinforce nomenclature. Journal of Chemical Education, 89(8), 1047−1049. 6. Kaya, T. (2010, November 7). A ‘Stealth assessment’ turns to video games to measure thinking skills. The Chronicle of higher education. 7. Oakman, H. (2016 June 7). The rise of game-based learning.
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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING IN ACTION!
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An Exploratory Case Study of Practices and Challenges of Computer Applications Teachers
Toh Chin Hwee Tham Chun Kit
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ABSTRACT This study examined some of the existing summative assessment in Computer Applications and the quality of the test items. In particular, this case study examined the practices of three Computer Applications teachers in setting summative assessment in a school and the challenges encountered. This study aimed to improve the competencies of teachers setting assessment by providing guidelines to facilitate self-check during the process and improve the quality of their assessment. The results from this study will inform administrators of good practices in setting test and challenges, and explore ways to acknowledge and resolve them. The study will also inform administrators and factors affecting quality of assessment items. Keywords: assessment, teacher training, Computer Applications, test items
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INTRODUCTION Computer Applications is a compulsory subject offered by all students offering the Normal (Technical) curriculum (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2019). Students are examined through one theory paper and two practical papers which cover six different modules. The theory paper carries 30 percent of the overall mark while each of the practical paper carries 35 percent of the overall mark (Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, 2019, p. 3).
The proportion of students offering Computer Applications in each cohort is relatively low when compared to the other streams. In 2018, 11.2 percent of the 39672 students who attempted the Primary School Leaving Examination were eligible for the Normal (Technical) course (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2018). Given the unique curriculum of Computer Applications and the small proportion of students offering, the practices and challenges faced by teachers teaching the subject may not be well documented or understood by others, including teachers teaching other subjects. This issue extends to the setting of assessment.
This exploratory study seeks to document practices of three teachers in a secondary school and explore the challenges faced when setting assessment for Computer Applications. The feasibility of using guidelines to facilitate the improvement of test items is also explored. This study was inspired by the creation of a Networked Learning Community (NLC) to design effective assessment test items for Computer Applications in 2019.
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LITERATURE REVIEW Teacher Training Teachers are provided basic training in assessment to “monitor, appraise and evaluate learners’ content knowledge, progress and performance achievement” by completing a module during their Initial Teacher Preparation programme (ITP) (National Institute of Education, Singapore, 2018, p. 31). An earlier review of monitoring of students’ learning found that teachers do not receive sufficient training in this area (Cotton, 1988, p. 6). The three skills of monitoring, appraising and evaluating is complex and may require time to be developed, especially when teachers are expected to grow professionally in other domains. As such, the repeated and regular application of these skills, with the support and guidance of experienced peers within the schools is critical to enable teachers to develop proficiency in setting assessment.
In the recently developed Singapore Teaching Practice, assessment and feedback is one of the four pedagogical practices identified (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2019). However, the focus of the practice is on formative assessment while students’ learning can be corrected. In contrast, summative assessment at major milestones, such as the Primary School Leaving Examination and Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Normal (Technical) Level, are administered by Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, 2019). None of the teachers in this study have been trained by Cambridge International Examination (CIE) in the marking of components of the assessment. In a recent seminar, teachers were informed that the training by CIE for the 2019 syllabus will be conducted in 2021 (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2019, p. 69). The implementation timeline is shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1. Timeline of Implementation. Adapted from Computing Teachers Seminar 2019 by Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2019.
Training in the teaching of four of the six modules in Computer Applications is conducted annually by the Curriculum Planning and Development Division (CPDD) (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2019, p. 68). The training schedule for 2020 is shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2. Professional Development. Adapted from Computing Teachers Seminar 2019 by Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2019.
The training by CPDD does not include either formative or summative assessment. In 2019, CPDD initiated a NLC to design effective assessment test items in Computer Applications through the understanding and application of designing test items (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2019, p. 28). The 12 teachers from different schools met four times over a period of nine months to develop and evaluate the test items they developed for all three papers using suggested guidelines. Their work would be shared with the rest of the teachers teaching Computer Applications.
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Quality of Assessment Different countries and researchers have identified different indicators or attributes of quality assessment. For example, validity, accessibility and reliability are three attributes of quality assessment (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2018). Content validity and construct validity are two aspects of validity that are often considered. Content validity refers to the alignment of test items to what is taught in class while construct validity determines whether the assessment measures what it set out to measure (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2018).
METHODS The design of this study is based on the case study approach. Case studies have been found to be suitable to investigate situations where in-depth knowledge of examples is more useful than generalised knowledge from a large number of subjects (Gerring, 2007). Another researcher also supported this notion even though case study approach may not be as prevalent as experimental studies (Pable, 2013, p. 70). Another researcher also argued for using case studies when “study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances� is required (Stake, 1995, p. xi). This allows one to focus on the details of each case and include the context surrounding each case (Neuman, 2011, p. 42).
The data for this project was primarily from interviews with teachers, artefacts during the vetting process of examinations conducted in May and October.
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The timeline for the implementation of the project is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Implementation timeline Activity February 2019
Identification of problem and solution
Last week of March 2019
Vetting of Mid-Year Examination Question Papers
May 2019
Mid-Year Examination
June 2019
Review of process
Last week of August 2019
Vetting of End-of-Year Examination Question Papers
October 2019
Report writing
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Participants A total of 3 teachers were identified for this study.
Teacher A has been a teacher for six years in the current school and was a contract teacher for one year in another school. He has not taught Computer Applications since his completion of ITP six years ago. As such, he has not set any assessment since then.
Teacher B has been a teacher for ten years and has been in the current school for two years. He has been attached to three other schools prior to joining the current school. He has been setting assessment for Computer Applications throughout his teaching career.
Teacher C has been a teacher for eleven years in the current school. He has been setting assessment for Computer Applications for the last eleven years.
RESULTS The three teachers will be provided the tables of specification for the various before they begin setting their assessment and submitting for vetting. The teachers are also provided copies of past assessment for reference during the setting process. The intent is to minimise the challenges they might encounter, such as appropriate weights for the relevant modules. A copy of the guidelines for setting multiple choice questions and short structured questions obtained from the NLC discussion was also provided to the teachers for reference. A sample of a table of specification is shown in Figure 3. A sample of some of the guidelines with illustrations is shown in Figure 4.
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Figure 3. Sample Table of Specification.
Figure 4. Sample guidelines from NLC.
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Teacher A was faced with challenges in the content as he had not been teaching it for four years prior to 2019. This was primarily due to a major change in the syllabus and modules since his teacher training in 2013. One area for improvement during the vetting process was the difficulty of the test items set, which was undemanding. Another area for improvement was the weights for the modules. As such, it was necessary for him to create a few questions.
Teachers B and C experienced less difficulties in meeting the expectations of setting assessment that has content validity. There were formatting errors which is independent of the subject and were not considered in this study. Comparatively, both teachers faced less challenges in setting assessment they had more experience setting assessment and had been teaching the subject in the current syllabus. The various samples of table of specification and past year assessment were found to be useful.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION The provision of clear samples of table of specifications and past assessment shorten the learning curve of teachers, especially those whom may not have been teaching the subject or being updated of the latest syllabus. The new provision of the guidelines in setting assessment obtained from NLC was useful as the guidelines were developed from the aggregation of observations made by teachers who have more experience.
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FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers set Computer Applications assessment and the challenges the encounter. This was supported by qualitative data collected in this study, which included interviews and artefacts during the vetting process. As an exploratory study, there was no use of a theoretical framework to guide the process of collecting and interpreting data. To improve the soundness and creditability of research in this area, it is appropriate to explore the use of a framework for further investigation.
LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The case study of three teachers is not an attempt to enable the generalisation of findings in this study to other subjects or teachers in other schools. The sociocultural context in each school is likely to be different and unique circumstances do not support generalisation. However, it may be compared to other context to reduce the challenges faced.
This study has found that the adoption of suggested guidelines in the setting of assessment by the three teachers can be improved as there were areas of improvement. It could be the initial use of the guidelines which the teachers are adapting into their practice. Feedback could be gathered on the usefulness of the guidelines before formalising into a checklist where teachers must comply during the process of setting assessment.
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POTENTIAL FUTURE WORK Future study on the investigating the setting of assessment, including the identifying of tensions and gaps could be guided using the Activity Theory. Activity Theory is a descriptive framework that considers entire work or an activity system (including teams, organizations, etc.) beyond just one actor or user (Engestrom, 2000). It accounts for the “environment, history of the person, culture, role of the artefact, motivations, complexity of real life action” (David, 2007). The theory enables different levels of perspective of an activity. Activity Theory also enables identification of gaps and contradictions (Engestrom, 2000, p. 965).
Further analysis using the RASCH analysis can be performed to improve the quality of test items. RASCH analysis has been argued to be able to provide “an internally valid measure that, when developed from an appropriate sample, is independent of the particular sample to which it is applied, meaning that the findings for the sample extrapolate to its population” (Granger, 2008). It is also possible that the assessment items be calibrated to the standard of assessment by CIE. This would enable the quality of test items to improve further.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study would not have been possible without the following people.
Firstly, without the support of the school leaders in teachers’ professional development and setting aside timetabled time, the implementation of this study would not have been possible.
Next, without the empowerment and autonomy by the middle managers (School Staff Developer and Head of Department) to embark on a suitable study determined by the teachers, the implementation of this study would also not have been possible. In addition, the availability of the Internet has enabled the use of online tools to analyse some of the statistics and access to existing scholarly work.
REFERENCES Cotton, K. (1988). Monitoring Student Learning in the Classroom. Portland, OR: The School Improvement Research Series. David, L. (21 January, 2007). Activity Theory. Retrieved from Learning Theories: https://www.learning-theories.com/activity-theory.html Engestrom, Y. (2000). Activity Theory as a Framework for Analyzing and Redesigning Work. Ergonomics, 43(7), 960-974. Gerring, J. (2007). Case Study Research. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
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Granger, C. V. (2008). Rasch Analysis is Important to Understand and Use for Measurement. Rasch
Measurement
Transactions,
21(3),
1122-1123.
Retrieved
from
https://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt213d.htm Ministry of Education, Singapore. (22 November, 2018). Release of the 2018 PSLE results. Retrieved from Ministry of Education, Singapore: https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/pressreleases/release-of-the-2018-psle-results#footnote-1 Ministry of Education, Singapore. (4 November, 2019). Assessment and Feedback. Retrieved from Singapore
Teaching
Practice:
https://opal.moe.edu.sg/stp/pedagogical-
practices/assessment-and-feedback Ministry of Education, Singapore. (31 October, 2019). Computing Teachers Seminar 2019. Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. Ministry of Education, Singapore. (15 May, 2019). Normal (Technical) Course for Secondary School. Retrieved from https://beta.moe.gov.sg/secondary/courses/normal-technical/ National Institute of Education, Singapore. (4 November, 2019). Teacher Education. Retrieved from National Institute of Education, Singapore: https://www.nie.edu.sg/teacher-education National Institute of Education, Singapore. (22 Nov, 2018). Postgraduate Diploma in Education Programmes.
Retrieved
from
National
Institute
of
Education,
Singapore:
https://www.nie.edu.sg/docs/default-source/ote-documents/pgde_docs/pgde-handbookdecember-2018-as-at-22-nov-2018-1224.pdf?sfvrsn=2 Neuman, W. L. (2011). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Needham Heights, MA: Allen and Bacon.
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Pable, J. (2013). Case Study Methodology and Homeless Research. Journal of Systemics, 11(7), 70-73. Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (25 July, 2018). Attributes of Quality Assessment. Retrieved from Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority: https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/about/k-12-policies/student-assessment/understandingassessment/attributes-quality-assessment Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board. (10 October, 2019). N (T)-Level Syllabuses Examined in 2020. Retrieved from Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board: https://www.seab.gov.sg/docs/default-source/nationalexaminations/syllabus/nlevel/2020syllabus/7018_y20_sy.pdf Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board. (2 October, 2019). Your Trusted Authority in Examinations and Assessment. Retrieved from Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board: https://www.seab.gov.sg/home/# Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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通过 SLS 平台提供学生反馈以促进学生拟人手法的学习表 现以及学习投入度 Using ICT (Student Learning Space) to facilitate instant feedback for students’ learning, engagement and improvement
马颖 范其煌 林琳 洪淑揆 罗妙秋
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摘要 本研究通过行动研究的方式探讨通过资讯科技平台，通过教师评估以及同侪互评的方式为 学生在学习拟人手法时提供反馈以提高学生的写作表现，同时能促进他们对学习的投入。 实验组来自中一快捷。实验结束后，根据学生的表现可以发现到，他们更能够在作文中运 用拟人手法，同时对于老师及同侪通过资讯科技平台提供反馈的方式给予正面的评价。另 外，学生在学习的过程中也表现出相当积极的态度。 关键词：反馈
同侪互评
资讯科技
拟人手法
一、研究背景 过去学生对“拟人”手法比较陌生，在运用上也比较有问题。拟 人手法若在写作中运用得当可以让文章增色，取得更好的成绩。因此让学 生掌握修辞中的拟人手法詪重要。然而向来在传统教学中，拟人手法教学 常常都收不到很大的成效，因此这一次我们将尝试融入 ICT，以带来更好 的教学效果。
二、文献探讨 关于反馈的相关信息：
（一）关于课堂反馈的知识基础 在认知主义学习心理学视角下，人类学习具有内在的心理结构，反馈的 作用在于促进知识结构的形成。构建主义学习论则进一步提出，人具有主动 学习、主动构建知识的能力。相比智能机器，反馈不仅能唤起人脑记忆，还 能激发人脑学习的动机，进而产生深度学习；而且这种反馈可以是来自外界， 也可以是来自于内部；反馈不但使得人脑对学习进行自我评价，还能促使人 186
脑对学习进行自我指导，从而更好地自我 发展。 在这样的学习理论关照下， 对于评价来说，学习 反馈更关注于评价任务的本质、学习者的反应、告诉 学习者高质量作品的特征、 对自身学习进步的欣赏， 以及达成高标准所需 的策略。 这种以发挥学生评价责 任、激发学生学习动机，从而让学生获得 高质量的学 业成就的学习反馈， 就是发展性学习反馈的核心内涵。
（二）反馈的多模式化 学习反馈的途径非常多样，可以来自教师，也可 以来自家长或同伴，或 者来自于学习目标(如评分规则)，也可以是学生自主反馈。 我们常常认为，提供反馈只是教师的事，其实学生也可以自我反馈。 有 效反馈对学生学习的促进作用最终是通过学生自己的评价、调整实现的， “教师的一个长期教学目标就是使自己渐渐的不再作为唯一的反馈提供者”。 1
反馈必须鼓励自我评价，有效反馈对学生学习的促进作用最终是通过学生自
己的评价、调整实现的，而这依赖于学生对评价标准、评分规则、评定程序 和典范的表现样本的事先了解。有研究指出，学生能有效地监管自己的学习 进展。通常采取的形式是，学生在学习时追踪自己的学习情况。例如在学习 一种新技能时，学生可以做个有关准确性和速度的图表。通过自我反馈，学 生能更好地产生学习动机，学生不仅能进行自我调整，而且还能主动地进行 自我指导、自我发展。 反馈可以来自同伴。 同伴反馈相对于教师反馈而言，在学生的长期 成就方面更有影响力。“因为教师要提供很多反馈，包括正反馈和负反馈，
Grant Wiggins.教育性评价[M].促进教师发展和学生成长的评价研究项目组译.北京:中国轻工 业出版社,2005.43. 1
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有时学生会觉得教师的这些反馈老是内容相同，无关痛痒。而同伴的肯定反 馈或否定反馈则具有更强的影响力。”
2
最有效的反馈应该是来自不同人群(包括来自自身)的即时、具体、多模式、 多渠道的反馈。将即时的、交互式的反馈变成学习过程的一部分，这样学生 就可以避免出现错误的学习和实践。
信息来源：黄文博《促进学生学习：开发有效的课堂反馈技术》
（三）资讯与通讯科技 2015 年 APEC（亚太经合组织）的教育部长会议中就有提到信息和通信 技术的迅速发展和日益深化，已经将各国的教育和合作推进到的一个前所未 有的水平。要成为一个互联互通的、知识驱动的合格人才，每个学生都必须 具备必要的 ICT 技能，以便利用合适的技术来搜集信息、分析信息，并通过 各种形式来交换信息；同时还要掌握必要的电脑与网络技能，以支持知识共 享和实际问题的解决。 将 ICT 整合于课程，将使学习变得更加主动；ICT 作为交流工具，可以 用于促进学生的合作和跨文化交流；ICT 还可以用于对学校工作和学习过程 进行有效的管理。ICT 促进学习是有前提的，即 ICT 的应用要合理。APEC 各 国家和地区形成了一个共识：如果应用得当，这三个方面的作用会非常突出。 ICT 能够为学习者提供更多的独立与合作工作的机会，从而提升学习的效果。
2
Howard,P.J. (2000).The owner’s manual for the brain. Austin, TX:Bard Press,115. 188
3
随着新加坡人在家庭内部使用英语作为主要沟通语言的比例逐年上升， 华语文的母语特性正逐渐消减。学生群体对于华语文兴趣缺失，学习动力不 足，畏难情绪高 涨等问题向一线华文教师不断发出挑战。在此社会大环境之 下，教师的教学策略与方 式必须随之调整。当下恰逢电脑、网络与智能手机 在全社会大规模普及，教育相关的 软件与平台如雨后春笋般被开发与使用， 而青少年学生所在的年龄层对于资讯科技的 使用非常熟悉并且具有强烈的好 感。以上的条件综合起来，决定了资讯科技融入到教 育之中乃是大势所趋。 使用资讯科技辅助教学能有效增加学生学习兴趣，丰富课堂教 学内容，提升 课堂教与学的效率，并能将教学延伸到课堂之外，也是在教育界整合教 学资 源的便利手段。4
（四）及时反馈 课堂即时反馈与互动系统，在目前我们可以看到的产品和应用中，几 乎 绝大多数都是轻量级应用，它们很好地解决了一线教师和培训在课堂教学中 非常常见的即时反馈、形成性评价、增加互动、提升课堂的趣味性等实际需 求，因此，深受一线教师的欢迎。5
刘宝存,刘强,荆晓丽.亚太经济合作组织教育领域优先发展议题及其展望[J].比较教育 研究,2015 年,第 3 期. 4 尤丽霞 李佳.如虎添翼——试论资讯科技助力华文课堂.尤索夫伊萨中学 南洋理工大学 国立教育学院. 3
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焦建利.10 个最棒的课堂即时反馈与互动系统.2019 年 6 月 17 日. 189
三、研究设计 研究对象 参与实验的学生来自 2019 年中一快捷班，共 30 名学生，包括 3 名中国籍 以及 1 名泰国籍学生，当中有 8 名学生是普通（学术）源流修习快捷课程的 学生。这批学生是随机分班，学习能力强，整体写作能力中等，但有几名学 生的写作能力强，但是，学生的华文程度相近。但是，任课老师发现学生很 少有意识地在写作中加入修辞中的拟人手法，而拟人手法是中一课程的学习 技能之一。
研究设计
本次教学设计用四节课时，共计 7 个环节。在本次教学的开始，教师通过 SLS 上简单的选择题活动来提取学生对于修辞中拟人手法的先备知识，再利 用例子来分析拟人句子的优劣，教导学生如何使用拟人描写进行段落扩写。 190
接着，教师带领学生到校园中的花园一角，并提供范文，让学生在小组内讨 论并运用所学的拟人描写，将观察到的景物描写出来。 学生完成任务后，教师提供评估表，让学生针对自己小组的表现进行评 估。该份评估表主要集中在评估学生对拟人描写手法的运用。下一个活动， 学生回到教室里，利用评估表，评估另一小组同学完成的环境描写段落。此 前的活动，教师是以观察者的身份来观察学生的表现，不做出任何的干预。 完成评估表后，教师才针对所观察的事项、学生的段落描写以及学生自评互 评的结果来提供反馈。 最后，学生们个别利用教师及同侪所提供的反馈进一步修缮自己的段落 描写内容，作为功课来提交，并完成自我评估。
四、研究结果
（一）学生对反馈的态度 课堂观察学生们的表现，他们在老师当堂点评、反馈的时候，都十分认 真，并积极回答老师的提问。从反馈问卷中可以看出，所有学生都“非常赞 成”同侪反馈（小组互评）“让我更清楚怎么用拟人手法”，相信是因为同 侪反馈是直接针对他们写的段落，可以有效帮助他们完成个人作业。绝大多 数学生都“赞成”老师的当堂反馈“让我更清楚怎么用拟人手法”。
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（二）将反馈运用在写作中 所有的组别都能将反馈运用在写作中，老师要求大家在个人作业中，至 少用到三个拟人句，绝大部分学生（90%以上）都能做到，而且大部分学生 都能在片段中正确使用拟人句。
（三）ICT 能够更好的提供反馈给学生 在小组互评的过程中，学生能利用 ICT 即时在班上针对同学的小组作品 来给予反馈，对小组的学习有很好的帮助，这点可以从学生呈交有质量的个 人作业，及对于反馈表中所有学生都“非常赞成”同侪反馈（小组互评） “让我更清楚怎么用拟人手法”中可以看出。 192
（四）挑战及改善的建议 在第一轮到小花园进行段落描写的小组活动中，多数小组的表现不是很 理想，整个段落中只用到了一句的拟人句，也有些小组“自以为”加入了拟 人句。老师在检查学生小组作业时，发现有相当一部分学生对于“怎样算是 拟人句”还不够理解，因此，在小组反馈时，老师为了要确定学生对拟人句 的理解程度，指示反馈组写出评量对象在写作中所用的拟人句。 在教学过程中，可以改善的地方： 1. 对于刚接触“拟人句”的中一学生来说，在指导他们仿写“拟人句” 时，不妨先让他们在句子里加入人的动作，这将有利于学生更清楚地 理解“怎样算是拟人句”，等学生都熟练掌握之后，才引导他们在句 子中加入人的思想感情。 2. 学生一开始对于拟人描写的概念有些偏差。建议下一次的教学，应先 从动作着手，让学生观察什么地方可以加入动作。 3. 能力好的学生可以让他们在加入动作后，想一想可以加入什么样的感 情来配合该动作。
（五）是否达到学习目标？ 学生在没有系统学习“拟人”手法以前，在作文中完全看不到他们使用这一 修辞手法；通过两节课的学习后，他们在练习中会按老师要求加入少量的 （一、两句）拟人句，但是，用得并不完全准确；通过一节课的课堂反馈， 包括老师反馈与同侪反馈，学生们在个人习作中，基本都能运用三句及以上 的拟人句，并且准确度有大幅度的提高。
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以下是同一个学生前、后练习的对比：
从视听室(AVA ROOM)走向小花园，远远就 可以看到一排高高壮壮的棕树寂寞的站在 绿绿的草地上。一条蜿(wān)蜒(yán)的石 板小路直通花园深处，沿着小路走上一座 小木桥，微风轻轻触摸着我的脸，真舒 服！站在桥上往下看，只见小池塘里的调 皮的鱼在赛跑乌龟和小蝌蚪正在为他们加 油。再往前走，看到两座小凉亭为我们服 务，亭子里有木椅让我门充分休息。每当 午休时分，我们就会坐在凉亭里跟花草树 木聊天、吃零食、看风景，为我们摭风擔 水和一起欢笑声充(chōng)满(mǎn)整个小 花园。
五、总结 教师在进行写作技能的教学时，应该有意识地进行课程的安排，鼓励学 生在写作时运用写作技能。此外，学生能利用 ICT 即时在班上针对同学的小 组作品来给予反馈，对小组的学习有很好的帮助。
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六、参考书目 1. 黄文博《促进学生学习：开发有效的课堂反馈技术》 2. Grant Wiggins.教育性评价[M].促进教师发展和学生成长的评价研究项目组译.北京:中国 轻工业出版社,2005.43. 3. Howard,P.J. (2000).The owner’s manual for the brain. Austin, TX:Bard Press,115.
4. 刘宝存,刘强,荆晓丽.亚太经济合作组织教育领域优先发展议题及其展望[J].比较 教育研究,2015 年,第 3 期. 5. 尤丽霞 李佳.如虎添翼——试论资讯科技助力华文课堂.尤索夫伊萨中学 南洋理工 大学国立教育学院. 6. 焦建利.10 个最棒的课堂即时反馈与互动系统.2019 年 6 月 17 日.
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Investigating the Effects of Alternative Assessment in Students’ Learning Punitha Joanna Ho Shen Yanru Yong Kenneth
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Abstract This study aims to determine the effectiveness of alternative assessments as a teaching intervention to improve quality of learning – in terms of retention of knowledge, handling information and applying concepts with understanding. The participants involved were 60 students from the Secondary 3 Physics cohort. Each participant undertook a pre-test prior to the alternative assessment group project and a post-test upon its completion. A paired sample statistical t-test has found positive results in the overall student performance for the alternative assessments in both semesters. From our investigation, performance-based assessments involving a real-world context is able to engage students cognitively on multiple levels of the SOLO and Bloom’s taxonomy to enhance the quality of their learning. Introduction Alternative assessments in the Physics curriculum has been explored each academic semester by the Physics team in 2018. The project yielded positive results, with an increase in the student engagement, mastery and rigour evident for topics integrated into the alternative assessments. Moreover, the use of SOLO taxonomy within the assessment rubric allowed the team to determine the proficiency of students in their content mastery. This indicator also enabled teachers to identify content gaps and respond with timely feedback to bridge our students’ understanding or possible misconceptions. For our project in 2019, the team planned to continue with the two alternative assessments integrated into the physics curriculum. Embarking on the topics of kinematics and thermal transfer in matter, approximately 60 physics students undertook two alternative assessment group projects. For our data collection, pre- and post-tests were administered before and after the completion of each alternative assessment. With a time interval of four to six weeks between the tests, the cohort scores will be compared using a paired sample t-test to
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investigate the effectiveness of alternative assessments as teaching intervention to enhance the quality of their learning. Literature Review Black and Wiliam (1998) describes assessment as an integral part of the curriculum, providing crucial feedback to enhance learning in activities undertaken by teachers and/or students. In contrast to traditional pen and paper tests, alternative assessments provides the opportunity for authentic and cooperative learning to occur between students over a period of time. The assessment tasks often requires students to demonstrate their understanding of knowledge and process skills required for a particular topic. Thus, alternative assessments promotes a qualitative approach to reinforce student learning by constructing meaningful connections across content knowledge and applying it with understanding (Tan, 2007). This deepens the quality of learning and opposes the quantitative approach in traditional means testing, where knowledge tends to be segregated as pieces of unrelated concepts. With the use of alternative assessments as a teaching intervention, students now play a primary role in advancing the extent of their own learning under the guidance of their teachers. Research Question This paper addresses the following question: What is the effectiveness of alternative assessments to improve quality of learning – in terms of retention of knowledge, handling information and applying with understanding. Methodology To prepare students for their alternative assessment projects, the concepts on kinematics and thermal transfer were first introduced in the classroom. Thereafter, a pre-test was subsequently administered prior to commencing both alternative assessment projects. The pretest comprised of multiple-choice questions and graph sketching, where students were required
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to interpret relationships between quantities and translate the graphical information appropriately. The pre-test was marked and the results collated. However, the solutions of the pre-test was not discussed with the students. Upon completion of the alternative assessment, their projects were reviewed with individualised feedback given by their physics teachers. To conclude the effectiveness of this teaching intervention, a post-test was then administered. The questions in the pre- and post-tests were identical, to ensure reliability when comparing the results through a paired t-test statistical analysis. The pre- and post-tests for alternative assessment 1 and 2 can be found in Annex A. Results The paired sample t-test, is a statistical procedure commonly used in case-control studies or repeated-measured designs. The performance of each subject is measured before and after to evaluate the impact of a specific intervention. To examine the effectiveness of alternative assessments as a teaching intervention, the performance of approximately 60 secondary Physics students undertaking the pre- and posttests were analysed. The null hypothesis is taken to be no observable difference in the mean results of the students’ pre- and post- tests. The probability-value (also known as p-value) is compared against the significance value (also known as alpha value), which is fixed at 0.05 for a one-tailed t-test. When p-value is lower than alpha value, the null hypothesis is rejected – suggesting that there is no significant impact evident in the students’ results after the intervention. Thus, the p-value has to be lower than the alpha value in order to validate the effectiveness of alternative assessment in students’ learning.
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For alternative assessments 1 and 2 (AA1 and AA2), the mean scores for their respective pre- and post-tests are shown in Table 1. Tables 2 and 3 shows the paired sample one-tailed t-test being used to determine whether the students’ performance was enhanced upon the introduction of AA1 and AA2.
Pre-Test
Post-Test
Mean Score
Mean Score
AA1
5.03
5.93
AA2
3.73
4.85
Table 1: Comparison of mean scores for AA1 and AA2
AA1: t-Test: Paired Two Sample for Means Pre-test
Post-test
Mean
5.03
5.93
Variance
5.55
7.30
Sample size
60
60
One-tailed t-test p-value
0.0114
alpha value
0.05
Table 2: Paired t-test statistical table for AA1
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AA2: t-Test: Paired Two Sample for Means Pre-test
Post-test
Mean
3.73
4.85
Variance
3.09
2.72
Sample size
55
55
One-tailed t-test p-value
0.0000181
alpha value
0.05
Table 3: Paired t-test statistical table for AA2 Analysis and Discussions The mean scores of the pre- and post-tests indicated an overall improvement with the incorporation of alternative assessments in both topics. However, the collective mean scores is unable to reflect the impact on each individual student’s performance before and after the exposure to the intervention. Hence, the paired sample t-test provides a more accurate comparison on each individual’s progress. For AA1 and AA2, the p-values for the one-tailed t-test are 0.0114 and 0.0000181 respectively. With the values being lower than the alpha value of 0.05 in both assessments, the overall performance in the physics cohort increased. Moreover, a significant effectiveness for AA2 was particularly evident on the topic of thermal transfer in matter. This allows us to conclude that alternative assessments has a productive effect on the quality of learning in terms of retention of knowledge, handling information and applying scientific concepts with understanding.
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Findings and Conclusion Based on the results, the low p-values validates that alternative assessment is effective in the quality of learning on retention and application of physics concepts with understanding. The physics team intends to continue the use of alternative assessments as an intervention to engage students to make meaningful connections between concepts independently in a real world context. Limitations It was observed that a small fraction of students did not benefit from the alternative assessments. Their overall score either decreased or they failed to score for questions they previously answered correctly in the pre-test. One possible reason to account for this observation could be due to the delay between the completion of their alternative assessment and the administering of the post-test. Thus, resulting in a deterioration of students’ understanding or knowledge over time. Another reason could be the group size allocated for the alternative assessment. Being a group project with three to four members, a handful of individuals gave minimal or no contributions. For such individuals, their pre-test would naturally fare better than the post-test since they did not revisit the concepts after first learning it in the classroom. Although alternative assessments appears to be an effective tool to supplement learning for our student profile, this paper does not rule out other teaching interventions which effectiveness can be further explored and compared against. Some examples include demonstrations, self-directed learning, differentiated instruction and the other teaching strategies.
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Potential Future Work The team concludes a two years PLT effort in investigating the feasibility of incorporating alternative assessments into the physics curriculum and its effectiveness in enhancing students’ learning for mastery. It has been concluded that performance-based assessments, involving a real-world context or task, has created an active platform for our students to be engaged cognitively on multiple levels of the SOLO and Bloom’s taxonomy. Moving forward, the team aims to increase the frequency of alternative assessment activities gradually, in domains other than Thermal and Newtonian physics within the physics curriculum. References Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80, 139-148. Tan K. H. K. (2007) The case for qualitative approaches to assessment. In: Tan K. H. K. (eds) Alternative Assessment in Schools: A qualitative approach. Pearson Education South Asia, Singapore.
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Annex A Northbrooks Secondary School Science Department Physics Pre - Alternative Assessment Quiz
10 15 minutes
Name: ___________________ ( ) Date: ________
Class: ________
1. How do we obtain the speed from a distance-time graph? A Use the speed-time formula B Find the area under the graph C Find the gradient of the graph D Read it off the y-axis from the graph
2. Which of the following properties from a speed-time graph can be used to find the acceleration and distance travelled by an object? Acceleration
Distance travelled
A
Area under the graph
Gradient
B
Gradient
Area under the Graph
C
Formula
Area under the Graph
D
Gradient
Formula
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3. Which of the following graphs correctly represents an object at rest? A
C
B
D
4. For the each of the following distance-time graphs, draw their corresponding speed-time graph. [1 mark each]
Distance/m
Speed/ms-1
Time/s
Time/s
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Distance/m
Speed/ms-1
Time/s
Time/s
Distance/m
Speed/ms-1
Time/s
Time/s
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5. For the following distance-time graph, draw its corresponding speed-time graph. [2 marks]
Speed/ms-1
Distance/m
Time/s
Time/s
6. Complete the speed-time graph of the object for the following scenario: A car was initially at rest for the first 10 s of its journey. It then increases its speed to 20 m/s in the next 10 s. The car then travels at 20 m/s for another 10 s before slowing down gradually till it comes to a complete stop in the next 5 s.
[2 marks]
speed of car / ms-1
time / s 0
10
20
30
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Northbrooks Secondary School Science Department Secondary Three Express Physics Pre - Alternative Assessment Test
10 15 minutes
Name: _________________________________ (
) Class:
Date: __________
Multiple Choice Questions [10 marks] Choose the most suitable answer for each question and indicate your answers in the table below. 1.
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The figure shows a frozen pond with the surface of the ice slowly melting as heat is transferred from the warmer air above.
Which of the following process (es) is/are heat transferred from the air to the ice?
A
conduction only
B
convection and radiation only
C
conduction and radiation only
D
conduction, convection and radiation
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2
Which of the following methods would not produce convection currents in a container filled with water at 28 oC?
3
A
Floating a piece of ice on the water
B
Placing a piece of hot metal into the water
C
Lighting a candle beneath the container
D
Placing a lighted bulb just above the water surface
The figure shows an old method of keeping food warm. The hot pot is surrounded with dry hay. The hay for container B is more loosely packed compared to the hay for container A.
Which of the following statements is true?
A
Metal pot B will lose heat at a slower rate than that of A as there is more trapped air in container B
B
Metal pot A will retain heat longer than B as there is more hay in container A
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C
Metal pot A will retain heat longer than B as the more compact hay will prevent heat loss by convection in container A
D
Both metal pots A and B will lose heat at the same rate as they are housed within the same type of wooden container
4
5
6
Which of the following describes thermal equilibrium? A
An object with the constant temperature
B
Same amount of thermal energy transfer between two objects
C
Thermal energy flows from region of higher to lower temperature
D
A net flow of thermal energy when there is a temperature difference
Which statement explains why metals are better conductors of thermal energy? A
Free electrons absorb more potential energy than other particles
B
Free electrons expand faster and collide more with other particles
C
Free electrons gain kinetic energy and collide with particles in colder regions
D
Free electrons in metals vibrate faster at the same position than other particles
Which of the following situations does not produce convection currents? A
Ice cubes placed in a cup of warm water
B
A heater placed on the floor of a cold room
C
A vertical copper rod heated at the bottom end
D
Cold air entering a warm room through a gap in the roof
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7
8
Why are firefighters’ outer coats normally silver in colour? A
Silver is a good conductor of thermal energy.
B
Silver is a good insulator of thermal energy.
C
Silver is a poor absorber of radiation.
D
Silver is a poor emitter of radiation.
The diagram below shows the cross-section of a plastic container that a company designed.
The company claims that the container can keep food warm for a long duration. It offers the following explanations: I
The plastic cover reduces heat loss through conduction as plastic is a poor conductor of heat.
II
The black inner walls will absorb heat from the environment to keep food warm since black surfaces are good absorbers of radiation.
III The vacuum between the walls of the container will prevent heat losses to the surroundings through conduction and convection. Which of the following explanations is/are accurate? A
I and III only
B
I only
C
I, II and III
D
II and III only
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9
A lighted match is placed between two hands, one at the top and the other at the bottom as shown below.
Which of the following correctly shows how heat is effectively transferred from the lighted match to the hands at the top and bottom?
hand at the top
hand at the bottom
A
conduction and convection
conduction only
B
conduction only
radiation only
C
convection and radiation
radiation only
D
convection only
conduction only
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10
The diagram shows four rods, each made of a different material. One end of each rod is in contact with boiling water.
At the other end, the temperature of each rod is measured. The results are as follows.
Which rod is the best conductor of heat? A
rod P
B
rod Q
C
rod R
D
rod S
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Developing the Brooksian Leader’s Facilitation Skills through the Leadership Competency Index (LCI) Tool
Alex Ang Chua Liyan Lim Wan Yee Nur Sakinah Sanjay S/O Radakrishna
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Abstract This project is undertaken by the teachers from the Student Leadership Committee to raise the Student Leaders’ competency in facilitation skills. The Student Leaders take part in various training workshops and we have observed areas for improvement when they lead and facilitate their peers and juniors in activities and discussions. To bridge the gap between where they are at in their facilitation skills and where they can be, the teachers have utilised and modified the existing Leadership Competency Index (LCI), which is based on Kouzes and Posner’s Five exemplary practices of leadership and Robert Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership principles, to better guide the student leaders in the development of their facilitation skills. The aim of this project is to inquire into how the LCI tool guides student leaders’ understanding of and competency in facilitation skills. The student leaders have emerged after this project becoming more assured, confident and empowered to lead their peers and juniors. The team has also gained a better understanding of the limitations of the LCI tool in guiding students understanding of their facilitation skills.
Introduction Youth leaders represent the pillars of the future generation who will inherit the mantle of bringing Singapore to greater heights. The Student Leadership team believes strongly in developing our student leaders to acquire different sets of skills so that they can lead and serve effectively within their communities.
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Student Leadership Programme As part of student leadership education, the student leadership programme seeks to develop student leaders’ formal knowledge about leadership by adapting Kouzes and Pozners’ 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership (1987) and Servant Leadership (1970, Greenleaf) into a Brooksian Leadership model. This is to ensure that all Brooksian leaders have a basic foundation in leadership knowledge - the package underscores the importance of a leader’s core values, beliefs, actions and behaviours, as well as provide a theoretical handle for students on leadership. The development of key leadership skills and competencies will then be built on this knowledge. This formal knowledge is taught through workshops in order to help student leaders be conscious of the desired traits, attitudes, and key skills that the Brooksian leader should possess. The programme also seeks to provide opportunities and experiences to develop students as leaders and practise leadership.
Leadership Competency Index (LCI) The Leadership Competency Index (LCI) (Annex A) is a tool designed and used by teachers in the Student Leadership team to select and assess student leaders. It features a list of criteria expected of student leaders, adapted from Kouzes and Posners’ 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership and Servant Leadership, and personalised for the Brooksian leader. Under each criteria, there are two to three statements that include observable actions and behaviours for teachers in the school and in the team to peruse during the leadership selection and assessment season annually. The LCI tool has been used by form teachers of Secondary One classes to nominate potential Student Councillors during the selection period. It has also been used as a semestral assessment by the Student Council teachers during the councillors’ term in office. The team now aims to extend
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the tool to the Class leaders and CCA leaders so the tool is pervasive across all three leadership groups to level up the leadership knowledge and competency of all Brooksian leaders.
As an assessment tool used by the Student Leadership committee, the LCI provides an index which is an approximation of the student leader’s holistic leadership development rooted in the Brooksian Leadership model. The difference in score between an initial and final assessment would reflect the development of a student leader over a period of time.
Facilitation Skills According to Brooks-Harris and Shollenberger (1998), leadership is the process of ‘assisting a group to realise its common goals, visions, and dreams’ (1998). Hence, the Student Leadership committee considers facilitation skills as a key skill that a senior Brooksian student leader should acquire as it involves guiding a group through ‘stages of group development’ (Brooks-Harris and Shollenberger, 1998) and to foster positive group interaction. This is closely aligned to the school’s strategic thrust for Brooksian leaders to effect positive change. Additionally, the honing of facilitation skills also helps in the development of many other soft skills, these include but are not limited to confidence, public speaking skills, relationship-building, awareness and empathy.
To ensure that student leaders are able to interpret the LCI tool to track their own leadership development in relation to facilitation skills, the team decided to inquire into how the LCI tool guides student leaders understanding of and competency in facilitation skills, as well as the effectiveness of the LCI tool in evaluating facilitation skills.
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This project aims to enable student leaders in their facilitation skills by providing them with platforms to apply it, as well as their ability to read the LCI tool to independently develop their facilitation skills, with some guidance by the respective teacher-mentors in the various leadership groups. Student leaders have been instructed to facilitate two sessions for observation as part of their leadership development - these sessions could take the form of facilitating a discussion, an activity, or a debrief.
Through the two sessions in which student leaders will lead and facilitate the process for a group of participants, teacher-mentors will provide feedback using the LCI tool. Based on the LCI tool and verbal feedback given by the teacher-mentors, students will reflect on areas for improvement and execute a second session. This is to give students another opportunity to improve and work on their facilitation skills based on the feedback given.
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Literature Review
It has been widely acknowledged by schools that leadership roles can build confidence in students and help them develop to lead and serve the school and wider community. In addition, by empowering our youths, it gives them a greater stake in the school and nation, which will foster a stronger sense of belonging in the young.
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Reflection and Development of Leadership Literature has shown that reflection is used to promote cognitive development and will allow students to be sensitized to their learning (Hendricks et al, 2018). Leadership, though an important skill, is not often explicitly taught to students. As such, the team is ensuring how leadership skills can be displayed through how the leader facilitates a discussion skilfully with their peers.
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Seemiller, C. (2014) also found that reflection promotes the development of leadership competencies and what leadership means to them. This is congruent with what the team aims to achieve through the LCI tool and a document to guide their reflection process (discussed under Methods).
The Leadership Competency Index (LCI) tool was adapted from Kouzes and Posner’s (2016) Student Leadership Practices Inventory (SLPI). This was infused with our other leadership practice which is Servant Leadership, to create this unique tool for the Brooksian leader.
The original Leadership Practice Inventory was tested by a large group of leaders and managers across various industries to distill the key areas which were considered important indicators of leadership competencies. Overall, it showed consistent relationships with various measures of effectiveness in leadership development among individuals.
Methods The project was conducted with 56 Secondary Three student leaders who are Class leaders, CCA leaders and Student Councillors. The secondary three students were selected as they are assumed to be at the peak of their leadership journey. The three different student leader groups were instructed to plan and facilitate two designated sessions across a time period of ten weeks in pairs. These two sessions would be observed and assessed by teacher-mentors as a measure of their facilitation skills. The target audience that the student leaders would plan for would be junior councillors for Student Councillors, classmates for Class leaders and CCA members for CCA leaders.
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Process Briefing for all student leaders Prior to the facilitated sessions, a briefing cum training session was conducted for all student leaders. This is to ensure that all leaders share a common understanding of what the task is about, why they are doing it [the learning goal], and how they could conduct the sessions [facilitation techniques]. Each group of leaders were tasked to facilitate two sessions with different groups of participants: Class leaders for their classmates, CCA leaders for their CCA members and senior student councillors for their junior councilors.
For the Class leaders, they were given two Student Time sessions as a platform to apply their facilitation skills. Due to the Class leaders lack of formal training in facilitation skills, the tasks for the two sessions were defined for them and the student leaders only had to consider how the tasks could be facilitated. The first session required class leaders to lead a class bonding activity while the second session required class leaders to facilitate their peers in the nomination of teachers for the Caring Teacher Award.
For the CCA leaders, they were tasked to facilitate two CCA debrief sessions for their CCA members.
For the student councillors, having received formal training in facilitation skills and being the group of leader in Tier 3 of the Student Leadership tiering structure, they had the most challenging task. They were tasked to facilitate two activities for their junior councillors during
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the designated weekly Council Day and unlike the other two groups, they had to plan the activities and consider the objectives of the activities.
Coaching for all student leaders The teachers went through the LCI tool to ensure that all student leaders are familiar with the document on the qualities and behaviours expected of a Brooksian leader, as well as to be able to read the LCI tool.
The teachers also used the CCA facilitation toolkit and modelled the facilitation process for students through three short experiential sessions so students would have a clear idea of what it means to facilitate and have these three strategies they can utilise in their repertoire of facilitation strategies. The CCA facilitation toolkit is issued to all CCA teachers, and comprises a range of resources such as cards and chips aimed at creating conversations and facilitating debrief sessions.
The following sequence was relayed to the students (see figure below): (1) Session 1 (2) Post-session reflection (3) Session 2
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Session 1 In pairs, the student leaders will conduct their planned sessions with their target group. They will be observed using the Leadership Competency Index (LCI) tool - in particular, their facilitation skills. Teacher-mentors will use the LCI tool to assess the student leaders’ enactment of facilitation skills, as well as communicate broad areas of improvement either in written form or verbally.
Post-session 1 reflection After the first session, student leaders are tasked to read the LCI and reflect on their areas they have done well, their areas of strengths as well as areas for improvement. Student leaders are given a Leadership Reflection Document (LRD) (Annex B) to guide their reflection process.
Session 2 In pairs, student leaders will facilitate another session, bearing in mind the LCI and feedback that had been given to them. Teacher-mentors will use the same set of tool (Annex A) to evaluate the student leaders’ enactment of facilitation skill.
The difference in the composite index of each criteria between the first and second session will indicate the improvement in student leaders’ competency of facilitation skills.
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Results Analysis and Findings The aim of the project is to inquire the effectiveness of the LCI tool in developing student leaders’ understanding of and competency in facilitation skills, as well as the effectiveness of the tool in assessing facilitation skills. There are two sources of data collected, namely, the LCI index - to measure the improvement in facilitation skills competency - as well as students’ reflections. Based on the data, a number of preliminary conclusions could be drawn.
LCI index The difference in the LCI index in the first and second facilitated session would provide an indication of the improvement in student leaders’ facilitation skills competency. Generally, the data reflects an increase in the composite index for each criteria as well as the overall LCI. Thus, student leaders showed improvement in their facilitation skills competency, improving in most areas after reflecting on the LCI achieved in the first session.
There were varying degrees of improvement in the various SL groups, this could be due to the different levels of training and experience the student leaders have accrued in their term of service.
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Example of a Pre and Post Comparison Table indicating the LCI for Session 1 and Session 2
Student LCI (4 Point Scale)
Councillors
CCA Leaders
Class Leaders
1st Observation
2.49
2.13
2.49
2nd Observation
3.16
2.73
2.95
Improvement
0.67
0.60
0.46
Final Result
The data (Final Result above) reflects a positive difference in the second session - this suggests that Brooksian leaders have shown an improvement in their facilitation skills with reference to the criteria in the LCI tool.
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Among the 3 student leader groups, the biggest improvement in facilitation skills through the LCI was seen in the Student Councillors, followed by the CCA Leaders, and then the Class Leaders. This could be attributed to the facilitation workshops that the SC and CCALs went through earlier in the year to improve their competency in this area. Additionally, the SC and CCALs had more opportunities and platforms to practise and apply their facilitation skills to a wider range of situations. In contrast, Class leaders lack opportunities in terms of their formal training and opportunities to apply their facilitation skills. Moving forward, this could be an issue to address in 2020 to refine the CL’s facilitation competency.
Students’ Reflection Students reflections in the Leadership Reflection Document (LRD) were collected and analysed to evaluate their understanding of the LCI tool in relation to facilitation skills. Students had to respond to key questions that correspond to each criteria in the LCI and do a self-evaluation of their areas of strength and areas for improvement.
Some key responses based on the reflection questions:
Key responses Leadership Principle What I demonstrated well
What I could further work on and what I can do next
Modelling the Way
Majority
of
the
students Many
suggested
indicated that they made sure demonstrating the activity so
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the participants understood the that participants can get a objectives of the activity.
clearer understanding on the activity.
‘I took care of the safety of the councillors. I managed to get ‘Be
more
entertaining.’
their attention.’ (Aryan Singh, (Aryan Singh, 3G) 3G)
Inspiring a Shared Vision
While many felt that they have Many felt that they did not informed the participants of convince
the
participants
the end goal, they were still enough to reach the end goal unable to rally the participants to achieve the end goal as a team. ‘Making sure everyone is ‘Kinda? I explained properly.’ involved.’ (Ong Ziwen, 3E) (Ong Ziwen, 3E) ‘I think I could let them to ‘I think I demonstrated well in think by themselves more communication
with
my compared to me helping them
peers. Like when walking out.’ (Betty, 3E)
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around to check on them, IDid elp my peers a little through communication and provide them with some feedback.’ (Betty, 3E) Challenging the Process
Many indicated this principle Many indicated that they as an area of weakness.
should be more keen to observing the participant’s responses and adapt their instruction/debrief accordingly.
‘Ask them how the activity could be made harder and do it their way.’ (Clarisse, 3G) I think though this game, my partner and do face challenges ‘I think I could have rehearse such as not able to give them with my partner before giving more
better
and
clearer instructions to my peers.’
instructions’.’ (Betty, 3E) Encouraging the Heart
(Betty, 3E)
Many indicated that they Many felt that they did not ensured
that
participants encourage their partner when
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cheered for their teammates. their partner were not able to The
student
consistently
leaders assured
also give instructions or debrief the clearly.
participants that the activity was not difficult.
‘I just kept telling them their ‘I should have asked other ideas were right’. (Navya, 3T) groups who were done to cheer the others on.’ (Navya, 3T) Enabling Others to Act
Many indicated that they Many felt that they should allowed the participants to have given the participants discuss on how to go about more time to reflect and speak. completing the activity and did not interfere with the different methods. ‘Spilt the parts to speak. Eg: I ‘I let Kurt (co-facilitator) say speak about the give things something when I heard that I and he say about the five.’ am cutting his sentence.’ (Liyana, 3F) (Liyana, 3F)
Servant Leadership
Majority
of
the
students Many felt that they could have
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indicated
that
they
were used the responses given by
conscious of the participant’s the participants to add value to well-being and will help if the their feedback. team were facing repeated failures for the activity by giving hints.
‘Before the game, I asked ‘During the debrief, I will ask Kimnee and Anugerah if the the participants if the obstacles obstacles are difficult or not.’ are difficult or not.’ (Liyana, (Liyana, 3F)
3F)
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Discussion
Effectiveness of LCI tool
Statements in the LCI tool One common key challenge teachers faced in the evaluation process was the difficulty in assessing student leaders using the statements listed in the LCI as some statements in the LCI featured traits which could not be observed in two single sessions.
For instance, one statement in the LCI tool teachers found difficult to evaluate is, ‘The student is a positive role model who demonstrates the GIFTED values.’ A closer analysis of this statement suggests that this is a leadership disposition that would be more useful for a holistic evaluation of an individual’s leadership qualities rather than facilitation skills.
Another statement the teachers found difficult to evaluate is, ‘The student takes initiative to organise activities.’ under ‘Challenge the Process with a Champion Learning Mindset’. A closer examination of the statement reveals that the statement is targeted at observing certain leadership actions over a longer period of time.
Similarly, another difficult statement teacher-mentors found challenging to evaluate was ‘The student connects with his team members.’ under ‘Encourage the Brooksian Heart’ as the word ‘connect’ is vague and requires further unpacking.
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An important point to note is that the non-demonstration of the actions and traits featured in the statements are is in no part due to a lack of leadership competence. Rather, it leads to the conclusion that the LCI tool may not be adequate in assessing facilitation skills and requires further modification to a rubric that features behavioural statements with observable actions that are more closely mapped to facilitation skills.
Student leaders’ understanding of the LCI tool Based on the students’ reflection (LRD) that were collated, not all student leaders seem to have a strong and complete understanding of how the criteria in the LCI is mapped to facilitation skills.
For instance, Aryan Singh (3G) had indicated under the Modelling the Way heading that he had to ‘Be more entertaining.’ This response seems to reflect an understanding that a good facilitator has to know how to engage his audience. However, his response showed no relation to the leadership action of ‘Modelling the Way’.
In a similar vein, Liyana (3F) had indicated under Servant Leadership that she asked her friends if the obstacles ‘were difficult or not’. Her response seems to suggest an understanding that a good facilitator had to check in with her participants on the difficulty level of the task. However, the response had no bearing on Servant Leadership.
This suggests to us that more time could be apportioned to help student leaders understand the criteria given in the LRD and the reflection process. Further, the language competency of
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student leaders may hinder their ability to clearly articulate their learning. Thus, considerations for conversational reflection may also be helpful for student leaders to process their learning.
Observation Process
Time lapse between Session 1 and Session 2 As this assessment took place over two sessions which can range from four to ten weeks apart, the time provisioned to see change in student leaders’ competency in facilitation skills between the first and second observations may be too short. Furthermore, two sessions may not be sufficient to observe a marked improvement in facilitation skills. For a more accurate and holistic assessment of the student leaders, the assessment should not be a one-off affair. More sessions or opportunities could be created for student leaders to put their skills into practice prior to the sessions that will be assessed or assessment could be extended across a longer duration across more sessions.
Standardisation amongst teachers
As the LCI tool has always been used by the three discrete leadership groups for different purposes, there may be inconsistency in the assessment of student leaders and guidance provided. The accuracy of the LCI is dependent on the understanding of standards and expectations. Thus, discussion and standardisation processes among the committee members and teacher-mentors of the same leadership group should be held to establish a common understanding of the standards and the competency rating.
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Conclusion This inquiry into the practical use of the LCI tool in guiding student leaders’ understanding of and competency in facilitation skills has allowed teachers in the team to glean insights on the Student Leadership programme and the usefulness of the tool for both the teachers in the Student Leadership team and student leaders. The two sessions have benefitted student leaders in terms of creating opportunities for them to put their facilitation skills into practice. As a selection and assessment tool, the LCI provides the team with insight on the holistic development and growth of the Brooksian leader. As a tool for evaluating facilitation skills, there are several modifications that the team would have to take into consideration as it is limited in helping the team to evaluate student leaders’ facilitation skills, and in guiding the students’ understanding of their facilitation skills. A different rubric would have to be structured to help students process their leadership learning experiences. Finally, the reflection process is an important component in the development of student leaders, Student leaders were obliged to analyse and diagnose their own areas of strengths and improvement in honing their facilitation skills. As Greenleaf rightly notes, reflection is ‘essential to the growth [...] of the servant leader.’
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References Brooks-Harris, J.E. & Shollenberger, K. G. (1998). Group Facilitation Skills for Student Leaders. University of Hawai’i. Hendricks, D.G.,Yasuhara, K., and Taylor, A.C. (2018). Enhancing Student Leadership Competencies through Reflection. American Society for Engineering Education Conference, Utah, USA Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant-leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2007). The leadership challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2007). The Student Leadership Practices Inventory. Facilitator’s Guide. (2nd Edition). Jossey-Bass Seemiller, C. (2014). The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook: Designing Intentional Leadership Learning and Development. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Straits Times Article (2015) Students nurturing leadership traits https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/nurturing-leadership-traits-in-the-young Singapore National Olympic Council (2019) article on the development of youth leaders http://www.singaporeolympics.com/youth-sport-leaders-gather-in-singapore-to-celebratecultural-diversity-through-sport/ 236
ChannelNewsAsia (2019) article on empowering youth leadership https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/new-plan-to-turn-young-people-s-voicesinto-action-in-building-11324694
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Annex A - Northbrooks Secondary School Leadership Competency Index (LCI) for Student Leaders 2019
Name of Student Leader:
__________________________
Name of Teacher Mentor:
__________________________
Date of 1st Observation:
__________________________
Date of 2nd Observation:
__________________________
For each of the item below, please provide a rating that best describes your observation of the student leader. The ratings are as follows:
1
2
3
4
Demonstrates
Demonstrates
minimally well
well 1st Observation
Practises Servant Leadership
exceptionally
2nd Observation
The student is open to feedback and willing to change. The student puts the concerns of the team above himself/herself. The student demonstrates awareness, care and support for others. Average Score
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Model the GIFTED way
1st Observation
2nd Observation
1st Observation
2nd Observation
1st Observation
2nd Observation
The student is a positive role model who demonstrates the GIFTED values. The student takes initiative to influence others positively in his/her actions and behaviours. Average Score
Challenge the Process with a Champion Learning Mindset The student is vocal in sounding out constructive comments and suggestions. The student takes initiative to organise activities. The student persists in the face of challenges. Average Score
Encourage the Brooksian Heart The student affirms team members for a job well done. The student encourages team members when they fail. The student connects with his team members. Average Score
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Inspire a shared Brooksian vision
1st Observation
2nd Observation
1st Observation
2nd Observation
The student has a clear vision of the positive change he wants to make. The student solicits differing viewpoints and establishes common understanding among the team. The student is able to persuade and rally others towards an idea.
Average Score
Enable Others to Act towards the shared vision The student recognises and taps on the strengths of his team members. The student encourages and supports team members to strive for better. The student seeks opinions and feedback before making a decision. Average Score
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Annex B Leadership Reflection Document: Facilitation Skills
1) Rate how effectively you have facilitated the debrief session from a scale of 1 to 10.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Demonstrates minimally well
8
9
10 Demonstrates
exceptionally well
2) How does the LCI help you to understand your mastery of facilitation skills in terms of:
Leadership principle
What I demonstrated well
What I could further work on and what I can do next
Modelling the Way ● Have I been a good role model to my peers? ● Have I ‘walked the talk’? ● Did I model the activity?
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Inspiring a Shared Vision ● Have I set a clear and achievable goal for my peers? ● Have I communicated that goal to everyone? ● Did everyone believe in the goal?
Challenging the Process ● Have I noticed areas in which my peers can do better in? ● Have
I
designed
achievable tasks for my peers? ● Did I elicit responses from my peers? ● Did
I
respond
meaningfully to my peers and provided constructive feedback?
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Enabling Others to Act -
Have I provided
opportunities for my peers to contribute? -
Have I provided
opportunities for my peers to reflect and speak to each other?
Encouraging the Heart -
Have I provided
opportunities for my peers to encourage each other? -
Did I encourage my
peers?
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Servant Leadership -
Have I shown that I
am open to feedback from others? -
Have I shown empathy
towards my peers? -
Am I aware of how I
have facilitated the debrief session?
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Boosting Secondary 4/5 NAPFA Results through a 3 Pronged - “DEP” Approach Timothy Chong Sanjay S/O Radakrishna Siti Nadiah Toha Taufiq Sanusi
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Abstract: By adopting PERMA+ principles (P) as our foundation to create a positive classroom environment and using differentiated instructions (D) and effective feedback (E) as our tools, our group aims to cultivate the Growth Mindset and build resilience in our students towards their NAPFA test. The impact of our intervention strategies as well as comparative data of our students pre and post intervention is discussed in this paper. The aim for this project is to build our students’ resilience toward physical challenges. This should translate to relative improvements in their respective NAPFA results and potentially in their academic areas as well.
Introduction: The NAPFA test is a bi-yearly hurdle that all students go through. The 3 hardest stations that stand in the way of our students’ success are the 2.4km run, the SBJ and the PU/incline PU. The NAPFA is a good indicator of how fit our students are and in a bigger picture, how healthy the youth of our nation is.
Our group hypothesized our students’ poor performance to 2 main factors. The psychological barrier and the lack of physical strength and/or technique.
To address the first factor, our group employed Martin’s Seliegman’s PERMA+ positive psychology approach. This aims to build our students’ well-being and hence resilience towards challenges. This approach also is in line with establishing a positive classroom environment where students feel safe to fail.
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To address the second issue, our group adopted differentiated instructions and effective feedback on top of the usual physical conditioning that we carry out during PE lessons. Students in various ability groups were given differentiated engaging tasks which will be discussed in the method section.
The general strategy would be to first build that positive classroom environment that encourages resilience, and then to pull out ability banded students for specialized differentiated coaching that addresses the technique and/or lack of physical strength to perform their personal best in that NAPFA station.
After our intervention, we also aim to identify the gaps in our approach that we can consider exploring next year. These gaps will be identified through a post-intervention survey.
Literature Review To support our PLT project several articles were reviewed out of which five are highlighted as the articles’ findings support the course of action undertaken in the project. The core of the PLT project revolves around fitness testing. In this case it is the National Physical Fitness Award or NAPFA and is a nationwide test conducted in schools for students aged 10 – 17. In our project, we have proposed that by adopting PERMA, we are looking at developing an approach (strategies) that can motivate students to exert maximal effort and encourage students to have the self-direction to set fitness goals that can be achieved through developmentally appropriate physical training. This is on top of the usual physical conditioning that we carry out during PE lessons to achieve desired levels of fitness attainments in the six NAPFA components. 247
We believe that fitness testing can be a positive and enjoyable experience if used in a developmentally appropriate manner and if delivered in a positive and supportive environment. Through the PERMA model, we hope to better highlight several positive psychological factors such as perceptions of competence, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, enjoyment, goal orientation, and physical activity promotion – that can be related to physical fitness testing. Studies have shown how psychological factors appears to significantly affect physical performance in fitness testing (Wiersma & Sherman, 2008). The study highlights how fitness testing should be delivered in a manner that increases motivation and effort to increase the internal validity of fitness testing in youths and, more importantly, may contribute to students' perceptions of efficacy, enjoyment, and interest in physical activity. It also suggests that instruction or teaching that lacks focus in bringing out positive motivation and concerted effort in students will NOT likely result in optimal fitness performance that reflect actual fitness levels. This is further supported by studies that are more specific to our approach in our PLT project that the PERMA model may be able to shift students focus on fitness testing to emphasise more on feeling joyful at being able to make incremental improvements in health and fitness. (Kern & Waters et al, 2015) Effective fitness testing should also identify factors such as students’ actual perceived effort, psychological and motivational factors that affect the internal validity of fitness tests. To put it simply, why would a student want to perform well on standardized fitness testing? What rewards—intrinsic or extrinsic—are generally present to bring out the student's greatest effort? (Wiersma & Sherman, 2008). To understand these psychological and motivational factors, our
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PLT team conducted a post-NAPFA Test survey on students who have failed at least 1 NAPFA station to analyse the students’ motivation and engagement level. Our group is also proposing that by adopting differentiated coaching and effective feedback we hope to be able to help students improve their performance on three NAPFA stations – namely, the PU/ Inclined PU, SBJ and 2.4km run. We hope that on top of our PERMA approach, the effective feedback will also motivate students to improve on the technique and/or lack of physical strength to perform their personal best in that NAPFA stations. Indeed, teachers or coaches have a critical role in bringing about positive behavioural outcomes and enhancing strengths, self-esteem and other personal traits in students (Uusiautti, Leskisenoja & Hyvärinen, 2017). Studies have suggested that when young athletes are taught skills of different difficulty, different types of instruction and feedback might be more appropriate in order to improve outcome and self-confidence. The type of the skill to be acquired is also a critical factor in determining the effectiveness of the feedback types (Tzetzis, Votsis & Kourtessis, 2008). It is also suggested that the cognitive process of self-confidence is the link between instructions by the coach and the performance of the skill by the student. Self-confidence in the mastery of a skill is determined by coach feedback (Tzetzis, Votsis & Kourtessis, 2008). In our PLT project, feedback was also provided through use of technology in the form of video recording of student performance with the use of iPads or mobile phones as well as developing visual resources such as infographics on how to train for improvement on the various stations were utilized. Studies have suggested that video has a positive influence on learning as a transmitter of feedback and instruction in Physical Education lessons. Video feedback makes
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teaching easy, aiding the teacher in the transmission of ideas and images as well as permits better understanding of the lessons subject by the pupils (Aranha & Gonçalves, 2012)
Methods The purpose of this study is to experiment the effectiveness of using the DEP-approach lesson with PERMA+ infusion to the three out of five hardest stations in NAPFA test. The participants are students who has been consistently failing their NAPFA test and students who nearly miss the distinction grade for NAPFA.
‘PERMA+’ involves Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishments and Health (+). As our study is athletically inclined focus, we added Health as the last component to infuse into our DEP-approach of delivering the lessons. Below is an example script of how a PERMA infused lesson looks like.
“Good Morning Class, today, we will be doing SBJ (SBJ) station today. Let’s show some positive energy towards this task! Just remember to encourage each other as you are all giving your best, at your own level, to reach your own personal goals. But, before we start jumping, can anyone tell us why is jumping so important not just in PE but to our lives? (Student answers) Thank you John. Yes, it is of great importance in life to stay fit, agile and healthy as having good flexibility will help you in all aspects of your life. Let’s have a good warm-up to prepare ourselves for the jump today!”
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The first element of creating Positive emotions starts from the briefing conducted by the teacher at the beginning of the lesson, who greets the class enthusiastically and in an encouraging tone. This allows students to remain optimistic about eventual outcomes and enjoy the rest of the lesson.
The Relationship element are achieved when the teacher continues to frame his lesson such that his students are to encourage one another to do their best while trying to achieve their individual goals. This promotes a positive and safe environment so that it brings them joy when doing the task.
The teacher factors in Engagement and Meaning elements when he questions his students the importance of jumping not just during PE lessons but in their daily lives. When students are in the state of flow, they are in their optimal functioning zone. This is developed later through specific Differentiated Instructions (DI) and task for higher-ability or lower-stability students where students are pulled-out into smaller groups so that they get corrective feedback and affirmation, which is vital for the individual’s development.
It is then supported by using the Effective Feedback (EF) which can be achieved when the students refer to the posters for the pull up (PU) and SBJ (SBJ) stations created specifically to guide them to achieve their individual goals.
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Here is the self-guide poster we created for the SBJ station.
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Here is the self-guide poster we created for the PU station.
EF is further applied at a later lesson, when the students get to use ICT to video record their jumps in SBJ. This not only provide immediate feedback for the students but they can also make use of their peers to assist them in correcting their techniques without waiting for the teacher. After which, the students will be able to develop a sense of Accomplishment when the task are adjusted in such a way where they are able to achieve relative success.
The teacher ends off his briefing by promoting the last element of Health, where he frames his lesson in the bigger picture of emphasizing the need to staying fit and healthy for their wellbeing.
This is the introductory example of the beginning of an PERMA+ infused lesson. The infusion into the EF and DI lessons takes place at an in-depth focus for the later lessons where the teacher introduces posters and ICT video-recording to guide the students to practise during their free time. As the positivity has already been framed since the first lesson, students are encouraged to refer to the posters and try-out the challenge themselves. The posters are designed such that students can start from their comfort or capability level and step-up to the challenge of reaching the ultimate goal. The levels of the difficulties are named after the difficulty levels found in a popular teenagers mobile game. This is intended to help spark their motivation as they find something that they can find meaning with.
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As for SBJ, techniques can easily be evaluated using video functions on a handphone. As technology advances, more students own phones which have the slow-motion function as part of the standard camera feature of their phone. This makes recording easier as they can use the video functions without having to worry about not being able to download certain apps, which can be an unmotivating factor for them. Using the guide of the SBJ poster, they can use the video to record their friends jumping and together, they can spot their mistakes together. Below are picture examples of SBJ techniques that are taken from a slow-motion video. Through this method, students are able to do this activity on their own and rectify their mistakes with their friends without having to wait for their teachers.
At the end of the lessons and NAPFA testing, those students who failed the NAPFA test were required to do a survey. The survey is designed such that it focuses on 2 areas. The first area focuses on their personal training experience which reflects on their perception about the NAPFA trainings and test. The second area focuses on their personal motivation and ways to encourage themselves to pass NAPFA.
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Ideal before Take-off position
Ideal Take-off position
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Ideal Landing position More example scripts of how a PERMA+ infused lesson looks are at in the annex.
Results, Analysis and Findings Before commencing this project, we gathered pre-intervention data by testing all the Sec 4 students in the SBJ (SBJ) and PU/Inclined PU station. These results were compared with their post-intervention data to analyse the effectiveness of our intervention.
Majority of the students either improved or chose not to redo the station as they were satisfied with their first try. As a cohort, there was a significant improvement in the two stations. For the SBJ, 48.1% of students showed an improvement after our intervention. This is almost half the cohort and it shows that with teachers’ intervention and students’ increased motivation level played an important role in this boost. The average improved distance was a substantial 16.2cm and this could be largely attributed to the improved technical awareness and execution of the jump
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due to teacher modeling and the use of posters. There were 10 students who improved between 28 cm to 68 cm.
Similarly, there was an even better improvement in the PU/IPU station. 62.9% of students showed improvement after modifying their training regime based on our poster’s suggestions. There was a good balance in the improvement between boys and girls, as the stations were slightly different for both genders. For the girls, the biggest improvement was 24 (from 3 to 27). For boys, the biggest improvement was 12 (from 3 to 15). For PU/IPU, the main reason for improvement was primarily the progressive training programme and the students’ frequent and regular practice and training sessions.
SBJ
Percentage
Remarks
Deprovemen t
8.396946565 Insignificant number. Many possible Valid Reasons. Because some may not have a second try as they had already
Same
43.51145038 passed
Improvement 48.09160305 Each person improved by an average of 16.2cm
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PU/IPU
Percentage
Remarks
Deprovemen t
0 Nil Because some may not have a second try as they had already
Same
37.09677419 passed
Improvement 62.90322581 Notable improvement between boys and girls Table 1: Percentage of Improvement/Deprovement in NAPFA Results after Intervention
To further analyse the students’ motivation and engagement level, we conducted a survey on the students who have failed at least 1 NAPFA station to understand their concerns. This survey was conducted to ensure that our intended interventions are effective by addressing the problems that students face in their point of view. We are happy to note that 88.4% of students agreed that they want to pass their NAPFA test. This confirms that the majority of the students are motivated to try their best. 77.7% of students see value in the NAPFA testing and agreed that it is important to pass.
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Graph 1
Graph 2
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Unfortunately, 59.5% of students confessed that they do not train for their NAPFA stations after school hours which may possibly be linked to a lack of discipline and willpower. Though they are interested to pass, they are not putting the required hours of hard work beyond their PE lessons. 56.2% of students also felt that they did not have time to train for NAPFA, which we attribute to their lack of prioritisation and poor time management.
Graph 3
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Graph 4
We delved further into this issue by asking students to cite their reasons for not giving the best for their NAPFA testing. This question was crafted to assist teachers in understanding the underlying reasons that cause students’ poor performance in the NAPFA test. They were a few clusters of similar reasons that the students mentioned and the following are the top 8 reasons:
Top 8 Reasons for not trying hard for NAPFA: 1) Lack of time 2) Laziness 3) No Motivation 4) Poor Self-Belief/Determination 5) Prioritisation (Studies vs NAPFA) 6) Regular Failures 261
7) Medical Conditions 8) Shy/Embarrassing
Based on our findings, the Top 5 reasons are student-oriented and they sum up the importance of discipline, confidence, and time-management in ensuring success in not only the NAPFA testing, but many other aspects of life (academics, relationships, etc.). This can be attributed to their primary school or lower secondary NAPFA experience, the stress they feel with the O/N Levels happening later this year, and inability to understand the importance of good health and well-being. As teachers, now that we have identified these concerns, we will focus on addressing them.
Discussion - Limitations and Recommendations
Limitations
The biggest limitation that we face from our students that did not manage to pass their NAPFA is the lack of training. This lack of training stems from a lack of self-motivation. Students who need to train are unable to find the drive to train on their own. The 2 hours of PE lessons their PE teachers meet them per week is insufficient to yield significant results.
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Recommendations
Making training sessions “fun� has to be a priority. This can be done through a buddy motivation system where a higher ability student can be paired with a student that needs mentoring. The progress of the mentees can be tracked and perhaps tied to a rewards system. This also helps to build positive relationships which is in line with our PERMA approach.
A fitness routine with PERMA infusion should be implemented from Secondary 1. This will make students more receptive to the new challenges and develop mental resilience to face their NAPFA stations.
More facilities can be provided to encourage students to train on their own. The school has installed several new PU bars near the flagpole area and this should make their own selftraining more accessible. We also can provide more comprehensive posters for the SBJ and PU stations to provide students with more information on how to better train for these stations.
Conclusion
With more than half our students chosen for our study showing relative improvement in their respective weak NAPFA station, our project has been able to show that our intervention strategies have been successful to a certain extent. However, the majority of these students were still not able to pass their NAPFA test as their improved score was not enough to meet the minimum passing grade.
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Our study has shown that infusing PERMA in our lessons to frame each lesson positively leads to students developing a better sense of well-being. This results in them developing more resilience to challenge themselves. They can be seen to keep re-trying the stations in a bid to get a relatively better result and focusing on gradual self-improvement.
If we are able to improve the well-being of our students through PERMA at a younger age, provide scaffolding through educative posters and adequate facilities, we should be able to see a further improvement in their NAPFA results and in other holistic areas as well.
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References 1. Lenny D Wiersma and Clay P. Sherman (2008) The Responsible Use of Youth Fitness Testing to Enhance Student Motivation, Enjoyment, and Performance – Journal of Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science Vol 12 Issue 3 Pages 167-183 2. George Tzetzis, Evandros Votsis and Thomas Kourtessis (2008) The Effect Of Different Corrective Feedback Methods on the Outcome and Self Confidence of Young Athletes Journal of Sports Science and Medicine Vol 7 Issue 3 Pages 371 – 378 3. Margaret L. Kern, Lea E. Waters, Alejandro Adler and Mathew A. White (2015) A multidimensional approach to measuring well-being in students: Application of the PERMA framework -Journal of Positive Psychology Vol 10 Issue 3 Pages 262-27 4. Uusiautti, Satu; Leskisenoja, Eliisa Marjukka; Hyvärinen, Sanna Maarit (2017) PERMA-based Perspectives on Sports – Designing New Ways To Support Well-Being In Finnish Junior Ice Hockey Players – Global Journal of Human Social Science 2017 Vol 17 Issue 2 5. Aranha, Á. Cristina and Gonçalves, F. José Miranda (2012) The Importance of VideoFeedback and Instruction - Journal of Physical Education and Sports Management, Vol. 3(1),
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ANNEX:
BACKBONE OF PROJECT (USE OF PERMA+, D.I and EF)
P - Positive Emotions
Framing the activity
E - Engagement
When task meets zone of optimal functioning. (D.I)
R - Relationships
When a positive, safe environment is established for students to try and fail
M - Meaning
Framing the activity so that is relatable (E.F)
A - Accomplishment
Adjusting the task to offer well-earned relative success (D.I, E.F)
H - Health
Emphasizing the importance of health for well-being
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HOW A PERMA+ INFUSED LESSON LOOKS LIKE (2.4km) Script
PosEd Element
Good Morning Class, today, we will be running 2.4km today. Let’s show some positive energy towards this task!
P
Just remember to encourage each other as you are all giving your best, at
R
your own level, to reach your own personal goals.
E,A
But, before we start running, can anyone tell us why is running so
M
important not just in PE but to our lives? (Student answers) Thank you John. Yes, it is of great importance in life to stay fit and healthy and
M,H
having a good stamina will help you in all aspects of your life. Let’s have a good warm-up to prepare ourselves for the run today!
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HOW A PERMA+ INFUSED LESSON LOOKS LIKE (SBJ) - Sanjay
Script
PosEd Element
Hello everyone. It’s good to see everyone so smiley and chirpy today, and
P
in the right attire. Let’s start off the day with a really good and warm greeting.
A very good morning class! It’s a pleasant Monday* morning and I’ve
R
been looking forward to today’s class. How are you doing? (Students answer) We’ve been training very hard and today’s the day we show each
E,
other our awesome SBJ performance. Let’s give our best effort today by executing the correct technique to achieve our personal bests.
A
We are all aware that SBJ helps us develop our jumping ability, but why
M, H
do you think it’s necessary? (Students answer) Thank you for the really good responses, class. I’m happy to know that you are aware of the benefits of this activity.
Let’s prepare for our SBJ by doing our routine staircase hops to warm our muscles up. Do continue encouraging your friends and give them some
E
feedback based on your observations. Looking forward to your Hi5s at the
R
end of each jump! Let’s keep the energy level high.
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HOW A PERMA+ INFUSED LESSON LOOKS LIKE (IPU) - Nadiah
Script
PosEd Element
Good morning class! Let’s start by giving the friend sitting next to you the
P
strongest high-5 you’ve ever given. Can I see a show of hands, who thinks
E
their high-5 is the strongest??? Thank you for your honesty! Do you know that one way to see who might be able to give the strongest high-5, is via inclined PU (IPU). So let’s see who can do the most IPU today!
R
Can anyone tell us how IPU can help us in our daily lives? (Thank you
A
Jenna). Having a good IPU may be an indicator of how much house chores M you’ll endure to do. With that in mind, I hope you girls look forward to beat your previous score. Now, let’s warm ourselves up and test our strengths!
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HOW A PERMA+ INFUSED LESSON LOOKS LIKE (PU) - Mr Taufiq
Script
PosEd Element
Good Morning Class, today, we will be focusing on the PU activity. Let’s show some positive energy towards to achieve your personal best in
P
this activity! Just remember to cheer on your classmates who are able to do the PU to
E, R
do the maximal reps that they are able to. Encourage and support your classmates who are only able to do partial PU to carry out the modified activities that will help to build up their upper body strength and not give up. But, before we start this activity, can anyone tell me the various activities in sports or OE where such a pulling action is needed? And why must we
M
use an ‘overhang’ grip (Student answers: E.g.: Climbing a ladder, climbing over a wall or obstacle, pulling yourself onto your kayak if you have fallen into the water, easier for you in NS) Thank you John. Yes, this is a useful activity that also has many useful daily use as well as making you look fit.
H
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Effect of Drama Infusion in Lower Secondary Normal Technical Social Studies on Learning Experience of Students Diana Ghazali Eddy Norisman Isabel Ho Muhd. Khairi Muhd.Nor Rita Teo
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Abstract This action research project used a pre-/post- activity student perception survey design to examine the effect of infusing drama in Lower Secondary Normal Technical (NT) Social Studies classrooms. In the context of exploring two Social Studies issues which were ‘Resolving Conflict and Building Peace’ and ‘Protecting Our Environment’, 60 students from Secondary 2NT participated in three cycles of teacher-led inquiry infused with drama strategies, namely Forum Theatre, Hot Seating, Role Play and Characterisation. Data sources included a pre-/post-activity student perception survey. The intervention showed an effect on improving students’ socioemotional skills in terms of social awareness, relationship management and responsible decisionmaking but limited effect on the conceptual learning by students.
Keywords: drama, social studies, lower secondary normal technical, social awareness, relationship management, decision-making
Introduction The implementation of 2014 Lower Secondary Normal Technical Social Studies Syllabus by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore signalled a move towards an issues-based approach. This approach is complemented by the use of student inquiry to explore contemporary societal issues. The student inquiry included processes such as gathering of data beyond their classrooms and call for the weaving of field-based learning by the Social Studies teachers. Fieldbased learning offers a real-world setting for sense-making by the students.
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Limitation of field-based learning experiences woven into the existing school-based Lower Secondary Social Studies N (T) learning programme resulted in a deprivation of authentic learning experiences that has hindered better awareness and appreciation of the issues that the students are inquiring into. The existing learning programme allowed for the students to learn about societal issues mainly through indirect presentations of the setting such as the Social Studies textbooks and teacher talks. Such indirect presentations offered few or no interactions with an environment that reflects the concepts needed to be understood by the students. The prevalence of passive learning by students was evidently observed in the Social Studies classrooms. In the absence of direct presentations to activate active and authentic learning, when students are expected to interact with more complex issues at the Upper Secondary level, they will struggle to make connections with their content knowledge and deepen their insights into an issue. This necessitate an inclusion of authentic learning settings to increase students’ awareness of how they perceive issues and reconstruct their existing knowledge to create new ones for themselves, and to reduces their passivity in learning. Miller et al. (1989) suggests drama can be used in the Social Studies classrooms to motivate and help students to deepen their learning of social studies content, as well as make the world more understandable to them. Furthermore, drama offers a safe environment for students to explore ideas, and solve real-world problems without incurring a penalty. It also allows them to reflect about the concepts they learned. Spolin (1986) also highlighted drama as a means to serves purposefully to offer authentic learning insight for students. In light of both studies, the purpose of this paper is to present the effect of a teacher action research project that examined the following question: “How is the learning experience of students from Sec 2NT impacted when they participated in social studies lessons infused with drama?� 273
Literature Review Much research studies support the use of drama in Social Studies classroom and promote different drama strategies for effective implementation. Miller et al. (1989) promote a strategy to incorporate drama into social studies class is through scripted play. Through scripted play, it engages students in unpacking the dramatised situation by allowing them to interpret the roles, develop empathy towards the roles and making improvisation to their responses towards the situations to effect a change. By doing so, the learning of major concepts in Social Studies can be introduced, reinforced and extended. Pieczura (2013) highlighted creative dramatics as a highly effective method that supports active involvement in the development of conceptual understandings as well as bring the Social Studies curriculum to life for the students. The method engages students in content and creates real and meaningful experiences that help students with understanding complex concepts. In reviewing the various strategies, she concluded that the best way to start is by incorporating short dramatic activities into lessons. Dramatic activities should be a do-able, manageable, and time efficient strategy in everyday classroom practices. Spolin (1986) also promotes drama strategies as a means to create a place where teachers and students meet as fellow players, involved with one another, ready to connect, to communicate, to experience, to respond and to experiment and discover. Drama and theatre strategies or games aids to improve students’ ability to communicate through speech and writing and in nonverbal ways as well. In creating their pieces together, it enables group interaction and collaboration to be
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infused within the process of making. Within these processes, the drama class provides four ‘elements of being’ that can offer authentic learning: 1. Play In creating their situations, students engage in a ‘play’ where students learn to develop social skills. Most scenarios presented within drama contain a problem that needs solving within them - an objective point in which each student becomes involved with others while attempting to reach a conclusive goal. Outside of play, there are few places where children can contribute to the world in which they find themselves. Their world is often controlled by adults who decide and choose their actions for them, offering little opportunity to act or to accept community responsibility. The drama classroom is designed to offer students the opportunity for equal freedom, respect, and responsibility within the community of the schoolroom.
2.
Freedom
Students are only able to make an honest and exciting contribution to the learning process if students are given the personal freedom to play. Participants must be free to interact with, to experience his or her social and physical environment. The students can accept responsibility for communication, become involved, develop relationships and learn to improve - but only when given the freedom to do so.
3.
Intuition
The intuitive can only be felt in the moment of spontaneity, the moment when the students are freed to relate and act, involving themselves in the world created surrounding them. 275
4.
Transformation
When deeply focussed on the process of drama, the students are capable of transforming objects or creating them. The transformations arise out of heightened physical movement and exchange of this moving energy between the participants.
In summary, the studies showed that the infusion of drama can be a viable direct presentation of authentic learning to trigger activeness in learning by students and deepen their conceptual understanding but one should be mindful in making a good selection of drama strategies based on their relevancy and student readiness to deploy them.
Methodology This action research project employed a pre-/post- activity student perception survey design to examine the effect of infusing drama in Lower Secondary Normal Technical (NT) Social Studies classrooms. In the context of exploring two Social Studies issues which were ‘Resolving Conflict and Building Peace’ and ‘Protecting Our Environment’, 60 students from Secondary 2NT participated in three cycles of teacher-led inquiry infused with drama strategies, namely Forum Theatre, Hot Seating, Role Play and Characterisation. Refer to Table 1 for the description of the three cycles.
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Table 1
First Cycle The exploration of contemporary and relevant issues began with the tie-in of Drama, English Language and Social Studies which first started in Semester 2 of 2018. The Drama and English Language lessons focussed and revolves around the social issue of misuse of shared bicycles. A deliberate attempt to draw in relevance to content matter pertaining to the topic on the environment and its surroundings were also made during the Social Studies lessons. At that time, there was extensive coverage in the local media which highlighted the negative behaviours and attitudes of Singaporeans towards the bike-sharing services. Using newspaper articles and YouTube videos as stimulus and providing students with such resources to build on content and context for exploration and discovery, the drama lessons focussed on the
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dilemma and conflict through role playing, teacher-in-role that eventually led to the application of Forum Theatre. During English Language lessons, students were taught open and closed ended questions and they carried out reading activities based on the newspaper articles in class. During Social Studies, teachers provided content knowledge pertaining to the importance of keeping the environment clean and safe as well as the implications on endangering the surroundings. During drama lessons, students took on roles to explore the real world context using imagined settings for discovery of the complexity of the issue faced in society. They enacted and discussed scenes of littering and used their knowledge and experiences in the classroom to develop an understanding and empathy towards the issue. Continuing on improvisation and role play, the drama lessons then progressed to a news conference setting with teacher-in-role as a strategy to direct and illicit appropriate and relevant responses to the subject matter presented. At the end of the series of lessons, students completed reflection of personal experiences and relating them to their experience in the Drama and Social Studies lessons. In Semester 1 of 2019, the team worked with a different group of students and introduced a different content focus in Social Studies - Conflict and Resolution. However, similar methods were employed to ensure alignment. Lesson began with the introduction of a stimulus during Social Studies lessons, where students were shown photographs of Singapore’s Maria Hertogh riots. Discussions on sources of conflicts leading to the rioting were carried out in the classroom. During Drama lessons, students then explored the various cultural and religious celebrations in Singapore where students created freeze frames to show the different activities and festive moods to reflect dynamism and vibrancy in our multicultural society.
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Second cycle In January 2019, the major change from the first cycle and the second was the content that was being taught in Social Studies and also the final product – where students were told to present a video instead of acting in front of the teachers. The second cycle now focuses on a different group of students but of the same level (Secondary 2 NT) for that year. We taught the students two different ways that countries typically used when dealing with a conflict – diplomacy and deterrence and through the drama assessment, we could see two groups were able to use deterrence (measures taken by a country to prevent and protect themselves from threat) when faced with a conflict (in this case, the scenario was terrorism). Students came up with solutions like calling the police for help when faced with terrorists, using the SG secure app to inform the relevant authorities of the incident. Students were also able to exercise their creativity and their understanding of the various concepts through the exploration of the scenarios given in their drama assessment. Drama was used as a tool to develop perspective taking and through teaching strategies like role play and News Conference, students are better able to appreciate how the different characters should react in a situation.
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Third Cycle The topic of choice now reverts to the Issues in our Environment. In contrast to Cycle 1 where there was a prevailing issue of bike-sharing, the students are now focussed on resolving issues based on personal choices that could have an impact on the environment. Students were to tackle environmental issues that were covered in SS lessons. Students explored issues and solutions based on breaking down steps into: 1. Moment - The situation where students are faced with making a decision that could impact the environment. 2. Choice - The final decision that was made. 3. Impact - The final outcome and the effects on the environment as a result of the choice made. Students broke down these steps through video stimulus that has shown choices made by Man and the impact that it has on humanity and the world, before discussing and exploring on moments that the students themselves have faced with. As students had extensive experience in creating videos in cycle 2, the final product of the performance task was also to present a video on their Moment, Choice and Impact, with their personal message at the end. Students were explicitly informed that they were required to include solutions discussed in SS lessons.
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Analysis & Discussion Data sources included a pre-/post-activity student perception survey. The intervention showed an effect on improving students’ socio-emotional skills in terms of social awareness, relationship management and responsible decision-making but limited effect on the conceptual learning by students.
First Cycle For the first cycle, the post activity survey conducted for 22 student participants involved in this activity shows the following results: 1. 86.4% of student participants gave positive responses to using drama as a pedagogy for learning of SS and EL. 45.5% associated the activity as a fun element. 2. 13.6% of student participants responded negatively towards it. Being 'nervous' and 'boring' were two key negative responses by students. 3. 38.5% of the students gained opportunity to improve in their relationship management in terms of communication, negotiation, conflict management. 4. 26.9% of the students learnt about social awareness in terms of perspective taking, empathy, appreciating diversity and respect for others. 5. 19.2% indicated that they had to make responsible decisions during the process, including problem identification and problem solving.
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Majority of student participants responded positively towards having drama as part of their SS and EL lessons. Almost half the class felt that drama was fun and they were engaged during the lesson. Based on the presentation of the scenario as a drama performance, the survey showed that the activity has a higher impact on developing relationship management skills as compared to social awareness skills in students. The impact on developing empathy was low at 15.4%, and social awareness skills at 26.9%. This showed that the students viewed the performance task of improving their communication skills rather than their empathetic skills. However, we do note that it is hard to measure empathy. Students are also more relational at this age, and hence friends are an integral part of their life. In terms of the content that the students gained, we used the cycle of conflict/dilemma -rationalise -- resolution to get students to think of how they would come up with a resolution with the given scenario. They were supposed to act out their resolution to a real life scenario. Prior to their performance, students were exposed to different situations and scenarios like the issue bikesharing and littering and they were able to apply what they had learnt into their performance when they tried to come up with the resolution. An incidental observation was made in the written reflections by students on the use of principal modal verbs. The principal English modal verbs are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. The high rate of successful use of modal verbs suggest an existing ability and awareness in the need of using these words to indicate a reflective process students’ responses.
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However, when we looked at the performance of the students as the final product, we realised that many of the students were very nervous. There was evidence that the students were able to empathize with the characters that there were acting, but they still need to improve on their skills and their ability to bring out the character. With these in mind, we decided to embark on our second cycle, to see if we could get students to be more expressive and to use real life scenario in their performances. Second Cycle For the second cycle, the post activity survey conducted for 32 student participants involved in this activity shows the following findings: 1. 83.3% of student participants gave positive responses to using drama as a pedagogy for learning of SS and EL. 46.7% associated the activity as a fun element. 2. 16.7% of student participants responded negatively towards it. Being 'tiring' and 'boring' were two key negative responses by students. 3. 48.9% of the students gained opportunity to improve in their relationship management in terms of communication, negotiation, conflict management. 4. 4.4% of the students learnt about social awareness in terms of perspective taking, empathy, appreciating diversity and respect for others. 5. 22.2% indicated that they had to make responsible decisions during the process, including problem identification and problem solving.
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Despite a different class, majority of student participants responded positively towards having drama as part of their SS and EL lessons. Almost half the class felt that drama was fun and they were engaged during the lesson. Hence, we think that drama as a pedagogy seems effective in increasing students' engagement level. Though there was more evidence of development of empathy in students as seen in their performance, the content for development was not really evident. Students were taught about deterrence and diplomacy as part of their Social Studies lesson. The issue was on terrorism, but only 3 groups out of the 6 managed to show how the issue was adequately resolved. There were 2 groups that described burglary, while the other group did not even complete their resolution and it was unclear what they wanted to showcase. However, it was interesting that students perceived that they knew what terrorism was and how they should react in the event when they are faced in a terrorist attack. This was evident in their reflection where 30% of the students said that they knew what to do when faced with a terrorist attack when asked what they have learnt from the activity. However, only 4.4% of the students indicated that they had gained social awareness. This was contradictory to the observations made by the teachers in their final performance. We might not have placed enough emphasis on getting students to take the perspectives of the different people and hence, this was lacking in the students’ reflection. In terms of the soft skills, students were a lot more expressive. They were given different roles, and they could express the character differently and gave meaning to the characters. Having content fed through Social Studies gave them more meaning into character. They were able to use the authentic situation where they can get into character. It was evident that students were able to take the perspective of the different characters in the drama.
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Third Cycle We decided to focus more on the content for the third cycle as the students have gained certain skills in drama throughout the year. More time was spent on students researching on the different types of pollution i.e. water, air and land pollution. We decided not to use the previous content (from the first cycle) on bike sharing as the trend had died down and most of the bikesharing companies have pulled out of Singapore. Despite that, majority of the students focused on land pollution i.e. littering and its impact on humans and the environment and one group did on water pollution and its impact on the animals and the environment. Armed with experience from the previous cycle, the quality of the videos were a lot better. The students were able to edit the videos well, they were more expressive, had a lot more confidence and they were able to take on the role of the character. The video was also longer, with a clear message that they wanted to tell the audience. They were also able to use real life scenarios to bring about their message, for example, they were able to get ‘ad hoc’ actors like Madam Nair, our discipline officer, to be in the video without her realising that they were acting. They were highly committed in their role and were able to sustain in their character. This may be because they were able to remain in the situation and they could connect to the situation, showing that the authenticity of the scenario was important.
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Overall Infusing drama activities in social studies has provided an avenue for more authentic learning situation. Drama was not taught in a vacuum with no content, and there was more authentic learning as this gives real issues where students can explore and it provides an avenue where students can express themselves confidently. Also, using drama as a tool helps students to develop perspective taking/ empathy. Students’ engagement level increased, and the use of different techniques like the news conference and the role paly allowed the student to be able to understand the similar situation from different perspectives and try to empathize on the different characters in the story. Students’ Performance First Cycle In terms of students’ performance, students were not very confident and seemed shy when performing in front of a group of teachers in a formal setting. Many were unable to project their voices and speak clearly. There was evidence that the students were able to empathize with the characters that there were acting, but they still need to improve on their skills and their ability to bring out the character. Second Cycle There was evidence that there was an improvement in their performance as students seem to be more confident when taking videos as they could have multiple takes if they are not satisfied with their performance. Students were more expressive and they were able to take the role of the
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character and act accordingly. However, in terms of content, there were some misunderstanding in terms of what terrorism is. Third Cycle Students showed great improvement in their acting skills and their ability to bring out the character. Most of them were able to come up with a resolution to the issue and were able to convince the audience of their cause.
Findings & Conclusion We started this project with the intention of making lessons more engaging for students, using drama as a collaborative tool to teach the content of Social Studies. Real life scenarios added to make the learning more authentic. Through this project, we explored issues like bicycle sharing, terrorism, and water, air and land pollution. Students were exposed to the various contexts and were tasked to discuss the various issues. Through the various tools used like hot seating, forum theatre, role play, students were better able to take the perspectives of different characters and understand the issues better. Based on observations, they were better able to empathize with others and towards others. Students also gained communication skills and relational skills. Through the project, they were better able to relate to their friends and work as a group to complete their work. They were also able to work with friends of different backgrounds and communicate their ideas across effectively.
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Limitations One limitation of this action research project is generalizability. Findings are not generalizable and should be considered in light of individual teaching contexts. Further limitations include the small and inconsistency in sample size and a lack of a control group. A proper instrumentation to determine an effect on conceptual learning of students would need improvement. The short duration of the intervention and the adjustments to the intervention between cycles contributed to some inconsistencies in result analysis.
Implications for Educators Infusing Drama in both Social Studies and English Language classrooms as it seems to have a great deal to offer in many aspects of personal development: 1. Teamwork skills and conflict resolution 2. Empathy and Tolerance 3. Respect for others and the environment 4. Self-respect and confidence With the personal development of the students at the heart of the intention, it can be observed that students were able to: 1. Develop Empathy towards others 2. Understand different character’s viewpoints through Perspective Taking 3. Learn to rationalize emotions through exploring different outcomes
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Using Drama Strategies such as Forum Theatre, Hot Seating, Role-Play and Characterization, the project aims to encourage students to dive deeper and expand their understanding of the content taught in Social Students. Some of the observations made in the lessons, students have achieved the three key aims through the breakdown of the following processes or learning opportunities: 1. Relate well to others and form good relationships Drama relies on students working cooperatively and supportively together, otherwise it can’t work. Through the process, students are working together towards the same goal (often under time pressure) and relying on each other for collaborative success. 2. Self-awareness and dealing with their emotions The Drama strategies invites and evokes emotional engagement, yet gives safe distancing and opportunity for reflection through role. Students can genuinely respond emotionally to the drama and yet at the same time disassociate themselves through role from the emotions of the character they are portraying - however this had to come with practice as well as creating a safe and supportive environment within the class. 3. Secure values and beliefs, and have principles to distinguish right from wrong As the participants, students can bring their own values and beliefs but are also invited to actively and cognitively engage with the values and beliefs of each other and of fictitious characters. Students can consider the motives and actions of other people and the outcomes arising from their own actions and those of others. In the drama, students can play out the consequences of behaving with different attitudes and belief systems, then replay things differently after individual and shared reflection. Thus Drama often involves them in considering whether the actions and beliefs of characters are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and this gives us some insight into their own moral attitudes, behaviours and beliefs. 289
4. Become increasingly independent They are able to take the initiative and organize themselves. In a good drama lesson, students are the decision makers and are given opportunities to work individually and together to take ownership of significant elements of drama. Students spontaneously improvise and create original drama, often in short periods of time that require them to organize themselves quickly and effectively as groups. 5. Willingness to try new things and make the most of opportunities Drama involves having new ideas and actively trying them out. It is risk taking and unpredictable and requires a willingness to be adventurous and exploratory in a cooperative way. It is a perfect platform for students to try things out while protected by being in a role. 6. Work cooperatively with others Drama relies on cooperation with others to succeed. It gives opportunity for students to practice working cooperatively towards rewarding outcomes. Non-cooperative behaviours are often dealt with peer pressure as most students will want their performance to work, thus it demands the cooperation of each other. 7. Challenge injustice, are committed to human rights and strive to live peaceably with others Drama provides a fictitious forum through which injustices that arises in real life can be explored and considered in a distanced way through working in role. It enables students to empathize with others and give possibility of conflict resolution in fictional contexts that nonetheless develop the real skills and attitudes associated with it.
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8. Change things for the better Through drama (and particularly the use of Forum Theatre), children can experience and begin to understand how different actions and viewpoints can lead to different (and more desirable) outcomes and how they can empower themselves to influence change for the better. Although they are working in a fiction, the thinking and learning is real and the skills and insights being developed are also real and are transferable to real life.
References
1. Miller, E., Vanderhoof, B., Patterson, H. J., & Clegg, L. B. (1989). Integrating drama into the social studies class. The Clearing House, 63(1), 26-28.
2. Pieczura, M. (2013). Decidedly dramatic! The power of creative drama in social studies. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 25(3), 9-12
3. Spolin, V. (1986). Theater games for the classroom: A teacher's handbook. Northwestern University Press.
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Effect of Alternative Assessment and Improved Processes on the Learning Experience of Lower Secondary Science Students
Eunice Grace Chan Nur Sakinah Bte Ahmad Jupri Punitha d/o Vangadasalam Wendy Lee Chien Wuan
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Abstract This project aims to develop standard processes in conducting alternative assessment in lower secondary Science classes. The team works to ensure alternative assessment packages developed are sustainable for lower secondary science curriculum in the subsequent years. The assessment tasks were designed with the objective to increase the level of engagement as well as to provide the authentic learning experiences which gives students the opportunity to exercise creativity through design, collaboration and communication with fellow classmates as well as game-based learning experience.
Introduction Assessment for learning is a necessary process in teaching and learning cycle to give teachers the information and understanding on the progress of students’ learning. With the information obtained from the assessment, teachers could help students to ‘close the gap’ between students’ current situation and where they want to be in their learning and achievement. One of the assessments for learning that the Northbrooks Lower Secondary Science Team are developing is the alternative assessment. This PLT project is started with the aim to study the effect of alternative assessment in students engagement and as well as students’ learning experience. Hence, throughout this project, the team will be focusing on: 1. Work to increase the level of engagement as well as to provide the authentic learning experiences which gives students the opportunity to exercise creativity through design, collaboration and communication with fellow classmates (through project work as well) as well as game-based learning experience, and
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2. To develop standard processes in conducting alternative assessment in lower secondary classes and alternative assessment package that are sustainable for lower secondary science curriculum in the subsequent years.
Literature Review All teachers hope that their students can become more proactive in their learning where students could actively think about where they are now, where they are going and how to get there. In order to achieve that, teachers planned assessment tasks to help learners to ‘close the gap’ of their current progress and where they want to be in their learning (Getting Started with Assessment for Learning, 2019). There are multiple options for teachers in choosing and designing assessment tasks with the focus of obtaining information on students’ progress and to measure students’ performance. Students’ assessment is commonly associated with paperand-pen tests. However, overly administered paper-and-pen tests as quantitative measures of students’ performance can cause us to lose sight of what is valued in students’ learning. While schools are rightly concerned about whether students are learning, the question is whether evidence of learning lies only in measurement, especially by test scores (Yong, 2016).
In this project, the team studies how the design and choice of alternative assessment tasks (beyond paper-and pen) could help to improve students’ engagement in learning and to build academic tenacity in students as they progress through and solve challenges faced in their projects. Academic tenacity also is a property that can be promoted by teachers by designing suitable teaching and assessment tasks. Schools and teachers could create challenges and hold students to high standards (promoting a growth mindset and learning goals), while providing cognitive and motivational support (promoting effective self-regulation) to help them reach those standards (Dweck et al., 2014).
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Method Planning Planning stage involve the selection of tasks that fulfill the following requirement a) Provide opportunity for students to think and design, b) Provide opportunity for students to communicate and collaborate, c) Provide opportunity for students to plan timeline and monitor their progress from time to time, d) Provide challenge for students that prompt them to think and find solutions together, and e) Allow students to experience learning.
Crafting resources The team work on building common resources that will be used by all lower secondary science classes for the alternative assessment that includes: a) Briefing slides to convey to students on the objectives of the projects and expectations on students for the project b) Guiding worksheets to guide students step-by-step to complete their tasks c) Assessment timeline d) Rubrics to assess project
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Execution As one of the aims of the PLT is to develop standard processes in conducting alternative assessment in lower secondary classes and alternative assessment package that are sustainable for lower secondary science curriculum in the subsequent years, the team is working closely with lower secondary Science teachers to ensure that the project package and assessment can be administered to all classes using standard processes. This is important in ensuring the fairness of the assessment and sustainability of the assessment package and processes can be maintained for the subsequent years.
Results Analysis and Findings Result analysis for Sec 1 alternative assessment – building filtration system. This activity helped me to understand filtration better.
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I prefer learning and being tested through this hands-on experience to build filter more than doing the written test.
I enjoyed working together with my teammate(s) in the project.
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Students’ Reflection on what they have learnt from building filtration system.
Result analysis for Sec 2 alternative assessment – building model of sustainable city This activity helped me to understand Science concept better.
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I prefer learning and being tested through this hands-on experience to build filter more than doing the written test.
I
enjoyed
working
together
with
my
teammate(s)
in
this
project
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Students’ Reflection on what they have learnt from building model of sustainable city
Discussion (Limitation and Recommendations) In this segment, we will discuss about the limitations (areas for improvement) and recommendation to improve both Secondary 1 and Secondary 2 alternative assessment projects.
Limitation for Sec 1 Project – Building Filtration System (i) The limitation of the rubrics for the first assignment designed on building filtration system is that the assessment rubric does not indicate individual contribution. (ii) The other limitation of the project is that the scope of the project is not wide enough to cover more components of separation techniques and only focuses on filtration
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Limitation for Sec 2 Project – Building Model of Sustainable City (iii)Task requirements should be stated more clearly in term of impacts of human activities and technology on the environment. (iv) More discussions were required to clarify and ensure all teachers are clear about different components of assessment rubrics
Recommendations to improve on the project for subsequent years The team will be reviewing peer assessment rubrics for lower secondary science alternative assessment in 2020. A few considerations to note are on: a. How to ensure a more accurate outcome for peers assessments and to ensure peers could assessment objectively b. The possibility to reduce the weightage for peers assessment as compared to other alternative assessment criteria c. Should tests be conducted as a more accurate solution to assess individual component.
Conclusion This project had given students more opportunities to apply their learning in the form of prototypes and models building. Students enjoyed the experience of designing their prototypes, managing time, resolving conflict from differing opinions, and etc. which are skills that go beyond Science concept. In conclusion, the project provides students with the authentic learning experience, opportunities to design and build prototypes using pre-existing knowledge, opportunities to manage time and deadlines as well as to collaborate with others. These opportunities help students to build skills and improve engagement.
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References 1. Dweck, C., Walton, G., & Cohen G. (2014). Academic tenacity: Mindsets and Skills that promotes Long Term Learning. pp. 2–43. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 2. ‘To Measure is not Enough’,Singteach, issue59-bigidea, accessed 11 June 2019 3. ‘Getting started with assessment for learning’, Cambridge Assessment International Education, accessed 11 June 2019
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ACADEMIC TENACITY IN ACTION!
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Effect of Teaching Actions on Students’ Academic Tenacity through the Learning of Mathematics
Audrey Chong Jia Wen Loo Min Yan Vanessa Ng Puay Hoon Ng Song Beng Yong Kiam Ham (Janson)
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Abstract
This study examined the effect of implementing teaching actions from the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) on students’ grit score and its impact on Mathematics results of students. One of our school’s strategic objectives is to strengthen academic tenacity for learning. This is very much needed in the learning of Mathematics as most of our students don’t feel confident in Mathematics. Mathematics confidence reflects a growth mindset and includes a willingness to persevere and a positive attitude towards mistakes (Laurent, 2018). As the GCE O-Level Mathematics syllabus requires students to know content from Secondary One to Four or Five, students need to have passion and perseverance over a long period of time to sustain the interest and confidence in Mathematics.
Introduction As educators and reflective practitioners, more often when we reflect on areas for improvement, the focus is likely to be on the academic content and pedagogy. An aspect that should not be neglected would be the psychological factors or non-cognitive factors of our students. These non-cognitive factors that promote long-term learning and achievement can be brought together under this label academic tenacity (Carol, Gregory, & Geoffrey, 2014).
The Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) is a model that makes explicit how effective teaching and learning is achieved in Singapore schools. The STP provides teachers with a professional language and common reference point to articulate our understanding of how students learn and how we teach, regardless of the roles we play in education. It also helps teachers to teach effectively so that our students can learn better (Ministry of Education Singapore, 2018).
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The pedagogical practices are in the core of the STP. It comprises of four fundamental teaching processes - Positive Classroom Culture, Lesson Preparation, Lesson Enactment and Assessment and Feedback. It further branches out to different teaching areas and its accompanying teaching actions.
Our team of Mathematics teachers will attempt to implement teaching actions into our lessons, hoping to strengthen academic tenacity for learning, especially Mathematics and to improve their Mathematics results.
Literature Review Academic Tenacity Academic Tenacity, defined at its most basic level, is about working hard and working smart, for a long time. But more specifically, it is about the mindsets and skills that allow students to: ● look beyond short-term concerns to longer long-term or higher-order goals, and ● withstand challenges and setbacks to persevere towards these goals.
An academically tenacious student exhibits the following characteristics and behaviours: ● They are engaged in learning, view effort positively, and can forego immediate pleasures for the sake of schoolwork. For example, they seek challenging tasks that will help them learn new things, rather than tasks in their comfort zone that require little effort, but also provide little opportunity to learn. ● They know how to remain engaged over the long haul and how to deploy new strategies for moving forward effectively.
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In our school, teachers are encouraged to strengthen academic tenacity for learning through (1) Challenging students with high performance standards, (2) Scaffolding students’ learning just enough so that they can advance seemingly on their own and (3) Cultivating students’ feelings of belonging – a sense of fellowship with peers and the teacher. These are aligned with the STP under Lesson Enactment, Lesson Preparation & Assessment and Feedback and Positive Classroom Culture, Lesson Preparation & Lesson Enactment respectively.
Factors Affecting Academic Tenacity (1) Mindsets and Goals Students’ beliefs about their academic ability, goals, social belonging and selfregulatory skills are some non-cognitive factors that are important for academic success. If students believe that effort will pay off, they are likely to invest effort and energy in school. Students with a fixed mindset view their intellectual ability as a limited entity while students with a growth mindset often view setbacks as an opportunity to learn. Having a growth mindset helps to contribute to long-term learning. (2) Grit Grit can be defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. While the direct relationship between mindsets and goals and grit may not be defined yet, certain mindsets and goals may contribute to grit. Angela Duckworth and her researchers designed and developed a grit scale that assesses an individual’s grit score, in comparison to most people in the world.
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Research Questions (1) What is the effect of implementing teaching actions in the teaching of Mathematics on students’ grit score? (2) What is the effect of implementing teaching actions in the teaching of Mathematics on students’ Mathematics results?
Method Approach The critical inquiry adopted in this study is action research. The plan was to conduct the study using a single group pre-test and post-test experimental method. In this study, the purpose is to study the effect of implementing teaching actions on students’ grit score and Mathematics results. The hypotheses are as follows:
For Research Question 1, H1 = the grit score of students improved after Mathematics teachers implemented teaching actions during their Mathematics lessons.
For Research Question 2, H1 = the mathematics results of students improved after Mathematics teachers implemented teaching actions during their Mathematics lessons.
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Study Participants The student participants of the study comprised of 62 students from Secondary Three Express classes. Out of which, 56 students’ 2018 and 2019 End-of-Year Examination Mathematics results will be compared to study research question 2. The difference in sample size is because repeated and laterally transferred students are excluded in the comparison of 2018 and 2019 End-of-Year Examination Mathematics results.
Variables The student participants are from three different Mathematics classes, with a varied number of students and teachers (Table 1). The teachers involved are mostly experienced and competent and they all are willing to implement the teaching actions.
Table 1. Number of teachers and students for each class/group Classes/Groups
Number of teachers
Total possible number of students
3G
2 teachers (co-teach)
23
3I/F Group 1
2 teachers (co-teach)
37
3I/F Group 2
1 teacher
18
For this study, teaching actions are implemented by the teachers over a period of four months in Semester 2. The respective Mathematics teachers selected a teaching action from the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) so that they can implement it in their Mathematics lessons.
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Table 2. Teaching actions for each class/group Classes/
Teaching Process Teaching Area
Teaching Action
Groups 3G
Assessment Feedback
and Setting
Meaningful Practice for Mastery
Assignments
Lesson Enactment Using
Questions
Deepen Learning 3I/F Group 1
Assessment Feedback
and Setting
to Initiate-Respond-Follow up or Feedback (IRF) Chains
Meaningful Setting
Assignments
Lesson Enactment Providing
Meaningful
Assignments Clear Visual Organisers
Explanation 3I/F Group 2
Lesson Enactment Providing
Clear Model Thinking Aloud
Explanation
For research question 1, students were administered a survey from Angela Duckworth’s grit scale to measure their grit score. The survey was administered once, prior to the implementation of teaching action and another time after the implementation of teaching action.
For research question 2, the 2018 End-of-Year Examination Mathematics result was taken as the mathematics results of the students prior to the implementation of teaching actions; and the 2019 End-of-Year examination Mathematics result was taken as the mathematics results of the students after the implementation of teaching actions. 310
Instrument Psychologist Angela Duckworth developed the grit scale with a set of 10 questions that measures the grittiness using a grit score (1 to 5) in comparison to most people in the world. Each statement is assigned a score of 1 to 5 and the average of the 10 statements will be the individual’s grit score.
Table 3. Angela Duckworth’s Grit Scale Very
Some-
Not
Mostly much
Not like what like
much
like me like me 1. New ideas
and
me at all me
like me
projects
sometimes distract me from
1
2
3
4
5
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
previous ones. 2. Setbacks don’t discourage me. I don’t give up easily. 3. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one. 4. I am a hard worker. 5. I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete.
311
6. I finish whatever I begin.
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
5
4
3
2
1
7. My interests change from year to year. 8. I am diligent. I never give up. 9. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest. 10. I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge.
Results Analysis & Findings For Research Question 1: What is the effect of implementing teaching actions in the teaching of Mathematics on students’ grit score?
Table 4. Grit score results for the Secondary Three Express cohort
Pre-Implementation Post-Implementation
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
62
3.0500
0.49975
62
3.0548
t
Sig. (2-tailed)
-0.099
0.921
0.58637
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A two-tailed paired sample t-test was conducted to evaluate the impact of implementing teaching actions on students’ grit score. The result is shown in Table 4. The result indicated that there was not a significant difference in the pre-implementation (M = 3.05, SD = 0.500) and post-implementation (M = 3.05, SD = 0.586), t (61) = -0.099, p = 0.921. As p > 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions did not improve students’ grit score.
For Research Question 2: What is the effect of implementing teaching actions in the teaching of Mathematics on students’ Mathematics results?
Table 5. End-of-Year Results for the Secondary Three Express cohort N
Mean
Std. Deviation
56
51.125
17.5883
t
Sig. (2-tailed)
-3.519
0.001
2018 End-of-Year Mathematics Results 2019 End-of-Year 56
56.249
19.3510
Mathematics Results
A two-tailed paired-samples t-test was conducted to evaluate whether implementing teaching actions improved students’ Mathematics results. The result is shown in Table 5. The result indicated that there was a significant difference in 2018 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 51.1, SD = 17.6) and 2019 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 56.2, SD = 19.4), t (55) = -3.52, p = 0.001. As p < 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions improved students’ Mathematics results.
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Discussion The results from Table 4 and Table 5 suggest that although the teaching actions does not seem to improve students’ grit score, it impacted and improved the students’ Mathematics results. Detailed Analysis by Class/Group When we further breakdown the results into class/groups, the following results are as follows: Table 6. Grit Score Results by Class/Group 3G
3I/F Group 1
3I/F Group 2
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
Post
N
22
22
30
30
10
10
Mean
3.2318
3.2545
2.9067
2.9600
3.0800
2.9000
0.50557
0.61002
0.48632
0.57751
0.42895
0.48305
Std. Deviation T
-0.249
-0.768
2.377
0.806
0.449
0.041
Sig. (2-tailed)
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Table 7. End-of-Year Results by Class/Group 3G
3I/F Group 1
3I/F Group 2
2018
2019
2018
2019
2018
2019
N
21
21
26
26
9
9
Mean
65.429
71.467
43.077
48.076
41.000
44.352
11.1695
10.9077
15.3465
18.8243
14.6969
13.6154
Std. Deviation t
-4.006
-2.058
-0.691
0.001
0.050
0.509
Sig. (2-tailed)
Class 3G In Table 6, the result indicated that there was not a significant difference in the preimplementation (M = 3.23, SD = 0.506) and post-implementation (M = 3.25, SD = 0.610), t (21) = -0.249, p = 0.806. As p > 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions did not improve 3G students’ grit score. In Table 7, the result indicated that there was a significant difference in 2018 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 65.4, SD = 11.2) and 2019 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 71.5, SD = 10.9), t (20) = -4.01, p = 0.001. As p < 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions improved 3G students’ Mathematics results. 3G could have a higher level of confidence in Mathematics to begin with, as there are 15 Additional Mathematics students present in this class. A possible reason for the cause of this result could be that the students have been gritty in doing Mathematics to begin with. The 315
teaching actions merely helped to strengthen their conceptual understanding and the practice helped prevent mistakes. It probably did not help them to strengthen academic tenacity in learning. Class 3I/F Group 1 In Table 6, the result indicated that there was not a significant difference in the preimplementation (M = 2.91, SD = 0.486) and post-implementation (M = 2.96, SD = 0.578), t (29) = -0.768, p = 0.449. As p > 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions did not improve 3I/F Group 1 students’ grit score. In Table 7, the result indicated that there was not a significant difference in 2018 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 43.1, SD = 15.3) and 2019 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 48.1, SD = 18.8), t (25) = -2.06, p = 0.050. As p = 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions also did not improve 3I/F Group 1 students’ Mathematics results. Class 3I/F Group 2 In Table 6, the result indicated that there was a significant difference in the preimplementation (M = 3.08, SD = 0.429) and post-implementation (M = 2.90, SD = 0.483), t (9) = 2.377, p = 0.041. However, a closer look at the mean indicated that students’ grit score dropped after implementing teaching action. Although p < 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions did not improved 3I/F Group 2 students’ grit score. In Table 7, the result indicated that there was not a significant difference in 2018 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 41.0, SD = 14.7) and 2019 End-of-Year Examination Results (M = 44.4, SD = 13.6), t (8) = -0.691, p = 0.509. As p > 0.05, our results suggest that implementing teaching actions did not improve 3I/F Group 2 students’ Mathematics results.
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Limitations It will be hard to maintain the consistency of implementing the teaching actions across all three different Mathematics classes as the teaching style of each teacher is different. In 3G and 3I/F Group 1, a chance of higher variance could be created due to the existence of 2 coteachers. An introduction of new approaches always has its challenges. It takes time for both the teachers and students to accustom to the new approach before the benefits can be harvested. Despite the positive attitude and willingness of the Mathematics team, the STP pedagogical practices is still not heavily practised and internalised within the teachers yet. The four-month duration of the study could be too short for the full benefits of the approach to bear fruits as it takes time for both teachers and students to clarify initial doubts and for an instructional routine to run its course. As mentioned previously, certain mindsets and goals may contribute to grit. As such, our teaching actions selected may not have been able to change students’ mindset, especially if they had a fixed mindset right from the beginning. This will not improve students’ grit in a short time frame of four months. There might also be possible factors that are not within our control, such as their feelings of social belonging and self-regulatory skills. No doubt Angela Duckworth’s grit scale survey is used widely and globally to generate a grit score, what our team was trying to do was to see its relevance more towards the learning of Mathematics. While students attempted to answer the survey questions, they may interpret the questions to their general learning attitude instead of specifically in learning Mathematics. Perhaps in the future, modifications to the survey questions to suit the context of Mathematics would be better.
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Conclusion In summary, although our implementation of teaching actions did not successfully improve their grit score in the four-month time frame, it is heartening to see the significant difference in the students’ Mathematics results. Should the Mathematics teachers continue to practise implementing the teaching actions in their classes with more consistent effort, we are confident that in the long run, our students will be grittier and more tenacious, and this will help to strengthen their academic tenacity.
References 1. Angela, D. Grit Scale. Retrieved from https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/ 2. Carol, S. D., Gregory, M.W., & Geoffrey, L.C. (2014). Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills that Promote Long-Term Learning. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 3. Lauren, A. (2018, September 3), Encouraging Mathematical Confidence. Retrieved from https://blog.heinemann.com/thinking-together-encouraging-mathematical-confidence 4. The
Singapore
Teaching
Practice.
(2018).
Retrieved
from
https://www.moe.gov.sg/about/singapore-teaching-practice
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Increasing student motivation to achieve academic tenacity: An exploratory study Au Lai Fei Ivan Wu
319
Abstract One challenge in the field of student motivation towards academic activities is conducting research that is valid, and contextualised within a real setting (Järvelä, 2001). This is because earlier work on student motivation is either theoretical, or lacking in consensus on the interplay of cognitive and non-cognitive factors on motivation (Brown, 1988). This study attempts to address this by using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Gracia & Pintrich, 1996) to (i) assess the motivation level of the Secondary 2 Normal (Academic) cohort; and, (ii) implement intervention to increase motivation. This is with the aim of increasing student academic tenacity (Dweck et al, 2014); building academic tenacity could be a way to improve students’ academic and social outcomes. Key words: motivation; academic tenacity.
Introduction: The perceived lack of academic motivation Anecdotal evidence from the Mathematics and Geography teachers of class 2 Empathy (2019 cohort) indicate that the students are generally not motivated in their respective subjects. This is observed in students giving up on academic tasks when faced with difficulty, and students being satisfied with the current level of academic achievement, even if passing standards were not met. This marked the impetus for this study. We were interested to find out the level of motivation the students had towards Mathematics and Geography. In addition, we wanted to have evidence to show if intervention strategies have an impact in improving student motivation. This requires a theoretical understanding of student motivation and reliable intervention strategies.
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Literature review: Uncovering student motivation and academic tenacity Studies on learning and motivation are not new. Since the 1980s, academics have paid closer attention to this topic. In particular, it was at this time that academics examined how emotional aspects of learning are integral in motivation, and that there were complex interactions between motivation and cognitive engagement in the classroom (Brown, 1988). Ryan & Deci (2000) provides helpful unpacking of motivation. Drawing upon the self-determination theory, they view intrinsic motivation as “doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable” and external motivation as “doing something because it leads to a separable outcome” (p55). Further, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not a dichotomy, but rather, two ends of a spectrum with finer grading between the two. Building upon Ryan & Deci’s work, contemporary research has added to this field by situating this theorisation in context. For one, studies has shown that setting intrinsic rather than extrinsic learning goals promotes better engagement with the academic content, better conceptual understanding, and promotes both short- and long-term persistence on academic tasks (Vansteenkiste et al, 2006). The merits of promoting intrinsic motivation is elegantly summarised by Carol Dweck and colleagues (2014) through their work on academic tenacity. “At its most basic level, academic tenacity is about working hard, and working smart, for a long time. More specifically, academic tenacity is about the mindsets and skills that allow students to look beyond short-term concerns to longer-term or higher-order goals, and withstand challenges and setbacks to persevere toward these goals.” (Dweck et al, 2014, p4) Students who have academic tenacity therefore view school and learning as a pathway to future success for themselves and their communities. This belief propels them to stay engaged in 321
their academic tasks even if it may not be the most exciting of activities. This goes as far to keep them wanting to keep trying even if they were to face setbacks on their academic journey. Carol Dweck and colleagues also suggest possible interventions that can help increase academic tenacity. In summary, they propose explicitly teaching students fundamentals of the growth mindset, promote social belonging in class, make explicit the relevance of learning to the students’ lives, and help students develop self-regulation. With the knowledge that the long-term benefits of developing academic tenacity, we wanted a way to first determine the level of motivation our target students (i.e. Secondary 2 Normal (Academic)) had. Our teaching experience with the classes gave us the impression that this group of students were lacking in motivation, yet we did not have an objective way of measuring this. Measurement is an important step in providing evidence of success of intervention strategies. However, there are issues in ensuring validity of such measurements. Students’ self-reports from interviews or questionnaires may not reflect reality as such tools are often not situated in actual classroom settings. Gracia and Pintrich (1996) devised the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) to address this issue. The MSLQ “takes a more detailed view of the motivational processes involved in self-regulated learning, and contextualizes motivation and learning strategies by assessing them at the course level, rather than at a general level” (ibid, p328). In summary, the MSLQ comprises two sections: (i) a motivation section; and, (ii) a learning strategies section. “The 81 items on the MSLQ are scored on a 7-point Likert scale, from 1 (not at all true of me) to 7 (very true of me). The motivation section consists of 31 items that assess students’ goals and value beliefs for a course, their beliefs about their skills to succeed in a course, and their anxiety about tests in a course. The learning strategy section includes 50 questions: 31 items regarding students’ use of different cognitive and metacognitive strategies and 19 items
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concerning student management of different learning resources� (ibid, p329). As the MSLQ takes into account self-efficacy, emotional, cognitive and metacognitive aspects of learning contextualised within a particular course, it aims to address the issues of measuring motivation. More information on the MSLQ is found in Annex A. It is from this juncture that we started our investigation on the level of motivation of our students, and devising intervention strategies.
Methodology: Measuring motivation? In order to administer the MSLQ to get a sense of the level of motivation of the students, we reduced the number of questions administered. This was a conscious decision as some of the questions related to lecture-tutorial style teaching that was not relevant to our school context. In the end, 49 questions remained (see Annex A). The MSLQ was administered in the second week of Term 3 of 2019 on all students of Secondary 2 Teamwork and Empathy. The mean scores based on the seven-point Likert scale were computed and reported as such:
Motivational scales
1) Intrinsic Goal Orientation 2) Extrinsic Goal Orientation 3) Task value 4) Control of learning belief 5)
Self-efficacy
for
Learning
and
Performance
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6) Test anxiety
Learning Scales
Strategies 1)
Time
and
study
Environment
Management 2) Effort Regulation 3) Peer Learning 4) Help seeking
After the initial MSLQ scores were computed, the team administered intervention strategies to increase motivation levels. Specifically, the team taught students on the Growth Mindset explicitly, and also provided more scaffolded tasks in class (after Dweck et al, 2014). The Growth Mindset lesson was adapted from Brock & Hundley (2016). For lessons tasks, we provided more structure in the worksheets and used more interleaf practice with a focus on making the relevance of the lessons more apparent to the students. At the end of Term 3, the same MSLQ was re-administered to determine of motivation levels changed between the two tests which will serve as a proxy of the success of the intervention strategies. Results analysis and findings Pre-intervention phase A total of 70 students (35 students from 2 Empathy and 2 Teamwork) attempted the MSLQ. The pre-intervention results are found in Tables 1a and 1b below. 324
Table 1a: Motivational Scale results from the pre-intervention stage Geo
Math
2T
2E
2T
2E
Intrinsic Goal Orientation
4.65
4.52
4.96
5.06
Extrinsic Goal Orientation
5.42
5.11
5.80
5.64
Task Value
4.97
4.68
5.48
5.28
Control of learning belief
5.32
4.96
5.63
5.30
Self-efficacy for Learning and 4.57
4.36
4.86
4.89
3.85
5.32
4.18
Performance Test anxiety
5.15 4.7
Mean value
5.2
2T: 5.18 2E: 4.82
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Table 1b: Learning Strategies Scale from the pre-intervention stage Geo
Math
2T
2E
2T
2E
4.26
4.18
4.42
4.44
Effort Regulation
4.29
4.29
4.41
4.52
Peer Learning
4.58
3.80
4.78
4.24
Help seeking
4.42
4.21
4.56
4.29
Time
and
study
Environment Management
4.25 Mean value
4.46
2T: 4.47 2E: 4.25
The following observations were made from the pre-intervention MSLQ scores: 1) Students in general were less motivated to learn Geography (mean: 4.7) as compared to Mathematics (Mean: 5, 2). 2) Students in 2E (mean: 4.82) were less motivated than students in 2T (mean: 5.18). 3) In the Motivation Scale, the low mean motivation scores were mainly reflected in a) Intrinsic Goal Orientation (Geography, 2T & 2E) b) Task value (Geography, 2T & 2E) c) Self-efficacy for Learning and Performance (Mathematics and Geography, 2T & 2E) d) Test anxiety (Mathematics and Geography, 2E) 326
4) In Learning Strategies Scale, almost all domains have low mean motivation scores for both subjects, indicating that the 2NA students are weak in using learning strategies effectively. Overall, the results indicated that the Secondary 2 Normal (Academic) cohort students possess the belief that the individual student has a large role to play in doing well academically for Mathematics and Geography; yet they were not intrinsically motivated to work hard. Intervention phase Due to teacher deployment to the classes, it was possible for the Geography lessons to have a control and experiment group of students. In other words, half of the cohort were presented with intervention strategies to increase motivation; while the other half did not. For Mathematics, only 2 Empathy could have an experiment and control group; 2 Teamwork did not have a second teacher and so the same could not have been done. At the end of Term 3, the MSLQ was administered again. We analysed the results for any difference in the motivation levels between the pre- and post-intervention phase. Note that the results for learning strategies are not presented as the intervention did not include teaching learning strategies. The findings are summarized in Tables 2a and 2b below.
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Table 2a: Comparison of pre- and post-intervention scores for motivation levels in the Geography classroom
2T
Experiment Pre
Intrinsic Goal Orientation
Control
Post Diff Pre Post Diff
4.52 4.95 0.43 4.50 4.94 0.44
Extrinsic Goal Orientation 4.84 4.98 0.14 5.90 5.79 -0.10 Task Value
4.88 5.05 0.17 4.81 5.25 0.44
Control of learning belief
5.16 5.54 0.38 5.44 5.50 0.06
Self-efficacy for Learning 4.39 4.38 -0.02 4.59 5.00 0.41 and Performance Test Anxiety
5.17 5.21 0.04 5.07 5.05 -0.02
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Experiment Pre
2E
Intrinsic Goal Orientation 4.64 Extrinsic
Control
Post Diff Pre Post Diff 4.80 0.16 4.69 5.64 0.94
Goal 5.13
5.30 0.17 5.44 5.58 0.15
4.72
4.97 0.24 4.82 5.64 0.82
Control of learning belief 4.98
5.32 0.33 5.19 5.85 0.67
Orientation Task Value
Self-efficacy for Learning 4.56
4.68 0.12 4.51 5.36 0.85
3.96
4.20 0.24 4.08 4.53 0.45
and Performance Test Anxiety
In the Geography classroom, there was an increase in overall Motivation mean scores, though the increase was insignificant of 0.2. It is also noted that for the control group, there was an improvement in motivation by 0.45.
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Table 2b: Comparison of pre- and post-intervention scores for motivation levels in the Mathematics classroom Motivation Scales 2T
Experiment Pre
Intrinsic Goal Orientation
Post Diff
4.94 5.08 0.14
Extrinsic Goal Orientation 5.76 5.69 -0.07 Task Value
5.46 5.26 -0.19
Control of learning belief
5.65 5.61 -0.04
Self-efficacy for Learning 4.84 4.64 -0.19 and Performance Test Anxiety
5.43 5.45 0.02
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Experiment
Control
2E
Pre
Post Diff Pre Post Diff
Intrinsic Goal Orientation
5.06 5.09 0.04 5.07 5.37 0.30
Extrinsic Goal Orientation 5.69 5.63 -0.07 5.53 5.58 0.06 Task Value
5.33 5.46 0.13 5.24 5.41 0.17
Control of learning belief
5.31 5.44 0.14 5.56 5.61 0.06
Self-efficacy for Learning 5.09 5.01 -0.08 4.68 5.04 0.36 and Performance Test Anxiety
3.98 4.32 0.34 4.87 4.60 -0.27
In the Mathematics classroom, there was a small increase in motivation in 2 Empathy (Experiment group: 0.08; control group: 0.11). However, there was a decrease in motivation in 2T of 0.05, which is a small degree. Both sets of post-intervention comes as a surprise as it indicates that the control group of students who did not undergo the intervention strategies have scored higher on the motivation scale. This could be an indication that the intervention strategies were not carried out successfully, or that insufficient time was provided for the intervention for positive results to be seen.
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Conclusions: Limitations of the study, and possible future work. We had set out to determine the motivation levels of the students in the Secondary 2 Normal (Academic) stream of the school, ensuring that the findings are contextualized in an authentic classroom setting based on a particular subject. In addition, we attempted to trial intervention strategies to help increase the motivation levels of the students. The findings show us that this cohort of students are in general not motivated, and in particular, have low self-efficacy in their academic performance in Mathematics and Geography. Our intervention of teaching explicitly the Growth mindset and of providing more learning scaffolds did not yield the expected results. Improvements in motivation was insignificant at best, and in some cases, motivation fell. However, one thing was clear. The cohort in general did not possess the knowledge to use effective learning strategies to help themselves improve academically; this knowledge is important in fostering academic tenacity. We note that aspects of this study were not ideal which could have resulted in limitations. First, the period between the pre- and post-intervention was approximately 10 weeks. This may have resulted in insufficient time for the intervention to take effect, especially for the explicit teaching of the growth mindset. Second, the teacher possibly played a role in influencing the results. For example, the teachers in the control and experiment group of the Geography class were different. Students could have been influenced and hence (de)motivated to different degrees due to the teacher factor. Third, the period when the post-intervention MSLQ was conducted was close to the end-of-year examination period. Therefore, the sense of the looming examinations could have also affected the results of the MSLQ.
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That said, one clear finding was the lack in knowledge of learning strategies. Therefore, future work arising from this study could include examining the impact of teaching learning strategies, in addition to the social and pedagogical aspects of increasing student motivation.
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References Brock, A., Hundley, and H.L. (2016) The Growth Mindset Coach: A teacher’s month-by-month handbook for empowering students to achieve, Ulyssses Press: Berkeley Brown, A.L. (1988). Motivation to learn and understand: On taking charge of one’s own learning. Cognition and Instruction, 5(4), 311-321. Dweck, C.S., Walton, G.M., Cohen, G.L. (2014) Academic tenacity: Mindsets and skills that promote long-term learning. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ELIS Research Digest (2015) Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 1-13 Garcia, T., & Pintrich, P. R. (1994). Regulating motivation and cognition in the classroom: The role of self-schemas and self-regulatory strategies. In D.H. Schunk & B.J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Self-regulation of learning and performance: Issues and educational applications (p127 – 153). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Gracia, T., Pintrich, P.R. (1996) Assessing Students’ Motivation and Learning Strategies in the Classroom Context: The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. In M. Birenbaum & F. Dochy (Eds.), Alternatives in assessment of achievements, learning processes, and prior knowledge (p319 – 339), Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Järvelä, S. (2001). Shifting research on motivation and cognition to an integrated approach on learning and motivation in context. In S. Volet and S. Järvelä (Eds.), Motivation in learning contexts: Theoretical advances and methodological implications (pp. 3-14). London: Pergamon/Elsevier.
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Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L. (2000) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, p54 – 67 Vansteenkiste, M, Lens, W., Deci, E.L. (2006) Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Goal Contents in SelfDetermination Theory: Another Look at the Quality of Academic Motivation, Educational Psychologist, 41(1), p19 – 31
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Annex A The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (modified for study) Part A. Motivation 1. I prefer lesson material that really challenges me so I can learn new things. 2. (???) If I study in appropriate ways, then I will be able to learn the material in this subject. 3. When I take a test I think about how poorly I am doing compared with other students. 4. I think I will be able to use what I learn in this subject in other subjects. 5. I believe I will receive an excellent grade in this subject. 6. I'm certain I can understand the most difficult content presented in my notes/textbook for this subject. 7. Getting a good grade in this subject is the most satisfying thing for me right now. 8. When I take a test I think about other questions of the test I can't answer. 9. It is my own fault if I don't learn the content in this subject. 10. It is important for me to learn the content in this subject. 11. The most important thing for me right now is improving my overall result, so my main concern in this subject is getting a good grade. 12. I'm confident I can learn the basic concepts taught in this subject. 13. If I can, I want to get better grades in this subject than most of the other students. 14. When I take tests I think of the consequences of failing. 15. I'm confident I can understand the most complex content taught by the teacher in this subject. 16. In a class like this, I prefer lesson materials that makes me curious, even if it is difficult to learn. 17. I am very interested in this subject. 18. If I try hard enough, then I will understand the subject content. 19. I get nervous and upset when I take an exam/test in this subject. 20. I'm confident I can do an excellent job on the homework and tests in this subject. 21. I expect to do well in this subject. 22. The most satisfying thing for me in this subject is trying to understand the content as well as possible. 23. I think the lesson materials in this subject is useful for me to learn. 25. If I don't understand a topic of the subject, it is because I didn't try hard enough. 26. I enjoy learning this subject. 27. Understanding the content of this subject is very important to me. 28. I feel my heart beating fast when I take an exam/test. 29. I'm certain I can master the skills being taught in this class. 30. I want to do well in this class because it is important to show my ability to my family, friends, or others. 31. I think I will do well in this subject (considering (i) the difficulty of the subject; (ii) the teacher; and, (iii) my skills)
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Part B. Learning Strategies 34. When studying for this subject, I often try to explain what I have learnt to a classmate or friend. 35. I usually study in a place where I can concentrate well. 37. I often feel so lazy or bored when I study for this subject that I quit before I finish what I planned to do. (Reversed) 40. Even if I have trouble learning and understanding what is taught in class, I try to do the homework on my own, without help from anyone. (REVERSED) 43. I make good use of my study time for this subject. 45. I try to work with other students from this class to complete my homework. 48. I work hard to do well in this class even if I don't like what we are doing. 50. When studying for this subject, I often set aside time to discuss the content with a group of students from the class. 52. I find it hard to stick to a study schedule. (REVERSED) 58. I ask the teacher to clarify concepts/content I don't understand well. 60. When the homework/assignment is difficult, I either give up or only study the easy parts. (REVERSED) 65. I have a regular (usual) place set aside for studying. 68. When I can't understand the content/concept in this subject, I ask another student in this class for help. 70. I make sure that I keep up with the weekly homework/assignments for this subject. 73. I attend this class regularly. 74. Even when the assignment/homework is dull and uninteresting, I manage to keep working on them until I finish. 75. I try to identify students in this class whom I can ask for help if necessary. 77. I often find that I don't spend very much time on this subject because of other activities. (REVERSED) 80. I rarely find time to review my notes/textbook before an exam/test. (REVERSED) 1: Not at all true of me 7: Very true of me
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Standardised Approaches towards Management of Students with Special Needs (SEN) Anbalahan Muthusamy Eng Sze Shean Ler Kai Ming Gavin Lim Chee Tiong Low AiJiao Phoon Hwee Lee
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ABSTRACT The aim of this journal is to perform a series of observations to better improve and build upon administering literacies and proficiency with the target outcome of better management of current and future SEN cases. This paper seeks to examine existing issues that teachers in Northbrooks face while encountering SEN cases and assist in bridging their needs with currently available yet obtuse resources towards building a more inclusive community for all students. The key areas of focus will be on provision of information to better help teachers mitigate possible difficult situations that might arise with (inclusive of but not limited to) Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and students with similar but non-diagnosed behavioural profiles. The initial hypothesis is that through a provision of better designed mediums, teachers will be better able to address issues at the chokehold points prior to meltdowns and thus cut down the amount of reactionary work that is required on the part of teachers.
INTRODUCTION The current status in Northbrooks Secondary School (as of 2019) is that the Teacher trained in Special Needs (TSN) expert pool is in its initial build up phase. There is a need to spread greater awareness of SEN management techniques to the rest of the community as reliance on a small pool of individuals will not suffice given the rise in number and persistence of avoidable discipline cases. Through this sharing and spread of information, we hope that the school community can develop into a more welcoming and accepting environment for our SEN students and foster the spirit of an inclusive society.
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METHODOLOGY Our team decided to execute an Action Research to discover the areas that require more immediate development and what teachers would prefer that we supply information in. The processes undertaken to work towards the key focus areas are to conduct a survey on teachers to find the areas that are perceived to have a pressing need for help and consolidate these issues. The deliverable is to conceptualise the potential forms of documentation that will be able to provide the optimal rate of bridging that can help better guide teachers in managing expectations and building stable routines for our SEN.
LITERATURE REVIEW In a typical inclusive classroom, there can be a quite diverse student composition in terms of both academic capabilities as well as behavioural patterns. In recent years, there has been a great deal of research in the areas of high needs and a tiered approach to handling student behaviour. One of the most cited models in this approach is the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). This model calls for increasingly more support for segments of students who need it more.
Specialised intervention in the SWPBS model addresses proactive strategies that influence student behaviour by teaching and learning the rules and norms of expected behaviour and by supporting prosocial behaviour such as praise, positive attention, pre-correction, active behaviour supervision, and rewards. (Sørlie, Ogden, & Olseth, 2016)
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In classes where student needs are not met with proper intervention, there is likely to be frustration in the part of both teachers and students and significant portion of learning time is occupied by discipline related management. This is especially true for classes where there may be some students who have the potential to become very disruptive and affect the learning climate. According to the SWPBS model, this group of students may belong to the tertiary (3rd Tier) and may require specialized, individualized systems of support.
While Tier-3 students may not be limited to Special Educational Needs (SEN) students, it is possible to locate a few SEN students within this tier. Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) may experience academic, behavioural, and social challenges that require additional support in the schools. Building the capacity of teachers and schools to teach students with a diverse range of SEN is key to raising the achievement of our SEN students. By equipping our teachers with approaches that encourage students to regulate their behaviour will enable the teachers to focus in teaching and spend less time in classroom management.
There are many research-based behaviour management approaches for classroom management in context of students with special needs. These could include: ● Providing visual cues ● Maintaining a predictable schedule ● Building motivation ● Pre-correction strategies ● Structured opportunities for practice. (Intervention Central)
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While most of the strategies above have to be are usually used in tandem by classroom practitioners, for the purpose of this study, we sought to focus on one of the strategies which is pre-correction. Pre-correction falls in the range of pre-emptive strategies to prevent melt-downs and undesirable behaviour. Once triggered, a student can go into a melt-down which could mean lots of emotional stress for the student, teacher and class. It can also be a resource intensive process with other personnel getting involved to calm the child down.
Focusing on what makes easily frustrated children melt down, rather than simply responding to the explosion, is far more likely to change behaviour. "If what you do after the fact is not accessible and meaningful [according to the child's thought processes] prior to the next incident, the response is not worth it." (Greene, n.d.)
Pre-correction has a growing body of literature to support its utility in the classroom can be used in many ways. Studies have found that students in preschool through high school respond to this strategy (Evanovich & Kern, 2018). It can be a simple reminder of behavioural expectations in a given setting or instructional activity where challenges often take place (Ennis, Lane, Menzies, & Owens, 2018).
With "Pre-correction/Prompting", the teacher reminds students of expectations prior to activities or contexts under which there is a history of high risk of failure. These gestures or statements are best delivered immediately preceding the context in which the behaviour is expected and provide students with a reminder to increase the probability of success. In this way, precorrection can pre-empt problem behaviour and prompt or encourage the appropriate behaviour
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(Colvin G. , Sugai, Good, & Lee, 1997); (Sugai & De Pry, 2002). A pre-correction can be a verbal (e.g., teacher restates behavioural expectation) or non-verbal prompt (e.g., teacher gestures or models behavioural expectation) to remind students to engage in the appropriate behaviour (Sugai & De Pry, 2002).
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION The team posits that appertaining to authenticity of lived experience, we are able to postulate a greater than 95% confidence level, where the collected data from the sample deviates by less than 5% from the true population average (sample referring to interviewed teachers, true population referring to sum total of education officers in Northbrooks Secondary School as of August 2019). The confidence level refers to the degree of reliability that the answers obtained are a good reflection of what happens in the classroom. Possible margins of error may be attributed to limits on perception within the hectic space of a classroom and inaccuracies based on recounting memories; of reference to transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence when retrieving memories (Schacter, 2001).
Data collected from the teachers came in the form of anecdotal evidence and responses to open ended questions. In most cases, there were keywords or commonalities amongst the given feedback. These tend to revolve around the teacher’s opinion of their own management of these students in class and the perceived form of help they need. In some cases, teachers also reflected certain best practices that they shared to be effective. Therefore, we analysed their feedback to tailor the information and support that we compiled to identify how we may put it in a readily available and useful format in order to patch it to the right users.
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Amongst the responses, there were a few (N=2, sample size = 16) who responded that there was no pressing concern or need regarding SEN management information provision. Amongst these, we further probed to inquire the reasons behind the perceived lack of need for such techniques and knowledge. The team then tabled a proposition that there are teachers who might have unconsciously established best practices that are optimal for SEN learning in classrooms. In a cross-examination of gathered information and the proposition put together by the team, the conclusion is that one respondent had unconsciously established best practices to suit the SEN, whereas another respondent had not observed where the SEN was not coping but since student did not show or display any disruptive behaviour, it was treated and everything was going well.
Keyword analysis also yielded the following data that shows that positive affirmation towards work that was done well showed good responses from SEN. In particular, small manageable goals or successes that were celebrated and reinforced better helped students shape their willingness to continue to attempt in engaging further tasks and assignments. This response has been found to prove true across all levels and streams (Secondary 1 to 4, Express to Normal
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Technical). Other significant responses include establishing an open and accessible physical space in the classroom environment for the student alongside accompanying routines within such spaces, as well as laying the groundwork within the class on how to respond appropriately to out of the norm behaviour exhibited by SEN.
Primary issues that teachers have reported to face are conceptual rigidity and individual student’s organizational ability. Whilst many of the keywords that teachers provided in their interviews were not wholly akin or aligned to these issues, and many problems that they surfaced bled into one another (e.g. poor organizational ability leading to poor work quality and anger, etc.), it was apparent from the previous set of data that teachers were confident in 1 to 1 management of SEN and the corresponding communication required, but struggle with establishing other qualities typically found innately in other students. These include the student’s ability to develop alternatives and socialize in groups.
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The data thus reflects that the pressing requirement that teachers might require assistance in revolve around communicating expectations and teaching organization skills within the class, as well as a scaffolding structure to better allow students learn how to undertake socialization through group work, rather than moving directly into group work.
LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the collected data, the top strengths and perceived methods that are effective are recognition and affirmation, together with rapport, teacher and student relationship. These are the areas that the teachers are strong in. On the other hand, the perceived issues that the teachers are finding difficult to resolve are conceptual rigidity and organisational ability. These are the areas that we can help the teachers by introducing pre-corrections. By preparing the students in advance, we could minimise the triggers that may arise due to the rigidity of the students.
Thus our deliverables will be focusing on sharing of information and strategies on Precorrection to manage the students’ rigidity and behaviour in class. However, we will need to look into what will be the best mode of delivery of the information to carter to the use of the teachers. We will need to gather more information from the teachers.
In order to further affirm the
information gathered, we will introduce prototype for the teachers to test run to fine tune the final deliverables.
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CONCLUSION We will like to conclude that based on the surveys and interviews with the teachers, in order for the students to focus on their learning in the classroom, we will need to reinforce the strengths and perceived methods that are effective and make use of pre-correction to manage the perceived issues that are difficult to resolve.
REFERENCES Brigance, A. (1977). Brigance Diagnostic Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills. North Billerica: Curriculum Associates. Colvin, G., Sugai, G., & Patching, B. (1993). Precorrection: An Instructional Approach for Managing Predictable Problem Behaviors. Intervention in School and Clinic, 143-150. Colvin, G., Sugai, G., Good, R. H., & Lee, Y.-Y. (1997). Using active supervision and precorrection to improve transition behaviors in an elementary school. School Psychology Quarterly, 344-363. Ennis, R. P., Lane, K. L., Menzies, H. M., & Owens, P. P. (2018). Precorrection: An Effective, Efficient, Low-Intensity Strategy to Support Student Success. Beyond Behavior, 146-152. Ennis, R. P., Schwab, J. R., & Jolivette, K. (2012). Using Precorrection as a Secondary-Tier Intervention for Reducing Problem Behaviors in Instructional and Noninstructional Settings. Beyond Behavior, 22(1), 40-47. Evanovich, L. L., & Kern, L. (2018). Precorrection: Preventing Predictable Problem Behaviors in School Settings. Beyond Behavior, 90-98.
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Greene, R. W. (n.d.). When It Comes to Volatile Kids, Pick Your Battles. Retrieved from Education World: https://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues/issues238.shtml Intervention Central. (n.d.). Teaching Children With Developmental Disabilities: Classroom Ideas.
Retrieved
from
Intervention
Central:
https://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/special-needs/teachingchildren-developmental-disabilities-classroom-ideas Poon, K. K., Khaw, J., & Li, J.-Y. (2008). Supporting Students with Special Needs in Mainstream Schools: A Linked System of Support. Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia. Schacter, D. L. (2001). The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers. Houghton Mifflin. Sørlie, M.-A., Ogden, T., & Olseth, A. R. (2016). Examining Teacher Outcomes of the SchoolWide Positive Behavior Support Model in Norway: Perceived Efficacy and Behavior Management. SAGE Open, 1 - 13. Stevenson, G., Dunlop, J., & Cumine, V. (1998). Asperger Syndrome: A Practical Guide for Teachers. London: David Fulton. Sugai, G., & De Pry, R. L. (2002). The Effect of Active Supervision and Pre-correction on Minor Behavioral Incidents in a Sixth Grade General Education Classroom. Journal of Behavioral Education, 255-267.
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Enhance students learning and engagement in Game Design & Sports Climbing through Gamification via an Augmented Gaming Wall
Lim Chee Tiong Sanjay S/O Radakrishna William Chan
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Abstract This paper explores how students' learning and engagement in game design and sports climbing will be impacted through gamification via an augmented gaming wall. A collaboration between CPA and PE was set up where selected CPA students were tasked to design a game that will be used for students in a PE class to learn and practice sports climbing. The team is able to observe how the CPA students were able to apply what they have learned into meaningful applications. Initial testing of the augmented gaming wall has shown to be promising and the team has identified potential new instructional strategies in the teaching of sports climbing that can be tested in future testing.
Introduction Our group will be embarking on this PE-CPA collaboration that will infuse ICT/CPA into our Outdoor Education module (Sports Climbing) to increase participation through gamification. This need arises as past observations shows that student’s engagement in sports climbing needs to increase. The team therefore strive to enhance learning and engagement by creating a fun and exciting environment for students’ with the Augmented Reality (AR) component. This project will also enable the CPA students to see the real-life application of their Game Making skills as they are able to translate it into a feasible game. Our hypothesis is that by creating a fun, exciting, stress-free, and positive classroom environment, students will be able to participate fully and immerse themselves in the lesson. This should translate to increased participation in both OE and the Game Making module. Through gamification, we promote experiential learning and interaction between peers to enhance the learning experience.
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Literature Review In the improvement of student education outcomes, key factors that needs to be considered includes the students’ engagement level. The advancement of technology in recent years have allowed us to explore gamification as a way to increase student engagement. Gamification here means introducing game elements in a non-game setting (Macie Hall, 2014). There are also online tools that can be used to gamify learning. Example of these includes decktoys and classcraft. According to Huang and Soman (2013), Gamification encourages students to perform an action; for example, motivating students to practice computer programming will increase their skills and motivating students to memorize consistently can increase their knowledge. Gamification therefore increases student engagement and enhances their learning experience which could in turn leads to students acquiring more knowledge and skills. Gamification is about gamifying the process and not the outcome. Huang and Soman (2013) highlighted that there is a 5 steps gamification process (fig 1) which the team will be using as we design the lesson.
Fig 1: 5 Steps gamification process.
In recent years, augmented reality (AR) has been recognised in research as a new way of enhancing teaching and learning. AR has already been well used by engineering companies as well as in the field of medicine for the purpose of virtualisation and training. AR is a technology that involves the overlay of computer graphics on the real world (Silva, Rodrigo & Oliveira, Jauvane & A. Giraldi, G, 2003). As highlighted by Phil, Manuel, Sven & Dirk (2015), 351
among other benefits that AR brings, it has the highest impact on increasing motivation, improving learning curve and increasing satisfaction. Increase motivation refers to learner being more engaged and excited in engaging the technology for learning. Improving learning curve refers to students learning faster and easier and increasing satisfaction refers to students feeling more satisfied when going through the learning process.
AR can be applied in various forms and AR gaming would be an area where it can be used to support gamification. Popular AR games would include games like PokemonGo where its impact on even non-traditional gamers can be observed. AR gaming has also gained traction in sports in the last few years. Even in Singapore, AR rock climbing is gaining in popularity although its usage is still mainly for commercial purposes. The team will be exploring bringing similar concept into an educational setting and study its impact on the students learning.
Methods (CI Research & Analysis) In this project, a game will be created by identified CPA students (Sec 2) and aimed to be tested by a class of Sec 3 students during PE lesson. The Sec 2 CPA students will be using the scratch software to create the game. A projector will be used to project the game onto a sports climbing wall. At the start of the game, there will be a spot shown on the wall. The student will be required to climb the wall and touch the sport. Upon touching the spot, another student stationed at the laptop will then click the spacebar on the laptop and another spot will reappear on another part of the wall. The student climbing the wall will then navigate the wall to touch the spot. Every sport is worth 1 point. A timer and a scoreboard will be shown on the wall as the student is climbing the wall. Each game will last 1 minute. The student will need to score as many points as possible within 1 minute.
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The following software, hardware and facility will be required to support the game play and design: ● Scratch software ● A laptop with the scratch software installed ● A projector ● A sports climbing wall
CPA Methods CPA uses pedagogy “I do, we do, you do” as a basis for most teaching and learning lesson activities. This time, the pedagogy will be tweaked to involve students taking on the role of teachers to teach the topic: Media Computing. 3 extra lessons were planned to teach selected Secondary 2 students on game-making with Scratch 2.0. These students worked in a group to learn and understand coding with camera as the user interface for their game. The teacher facilitated their learning and set learning objectives based on their progress.
Basic code structure was provided to the 2D students, they worked in a group of 3. Each in charge of the following: Coding, Interface and Design. 2 lessons on advanced coding was taught to them, with additional 2 students added in after they are aware of this project. The 2 extra students went along the extra lessons understanding the basic principle of the code. These 3 students will then be assigned roles to assist CPA teachers in Secondary 3 to teach their peers in 2020.
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Sample Code v1
Code v2
Code v3
No control group will be used, instead average results based on Task 2 of Paper 3 for past Secondary 3 Mid-Year Examination (MYE) results will be collated as control. Thereafter, the MYE results of the current class will be collected and used as comparison.
OE Methods Through the experiential nature of Outdoor Education, students were exposed to Sports Climbing on our school’s Climbing Wall over a series of 8 structured lessons infusing safety and technique-based elements. During these lessons, students were taught basic knot-tying skills, rope skills, and belaying skills. At the 6-8th lessons, students will be exposed to climbing up the actual wall to practice the skills that they have learnt.
To compare the difference in achievement and engagement, students will be made to experience the activity before and after the Augmented Reality (AR) intervention. The teacher will then record the maximum height that each student climbed before intervention to assess the students’ pre-intervention skill and motivation level. Students were also asked to complete a survey form indicating their passion for climbing, their challenges and ways to make the activity more fun. The students were also asked if an ICT-infused climbing session would
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interest them. Using this data, the teachers will be comparing the increase in achievement and motivation level in Term 3 during the post-intervention stage.
Results Analysis & Findings (Data-Drive Significance) During the pre-intervention stage, the 3D students (OE) were asked about their thoughts and feelings towards Sports Climbing and how they would like to experience it differently. Some of their ideas included having it in an air-conditioned room, having game-like features, and increasing the duration of the activity. We also asked if they would be keen to try an Augmented Reality-based climbing activity and 100% of students expressed their interest.
The 2D students (CPA) also improved in their CPA content knowledge as they became more proficient in using the ‘Scratch’ software. The students mentioned that they were happy to be selected as part of this programme as it gave them an advantage in the subject by being exposed to a real-word context of application. This engagement level has increased the students’ motivation and interest in CPA and has shown an improvement in their skill competency.
Apart from the student creation process and the testing of the game, the team did not managed to let the entire class of 3D to experience it during a PE lesson. The team will be trying this in 2020.
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Discussion (Limitations & Recommendations) The team originally tried using the laptop camera and try to automate the scratch game but some issues arises from this. ● The focal angle issue from the projector is an issue as the camera from the laptop has to be adjusted to fit the wall, there was a misalignment in the position of the “handles” of the scratch program and the real wall. ● The sensitivity of the hand movement is determined by the position of the laptop camera and it is not easy for the laptop camera to detect hand movement accurately. An external camera was also tested but did not resolve the issue. During the setting up of the augmented wall, the team also managed to key preparation needed when conducting the augmented wall activity. ● Ensure that the area at the wall is not too bright so that the game can be projected on the wall. ● Check that the game is configured to ensure that it fits the wall where it is required. For the game to work, the team would need to ensure that the game would not be too easy for students who are tall. ● Ensure that a portable speaker is prepared to elevate the learning experience by playing music to create excitement. Although the initial idea of this project is to allow students to experience AR during their sports climbing session, the creation and testing of this game, has also allowed the team to establish other areas in which the team could explore with this game setup. ● Instead of just engaging the students with this game, this game can be used to teach sports climbing as well. Different parts of the wall can be highlighted one at a time (teacher controlled) to provide scaffold for the students who are learning the skills. ● Microbit can be used to automate or make the game play more accurate.
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● In view of the future creation of a rock wall in the upcoming indoor sports hall, the augmented wall can be scaled up to be used on the rock wall. ● PowerPoint slides / videos can also be created to provide similar game play if the scratch software is not available. ● Further automate the scratch game by removing the need to do manual clicking.
Conclusion This project provides the team a unique opportunity to be involved in a cross department project. Through this process, the team is able to see the potential benefits of using the augmented wall in increasing student engagement and also enhance the teaching and learning in PE and CPA.
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References Macie Hall (2014).
What is Gamification and Why Use It in Teaching?
https://ii.library.jhu.edu/2014/05/13/what-is-gamification-and-why-use-it-in-teaching/
Wendy Hsin-Yuan Huang and Dilip Soman. (2013). A Practitioner’s Guide To Gamification Of Education. https://inside.rotman.utoronto.ca/behaviouraleconomicsinaction/files/2013/09/GuideGamifica tionEducationDec2013.pdf
Silva, Rodrigo & Oliveira, Jauvane & A. Giraldi, G. (2003). Introduction to augmented reality. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277287908_Introduction_to_augmented_reality
Diegmann, Phil & Schmidt-Kraepelin, Manuel & van den Eynden, Sven & Basten, Dirk. (2015). Benefits of Augmented Reality in Educational Environments – A Systematic Literature Review. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312147184_Benefits_of_Augmented_Reality_in_E ducational_Environments_-_A_Systematic_Literature_Review
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A study of the impact of instructional and motivational scaffolding to strengthen academic tenacity in a classroom Alex Tok Annamalai Kumar Low Yi En Sumithra Nair
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Abstract The overall purpose of the study is to produce an evidence based study on the impact of employing instructional and motivational scaffolding strategies in the classroom to strengthen resilience and academic tenacity in the teaching of Mathematics for low-progress learners. Based on observations and experiences with low progress learners, teachers learned that students tend to lack academic tenacity and growth mindset in Mathematics due to repeated failings in primary school level resulting in low confidence and motivation. The project adopts a lesson study approach whereby academic tenacity is developed through three key aspects of a classroom, pedagogy, lesson designing and teacher-student relationships. Based on the findings, the team discovered that there is an increase in student motivation for Mathematics, stronger engagement during lessons and greater willingness to seek self-improvement.
Introduction Aligned to the strategic trust 1.3 [Strengthening Academic Tenacity through Learning], Northbrooks Secondary School focuses on developing academic tenacity in all students. This is imperative in ensuring that students achieve desired academic outcomes. Aligned to this, this project seeks to develop academic tenacity in Secondary One Normal (Technical) students in the subject of Mathematics. The focus of this project is on employing scaffolding strategies in a classroom to strengthen resilience, academic tenacity and growth mindset of low progress learners. The study also aims to promote challenge-seeking, engagement and learning and foster the skills that enable the students to pursue their academic goals tenaciously through scaffolding in the classroom. This is achieved through three key elements of a classroom.
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Pedagogy, which focuses on instructional and motivational scaffolding to allow progressive learning. Instructional scaffolding which focuses on the lesson design, setting high expectations through design of lesson materials such as worksheets, questioning techniques and formative assessment. And motivational scaffolding is through teacher-student relationships, which focuses on creating stronger rapport with students to enable a conducive and safe learning environment where failing is not frowned upon.
Literature Review The fundamental of academic tenacity is to develop mindset and life skills that would allow students to gain the ability to have grit and resilience to withstand challenge ad look beyond short term goals and focus on the benefits of long term goals. According to the research detailed in the book, Academic Tenacity [Mindsets and Skills that promote life-long learning] it has been reviewed that targeting a student’s psychology and the factors can transform the child’ experience and achievement in school. A child’s psychology basically refers to how the student think of themselves in certain ways to have the drive to learn and regulate themselves to promote learning.
In efforts to promote the students’ well-being, resilience in learning and grow a growth mindset, non-cognitive factors needs to be in place for the school to foster motivation and engagement among the students. In the classroom, students with academic tenacity will exhibit the characteristic of not being thwarted by challenging task and see the failure or setback as an opportunity to flourish and learn new things. Students will also have the intrinsic motivation to do well for the subject for the love of it and cultivate the habit of self-regulation to delve into the subject on their own accord.
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In order to promote and teach academic tenacity in the classroom, scaffolding (both cognitive and motivational scaffolding) is important to provide the student with the support under challenging conditions. The support by the teacher is seeming subtle yet sufficient so that the students may advance seemingly by their own efforts.
To reach the high standard, students must be provided with the cognitive support with a sound pedagogy and a strong lesson design. But in addition to the academic rigor, the simple act of providing feedback benefits students’ performance and task motivation. When feedback are personalized and focuses on the child’s effort, it has been found to contribute to increasing the student’s tenacity. Feedback should be given to address the child’s conceptual understanding by providing hints, scaffolding questions during lessons and giving motivational encouragement to encourage their efforts and discourage avoidance towards failure. Motivational scaffolding refers to the support that teachers provide to students to teach them the skills to meet challenges during lessons, in their questions and even beyond the classroom. This will also create a love for learning and a willingness to face failure in pursuit of the goal of intellectual growth.
With the support and scaffold provided by the educator, it strengthens the dynamics of the teacher-student interactions creating a safe and conducive environment for students to flourish, thrive and learn.
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Methods At the pre-project phase, the team administered a pre-implementation survey to collect data on students’ level of interest, level of confidence and level of tenacity in the subject of Mathematics. This was measured through a four-point scale, from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree”. Through this survey, the team aims to better understand the student’s inclination towards Mathematics so as to be able to better design lessons to achieve the key objectives of the lesson.
During the main project phase, the team implemented a series of customized lessons over the period of two terms. The lessons focused on the key elements of scaffolding, lesson design and developing strong teacher-student relationships. In terms of providing instructional and motivational scaffolding, the materials (as attached in Annex) and activities designed are aimed at creating a progressive approach to learning mathematics concepts which encourages students to continue to attempt questions without giving up. In essence, the level of difficulty would increase based on the students’ ability and progress. In terms of lesson design, elements of student participation are infused in the form of giving different students the opportunity to solve questions at class level and then efforts are praised publicly to illustrate to students that effort is celebrated and failure is not something that is frowned upon. This also helps establish strong teacher-student relationship in the classroom which is the third element that the team focused on developing. Through the verbal and body language used in the classroom, the team aimed at achieving two things. Firstly, to clearly establish that failure is not frowned upon and that effort is celebrated. Secondly, to be a role model in developing a culture of peer encouragement when effort is put in during lessons.
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During this phase, in order to collect data, three lesson observations were conducted with teacher observers. Each observer used a checklist to indicate if the above mentioned elements could be observed during each lesson. In addition, the observer also provided input on key observations made during each lesson in areas of students’ engagement, academic tenacity, effectiveness of teacher scaffolding, lesson design, etc. Thereafter, post-observation discussions were conducted to consolidate the various findings from each lesson.
In the post-project phase, the team focused on data extracted from video reviews of the three observed lessons, checklists from teacher observers, post-implementation survey conducted with students and summative assessment scores. From these four data points, the team is able to analyze the data of which the findings are elucidated in the next section.
Results Analysis & Findings (Data)
The data collected and the findings of the results are to support the study of the impact of instructional and motivational scaffolding to strengthen academic tenacity in a classroom. Students’ feedback and survey, students’ grades and teachers’ feedback on lesson observation were used as data to analyze the impact of the strategies on the students learning.
The following are the analysis of the data collected Students’ grades (out of 31 students) Tests
WA1
WA2
WA3
WA4
SA2
% passes
97.4
81.6
78.8
78.1
83.9
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The strategies employed in the classroom were intended to increase the motivation and engagement of the students and in turn improve their academic standards of Mathematics. According to the data, their results dipped in Semester 2, however it was still higher than the expected passing rate of the students. The results can also be due to the more demanding chapters that the students were tested on for their weighted assessment in Semester 2. Nonetheless, the students performed better than expected for their EOY Examination. A notable evidence of increased academic tenacity during the examinations is the absence of blanks for questions. Students attempted every single question regardless of being right or wrong and this shows their resilience when faced with challenging questions.
One of the strategies used in the classroom is using positive language to engage the students. There is constant reminder for students not to “leave blanks� and to try regardless the difficulty of the questions during all lessons. The teacher also made sure that students complete all questions for their homework assignment by scrutinizing their work carefully. Another example of the use of positive language is emphasizing to the students that failure in the classroom is not frowned upon but rather celebrated, as it is a step towards success.
To help students through their assignment and to encourage them, most of their assignments are tiered (Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3). The scaffolding of the questions according to the difficulty is to assist the students and motivate them with small success as they move from one level to another.
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Teachers’ feedback Lesson observations were conducted for the 1NT math lesson and teachers were tasked to observe the students learning based on three main criteria, namely scaffolding by teachers during lesson, evidence of scaffolding in teacher’s resources. and evidence of students displaying academic tenacity during lesson.
The following are a compilation of feedback by the teachers’ (Low Yi En, Kumar and Alex Tok) through observations and viewing of recorded lesson over a span of 6 months.
Lesson Observation Criteria
Feedback
Teacher provide scaffolding till the ● The teacher would not provide the answers and students answer the questions correctly,
would help students along using effective
rather than giving them direct answers
questioning and prompting.
and feedback. Provides hints until the students answer the questions correctly Teacher do not overly scaffold the ● When a student is selected to answer a question lesson for students to understand the
and
when
he/she
is
struggling,
teacher
concept before being able to complete
consistently uses effective questioning to scaffold
the assignment by themselves.
the thinking process till the student answer the
I do, We do, You Do observed
question correctly.
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Evidence seem among targeted students ● Students are generally very willing to come displaying
evidence
of
increased
tenacity (Observable with students)
forward to complete tasks in front of the class that indicates a strong culture of willingness to try and not being overly worried about making mistakes.
● When a student was not able to complete a task in front of the class, she/he was given another opportunity to come forward to rectify. The teacher role modeled how making mistakes is part of learning.
● Teacher kept emphasising “Wrong also never mind” and the importance of trying!
● Exit pass: Students returning to check on the accuracy of their answers: willingness to check on answers
● Exit pass: Jerrick and Putri asked for answers: lacking of tenacity (AFIs)
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Students
generally
attempt
harder ● At least 70% of the students attempt the more
questions (Level 3)
challenging questions if they have completed the simpler questions.
● Observed that students generally would attempt the other questions in the worksheet after they have completed the assigned questions
● AFIs: Teacher went through answers during lesson. Allow students to complete at home and not to go through answer in lesson
Evidence seen in teachers’ worksheet of ● In general, there is sufficient scaffolding in sufficient scaffolding to assist students
worksheets in terms of differentiated levels of
in obtaining the answers.
difficulty and also progression of skills applied
● Observed that quite a number of students have already completed the entire worksheet (may need to include more high level questions)
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â—? To increase the difficulty level of the worksheet progressively to truly realize the tenacity of the students over time.
Based on the feedback and observation, it was observed that the classroom has a positive climate and the students has a great sense of belonging and good rapport with their Mathematics teacher. This allowed teaching and learning to be conducted effectively in the classroom. However, one of the areas to take note will be to increase the difficulty of the questions and include data handling questions progressively to fully realize the true tenacity of the students with more challenging questions.
Over the 6 months, students have been repeatedly to not give up on more challenging questions and to attempt the questions regardless of they get the answers right or wrong. The emphasis during lessons is to try and enjoy their Math lessons to increase the joy of learning for Mathematics, a subject the NT students are apprehensive of
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Student Feedback (based on survey) The following questions were selected from three different surveys that were conducted by the students in 1NT Math class over three terms. The data from the questions would give us a gauge of the students’ interest towards Mathematics at the start and the end of the year. This would also give us an indication of their motivation and their academic tenacity to do well for Mathematics.
Question
1
2
3
4
5
6
I was able to
I am not
I am afraid to
I get nervous
I feel that I
I am
pass my
afraid to ask
try harder
and agitated
can do better
motivated to
Mathematics
questions to
questions in
during Math
for Math next
learn
Examination
the teacher
case I get the
exams
year
Mathematics
most of the
wrong
times in
answers
next year
Primary School %
strongly
agree
26.4
80.6
62
65.5
82.8
96.6
and
agree
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Student Feedback 100 90 80
% percetange
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Series1
1
2
3
4
5
6
26.4
80.6
62
65.5
82.8
96.6
Based on the surveys, the students have a good sense of belonging in the classroom and are not afraid to ask questions and even try challenging questions. Despite the fact that they came to Secondary 1 with a low morale based on their ability to do well for Mathematics, over the one year, it is encouraging that the students are motivated to learn new concept for Secondary 2 and eager to do well for Mathematics. As stated in the survey, most students are nervous during examinations, however despite that, they are tenacious to move forward and do better for next year.
One the way to increase the student love for Mathematics is to enjoy coming for lesson. The teacher incorporated games, bringing real-life contexts into the lesson and bringing the lesson out of the classroom with math trails. This excites the students for Mathematics and encourages
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them to love and learn Mathematics. The teacher also celebrated small successes with the students by encouraging students who have tried hard and made improvements in their assignments.
Discussion (Limitations and Recommendations) As illustrated by the results, the strategies employed in the 1NT Math class has shown a positive impact on the students’ learning and motivation and their joy of learning for Mathematics in the classroom. One notable evidence of the students’ increased tenacity is their willingness to complete every single question (without blanks) during the End-of Year Examinations where students attempted all questions regardless of being right or wrong.
According to the surveys, students are more motivated to do well for Mathematics as compared to when they first started lessons at the beginning of the year. This is an encouraging sign as it has proven that certain strategies employed in the classroom has an positive impact on the students and their motivation. Resources can be improved to stretch the students cognitively and the positive climate in the classroom should be sustained to ensure students continuously experience the joy of learning.
Limitations At the initial beginnings of the project, the teacher observation rubrics went through a couple rounds of reviewing before the group agreed on the criteria that were measureable when observing student displaying academic tenacity during lesson. At the initial stages, we had three themes for the checklist (namely, challenging students with high performance standards, scaffolding students just enough so that they can advance seemingly themselves and cultivating a
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sense of belonging). It was hard for the teachers to observe the students on all three criteria as there were too many points to take note during one lesson. So the team streamlined the three themes to only one which was agreed to be the crux of the project (scaffolding students just enough so that they can advance seemingly themselves).
However measuring a quality such as academic tenacity requires more years of data, surveys, and interviewing students over a span of months to achieve a valid outcome. We may not be able to accredit the validity of the data based on the last 10 months of surveys, feedback and results of the students. For a fair comparison, we could have had a control class and at least two years’ worth of data of observing the changes in the students to measure the changes on academic tenacity when they are exposed to the Secondary 2 Math syllabus, with a lot more Algebraic content.
Recommendation Moving forward, it is imperative that the use of these strategies are continued and is sustainable throughout next year. In addition, the Mathematic teacher should look into the quality of the presentation of the students’ math solutions. One glaring area of concern noted during the examination is the students’ inability to write proper math solutions with appropriate presentation (e.g. statements, units and spatial awareness of their writing area).
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Conclusion Developing academic tenacity among our student is about cultivating a positive mindset and developing the skillsets the students need to succeed on their own. It is also to allow the student to look beyond short term goals and set higher order goals when it comes to their academic.
To build academic tenacity we should ensure that student have a strong sense of belonging in school and see that education is a route for achievement. We should also allow them to see challenges as stepping stones and an opportunity to learn new things. Failure should also be celebrated and mistakes should be solved instead of being the object of humiliation or shame. Once student believe in their ability to learn and perform well (self- efficacy), they will demonstrate a growth mindset and grit towards learning.
Our study of using positive strategies was meant to ensure students believe in themselves to do well and in turn strengthen their academic tenacity learning toward Mathematics and see the relevance of it for their life. With instructional and motivational scaffolding, it was hoped that students from the Secondary 1 Normal Technical Math class would be more tenacious and inspired to attempt challenging task with confidence and enjoy the process of life –long learning
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References Carol S . Dweck, Gregory M. Walton, Geoffery L. Cohen (2014) Academic Tenacity (Mindsets and skills that promote long-term learning)
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.
Vansteenkiste, M., Lens, W., & Deci, E. L. (2006). Intrinsic versus extrinsic goal contents in selfdetermination theory: Another look at the quality of academic motivation. Educational Psychologist, 41, 19–31.
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Examination of the Effects of Game-Based Learning on Lower Secondary Students’ Motivation for Reading their Literature Set-Text
Aryssa Ngoh Chng Yi Na Vanishree Vengadasalam
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Abstract This study examined the effect of game-based learning on Secondary One Normal (Academic) students’ interest in and motivation for reading their Literature set-text, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The team observed that the students were not sufficiently motivated to read their texts, because of a lack of interest and understanding of the story. To address this issue, an online game was designed, guided by the principles of Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory and Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow. Game features that foster autonomy, relatedness and competence were included in the design of the game. It was found that introducing game-based learning through the Deck Toys platform increased student engagement and students’ interest in the story. It also had a positive impact on student motivation to read their books. This study demonstrates that there are potential opportunities to leverage on game-based learning in the Literature classroom as a way to improve student motivation to read. Introduction One of the challenges encountered in our school’s lower secondary Normal Academic Literature classes is low student motivation for reading the assigned text. As a significant number of students do not take the initiative to read the text in their own free time, this limits their learning during Literature lessons. Keeping in mind that students’ low motivation to read could be the result of a range of factors that varies for each individual student, this study aims to examine whether introducing game-based learning into the Literature classroom will encourage Normal Academic students to read their assigned Literature texts. As part of this study, we first investigated the possible reasons behind the lack of motivation, which is hypothesized to include both reading difficulties, and a lack of interest in the
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storyline of the book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Based on a student survey (Annex A) that was administered to 141 Secondary One students across from both streams, a greater proportion of Normal Academic students did not enjoy reading the assigned literature text as compared to students from the Express stream (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Comparison of student enjoyment of set text by stream. Drilling deeper into the multi-faceted and inter-related reasons behind these students’ lack of enjoyment of reading their set texts, we found that the top 3 challenges are related to their comprehension and engagement with the story, as well as the length of the book (Fig. 2).
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Fig. 2: Uninterested students’ top 3 challenges faced when reading The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Despite the lack of drive to read, students indicated that they could be motivated by playing online games in class that are related to Literature. In fact, online games offered the greatest potential in increasing student motivation, as compared to other intervention strategies that we considered (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3: Students’ response to potential intervention strategies.
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Given the eagerness of students to use online games, we set out to design and implement a Deck Toys game for students to learn about key characters in the novel, and assess if it had a positive impact on their learning and enjoyment in reading the novel.
Literature Review Factors contributing to increased motivation As we considered how to improve student motivation for reading their set text, we were guided by self-determination theory, which posits that three factors, namely autonomy, relatedness and support for competence, have positive effects on encouraging intrinsic motivation in learners (Ryan & Deci, 2000). These three factors are the key principles that underpin the conditions that Csikszentmihalyi (2008) argues are needed for a student to be in a state of ‘flow’, which can lead to increased intrinsic motivation in students. Thus, in designing the intervention strategy, we needed to ensure that it fulfils these conditions, namely that the learning experience:
(a) involves tasks have a chance at completion (b) enables concentration (c) has clearly defined goals (d) provides immediate feedback (e) feels effortless (f) enables one to be in control of external factors occurring (g) develops confidence, and (h) allows one to lose oneself in the moment.
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Benefits of game-based learning on motivation Well-designed games increase student engagement and motivation because they can help create these conditions described by Csikszentmihalyi. A well-designed game also provides a safe environment to fail, engagement, immediate feedback, the feeling of accomplishment when overcoming a challenge, and the sense of control, all of which help to encourage learning (Kapp, 2012). Extensive studies have been conducted on the benefits of game-based learning or gamification as a useful way to counteract the frustration that can be felt by students in academic and formal learning environments, because games often inherently contain these elements of flow: they can give students the autonomy and control to build their own knowledge, in order to beat a level or a challenge in the game environment (Gee, 2013). Meaningful gamification could also work as a catalyst in motivating students to read background material and grasp key concepts that in turn facilitate a flipped classroom, as students come to class with a level of competency with the material that enables them to participate in discussions (Tan, 2018).
Considerations guiding effective game design A game is "a system in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome." In describing the fundamentals underpinning game design, Salen and Zimmerman (2003) explain that there must be ‘meaningful play’, which means that players must be able to see the clear causal links between their game actions and the outcomes, both in the immediate time-frame and the game as a whole. In other words, when they open a door in the game environment, or answer a question, or collect an item, these actions should have a clear purpose, contributing to discernable outcomes.
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Clearly, one of the key outcomes of using games in the classroom is to achieve specific learning outcomes. In the design of games, therefore, there must be clarity about what these outcomes are, and how the games serve to meet them. Otherwise, if a digital game is not helping a child learn, maybe they are better off doing some non-digital play activities (Timothy, 2013). Games need to target students’ Zone of Proximal Development. In other words, they need to extend students’ thinking. So, educators need to ask questions like:
● Is this game actually designed for learning? ● What curriculum outcomes is the game helping the students complete? ● What soft skills is the game promoting?
To achieve these outcomes effectively, the design of the game is crucial. Similarly, Lepper and Malone (1987) list four key attributes that educational games must have, which educators should consider when designing one. ● First, games must introduce challenge. As the player becomes more skilful and attains mastery of specific goals, the difficulty level should increase to maintain the sense of challenge. ● Second, the game should stimulate the player’s senses and curiosity. ● Third, the learner should feel a sense of control through feedback provided within the game. ● Fourth, games should use fantasy, or an immersive game setting with attractive visuals and sounds, to reinforce the instructional goals and stimulate the prior interests of the learner. These four attributes are closely aligned with the conditions for flow.
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Building on the idea of introducing various degrees of challenges in a game, Squire (2011) recommends three types of assignments that should exist in every unit of study: grinding (low value, repetitive but necessary), learning (assignments that build knowledge), and boss battles (longer, more complex, and requires level of content mastery). Educators will need to keep these levels in mind when constructing their games so that the material used caters to students of varying learning abilities. This ensures that no student gets left behind, even though they embark on the same game-based activity.
Given that a badly-designed game will not only fail to deliver on its objectives but has the potential to put students off other similar game-based learning activities, it is imperative that game creators take the time to learn to design them properly. This means that they should not only have clarity about the learning objectives and why they are using games for learning, but also a good understanding of how the game platform and environment works. Armed with this knowledge, they can then design a game that can make the most of the affordances and features of the game. (Aguilar, Holman & Fishman, 2015).
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Potential pitfalls in game-based learning As much as game-based learning has proven itself to be a useful tool in aiding students with knowledge acquisition, there exist areas which educators have to be aware of that could prove to be of concern. Student addiction to game-based learning is a potential area of concern for educators. Digital games give students immediate feedback, cognitive rewards and leave the player wanting more, long after they are finished playing (Timothy, 2013). However, in the educator’s quest to use gaming as a means of content delivery or reinforcement, they may be opening the door to a much bigger problem and this problem comes in the form of addiction. By attempting to evoke similar emotions for school work as found in digital games, they may be contributing to, or even instilling psychological traits that could potentially harm the students as they progress through life. The addiction to technology can come in many forms, whether it be problematic media use, internet addiction, or game-based addiction (Felt & Robb, 2016). These are all potential forms of addiction that increase the user’s time spent in front of a digital screen.
Furthermore, game-based learning, although a fun alternative to text-based learning, holds the potential for distraction (Kapp, 2012). Imagine a class of students playing an educational game as part of the day’s lesson. The teacher asks the class to complete the game in the next few minutes and returns to a more traditional classroom environment. Some students tend to linger in the game, distracted from the next part of the lesson. This distraction curbs their learning and they will likely ignore new information coming in. Such is the nature of game-based learning: there is a possibility that students will eschew their responsibilities in favour of the game’s mechanics, which can sometimes be too good (Kapp, 2012).
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Methods
Deck Toys Game Design Broadly, the game aimed to develop the students’ understanding of how the text characterises Bruno and Shmuel - their feelings, motivations and character traits. Specific learning objectives were defined for each of the stages of the game. In view of the data about the top challenges faced by students, we primarily wanted to support students’ comprehension of the story, by helping them to experience the story from the characters’ perspectives. We designed an online game using the Deck Toys platform (deck.toys), which can be played both individually as well as collaboratively. The game included activities and questions that took students on a ‘quest’ of discovery for two main characters in the novel, in a virtual game environment. Features of the game environment included: ● Choice of two separate pathways. Students could either choose to follow the “Bruno” path, or the “Shmuel” path (Fig. 4). The game loosely follows the narrative structure of the text, and is designed to help students empathise with the character by putting themselves in his shoes. The option to choose is meant to create a sense of autonomy for the player.
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Fig. 4: A screenshot of the first signpost, which requires the player to choose.
â—? Puzzles, Quizzes and Questions. The game included a wide variety of puzzles, quizzes and questions that were aligned to the target knowledge, skills and dispositions (KSDs) in the 2019 Literature syllabus. These activities required students recall or search for details in the text (Fig. 5), or select relevant evidence to support a point, or make inferences about characterisation (Fig. 6). These questions were also carefully scaffolded with the aim of ensuring that they were sufficiently challenging but doable. Students are also provided with immediate feedback after they complete a question.
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Fig. 5: A screenshot of questions that focus on experiencing story and identifying key factual details about the plot.
Fig. 6: A screenshot of questions that focus on the skill of selecting evidence to support inferences about characters.
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● Challenge a Friend. To create a sense of friendly competition during the game, we activated the option to challenge other players in the game at various checkpoints. The fastest and most accurate players would win the challenge.
Fig. 7: A screenshot of a ‘Challenge’ option.
● Bonus Personal Response Checkpoints. These optional activities, such as the one shown in Fig. 7, were included to allow students to express their opinions or personal feelings about the text. This was intended to help students engage with the text personally.
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Fig. 8: A screenshot of a bonus personal response question.
â—? Treasure Keys and Badges. To create a sense of achievement at various stages in the game, we included treasure keys and badges after the successful completion of different activities. The treasure keys, in particular, were essential to unlock parts of the game. In addition, to support the game narrative, treasure keys were symbolic of the players putting themselves in the shoes of the characters.
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Fig. 9: A screenshot of a player’s discovery of a Treasure Key. The team tested and trialled the game before using it in the classroom, to identify any potential problems in the user experience, as well as any errors in the content.
Post-game survey A post-game survey (Annex B) was conducted to assess how students felt about the learning experience, and the impact that the game had on their interest in and motivation to read (or re-read) the set text.
Participants 60 Students from 1 Teamwork and 1 Empathy played the game in Term 3 Weeks 4 and 6. The post-game survey was administered to all students who took part in the game, and 49 responses were collected, of which 29 could be compared with the results of the pre-game survey (Table 1). 390
1T
1E
Total
No. of Deck Toys Game Participants
20
40
60
No. of post-game survey responses
14
35
49
22
29
Completed both post-game survey and pre-game 7 survey. Table 1: Breakdown of participants and survey respondents.
Results Overall impact on interest and motivation Based on the students’ post-game survey, 100% of them said that they enjoyed the game that was prepared, with 77% indicating that they were more interested in the story, and about 67% reporting that they would want to pick up the book to read or re-read (Table 2).
Yes
No
% (No. of students)
% (No. of students)
Enjoyed the game?
100% (49)
0
Want to play more of such games in Lit lessons?
100% (49)
0
More interested in the story?
78% (38)
22% (11)
Want to pick up the book to read / re-read?
65% (32)
35% (17)
Table 2: Overall impact on interest and motivation to read.
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Student feedback on the game design In addition to the quantitative data collected, we also collected students’ feedback about the game experience, as well as suggestions for how to improve the game. The results are shown in Fig. 10, Fig. 11 and Fig. 12.
Fig. 10: Students’ feedback on the game design.
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Fig. 11: Aggregated and analysed students’ feedback on areas for improvement of the game.
Fig. 12: Students’ preference of ideal times to play the game.
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Analysis and Discussion Impact on student interest and engagement during the learning experience The results in Table 2 shows that the game had a positive impact on student interest in the story and increased engagement during the lesson. This supports the research literature, which points to how games in the classroom are a useful way to encourage increased motivation for learning, especially if they are well-designed to create the elements of flow. The game replaces the usual frustration and boredom that students associate with reading with the positive feelings of joy and challenge. Impact on student motivation to read after the learning experience The game experience also encouraged most students to read or re-read the text, though the impact was a little more muted, at just 65% of students. While the impact was positive on the whole, it must be noted that interest in the story and enjoyment of the games may not necessarily translate into the intrinsic desire to read the book for certain students. This suggests that for some students, other factors may be creating certain psychological barriers and reluctance to read. This could be due to the fact that the game does not address the difficulties faced by students who struggle with the process of reading itself, or who might not have strong reading skills or vocabulary knowledge. For example, one common challenge faced by students is the perception that there are difficult words in the text (Fig. 2), but the game was not designed to help students understand these words. A comparison of survey data collected before and after the intervention revealed that the game had a slightly greater positive impact on students who started from a lower level of interest and enjoyment of the text. In Fig. 13, for students who had indicated in the pre-game survey that 394
they didn’t like the text much, 87% (13 students) said that they were more interested in the story, and 73% (11 students) said that they were more motivated to read or re-read the book. For those who already liked the book before the game, 71% (10 students) said they were more interested in the story, though only 57% said that they would read or re-read the book. This suggests that the game’s design is more suited to appeal to students with lower motivation and interest to begin with. As a greater number of questions and puzzles are aimed at improving students’ basic understanding of the plot and characters, this may not be as interesting or sufficiently challenging for students who already have a good grasp of these points.
Fig. 12: Differences in Impact on interest and motivation to read.
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Processes and game design features that were well-received by students Based on Fig. 10, it is clear that one of the key reasons for the positive game experience was that students prefer having control and ownership in the learning process over being passive receivers of information. Only 30.6% of students selected ‘watching video’ as something that they liked about the game as compared to 63.3% selecting ‘solving puzzles’, which present challenges for them to overcome. The students seem to enjoy the process of working on the various tasks and questions to get through the game. This is an indication that they prefer active learning tasks as compared to the more passive ones such as watching a video. Also, 53.1% of students indicated that they enjoyed the ability to learn at their own pace. Our findings corroborate the literature, showing that students prefer and enjoy activities that allowed them to take charge of their learning and achieve a sense of control, competence and achievement as they progress through the game. Another aspect that students enjoyed was the interactivity of the game. 69.4% of students cited the competitive fun of challenging their peers as an enjoyable feature of the game (Fig.10). This supports the theory that relatedness is one of the key components that supports motivation. In other words, students are more intrinsically motivated to learn when they can connect with or relate to others in the learning environment. How and when the game can boost motivation Furthermore, the results also demonstrate that the success of the game in boosting motivation depends in part how far it provides sufficient challenge and difficulty to the target audience, yet while ensuring that it is doable. Even as approximately half of the students said that they enjoyed being able to figure out answers on their own (Fig. 10), a sizeable 21% of the qualitative comments convey students’ desire for even greater challenge and difficulty in the game
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(Fig. 11). Their feedback shows that the game-based learning of the content and process made students more willing and motivated to challenge themselves to acquire and apply more knowledge. Nevertheless, the game could be further differentiated to include progressively higher levels of difficulty to address the needs of higher progress students, and keep them engaged. Another observation is that most students believed that game-based learning should be done in tandem with the teaching of the novel. This could be attributed to the fact that students enjoyed having the opportunity to do well in the online games that are created for the novel, by testing themselves and applying the knowledge that they have acquired. Technical difficulties during the game play One challenge faced during the game play was technical difficulties. Connectivity issues were surfaced as an area for improvement by about 10% of students (Fig. 11). Students were disconnected from the game about 30 minutes into the session. Those of them who did not create an account lost their game progress and had to start again. The reasons for the poor connectivity are unclear, but while students still reported their overall enjoyment of the game, it inevitably had a disruptive effect on the flow of the game and created some feelings of frustration or disappointment.
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Findings and Conclusions
Based on the findings through the post-game survey and comparing it to the pre-game survey, the students’ sentiments towards how they think they would be motivated to read and learn about the literature text is clear. They find that being passive receivers of information is less attractive than if they were involved in the discovery and creation of their own knowledge and understanding of the text, even if it means having to try multiple times to get it right.
Game-based learning definitely has its place in the Literature classroom in engaging students and motivating them to read the text. It helps to allow students to read and discover at their own pace, and having features in the game such as challenging one’s friends, encourages them to work harder to achieve the targeted learning goals. The teacher’s role in the classroom is not diminished either, as there are other challenges such as ‘difficult words’ and understanding of the text where weaker students may still require face-to-face teacher support.
Limitations and Recommendations Data collection processes for this project could be improved. Though a pre-survey and post-survey was done, there was a significant time lag between the two survey. As such, other factors could have influenced student motivation and interest in the book in the interim. Since many students had finished reading their novels by the time the game was played in Term 3, it was harder to assess the game’s impact on motivation to read for this group of students. While we had asked if these students would re-read the text, negative responses to this question may not
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necessarily indicate a lack of motivation to read, since there might be other reasons like a lack of time. The scope of our project focused on the impact on games on student motivation and did not analyse the effectiveness of game-based learning for helping students achieve mastery of the learning outcomes. However, assessment of student learning is an essential component of designing games, since the data can clarify and inform the teacher’s lesson plans for subsequent lessons. Educators often express uncertainty regarding how to assess student learning via gamebased activities. One way to address this area of concern is to collect data from the games implemented. Some educational games feature in-game reports for teachers, which record and analyse students’ performance both at the individual and class level. For example, charts will contain each player’s marks for a series of questions, letting educators click to see more details. For games without reporting features, students can be encouraged to take ownership of their progress through self-reporting. Creating a Google Forms spreadsheet for each student, for instance, will allow students to provide updates regarding their progress. Class discussions also allow for assessment of student learning. After playing a game, conducting a class-wide discussion allows each student to share his difficulties, progress and accomplishments. Assessing the degree of student learning in game-based activities will not only provide educators with crucial information needed to adjust lessons and activities, it will also allow educators to address trouble spots and build on new knowledge as soon as the need presents itself.
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Potential Future Work
To some extent, as educators leveraging on Deck Toys as a free-to-use platform, we were limited by the available tools and apps currently within the software, many of which were targeted at lower order thinking skills. As such, the Deck Toys game created was able to provide two types of assignments proposed by Squire (2010): grinding and learning. In order for the game to extend its reach to the higher ability group of students, a follow-up with a more complex assignment that allows the consolidation of knowledge should be included. Also, in designing this activity, we should think about the meaningful actions that students can take when involved in the game and how that will impact their eventual success / failure / progress in the game. Instead of only providing contents, games should be designed to provide rich and meaningful contexts for developing higher order thinking and social skills (Thomas & Brown, 2011). For example, a game may pose a challenge that requires the players to collect and interpret information, and develop hypotheses collaboratively in order to solve the challenge (Squire & Jan, 2007). Such contexts enable an authentic process through which players develop tacit understanding of the text studied through meaningful tasks posed. Like scientists, students come up with their own hypotheses through inquiry and embark on collaborative problem solving at the same time. Coupled with assessment of student performance, whether through self-reports or otherwise, both teachers and students develop a reflective practice which ensures both groups engage in a process of continuous learning.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Joel Tan Yi Liang, who was attached to the school as part of the Undergraduate Teaching Internship Programme, for his invaluable contributions to the project.
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References
Aguilar, S. J., Holman, C., & Fishman, B. J. (2015). Game-inspired design: Empirical evidence in support of gameful learning environments. Games and Culture.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Perennial.
Felt, Laurel J., Robb, Michael B. (2016).
Technology Addiction, Concern, Controversy, and
Finding Balance. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media.
Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. John Wiley & Sons.
Lepper, M. R., & Malone, T. W. “Intrinsic motivation and instructional effectiveness in computerbased education,” In R. E. Snow & M. J. Farr (Eds.) “Aptitude, learning, and instruction: Vol. 3. Cognitive and affective process analysis.” (1987) Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 255-286.
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Lin, Grace Hui Chin; Tsai, Tony Kung Wan; Chien, Paul Shih Chieh. (2011). Computer Games Functioning as Motivation Stimulants. Online Submission, Paper presented at the International Conference on Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) (Yunlin, Taiwan, Nov 5, 2011)
Tan, Y.L.L. (2018). Meaningful gamification and students’ motivation: A strategy for scaffolding reading material. Online Learning, 22(2), 141-155. doi:10.24059/olj.v22i2.1167
Thomas, D., Brown, John S. (2011). A new culture of learning: cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, Ky.: CreateSpace.
Timothy, Adam. (Jan. 2, 2013). Addiction vs. Reflection: Unlocking the Potential of Games. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/addiction-vs-reflection-gaming-potentialadam-timothy
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
Squire, K. (2011). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age (p. 312). Teachers College Press.
Squire, K.D, Jan, M. (2007). Mad City Mystery: Developing Scientific Argumentation Skills with a Place-Based Augmented Reality Game on Handheld Computers. Journal of Science Education and Technology Volume 16, Number 1, February 2007 ISSN 1059-014
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Annex A Questions in the Student Survey on Interest, Enjoyment and Motivation
1. How much do you enjoy reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas? 2. Why do you enjoy reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas? 3. Pick the top 3 challenges you face reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. 4. What will motivate you to read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?
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Annex B Questions in Post-game Student survey
1. Did you enjoy the online game? If students answer ‘yes’, then: ○ What did you find enjoyable about the game? ○ Would you like more of such games in Literature lessons? ○ What can be improved about the game? If students answer ‘no’, then: ○ What did you not enjoy about the game? ○ What else can we do in Literature class to encourage you to read the book?
2. Are you more interested in the story now than you were before you played the game? 3. After the game, would you want to pick up the book to read it? 4. Would you want to read the book again? 5. When would the best time to play such games?
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Use of electronic game board to promote Joy of Learning during Food and Consumer Education lesson
Eugenia Guo-Lim Siti Liana Hashim Timothy Ting Teck Wee
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Abstract Nutrients in Food is a topic that is taught to all Secondary One Food and Consumer Education (FCE) students. It forms the foundational knowledge for Upper Secondary students who are taking Food and Nutrition (FNN). Hence it is important that students have a strong foundation in this.
The purpose of this study is to develop a fun and engaging way for the students to take ownership in their learning. We incorporated technology in designing the game board in order to reduce the need to print and purchase actual game board and chess pieces. The use of electronic game board allows the potential for students to download the game onto their own mobile devices so that they can play the game during their free time.
Generally the students enjoyed the activity based on teachers’ observations during lesson execution. It is evident in the post lesson survey results: students find the game helps them in recalling the lesson contents (91.6% - strongly agree). The students also feedback that learning through games is more effective than other teaching methods (88.1% - strongly agreed). The team hopes that through this activity it will promote the joy of learning of FCE where students would have the intrinsic motivation to learn for themselves and thus encourage the “lifelong journey of exploration and discovery� (Ng Chee Meng, 2017).
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Introduction The challenge that FCE teachers face when teaching nutrition is that students find it laborious to memorise the various nutrient functions, food sources and respective diet-related diseases. Hence the team decides to design a game board similar to Snake & Ladders in order to improve the level of engagement in getting them to recall and apply the contents of the topic. Snake & Ladders is a familiar game that students have encounter in the past. We also decided to leverage on the use of technology rather than making an actual physical game board with dice and game pieces.
There are several advantages of using the electronic game board. Firstly, it will eliminate the need to buy actual materials such as dice, game pieces. Many times, schools require multiple sets of the game boards in order for that it to be sufficient for the class or entire level of students to use. There is also a chance that the pieces of the game set could be misplaced or damaged, thus making the game set useless, resulting in unnecessary wastage or additional cost for replacement.
Secondly, using an electronic game board eliminates the labor needed to make the game board such as lamination of the question cards, and acquirement of the physical dice and game pieces. This is important as the school could sometimes experience manpower shortage from time to time.
Thirdly, the teacher could use the game board in two ways. The teacher could project the game board on-screen if this is the first time that the students are playing. In this case, the teacher becomes the Game Master. The students could also use their ipads or mobile devices and play in
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groups of fours with one of them act as the Game Master when the students are more familiar with the rules of the game.
Fourthly, the use of game in Teaching and Learning (T&L) enables students to learn together as a group (in groups of four or five) when they encounter questions on the game board. The group forms “communities of learners� within the classroom. School values such as teamwork, discipline, graciousness and integrity can be applied as they observe the rules of the game when it is being played.
Lastly, as the game board is a PowerPoint file, modifications can be easily done. Teachers can just edit the questions and the appearance of the game board in their laptops before carrying out the game play with the students.
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Literature Review Students’ motivation and engagement are important when it comes to learning. A student with low motivation can result in low academic performance or poor attendance. Also, with the proliferation of smartphones, students are ever more distracted from learning.
The purpose of this project is to improve students’ engagement and motivation in learning FCE through playing games. Gamification is the use of “game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote learning, and solve problems.” (Kapp, 2012).
Gamification has the following advantages, namely it: a)
Promotes interactivity among students in the classroom
b)
Offers variety of activities and tasks which aroused interest
c)
Provide instant feedback and reward
d)
Stimulates students’ creativity and develops critical thinking
e)
Promote practical skills development through solving real world problem
It
follows
a
five
steps
process
listed
below
(Huang,
2013):
Figure 1: Thinking process when designing a game
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Gamification elements can be derived from either (self or social) some of the elements are listed below (Huang, 2013):
Figure 2: Examples of gamification elements
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Method A total of 184 Secondary One students took part in the study. The game was played in their classroom and also in the school’s Culinary Food Laboratory. They were selected because: a) they have no prior experience with FCE compared to the Secondary 2s or 3s students. b) they form the largest batch of students (large sample size) in school where we could collect significant data from them.
The figure below shows the layout of the game board:
Fig. 3: Interface of the game board
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The rules of the game are showed to the students before the start of the game as shown in the figure below:
Fig. 4: Rules of the game
Each group will send a representative to roll the dice to determine the sequence of the players. They then roll the dice to determine the number of steps needed to move. Depending on the tile (i.e. Mineral Trivia or What’s that Vitamin), the group has 20 seconds to give the response to the question.
Fig. 5: Different Categories of Questions
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An example of a question is found below. Each group have 20 seconds (timer is on the question itself) to answer the question. If the group fails to answer, they will lose a turn in the next round. The answer is then revealed and the teacher can highlight verbally any misconception or clarify any doubts raised by any students before moving on to the next group.
Fig. 6: Example of a question that the student need to answer
When students land on the “Switcheroo”; they are to swop their positions on the gameboard with the neighboring teams. Lastly when the students land onto the “vitamin song”; they are to sing (as a group) the Vitamin Song embedded in the game board itself. The winning group will be the one who reaches the finishing point first or if the group is the closest to the finishing point (if time does not allow).
At the end of the lesson activities, the students were given a survey asking them to rate their perceptions of learning and engagement through seven questions using a 4-point Likert scale with possible responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
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Questions I like this activity because we use games to help me recall the lesson contents. I like this activity because I can compete against or team up with my peers and learn from/with them. I like this activity because I can hear my friends' responses to questions and I am able comment on the responses. I like to learn through this game because it gives me feedback of how well I have understood the lesson. This game encourages me to have more ownership of my learning. I enjoy this activity as one of my theory revision methods. Learning through games is more effective for me compared to other teaching methods.
Table 1: Post lesson survey questions
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Results and Analysis The data were collected from a sample size of 184 students from six Secondary One classes. The table below shows the collated responses. Questions
Strongly Agree
Disagree and and Strongly
Agree (%)
Disagree (%)
Students’ perceptions of Engagement I like this activity because we use games to help me recall the 91.6
8.4
lesson contents. I like this activity because I can compete against or team up 89.5
10.5
with my peers and learn from/with them. I like this activity because I can hear my friends' responses to 86.7
13.3
questions and I am able comment on the responses. Students’ Perception of Learning I like to learn through this game because it gives me feedback 94.5
5.5
of how well I have understood the lesson. This game encourages me to have more ownership of my 85.4
14.6
learning. I enjoy this activity as one of my theory revision methods.
89.0
Learning through games is more effective for me compared to 88.1
11 11.9
other teaching methods.
Table 2: Post lesson survey results
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A large number of students reported that they enjoyed the game as it helped them recall the content of the lesson (91.6%). They enjoyed the competitive element that this game had brought when they got a chance to compete with their classmates (89.5%). They also had a chance to hear from their other classmates their answers (86.7%) from the game questions.
Most students responded favourably as they perceived the idea of using this game as a form of revision (89.0%) and felt that it was more effective to learn this way than other conventional methods (88.1%). By participating in the game, students had a chance to receive feedback whether they got it right or wrong.
The team also collected qualitative comments from the students which is being classified as “Improvement” and “Feedback” in the table below.
Improvement
Feedback
We should have less switcheroo tiles.
This game is fun.
The game should have more interesting It helps me recap what we have learnt for the questions.
day.
The boards should be longer.
I want more of this kind of games.
The computer should have lesser glitches.
We can work with classmates while playing a game.
It
should
have
more
challenging
and This game makes everyone participate.
interesting questions.
417
I think the game will be better if the board It is teaching you something but at the same game is more decorative.
time is fun.
It should have more dares like singing and stuff It will make us be more interested in learning. about FCE. It should have more songs and a lot more Use this game improve learning in class and prizes!
helps to memorise whatever was taught.
Make the game faster pace.
It helps me to recall the things I had forgot.
Lengthen the time given to the group to give a Play the game more during lessons. response to the question. The game should provide reason for the I can learn more about minerals and My answer.
Healthy Plate. It make us have confidence to answer the questions.
Table 3: Post lesson survey feedbacks and suggestions Generally, they feedback that the game was fun and wanted different types of games featured in the FCE curriculum. They also wanted the game board to be bigger so that the game can be played longer. They wanted less or eliminate “switcheroo� as it is confusing and frustrating for players to be relegated from a winning position to a losing position. They also feedback that this game involved the entire class to participate, which allows for positive classroom culture to be built as they work together to achieve common learning goals.
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Recommendations Based on the positive survey results gathered from the students, there are some considerations that the team would like to improve on the game board. Firstly, we can extend the game boards to various FCE topics or even other subjects as it is a simple PowerPoint document that can be transferred and adapted between colleagues in the school. Secondly, the team may like to carry out letting the students be their own Game Masters now that they are familiar with the game. It can be downloaded onto Ipads, placed it in the library for the students to load to play with their friends during their free time in school.
Thirdly, the team would consider including an explanation slide for each question. Survey findings from the students also saw the students proposing this recommendation. Their consensus suggests to us that our students are keen to learn. The explanation slide creates a good opportunity for students to check for understanding and surface their misconception and a chance for teachers to address them.
Fourthly, in terms of Teaching & Learning (T&L), we could consolidate the learning with the use of a worksheet that encapsulates all the questions of the game board at the end of Game Play. The worksheet activity though conventional allows the teachers an opportunity to strengthen the students’ academic tenacity for learning. Game play aside, effective T&L is still key to the lesson objective.
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Lastly, the team may also want to explore the possibility of developing the game board into a phone app which can be downloaded onto their smartphones so that they can be playing it anytime anywhere.
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References 1. Teachers’ Contact Digest, Jan 2017
- Uncovering the Joy of Learning
https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/teacher-digest/contact-jan17.pdf
2. Stott, A. & Neustaedter, C. (2013). Analysis of Gamification in Education, Technical Report 2013-0422-01, Connections Lab, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC, Canada, April.
3. Kiryakova, G., Angelova, N., & Yordanova, L. (2014). Gamification in education, Proceedings of 9th International Balkan Education and Science Conference.
4. Huang, Wendy Hsin-Yuan, and Dilip Soman. 2013. A Practitioners Guide to the Gamification of Education. Toronto: Rotman School of Management University of Toronto
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Flexible Learning Space: How much autonomy might we give students to change the physical setup of the Art studio through the duration of their coursework?
Diana Ghazali Lin Kaili
422
Abstract A flexible learning space refers to the place where the art lesson will occur, or the gathering point from which the lesson will springboard. A learning space should inspire and facilitate active learning. How much autonomy might we possibly give students to delegate and transform the Art Studio into their preferred structured learning and working space? As the graduating students will toil in the five months through the completion of their N level Art coursework, facilitators are required to monitor and guide them through specific levels within the preparatory studies. Will having a structured working space in the studio allows not only the facilitators, but also the students, a clear visual of everyone’s progress? Will the students also apply full responsibility in maintaining the structure if they were given the full autonomy to delegate the working spaces? These are some of the questions that we strive to find the answers for through the observation of students’ behaviors within the coursework duration.
Introduction The main objective of this project is to instill a strong sense of responsibility and personal resonance to the working space that our students will be situated in through the duration of their coursework. As the nature of the coursework requires the students to develop experimental and exploration habits in an organized structure, having a sense of ownership to the working spaces and materials may help to materialize these habits of the mind.
A second objective is to serve the monitoring and assessing process for the teacher facilitators. By establishing the structure of the space together with the students, it is with the 423
intention to provide a clear visual and opportunities or accessibility for teachers to roam and provide individual feedback and consultations. In turn, this will fall under our school’s Strategic Thrust 1.2 of Enhance Assessment for Learning (AfL) through Effective Feedback.
The project is also aligned in aiming to achieve three of the Singapore Teaching Practices: 1. Assessment and Feedback
By having students located in spaces depending on their personal progress allows accessibility and opportunity for teacher facilitators to check for understanding and provide feedback as it provides a clear visual and understanding of the phase in which every student is at. Being given the autonomy of the Art Room and the materials, it also supports selfdirected learning as students have to learn to explore and experiment on their own.
2. Positive Classroom Culture
The theory is also that by having an autonomy of the Art Studio, it assist in maintaining a positive discipline by setting expectations and routines that are agreed upon together. Giving the students the autonomy, is also aimed at building the trusts between teachers and students, as well as for students to empower their own learning.
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3. Lesson Enactment
A designated space based on the specific progress of the students, is aimed to encourage learner engagement as students are able to refer with classmates of the same phases or to consult with those who are ahead of themselves. Having this clear visual allows for both students and teacher facilitators to also observe every student’s pacing and maintain the momentum of their progress. Critical Inquiry Method: Action Research
Image 1 The critical inquiry method of the strategy we are testing is through action research. Through this method, the barrier between the researcher and participant as blurred. The teacher actively participates in the situation while conducting the research. This will be further elaborated in the method section of this paper.
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The Art Studio and the Students’ Profile
Image 2 The current Art Studio is slightly bigger than the usual classroom. Besides the usual individual tables for a class of 40-43, there are also some large tables and a washing area. A smaller store room is keeping the painting materials. In attempting this strategy, it is also important to note the current students’ profile and to consider if these may have an effect on the process. Focusing on the Secondary 4 Normal (Academic) students taking art this year, it is a relatively large class size consisting of 29 students. 7 of the students are considered of high-ability (in the subject area of Art), 8 are mid-range while 426
14 are of low-ability. Considering the level of motivation of these students, majority of them lack confidence in their own ability and skills, however they are resilient in attempting tasks and challenges as observed when they were in secondary 3 in 2019. The biggest concern is their level of discipline at home, when more often than not, students have trouble submitting assignments on time. The Coursework Stages
RESEARCH ON 1 CHOSEN THEME
IMAGES PREPARATORY STUDIES
OBSERVATION DRAWINGS
DEVELOPMENT DRAWINGS
ARTIST REFERENCES
EXPLORATION OF LAYOUT
EXPLORATION
OF
COLOUR
SCHEME
FINAL WORK
TRANSFERING OF CHOSEN LAYOUT
CREATING FINAL WORK Table 1
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Students are guided based on the table of items for their coursework (Table 1). The items give a rough identification of every students’ progress or coursework stage and it is a point of considering when designating the working spaces.
Image 3
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Literature Review Sesto1 describes the art room being one of the best places where a child can develop his inner voice of authority, working from original ideas. It would make sense that through their art, children will be able to realize that they have meaningful ideas just like the adults in their lives. (p.49) The Choice-Based Art program in the Montessori school where students are allowed to work in a manner similar to practicing artists, and were given the autonomy to choose from personal interests, students are free to repeat and refining process and craft as they do in other areas of their lives. The students will then absorb a knowing of the medium that allows for experimentation and risk-taking without fear of failure. (p.42) Child-centered art rooms are alive with creative activity, an ebb and flow of nourishment for both the students and the teacher. Because of the variety of art being created, and the questions that organically arise as the work progresses, each art studio encounter contains unexpected moments of discovery, invention, and creative challenges. Students plunge deeply into their work, and the teacher moves from one area to another commenting, advising, and encouraging each student to reach their goal. Because the choice-based classroom is structured for individualized learning, the teacher has the opportunity to make specific and relevant comments about each student. Using notes, photographs, and conversations with the students as well as observations of the development of the chosen work, the teacher observes and can comment on aspects such as:
1
Sesto C. (2012). Ch. 5: Building a Strong Voice of Inner Authority in a Montessori Choice-Based Art Program. The Learner - Directed Classroom, Developing Creative Thinking Skills Through Art, p. 49-55.
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social interaction, fine motor skills, risk-taking, respect for materials, focus, perseverance and inventiveness, among others. (p.53) It is by giving these students the autonomy in the structure of the art studio that we aim to develop on the above mentioned aspects of character in our students.
Methods Phase 1: The Planning The experiment will require 3 simple steps that will take the course of 8 months:
Image 4: Procedures & Timeline for the Experiment
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Image 5: Lesson Plan for Step 1 of the Experiment
Image 6: Listing of possible working spaces to consider with the students
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Phase 2: Action ● Example of Students’ responses from the lesson:
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● The Final Layout: As the class is relatively large, space can be limited. Based on students’ responses, the facilitators had to combine the layouts to distinguish students’ level of progression whilst still making use of the Art space. The layouts are then designed following the different stages (Image 3). The Original Layout
Stage 1: Research & Consultations (First Week)
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Stage 2: Observation Drawings
Stage 3 to 4: Moving to Development to Painting
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Phase 3: Results Analysis & Findings ● Facilitators’ Observation of Progression through the 28 weeks (25 January to 06 August): Cause
Effect
Students’ own progression of their coursework Students were following room layout stages were behind time.
format at the beginning but the long delay in students’ own progression disrupted the layout arrangements over the months.
At Stage 1 : Research and Consultation
The location for teachers to be positioned
Students came to lessons without homework for consultation was not ideal as we needed (research and thought process) completed.
the power point or to address the class as a whole. Majority of students also did not 436
Teachers also required the power point therefore seek consultation as they delayed their we had to rotate positions between the bigger research. tables and the teacher’s tables. There was a major shift of layout from At
Stage
2:
Observation
Drawings observation to painting as majority of
Students remained at their original seats but were students skipped the development stage due shifted between pairs after observing slow to limited time. working progress. Students were re-paired with different partners of different abilities or lesser The demarcation between observation and rapport to minimize distraction.
development stage were also not clear as it
However as students delay in providing sufficient was a large class size, and all tables were research, progress in this stage was very slow.
occupied.
At Stage 3: Development Drawings
Students were re-shifted also due to
This stage was delayed months behind timeline distractions between partners therefore the planned. In April (Mid-way through coursework) demarcation was further blurred. 48% (14/29 students) have yet to complete stage 2 therefore unable to proceed to stage 3 (See image 7).
At Stage 4: Painting
Although the painting section has shifted, it
A small group of students were ready to begin was
students’
decision
based
on
painting and they moved towards the bigger accessibility therefore the changes was a tables as it was closer to the store room. During result of their progress as well as their own the last 2-3 weeks (July-August), students rushed reconsiderations for efficiency (See image through their painting.
8).
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Image 7: Screenshot of Coursework Progression Monitoring sheet (Mid-way through coursework project - Month 4 of 8).
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Image 8: Nearing the final stage - First group of students to begin on painting, moved to the bigger table areas for easy access to the materials. â—? Observation Question 1: How did the students responded in being given the autonomy to redesign the studio space? Were students excited/ keen on taking on the responsibility? During the first lesson when designing the layouts, students responded calmly and did what they were instructed with a handful who needs additional help to clarify their doubts. Some responses were thoughtful while a handful shows minimum analytical thinking in designing their studio space. In their final course evaluation survey (Appendix 1), students were asked if they were excited to design the art room layout and 57% responded yes, and more than half understood the importance of the process.
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Question: Were you excited to design the art room layout? Maybe 10% No 33%
Yes 57%
Yes
No
Maybe
Question: Do you think its important for students to be given the responsibility of designing and maintaining the Art studio layout?
Maybe 42.9%
Yes 52.4%
Yes
No
Maybe
� Observation Question 2: Will having a structure working space in the studio allows not only the facilitators, but also the students, a clear visual of everyone’s progress? 71% of the students responded in the Course Evaluation Survey (Appendix 1) stating that they found having a structure in the studio layout was useful with 36% of those students stated that they understood how the layout allowed for both teachers and themselves to be able to see their coursework progress. Another 36% of the students that responded the layout being useful stated 440
that it allows for the room appear more spacious, tidy or neat. One of the student stated that the students own reconsiderations to the changed layout during the painting stage allowed it to be more efficient by considering the space. However, one student that responded as the layout not being useful to their progress stated that certain students did not comply to the layout as they refused to move to the designated space of their personal progress stage (it could be presumed that it was the observation to development stage as response states ‘still sit at the back’). Another student responded that the designed layout made no difference while another responded that some students we effected. ● Observation Question 3: Will the students also apply full responsibility in maintaining the structure if they were given the full autonomy to delegate the working spaces? Considering the responses of the students that felt that the layout was not useful, it can be understood that certain students may refuse to move to comply to the space area as they may want to sit with their closer friends or not to seem like they are leaving their friends behind. However as majority of the students responded that the layout assisted both facilitators and themselves to see everyone’s progress, they have in fact applied full responsibility to maintain the structure, especially if the space were decided by themselves. Phase 4: Discussion ● Final Question: How much AUTONOMY should we give students to change the physical setup of the Art studio through the duration of their coursework? Based on the results of the Coursework Evaluation Survey (Appendix 1), majority of the students’ concern was the lack of space as it was a relatively big class size. Facilitators had to intervene in the final layout design to reduce table movement between classes while ensuring a 441
clear demarcation of coursework stages as student progresses, and including the majority’s inputs to the task. However having the students understand the need and importance of a clear visual of the class’ progress enable efficiency and teamwork between the facilitators and students. Students appear to appreciate the studio more when they knew the routines and structure placed, but it encourages most teamwork and compliance between the students only if the structure were decided by the students’ themselves.
Conclusion There are definitely certain points to consider if we are to conduct the task of assigning autonomy to the next batch of graduating students to provide more value, teamwork and a sense of responsibility. At the start of the task, facilitators can provide guiding conditions of how the working space should consist, (i.e. a positive & conducive environment, a clear visual of the coursework progress, motivation factor for one another, distraction issues, safety issues and accessibility to materials) to promote students’ analytical thinking when designing the studio layout. Facilitators could also provide the opportunity for the students to reflect on what the studio space should have or provide (e.g.: empathy, understanding, positivity, preferred art resources, etc.) that are able to assist them in their art making process. The demarcation of the layout to allow for visual clarity will however be very much magnified with a smaller class population. Therefore teachers’ intervention is required if class if of a bigger size. However there may be a flaw in this objective. If students’ progress are slow, it 442
is observed that having immediate visual of everyone's progress may not be ideal as students may take comfort from each other‘s slow progress. Having ambiguity may be helpful for students to have more urgency in making progress in their coursework. On the other hand, when students are given the autonomy in how their working spaces are designated, they do appear to maintain a higher responsibility of maintaining the structure of the studio as well as ensuring the conducive environment and upkeep of the art materials. There is definitely much value in providing the students with the autonomy of the studio that they will be working in together.
Reference 1. Sesto C. (2012). Ch. 5: Building a Strong Voice of Inner Authority in a Montessori ChoiceBased Art Program. The Learner - Directed Classroom, Developing Creative Thinking Skills Through Art, p. 49-55
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Credits and Acknowledgements Special mention and credits to the following:Mrs Celine Goh for her effort in consolidating the research papers for the publication. Ms Diana Ghazali for designing the cover page of this publication. Our PLT leaders and members for planning and conducting research-based lessons; and for developing quality research papers for this publication. Other experts and consultants from AST, CPDD, ESUB and NIE who have advised and supported us in our PD journey.
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