Quest@Northbrooks Monograph (2017 Publication, 1st Volume)

QUEST@Northbrooks A Northbrooks Research and Inquiry Publication [Volume 1]

Northbrooks Secondary School 16 January 2018 260 pages

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Content Foreword Title

Department

Page

To incorporate instructional principles for conceptual remediation and excavation of errors and misconceptions in algebra lessons

Mathematics

9

Improving task performance in algorithm – using multiple-choice questions with targeted feedback to develop topic mastery

Computer Applications

18

Chemistry MTV [Making Thinking Visible]

Science

36

Encourage active learning through the use of questioning and Plickers

Science

41

The use of a revision tool based on Bloom’s Taxonomy to build exam confidence in FCE/F&N theory paper

Craft and Technology

64

Supporting students’ thinking for the Geography Open-Ended Question (OEQ)

Humanities

78

What is the impact of using information and communications technology to teach history and its impact on student’s engagement and academic achievement?

Humanities

89

Use of HUDL technique app to enhance games skills development in physical education

Physical Education

95

Assessment for Learning

Use of ICT in Teaching and Learning

3

Using ICT to enhance the teaching and learning of speech writing in the classroom

English Language

102

Infusion of info-communication platform English ‘canva’ as an assessment for learning tool in Language the teaching of multimodal texts for authentic English learning

113

Harnessing ICT to provide real-time feedback and intervention to common mathematical misconceptions

120

Mathematics

Pedagogies Physics concepts through the use of concept Science cartoons

129

Utility of structured note-taking as an Humanities effective content reading strategy to improve the learning of geography for upper secondary students

138

Improving Teaching & Learning through the consolidation of Key Ideas

Mathematics

149

Improving instruction in computer applications – applying the SIOP model

Computer Applications

155

Use of construction kits as teaching aid to implement mechanism projects for upper sec D&T curriculum

Craft and Technology

172

Modified flipped classroom with team-based learning

Science

178

Using productive failure in the learning of Science concept

Science

185

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Algebraic expansion and factorisation using Algecards

Mathematics

191

Incidental teaching of vocabulary as a English means of expanding students’ vocabulary for Language descriptive and narrative writing

200

Enhancing students’ expository essay writing skills and engaging their interest in the learning of the Chinese Language through Project Work

Mother Tongue Language

203

Applying effective teaching strategies through scaffolded lessons in the learning of two different art movements

Craft and Technology

210

Just Play!: Improving Musical Teamwork

Music

225

Elements of Business Studies

236

Science

242

Mother Tongue Language

251

Authentic Learning Equipping EBS students with research and analysis skills

Collaborative Learning Experimental design of relationship between pressure, force and area for secondary 2 express students involving collaborative learning Inter-disciplinary Infusion of applied learning programme in Malay language – WAU for secondary 2 express and 2 normal academic students

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Foreword I am excited to share that we have managed to collate our very first educators’ research and inquiry papers completed in 2017. This is our humble efforts to document 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 results.

This Quest@Northbrooks (QN) serves 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. By embarking on this next phase of development, we hope to use this documentation as references for future progressive professional developments.

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. Through the Singapore Teaching Practice’s reflection and application continual process, we aim to become better reflective practitioners.

To dovetail with the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy, I’m thrilled to share that Northbrooks has completed its very first Educators’ Philosophy statements in 2017, whereby our educators penned their own guiding beliefs or philosophies. These will be symbolically sited visibly within the school compound on the Northbrooks Educators’ Philosophy Wall, and this represents our commitment towards becoming ‘Skillful Champion Teachers’.

To achieve the ‘Joy of Learning’ by students, I think it is vital to first attain the ‘Joy of Teaching’ by educators. i.e. we are always excited to teach our students the attitude, knowledge and skills that we know about a discipline and its relevance to other disciplines and the real world. The ‘Joy of Learning’ is being passionate in the process of learning where our students stay hungry, never give up and keep learning. This is aligned to our ‘Champion Learning Mindset’ which we hope to instil in every single one of our Brooksians.

In order to do so, we will need to find the ‘Joy in Teaching’ to sustain our passion in teaching and learning.

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With the goal to become competent reflective practitioners, we take every opportunity to learn from self, from others and with others – in our quest to become ‘Skilful Champion Teachers’. As we move on together, we will gradually work towards honing our teaching craft, which is both an ‘Art’ and a ‘Science’. In years to come, we will improve our critical inquiry processes in our professional development and look forward to include other cocurriculum and innovative good practices in our other issues of the Quest@Northbrooks (QN) publication.

Lastly, Northbrooks will like to thank our former School Leaders and SSDs for their efforts in our educators’ growth and professional development.

Nick Chan Principal Northbrooks Secondary School

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Assessment for Learning

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A 0001

To incorporate instructional principles for Conceptual Remediation and excavation of errors and misconceptions in Algebra lessons Sumithra Nair, Annamalai Kumar, Shaun Tan, Audrey Chong, Wendy Lee, Alex Tok, Nurul Ezza Abstract Algebra is a key foundational concept in the learning of mathematics. However, students often have common conceptual misconceptions and make procedural errors in the manipulations application of algebraic symbols. The lesson study demonstrates how students excavate their own or their peers' misconceptions and errors and perform remediation verbally and in writing. Through remediating their own or their peer's error, they learn how their errors came about and what they must do to ensure they do not make the same error again.

Literature Review Excavation of errors is based on Doug Lemov’s “Teach Like a Champion” and teachers will be able to learn how students can be guided to excavate their own or their peers' conceptual misconceptions and procedural errors and perform self-corrections. They can also learn about the strategies to excavate students’ misconceptions in the classroom (Doug Lemov 2015, “Teach like a Champion”) Concept-Rich Instruction is based on Vygotsky’s socioculturist teaching on the value of thoughtful communication with and among people to the development of their knowledge and cognitive skills. (Feuerstein & Rand, 1997; Vygotsky, 1978) The basic premise of CRI is that the context of classroom discussion imposes on its participants a need to report and answer questions verbally, challenging those who are involved to form, reflect upon, examine and revise their differing ideas. This helps the teachers inquire, analyse and try to understand how students err and also access possible misconceptions.

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Fererstein refers to learning as advocated by Concept Rich Instruction (CRI) as “mediated learning experience,� or MLE. One of the three critical parameters that describe what teachers do when they mediate learning is the reciprocal relationship between the teacher and the learner. This parameter ensures that mediation is always responsive to emerging learning needs. The practices that teachers would need to use can be distilled into six key instructional principals for concept remediation. They are as follows: Reciprocity, Flexibility, Alternative Mental Representations, Meta-cognitive Awareness, Appropriate Communication and Constructive Interaction Among Learners.

Introduction Prior to the lesson study itself, students will be given a pre quiz and a worksheet on expansion and factorization. These questions were carefully selected intentionally as misconception arises for these questions and are used in the lesson study to remediate their misconceptions.

Once marked, misconceptions and errors from the worksheet will be excavated by the teachers and consolidated to form the crux of the lesson study.

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During the lesson, the teacher would practice the six instructional principals in the lesson using Corrections to help students reflect upon their work correct their misconceptions.

After the lesson study, a post-quiz was given to check if students had really benefited from the reflection. A comparison was made to ascertain if there was a change in the marks awarded.

Methods The lesson study revolved on the method of study identifying the errors in their answers and remediating these errors in writing and verbally.

Pre Lesson Study: 1 period

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Students were tasked to complete 3 questions (with different sections) on expansion and factorization prior to the lesson study so that the teachers will be able to excavate the error and craft a worksheet which showcased the prevalent misconceptions among the students. The error were consolidated into a worksheet which formed the crux of the lesson study.

Selected questions that had the glaring misconceptions and error were fitted into the worksheet and students next task would be identify the error.

Lesson Study: 2 Periods The lesson study was conducted for two classes (3E and 3T) concurrently. The students were grouped in 4-5 and their task was to identify the error and write it down, explain why the error occurred and finally write the correct solution. The teachers guided the students in identifying the error and displayed the first question as an example. The concept of I Do, You Do and We Do was also employed for the segment of the lesson study.

They were given a time limit to complete the worksheet and for the next period, they were to showcase their answer to the classes in the form of presentation and verbalize their answers to their peers.

The intended 6 instructional principals for conceptual remediation were displayed at different parts of the segments.

Post Lesson Study: 1 Period After the lesson study, a post quiz were given to assess the reliability and benefit of the lesson study for the students. A comparison of the success of the lesson study were to be studied with the pre and post quiz results of the students.

The sequence of the lesson study as shown below

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13

Results The results were concluded based on the results from the pre and post quiz of the students from both classes.

The total marks of all the students for each question were added for pre and post quiz.

Question 1 2 3

Pre Quiz 108 85 75

Post Quiz 112 85 73

1

2

% Increase /Decrease 8.33% 0% -2.67%

120

100

80

60

40

20

0 3

The graph and table represents the results of the pre quiz compared with the post quiz and the percentage increase or decrease of the results.

According to the results, it showed that students showed a slight improvement for question 1, no change for question 2 and a decrease in marks for question 3.

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Analysis and Discussion Based on the results of the Pre quiz and Post quiz of the students, we understand that the effect of the lesson study was not evident in improving the results or understanding of the misconceptions of the questions.

With discussion among the team of the lesson study, the probable cause of the end results could have been the time factor, questioning in the worksheet (lack of scaffold) or the amount of guidance provided during lesson study.

Time factor: Students were not given enough time to comprehend the technique of verbalising their answers and writing down the solutions in writing. This could have caused students to complicate the solution to the questions thus retaining their misconceptions and getting the same results or lower marks for the post quiz. Perhaps one more round of observation and allowing the students to practice verbalizing and writing their answers could have equipped them with the techniques eventually.

Questioning in the worksheet: After discussion on the review of the lesson study, the team reflected that the lesson study worksheet lacked scaffolding and being exposed to a new techniques without guidance could have complicated the concepts to the students and in turn making the same errors or making more error than before.

Guidance during lesson study: Based on the lesson plan for the lesson study, the students were tasked to work in their group. However we could have showed more examples in answering the questions in the worksheet before allowing them to attempt the worksheet themselves.

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Findings and Conclusion Apart from analysing the results of the Pre and Post Quiz, we looked through the quality of the answering of the worksheet and overall, the students showed better quality of answering throughout the three questions.

As seen from a sample of the students’ work, we can see the students were almost apprehensive in answering the question as they were unsure on how to answer the questions. But throughout the lesson and with scaffolding and guidance of the teachers at time the quality of the answers got better.

Nonetheless the quality of the answers can be improved with more guidance and practice in verbalising and writing out their answers in words.

As the students were presenting their group work, it was evident that they were not used to presenting their answers and verbalizing their answers. They stammered in always stopped to think of how to phrase their answers and metacognition was evident among the thinking of the student as they presenting.

In conclusion, this lesson study is a good way for students and teachers alike to identify, excavate and explain the outcome of the error to themselves and their peers. More time and practice is required to master the technique among the students.

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Limitation and Recommendations Time factor is definitely a limitation to conduct an extensive lesson study and to introduce a new technique and to ensure it is sustainable. Given more time to conduct more observation, the results could have been more positive and the quality of the students work may have been improved.

The second limitation is the banding of the classes between 4 teachers which made it inconvenient for observations to occur as two classes. This caused loss of content, disruptions to the banding and the rapport of the teacher conducting the lesson study was a huge factor as well.

The third limitation was the different abilities of the students. Some students were quick to identify the error without given much wait time for the peers to identify the error.

It is highly recommended that the lesson study should be continued for next year in helping the students identifying the errors and to make it a sustain behaviour among the students.

Potential Future Work Potential future work may be carried out for the next batch of 3NA students in 2018 in the early term of the year.

References

1. Ben-Hur, M. (2006). Concept-rich mathematics instruction: Building a strong foundation for reasoning and problem solving. Alexandria, VA, USA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

2. Doug Lemov (2010). Teach Like a Champion 2.0: 62 Techniques that Puts Students on the Path to College. Jossey-Bass

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A 0002

Improving Task Performance in Algorithm – Using Multiple-Choice Questions With Targeted Feedback to Develop Topic Mastery

Toh Chin Hwee Tham Chun Kit

ABSTRACT This study examined the impact on use of multiple-choice questions with targeted feedback to improve students’ task performance in algorithm, which is assessed under Paper 3 Task 3 in Computer Applications. This task requires students to draw flowcharts based on a given description and they have been performing poorly.

Although a number of instances involve the students' poor time management, which is not within the scope of this study; those who do manage to attempt the question did not perform to expectations. One of the reasons is the lack of confidence in deciding the symbols for numerous key phrases in the given description. A prior study introduced the 3-step process to the students, but it found that the initial positive impact on their performance was not sustainable over a longer period. One of the recommendations from that study suggested that students needed more foundation in the identification of four symbols for different context. This study aimed to improve the competencies of the students by requiring them to complete a self-paced lesson in AsknLearn, the Learning Management System which the school subscribes to, followed by a quiz. Students were given targeted feedback based on their choice for each of the questions in the quiz and they required to achieve at least 80% of the maximum marks. This improved the students’ foundation and they performed better than before the intervention. The results from this study will aid in improving students' performance and refining the instructions to subsequent batches of students.

Keywords: algorithm, multiple-choice questions, Computer Applications, self-efficacy

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INTRODUCTION Computer Applications is a compulsory subject offered by all students offering the Normal (Technical) curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2016; Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, 2017). 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, 2016, p. 3). Algorithm is a task that students are required to complete in Paper Three as part of the examination and its’ weight of the overall mark is seven percent (Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, 2016, p. 5). This task requires students to understand the given description, identify the steps and appropriate symbols and draw the flowchart.

Students’ performance for the task has not been satisfactory since the syllabus for the subject was revamped and first examined in 2014. This were attributed to two main reasons. First, students had poor time management and did not allocate enough time to complete the task, which was the third and last for the paper. The other two tasks in the same paper demanded their attention and students became too engrossed when attempting to program a game, which was the second task. Second, students who did attempt the question were making wild guesses in their answers. This was observed through their non-consistent use of symbols for similar key phrases in the description.

Two prior studies were embarked to address this issue. In the first study, students were organised in groups of four to attempt different question. Working in groups enabled peer communication and built up their confidence in completing the task. However, the impact of the intervention though significant, did not benefit all the students. This was largely due to a number of students not putting in effort during group work and leaving it to their peers to lead their groups, adopting a passive role during the activity. Prior studies have found that non-active participants would not benefit from learning in this setting (Bentley & Warwick, 2013; Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching, 2017). Moreover, the focus of the subject is on individual skills in performing required tasks and there are few opportunities for students to work in groups. Prior studies have also found that time is needed for group norms to form.

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In the second study, a three-step approach in approaching algorithm tasks was the focus. Students’ individual proficiency in attempting the algorithm task was built through the generic process outlined as follow: 1. Identify the key actions / phrases.

2. Identify the flowchart symbol associated with each of the key action / phrase.

3. Draw the flowchart.

Through the exposure to a variety of text where students were required to complete the algorithm tasks, a list of key actions / phrases associated with each of the four flowchart symbols to be used was created. The study reported an improvement in the students’ performance initially during the two practical tests conducted after the intervention, a comparison between the MYE and EOY results for the task found that contrary to the expected increase, the mean marks for both classes decreased and they were still below the passing mark. However, the standard deviations for both classes decreased as well. This meant that students’ performance were more uniform.

This action research study was the third attempt to improve students’ task performance in algorithm. Most students were able to draw out the correct symbol to represent the start and the end of the algorithm. In addition, they were able to save the flowchart drawn as a word-processed document. A number of students were observed to be able to identify the key phrases in the description but they were not able to identify the correct flowchart symbol to represent each of the key phrases. Based on the analysis of past year examination papers, students would be able to pass the task if they are able to correctly identify each of the key phrases given. It was with this focus that this study was anchored on. How could the students’ foundation in this task be built so that they would be able to learn and pass the task during examinations?

During review of anecdotal evidence, students were guessing the symbols and there was no pattern of consistency across different tests or examinations. This inconsistency in students’ responses made it hard for teachers to correct them. It was determined that using technology, through the conduct of quiz, to automate this process of marking 20

students’ responses and providing targeted feedback beyond ‘Correct’ or ‘Incorrect’ as an intervention for this study. Students would review the lesson slides at least once, and they could view it again subsequently if necessary. They could seek clarification from the teacher who would be present in class. The other characteristic of the intervention was that students were required to attain at least 80 percent of the maximum mark. This level of performance was determined based on fact that it would meet the passing mark for the task and that it was a good gauge on the students’ proficiency. With repeated tests of the fundamentals in identifying flowchart symbols correctly, it would develop the students’ task mastery and build their self-efficacy. This would then build up their confidence and performance for the task.

LITERATURE REVIEW Timely feedback to students have been found to improve their performance. Through the use of targeted feedback in MCQ, students can be informed of their misunderstanding or misconceptions of a particular lesson or topic (Parkes & Zimmaro, 2016). The purpose of feedback is to reduce the distance between what students need to learn and what they have understood. Timely and targeted feedback have been found to improve students’ learning in prior studies (Corbet & Anderson, 2001; Hattie & Timperley, 2007).

Studies on educational interventions often report their results based on the significance and the effect size of a particular intervention. A significance test determines the existence of significance for an intervention and its direction, but is insufficient to inform others about its magnitude (Lane, 2000a, p. 639; Mellinger & Hanson, 2016, p. 97).

Effect sizes are often used to communicate the effectiveness of educational interventions. This has been an established view of many researchers and can be used for follow-up studies and to build knowledge in the respective domains (Coe, 2002; Lakens, 2013, p. 1; Lane, 2000a, p. 639). In addition, effect sizes enable the reporting of significance of an effect, without the emphasis of the sample size of a study; which also enables a meta-analysis to be implemented when more studies on the same topic

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are conducted (Coe, 2002; Wikipedia, 2017). Coe (2002) also asserts that effect size is a “true measure of the significance of the difference”.

Effect sizes are measured using different scales, with some suggesting that there is in excess of 50 (Wikipedia, 2017). The choice of measures depend on the type of data and the characteristics of the data. Some measures of effect sizes are more commonly used and it depends on the sample size, mean, variance or standard deviation of the sample (Coe, 2002; Wikipedia, 2017). Cohen's d is suggested as an appropriate effect size measure if two groups have similar standard deviations and are of similar size (Stangroom, 2017). Glass' Δ, is a suitable measure of effect size if the two groups have different standard deviation (Stangroom, 2017). In contrast, Hedges' g, is an appropriate measure when there are different sample sizes, and the effect size is weighted according to the relative size of each sample (Mellinger & Hanson, 2016, p. 97; Stangroom, 2017). Some have argued that when the number of participants is more than 20, the effect size measured by Cohen's d and Hedges' g is similar (Lakens, 2013; Lane, 2000a, p. 644; Mellinger & Hanson, 2016, p. 97).

METHODS The design of this study is based on the repeated measures design, also known as within-subjects design. Within-subjects design studies enable the tracking of the progress of participants over a period of time for a longitudinal study (Lane, 2000b, p.

240).

The data for this project was primarily from results of tests and examination conducted from January to August. There were a total of four tests conducted with the students.

The tests included: 

two MCQ tests as the intervention in this project,



one practical test focussing on algorithm (Practical 1),



one practical test similar to the actual examination format (Practical 2).

The examination results included the End-of-Year Examination (EOY) conducted in 2016; and the Mid-Year Examination (MYE) and Preliminary Examination (Prelim) in 22

2017. Students’ performance in the EOY functioned as the comparison base for this project.

The analysis of the results was analysed using paired sample t-tests as well as the effect size. In many studies, including educational, significant tests were asserted not sufficient in reporting interventions and effect sizes should be included (Durlak, 2009; Mellinger & Hanson, 2016, p. 97). Although Hedges' g was used to measure the effect sizes of the intervention, given its similarity to Cohen’s d when the sample size is more than 20, the magnitude of the effect would be compared with Cohen’s d. Cohen (1998) suggested that an effect size of 0.2 should be considered small; an effect size of 0.5 should be considered medium; and an effect size of more than 0.8 should be considered large (as cited in Mellinger & Hanson, 2016, p. 97).

The timeline for the implementation of the project is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Implementation timeline Activity January 2017

Identification of problem and solution Preparation of MCQ with targeted feedback

Last week of January 2017

Conduct of online lesson and MCQ test (Intervention 1)

First week of March 2017

Conduct of practical test on Algorithm (Practical 1)

Last week of March 2017

Conduct of MCQ test (Intervention 2) Conduct of practical test (full Paper 3) (Practical 2)

April 2017

Analysis of intervention

May 2017

Mid-Year Examination

August 2017

Preliminary Examination

September 2017

Analysis of intervention (Follow-up) Report writing

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Contrary to recommendations for experimental and control groups to be used for research to improve its rigour, this project did not adopt this practice for a few reasons.

Firstly, although the teacher taught both classes, the teacher felt strongly about the potential benefits of the proposed intervention and did not want to disadvantage any group of students. This contradiction is not unique and has been reported in prior studies (Konza, 2012, p. 83). Secondly, the students were in their graduating year and taking the national examination. There would be limited time for them to close the gap and improve their performance closer to a desired level.

Various methods are used to determine the effect size of an intervention. Hedges' g was determined to be an appropriate measure for the effect size in this study because of two reasons. Firstly, the sample size at each point of data collection was different. On occasions, the sample size was far below 20, a base number that researchers made reference to. Secondly, their respective standard deviation was not similar. This was recommended in prior studies (Stangroom, 2017).

Participants A total of 55 students from Secondary Four were identified for this study as they had undergone the earlier projects in 2015 and 2016. There was progress in their performance from participation in the two projects, but it was still below the passing mark for the task. There were 27 students were in the first class while the remaining were in the second class. In the prior study, there were no significant difference between the students’ performance from both classes. The distribution of the students is depicted in Table 2.

Table 2. Distribution of students Gender

Class 1

Class 2

Male

11

13

Female

16

15

16 to 18 years

16 to 18 years

Age RESULTS

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Two sets of results are reported based on the data collected during the implementation of the study. The effect sizes of the interventions are reported first, followed by the significance tests.

Effect Sizes Practical 1 was conducted in the last week of January. The mean and standard deviation for the task during the EOY in 2016 and the first practical test focussing on algorithm is presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Means, Standard Deviations and Number of students EOY

Practical 1

Class 1

Class 2

Class 1

Class 2

Mean

5.70

4.65

11.80

9.91

Standard Deviation

2.62

2.25

2.09

1.84

Number of students

20

25

10

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The effect size of the first intervention (g = 2.48) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a large effect (d = 0.80) for the first class and (g = 2.55) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a large effect (d = 0.80) for the second class.

Practical 2 was conducted in the last week of March. The mean and standard deviation for the task during the EOY in 2016 and the second practical test, which was similar to the full paper students have to attempt during an examination, is presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Means, Standard Deviations and Number of students EOY

Practical 2

Class 1

Class 2

Class 1

Class 2

Mean

5.70

4.65

7.55

9.90

Standard Deviation

2.62

2.25

4.78

2.56

Number of students

20

25

21

25

25

The effect size of the second intervention (g = 0.48) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a small effect (d = 0.20) for the first class and (g = 2.19) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a large effect (d = 0.80) for the second class.

MYE was conducted in May. The mean and standard deviation for the task during the EOY in 2016 and the MYE is presented in Table 5.

Table 5. Means, Standard Deviations and Number of students EOY

MYE

Class 1

Class 2

Class 1

Class 2

Mean

5.70

4.65

7.60

6.50

Standard Deviation

2.62

2.25

3.37

3.17

Number of students

20

25

19

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The effect size after the two interventions (g = 0.63) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a medium effect (d = 0.50) for the first class and (g = 0.67) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a medium effect (d = 0.50) for the second class.

Prelim was conducted in August. The mean and standard deviation for the task during the EOY in 2016 and the Prelim is presented in Table 6.

Table 6. Means, Standard Deviations and Number of students EOY

Prelim

Class 1

Class 2

Class 1

Class 2

Mean

5.70

4.65

7.70

7.25

Standard Deviation

2.62

2.25

2.81

3.11

Number of students

20

25

20

24

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The effect size after the two interventions (g = 0.74) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a medium effect (d = 0.50) for the first class and (g = 0.86) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a large effect (d = 0.80) for the second class.

The mean and standard deviation for the task during the MYE and the Prelim is presented in Table 7.

Table 7. Means, Standard Deviations and Number of students MYE

Prelim

Class 1

Class 2

Class 1

Class 2

Mean

7.60

6.50

7.70

7.25

Standard Deviation

3.37

3.17

2.81

3.11

Number of students

19

26

20

24

Without further intervention (g = 0.03) was found to be below Cohen’s (1998) convention for a small effect (d = 0.20) for the first class and (g = 0.24) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a small effect (d = 0.20) for the second class.

Significance tests Class 1 A paired-samples t-test with 20 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Practical 1 for class 1. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.65, SD=3.23) and Practical 1 (M=7.92, SD=4.78) conditions; t(33) = 2.54, p = 0.016. These results suggest that the intervention had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

A paired-samples t-test with 15 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Practical 2 for class 1. There was a non-significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=5.80, SD=2.93) and Practical 2 (M=7.87, SD=5.99) 27

conditions; t(35) = 1.20, p = 0.245. These results suggest that the intervention did not have an effect on the students’ task performance.

A paired-samples t-test with 19 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the MYE for class 1. There was a non-significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=5.53, SD=2.93) and MYE (M=7.58, SD=3.37) conditions; t(35) = 2.00, p = 0.053. These results suggest that the two interventions did not have an effect on the students’ task performance.

A paired-samples t-test with 20 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Prelim for class 1. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=5.40, SD=2.91) and Prelim (M=7.65, SD=2.81) conditions; t(38) = 2.49, p = 0.017. These results suggest that the two interventions had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

Class 2 A paired-samples t-test with 20 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Practical 1 for class 2. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.20, SD=2.48) and Practical 1 (M=9.94, SD=2.85) conditions; t(37) = 6.79, p = 0.000. These results suggest that the intervention had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

A paired-samples t-test with 22 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Practical 2 for class 2. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.04, SD=2.42) and Practical 2 (M=10.0, SD=1.86) conditions; t(39) = 9.21, p = 0.000. These results suggest that the intervention had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

A paired-samples t-test with 26 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the MYE for class 2. There was a significant difference 28

in the scores for EOY (M=4.00, SD=2.71) and MYE (M=6.50, SD=3.17) conditions; t(49) = 3.06, p = 0.004. These results suggest that the two interventions had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

A paired-samples t-test with 24 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Prelim for class 2. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.00, SD=2.83) and Prelim (M=7.25, SD=3.11) conditions; t(46) = 3.79, p = 0.000. These results suggest that the two interventions had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

Combined as a level A paired-samples t-test with 40 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Practical 1 for the level. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.43, SD=2.85) and Practical 1 (M=8.93, SD=4.01) conditions; t(37) = 5.78, p = 0.000. These results suggest that the intervention had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

A paired-samples t-test with 37 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Practical 2 for the level. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.76, SD=2.74) and Practical (M=9.16, SD=4.15) conditions; t(62) = 5.39, p = 0.000. These results suggest that the intervention had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

A paired-samples t-test with 47 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the MYE for the level. There was a significant difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.49, SD=2.91) and MYE (M=7.00, SD=3.22) conditions; t(91) = 3.96, p = 0.000. These results suggest that the two interventions had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

A paired-samples t-test with 44 observations each was conducted to compare the marks attained in the EOY and the Prelim for the level. There was a significant 29

difference in the scores for EOY (M=4.64, SD=2.92) and Prelim (M=7.43, SD=2.95) conditions; t(86) = 4.47, p = 0.000. These results suggest that the two interventions had an effect on the students’ task performance and improved their marks.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Students’ performance over the course of the study had not been uniform. In Class 1, less than half the students from the class underwent the first intervention, resulting in an unusually high mean mark of 11.8 for Practical 1. The mean mark decreased to 7.55 for Practical 2, when a more proportionate number of students underwent the second intervention. Without further intervention, the mean mark for Class 1 decreased to 7.60 and 7.70 for MYE and Prelim respectively. This suggests that use of MCQ with targeted feedback was useful to develop mastery. This, in turn, improved students’ task performance in algorithm. Given the large difference in the number of students who underwent only one intervention, it cannot be concluded that an additional session of the intervention would have an impact on their performance.

In Class 2, where the number of students who underwent the interventions and the various assessment was more consistent, the mean mark was 9.91 for Practical 1 and 9.90 for Practical 2. Similar to Class 1, without further intervention, the mean mark for Class 2 decreased to 6.50 for MYE but eventually improved to 7.25 for Prelim. Likewise, the results suggest that the use of MCQ with targeted feedback as an intervention was useful in developing students’ topic mastery, which in turn improved their task performance.

As a cohort, the students from both classes had significant differences in their task performance at the four points of assessment, Practical 1, Practical 2, MYE and Prelim compared with their EOY in 2016. The mean mark decreased for MYE and Prelim when there were no further interventions. It is possible that their task performance could be sustained with regular interventions, especially just before an assessment. When the significance of the interventions paired sample t-tests were compared between the two classes, Class 1’s p-value naturally fluctuated due to the inconsistent attendance during 30

the interventions while Class 2’s was similar to that for the cohort. Ideally, if students are self-motivated, they would want to undergo the interventions at their convenience if they were absent from the sessions conducted during curriculum time.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS The purpose of this study was to explore how students’ task performance in algorithm can be improved. In particular, prior projects which attempted to improve the performance of the same participants using other interventions were limited in attaining this. This study has found that use of MCQ with targeted feedback to develop topic mastery has been useful in improving students’ task performance in algorithm. This was supported by various data collected in this study.

Firstly, the mean marks for each of the class has increased over the course of this study. This met the primary objective of conducting this study. Second, when compared to the mean marks after the second intervention, the mean marks attained at MYE and Prelim were lower for both classes. This was not surprising as there were no further interventions due to time constraint. Interestingly, the mean mark for Class 2 improved from MYE to Prelim, even though there were no interventions implemented. Could it be that other factors, such as intrinsic motivation to improve, were at play? Lastly, the standard deviations across the four assessment fluctuated for both classes. This seems to suggest that the interventions may not have impacted all students consistently. What other ways could be done to help the students learn and improve? Should they be taking greater ownership of their learning? These questions cannot be answered based on the data obtained from this study and would most likely to include some form of student feedback, especially qualitative or through a perception survey.

LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This study has found that the use of MCQ with targeted feedback had built task mastery in students during the interventions; and improved their task performance in algorithm.

With lessons learnt from this study and the two prior studies in attempting to improve students’ task performance in algorithm, the sequence of activities and instructions 31

need to be rearranged and incorporated into the scheme of work across levels for the following year.

The data collected in this study consisted of students’ marks attained during various assessment. The quantitative data collected indicated that the interventions were significant and effect sizes varied over the course of the study. The changing standard deviations over the assessment puzzled the teachers and they wanted to found out how students’ performance could be more uniform. To yield richer data, especially from those students who have not fully benefitted from the interventions, studies could include the use of qualitative data to supplement the data collected as a mixed-method approach. Some prior studies have suggested this approach either to triangulate data or to provide a richer interpretation of the findings (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2011, p. 286).

Lastly, this study found that the current intervention improved students’ task performance in algorithm. It cannot be determined whether the intervention from the two prior studies had influenced students’ eventual performance. It is recommended that a longitudinal study monitoring the students’ progress over two years be initiated to determine whether any of the interventions adopted in the earlier studies should be removed if they do not result in significant changes or effect sizes to the students’ task performance. In addition, the intervention used in this study could be implemented at scheduled times to determine whether it maintains students’ performance. Ultimately, curriculum time is limited and should be maximised.

POTENTIAL FUTURE WORK A new study is scheduled for future implementation based on the adoption of the three different approaches in a holistic manner with the current Secondary Two students.

First, the students’ topic mastery would be developed using the MCQ with targeted feedback as implemented in this study. Second, the students would be introduced to the 3-step approach in drawing algorithm. Concurrently, they would be arranged in groups

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to enable peer conversation and teaching. Finally, they would attempt the task individually on the computer.

A longitudinal study of the students would also be implemented to track their progress over the years till they are in Secondary Four. Regular interventions can be scheduled to determine if they help to maintain students’ performance or to further improve it.

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.

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References Bentley, Y., & Warwick, S. (2013). An Investigation into Students' Perceptions of Group Assignments. Journal of Pedagogic Development, 3(3), 11 - 19.

Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching. (2017). Group Work in the Classroom.

Retrieved September 4, 2017, from https://cirt.gcu.edu/teaching3/tips/groupwork Coe, R. (2002). It's the Effect Size, Stupid: What Effect Size Is and Why It Is Important.

Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association. https://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00002182.htm Corbet, A. T., & Anderson, J. R. (2001). Locus of Feedback Control in Computer-Based Tutoring: Impact on Learning Rate, Achievement and Attitudes. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems.

Durlak, J. A. (2009). How to Select, Calculate, and Interpret Effect Sizes. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 34(9), 917 - 928. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsp004 Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81 - 112. doi: 10.3102/003465430298487 Johnson, R. B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14 - 26.

Konza, D. (2012). Researching in Schools: Ethical Issues. The International Journal of the Humanities, 9(6), 77 - 86.

Lakens, D. (2013). Calculating and Reporting Effect Sizes to Facilitate Cumulative Science: A Practical Primer for t-tests and ANOVAs. 4(863), 1 - 12. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00863 Lane, D. M. (2000a). Effect Size Introduction to Statistics (pp. 639 - 656): Rice University.

Lane, D. M. (2000b). Experimental Designs Introduction to Statistics (pp. 222 - 247): Rice University.

Mellinger, C. D., & Hanson, T. A. (2016). Comparing Two Groups Quantitative Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies (pp. 87 - 109): Taylor & Francis.

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Ministry of Education. (2016, February 10). Normal Course Curriculum. Retrieved September 3, 2017, from https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/secondary/normalcourse-curriculum Parkes, J., & Zimmaro, D. (2016). Learning and Assessing with Multiple-Choice Questions in College Classrooms: Routledge.

Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board. (2016). 7018 Computer Applications GCE Normal (Technical) Level Syllabus (2018). Singapore: Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board Retrieved from http://www.seab.gov.sg/content/syllabus/nlevel/2018Syllabus/7018_2018.pdf.

Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board. (2017, July 26). Syllabuses.

Retrieved September 4, 2017, from http://www.seab.gov.sg/pages/nationalExaminations/GNTL/School_Candidates/2 018_GCE_NT_ES_School.asp Stangroom, J. (2017). Effect Size Calculator for T-Test. Retrieved September 1, 2017, from http://www.socscistatistics.com/effectsize/Default3.aspx Teddlie, C., & Tashakkori, A. (2011). Mixed Methods Research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 285 - 300): SAGE. Wikipedia. (2017, July 20). Effect Size. Retrieved September 6, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_size

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A 0003

Chemistry MTV [Making Thinking Visible]

Celine Goh Sakinah Ahmad Sumi

Abstract: Visible Thinking makes extensive use of learning routines that are thinking rich.

These routines are simple structures that can be integrated and used in a variety of contexts. The Chemistry PLT team adopted this flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students’ thinking with content learning in the topic of chemical bonding. This project examined the results of promoting Secondary 3 Express Science (Chemistry) students’ engagement and fostering their understanding in addition to their inquiry skills through the application of thinking routines in the topic of formation of ions and ionic bonding.

Introduction: Learning is a consequence of thinking. Understanding of knowledge content is enhanced greatly when students think through and work mentally with the concepts and information they are studying. Visible Thinking is a broad and flexible framework for enriching classroom learning in the content areas and fostering students' intellectual development at the same time. Visible thinking refer to the use of practices that help make thinking visible. These thinking routines guide students’ thought processes and encourage active processing. Leveraging on the use of routines and structures on a regular basis allow students to grow into their thinking. These routines will then become a part of the fabric of the classroom. In the long term, these routines become the ways in which students go about the process of learning. In this project, the use of thinking routines made thinking visible as students observe, think, write and reflect on the key ideas associated with the topic of chemical bonding.

Literature Review: The complex and abstract nature of Chemistry makes learning and teaching of the subject difficult for students and teachers (Johnstone, 1993). The 36

formation of most of chemical concepts and explanations of chemical phenomena rely on understanding microscopic world that is connected with the phenomenological world, both of which are communicated through the use of symbols. In this respect, the utilization of thinking routines in the teaching of Chemistry is necessary to promote students’ visualization capacities and understanding of the representations. Visible thinking is a flexible framework for enhancing and enriching classroom learning. It includes a number of ways to make students’ thinking visible to themselves, to their peers, and to their teachers so that they get more engaged and involved in the activities implemented in classrooms. Research asserts that thinking routine is designed to foster abilities, attitudes, and alertness (Ritchhart et al., 2011). Fostering increased learning abilities, improved attitudes towards learning, and alertness is termed a dispositional view of thinking.

Researchers assert that visible thinking can develop learners’ abilities and motivate them to learn (Ritchhart et al., 2011). Tishman and Palmer (2006) assert that visible thinking has a twofold goal: to cultivate students’ thinking skills through engagement and enhancing participation, and to deepen content learning and enhance students’ understanding.

Research Question: The project addressed the following question: What is the impact of thinking routines on promoting students’ engagement and fostering their understanding?

Methods: Our PLT focused on cultivating students’ thinking skills and deepening their content learning in the topic of chemical bonding (formation of ions and ionic bonding) through the use of three thinking routines with different purposes. The ‘See-Think-Wonder’ routine encouraged students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations while the ‘What Makes You Say That?’ routine helped them to describe what they see/ know and getting them to build explanations and the ‘I Used To Think …, But Now I Think …’ routine worked on getting the students to reflect on their thinking about the topic and explore how and why that thinking had changed.

Subjects/ Design groups: Two Secondary 3 Express Science (Chemistry) classes, with a total of 52 students Design: Pre- and post-tests were conducted in this Action Research project and simple statistical calculations were performed to assess the effectiveness of this project.

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Procedure: With prior knowledge on the structure of atoms, students attempted a pretest. The concept of ions formation was then introduced to the students through selected images of positive and negative ions using the ‘See-Think-Wonder’ routine. This routine was scaffold with the use of tables and breakdown of question parts to encourage students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations as they went through the stages of answering what they saw in those images, what they were thinking about as well as wonderings they had about those images. Students were then introduced to the concept of ionic bonding through the ‘What Makes You Say That?’ routine. Questions were also scaffold to help students describe what went on in ionic bonding and think further about the concept of electrons transfer in the process of bond formation. At the end of the topic, students were given the opportunity to reflect on their initial ideas and compare how their ideas have changed in the ‘I Used To Think …, But Now I Think …’ routine. Students attempted a post-test on formation of ions and ionic bonding to assess their understanding of this topic.

Results: Students were observed to be more interested and committed in learning this topic. Through selected student interviews, they were more engaged and found more meaning in learning about the microscopic world of atoms and formation of ions in ionic bonding. The use of thinking routines made thinking visible as students were more skilful in observing, thinking, writing and reflecting on the key ideas associated with the topic of chemical bonding.

Data/ Results Analysis and Discussion: Table

Pre-test results No of students attempted: 48

Post-test results No of students attempted: 48

No of students passed: 38

No of students passed: 43

% passes: 79.2

% passes: 89.6

1:

Table 2: Breakdown of pre- and post-test results by grades: % Distinctions (A1 – A2)

% Credits (B3 – B4)

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% Credits (C5 – C6)

% Failures (D7 – F9)

Pre-test results Post-test results

16.7 [8 students] 58.4 [28 students]

20.8 [10 students] 20.8 [10 students]

41.7 [20 students] 10.4 [5 students]

20.8 [10 students] 10.4 [5 students]

The analysis of the positive results showed that thinking routines are useful for teachers to help students use their intellectual abilities in different situations. Teachers need to advance their students’ understanding by providing them with thinking routines that make their thinking visible to their teachers and their peers as well as to encourage them to actively engage in learning and thinking beyond.

Findings and Conclusions: When thinking is visible in classrooms, students can be more metacognitive to think about their thinking as well as exploring ideas. Teachers benefit when they can see students' thinking as alternative conceptions, prior knowledge, reasoning ability and degrees of understanding are uncovered. Teachers can address these challenges and extend students' thinking further.

Limitations and Recommendations: The initial implementation of visible thinking routines was a challenge for both the students and the teachers. For the students, the challenges were their limited language abilities to express themselves. For the teachers, the challenges were unfamiliarity in implementing such routines. Teachers also found it difficult to decide which thinking routine was appropriate for achieving the learning intentions sometimes. However, teachers asserted that positive changes occurred in students’ learning and interaction. Students were more engaged to explore, connect ideas, and delve deeper for better understanding of topics discussed. Classroom activities became more enjoyable and more learners centred. In the light of the project results, teachers were recommended to use thinking routines to promote students’ engagement and foster their understanding.

Potential Future Work: Thinking skills are essential for dealing with the demand of the future which will be more complex and more competitive. The project highlights the importance of making students’ thinking visible through the implementation of thinking routines that facilitate students’ inquiry and enhance deeper conceptual understanding.

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When teachers and parents understand the importance and the value of thinking, students will also realize that they should always delve beneath the surface by questioning, reading and seeking information to be better life long independent learners.

With these thinking tools, students are given the opportunity to connect what they learn with their environment and with their lives.

References: 1. Johnstone, A. H., (1993). The development of chemistry teaching: A changing response to a changing demand. Journal of Chemical Education, 70(9), p. 701705.

2. Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to foster engagement, uncover understanding, and independence for all learners.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Ritchhart, R., P 3. Tishman, S., & Palmer, P. (2006). Artful thinking: Strong thinking and learning through the power of art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Education

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A 0004

Encourage Active Learning through the use of Questioning and Plickers

Chan Eunice Grace, Lee Mun Sum Jane, Lee Wen Lin Science Department

Introduction Active learning is a process where students are engaged in various activities where the lesson becomes learner-centered instead of teacher-centered.

In this PLT, we would be exploring questioning techniques to allow more interactions between teacher-student, student-student and student-content. Through feedback from the students, we can then assess the effectiveness of the techniques used.

A trigger activity would be introduced in the lesson to facilitate discussion among students about the differences between asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction. Through the discussion, prior knowledge and misconceptions can be sieved out. The important keywords would also be highlighted and explained to set the foundations for the students.

At the same time, Plickers would be used to assess students’ understanding. Students would also be asked to explain the rationale of choosing their answer, which provides the teacher feedback on students’ thinking and understanding. This is similar to a two-tiered Multiple Choice Question response.

A reflection component would also be included at the next lesson to gather students’ feedback on the lesson. This would give the team a better understanding of the effectiveness of the strategies used.

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Methods The project was conducted with a group of Secondary 4 Express class of 16 students who took Combined Science (Biology).

Subject: Combined Science (Biology) Research Lesson – Level: Secondary 4 Express School: Northbrooks Secondary School Date: Learning Team Facilitator: Eunice Chan Lesson Study Team: Lee Mun Sum Jane, Lee Wen Lin 1. Theme of the Lesson Study: Engaging students with the use of inquiry-based learning

2. Title of the Lesson: Use of authentic learning to allow students appreciate Science in their daily lives.

3. Lesson Study Goals:

a. Students to take greater responsibility in their own learning through asking higher level type of questions. b. Students to appreciate the relevance of what they have learnt in lower secondary and value-adding to their learning. c. Students are engaged and actively use Science and its processes to solve problems.

4. Curriculum Framework of Science Department Constructing New Scientific Knowledge

Learning Objectives of Lesson:

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  

Make dialogic teaching as a basis of conducting lesson to encourage generation of higher-order thinking questions.

Use of ICT (Plickers) for engagement and assessment of students’ learning.

Unpacking of terms relevant in the topic of Reproduction.

5. Unit Map (similar to our SOW)

About This Lesson

Students’ prior knowledge and conception on the topic were surfaced using a trigger activity that also served to facilitate discussion. To help students internalize the concepts, key concepts and words were consciously and constantly emphasised so that by the end of the lesson, they were able to echo the answers in a chorus.

Students were mainly guided along the activity with scaffold / framework of questions to minimize students deviating too far from the activity. Higher order thinking were frequently encouraged through requiring students to justify their rationale for their choice of answers while teacher constantly provide them with feedback on their thinking and understanding.

Towards the end of the lesson, students’ learning and understanding on the topic were assessed using Plickers to generate and stimulate excitement in their own learning.

Why did you choose the main activities?

Pedagogy

Inquiry-based learning, Problem-solving

Experience of Learning

Scaffolding the structure to help students

Tone of Environment

Students were engaged in the solving a `real-life’ scenario problem with knowledge they have learnt in the lesson.

Assessment

Worksheet contains questions which need students to give answers based on the scenario. Post-Activity Reflection log summaries essential ideas that students take-away from the activity.

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Learning Content

Students were able to appreciate the infusion of Science to solve everyday problems. They were able to work out the use of the appropriate apparatus to be used for the various measurements to be made.

Studentcentredness

Students realized mistakes made and used corrective actions to rectify the problem.

Source: J. Stepanek, G. Appel, M. Leong, M.T. Mangan, M. Mitchell. Leading Lesson Study: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Facilitators.

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The lesson plan

Time (mins) (5)

Teaching/Learning Activities

Resource

 To create a conducive classroom environment for teaching and learning.

Creating conducive classroom environment Teacher enforce system and routines on class cleanliness, readiness of lesson materials, readiness of students’ themselves for the lesson.

 To inform students of what they are going to learn.

Introduction (Engage and Explain) Teacher describes the lesson objectives.

(10) Teacher shows two photos to distil students’ understanding of asexual and sexual reproduction based on differences in number of parent and the characteristics between parent and offspring.

Rationale

worksheet

 To engage/trigger students on the concept through the use of interesting diagrams.  Active Learning/Ownership of Learning Students are given opportunity to derive answers rather than receive them directly from teachers.  Strategic questioning – Students are kept on tasks, their higher order thinking skills are stimulated and their understanding are being assessed.

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2. Development (Explore, Extend, Explain)

(20)

(20)

Teacher unpacks the terms in the definition of sexual and asexual reproduction. Student fills up the blanks in the worksheet.

worksheet

Plickers

Teacher assesses students’ learning by through Plickers where students answer MCQs and are asked to explain their choices

 To scaffold students’ learning through questioning.  To assess understanding of all students where misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge can be identified and corrected.  To get students to articulate their understanding of subject content to reinforce learning.

What is Plickers:

-

Each card has a unique number which is assigned to individual students.

Each side represents an answer choice.

Teacher scans students’ cards using a mobile device to collect - students’ responses.

Points to be highlighted to students to ensure accurate collection of responses.

-

 To introduce subject literacy as students need to know what key phrases/ words / sentence structure to use in order to answer questions correctly.

Any portion of the image on the card should not be covered.

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-

-

The card should not be bent.

The card should be held up, unblocked and turned towards the direction of the teacher.

The card should not be put down until students see from the screen that their responses have been captured.

3. Lesson Closure

(10)



Teacher gets class to answer an application question in their worksheet and calls upon students to give their answers.

worksheet

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 To recap lesson objectives in order to reinforce learning.  To assess students’ understanding of lesson and correct misconceptions if necessary

Results

Students were generally engaged and were on task. They generated questions which were relevant to the content and clarified their queries. Instant feedbacks were also given when the misconceptions surfaced during the Plicker activity. Students were able to score for majority of the question in the Plicker activity (Annex D).

Students were also able to articulate the differences between asexual and sexual reproduction, stating clearly the key words and phrases. In addition, students were given the opportunity to apply their knowledge through a past year O level question. Plickers also allowed the teacher to assess the students’ learning and provide immediate feedback.

Through students’ reflection (Annex A), it can be seen that they enjoyed the lesson and were able to understand the content.

Analysis and Discussion

Instructional decisions that might have contributed to helping the students meet the goals were as follows:

1. Trigger activity – Use of diagram to facilitate the discussion where students were required to state the differences between sexual and asexual reproduction 2. Plicker – Assess understanding of students 3. Use of higher order thinking structured question – Applying their knowledge into a context

Limitation and Recommendations According to the students’ reflection (Annex A), there were insufficient application questions. Higher order thinking questions can be incorporated into the future lessons.

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Also, there was insufficient time for deeper discussion of the concept taught. The discussion can be developed into a few lessons instead of merely one.

Conclusion The use of trigger activity, Plickers and reflection component allowed students to take more ownership in their learning, and at the same time, increase engagement level of students in the lesson. For the next PLT, a series of lessons which aligns with active learning process can be implemented. These activities and strategies will then be incorporated into 2018 SOW.

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Annex A Students’ Reflection Student 1:

Student 2:

Student 3:

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Student 4:

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Annex B Powerpoint Slides

52

53

54

55

56

Annex C Students’ Worksheet

57

58

59

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Annex D Plicker Questions and Options

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62

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A 0005

The use of a revision tool based on Bloom’s Taxonomy to build exam confidence in FCE/F&N theory paper.

Authors Mrs Eugenia Guo, Ms Linda Marie, Mdm Siti Liana

Contributors Ms Lau Shu Wei Mr Timothy Ting

Abstract This PLT project aims to introduce FN Blooms Revision Tool to all Upper Secondary F&N (Food & Nutrition), FS (Food Studies) classes in Semester 1 and all Lower Secondary FCE (Food & Consumer Education) classes in Semester 2. The students will use the FN Blooms Revision Tool to help them manage their theory paper better.

The Blooms Revision Tool is designed and adapted from Nutrition and Food Science, Sciences Branch, CPDD (Curriculum Planning & Development Division) practice of using the revised Bloom's Taxonomy to classify theory questions based on K (knowledge), C (Comprehension), A (Application)-Bloom's KCA Flowers (appendix a-c).

The concept of the revision tool is to allow students to craft topical theory questions based on KCA to help them learn better. In Semester One, the project team conceptualized a hard copy Bloom’s Revision Tool (appendix d) for students’ usage.

However by Semester Two, to better suit the technology-savvy students, an ICTcompatible platform was conceptualized using digital tool TodaysMeet as a revision tool hinged on the original objective of Bloom’s Revision Tool. TodaysMeet replaces the hardcopy worksheet as a form of an easy backchannel tool which allows students to interact safely in real-time subject chatroom managed by the teacher. By 64

introducing such revision tools, they will be familiar with the different types of questions by section in the theory paper. The familiarity will in time build exam confidence. By creating their own questions about the topic, it will make their thinking visible, create interest and challenge them to answer their own questions. To test for the effectiveness of the tool, we will use pre-and post- project implementation theory examination scores when applicable and also student participant's perceptions regarding the use of the tool for the revision.

Introduction

Currently for both the FCE and F&N curriculum, the theory examination paper constitutes 40% and the coursework project constitutes the remaining 60% of the semestral assessment grade. Generally, our students tend to perform better with a mean score of 69.95% (Lower Secondary 2016-2017) and 99.10% (Upper Secondary 2016-2017 respectively) for their coursework project component. Table 1 below shows the mean percentages of student-class performances in terms of full coursework project component in 2016 and 2017.

Table 1. Comparison on Student-Class Coursework to Theory performance Time

Level/Class/Stream

Period

% of student performance better in coursework

Sem 2

Secondary 2 FCE/all

2016

streams

Sem 2

Secondary 2 FCE/all

2017

streams

Sem 2

Secondary 3 FS/ NT

2016

65

64.81%

69.10%

100%

Sem 2

Secondary 3 FS/ NT

100%

Secondary 3 F&N/NA

96%

Secondary 3 F&N/NA

100%

Secondary 3 F&N/EXP

63.1%

Secondary 3 F&N/EXP

88%

2017 Sem 2 2016 Sem 2 2017 Sem 2 2016 Sem 2 2017

From Table 1, as we study the past examination result trends, the team identified the need to improve exam confidence in theory paper is as a pertinent need as the entire FCE/FS/F&N cohort is weaker in theory performance .

Basically, the FCE and F&N curriculum structure is made up of core areas of study and one coursework project. The core areas of study are mainly theoretical topics while the coursework allow students to build upon the knowledge from the core areas of study and extend their learning in related topics through a project which allows for application of thinking skills in developing the task, such as analysis, research, decision-making and evaluation. From understanding our student profile, our students perform better in project work due to the nature of projects which seems to appeal to students’ interest and passion.

According to Food & Consumer Education Teaching and Learning Guide, teachers are advised to scope questions with the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind and graduated in difficulty to allow students to show the extent of understanding of the content and skills. Table 2 below shows the different categories of cognitive processes that determine the levels of learning.

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Table 2: Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing Categories Remember

Cognitive Processes Recalling or retrieving relevant knowledge

Understand Derive meaning from the information Apply

Carrying out or using learnt information to a given context

Evaluate

Critiquing and forming judgements based on criteria

Analyse

Breaking information into parts and linking them to each other to form an overall picture or focus

Create

Putting elements together to form a new and coherent structure

The team realised that subject unit does not have a proper or methodical structure to which we do revision with our students for theory. Most often, teachers will assign revision papers as a means of ‘Drill & Practice’ for their classes. Though no research studies has been conducted in the subject unit regarding the efficiency of the ‘Drill & Practice’, this PLT aims to find out how a methodical structure of using a revision tool designed with the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind can help student’s manage the theory knowledge.

The revision strategy is crafted loosely on the learning strategy of “Elaborative interrogation” which is a learning strategy based on the principle of activation of prior knowledge. Once questions are generated, students have to answer the questions by sifting through their previous learning, to see if they can establish a connection between the new and old information (Seifert, 1994, p. 360). This revision tool is a simple strategy to enhance memory for facts. The strategy involves reading a fact tobe-remembered, asking questions and then trying to generate an answer. Its primary use seems to be enhancing memory for important facts that need to be remembered, such as facts (based on FCE/F&N/FS concepts) about food, nutrition, sources, health etc. To use elaborative interrogation to remember this fact, the student would then ask questions about the facts and then try to answer the question. Simply put, the

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explanation for the effectiveness of the strategy has been prior knowledge activation.

To use this strategy, students must generate an elaboration which clarifies the relationship between the subject of the sentence, and the predicate. That clarifying relationship is drawn from memory and is used to strengthen the relationship between the subjects and predicate.

To provide further scaffolding on how questions should be created, the students will be taught to craft questions of varying KCA concepts for each theory topic they have been tasked to work on. The structure of using KCA concepts allows for framing of the knowledge to be applied towards the revision technique.

Hence it is expected that students will see improvements in their the theory examination scores or have a higher perceived confidence in terms of examination readiness than in the previous cohorts of students whom were not introduced to this method of revision.

Method

Subjects (Sample Profile and Size) The Project group in this study was 63 Secondary Three students taking FS and F&N in 2017, and 194 Secondary Two students (two classes of Express stream, two classes of Normal (Academic), one class of Normal (Technical)) taking FCE in the Semester Two of 2017. For the Secondary Two students, they were from intact classes without randomization. All pupils fall within similar ability level based on their PSLE T-score when they first entered the school from beginning of the year. The Comparison group of students in this study was similar in profile (i.e. Secondary Three students taking FS and F&N, and Secondary Two students (two classes of Express stream, two classes of Normal (Academic), one class of Normal (Technical)) in 2016.

Table 3 below shows the sample sizes.

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Table 3. Sample Size of Groups Sample Size (Secondary

Group Type

Sample Size (Secondary Two)

Project (2017)

194

44

197

63

Comparison (2016)

Three)

Design and Measure

Quantitative measurement is based on the theory exam scores while the qualitative measurement is based on the perception survey conducted after the implementation of the project. The aim of the survey is to evaluate the students’ perception on their level of confidence, preparedness of sitting for theory examinations and the usefulness of such a revision tool during examination preparation.

It is expected that the practical test scores in project (2017) group will be higher than those without control (2016) group the implementation of the revision sessions using the tool.

Pre-Project (Test) 1. Teacher to provide revision strategies like “Drill & practice” with revision papers of past year theory papers, examination papers from other schools.

2. Teacher to implement checking knowledge through marking and returning revision papers and checking for understanding of revision knowledge through one-to-one questioning.

3. Test scores obtained from theory examination paper assessment.

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Post-Project Test (Bloom’s Revision Tool) 1. Teacher to introduce Bloom’s Revision Tool using KCA concepts in framing questions from theory topics given.

2. Teacher to implement theory revision sessions with hard copy Bloom’s Revision Tool (appendix d) or via ICT digital tool TodaysMeet.

3. Teachers will be facilitating revision sessions and observing (direct naturalistic observation) to check for understanding and test level of competency.

4. Test scores obtained from theory examination paper assessment.

Procedure FCE/FS/FN lessons are conducted once a week, Bloom’s Revision session should be conducted on weekly basis (up to two sessions in total) comprising of three periods of thirty-five minute theory session designated for revision and preparation for theory examinations.

Session One 1. Revision session briefing and objective sharing on the use of the revision tool (Hardcopy worksheet or ICT digital tool).

2. Familiarisation activity is planned to provide scaffolding opportunities to students by providing good examples of questions (topical) based on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (i.e. Knowledge-based, Comprehensionbased, Application-based questions).

3. Conduct revision session- crafting revision questions with reference to the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (i.e. Knowledge-based, Comprehensionbased, Application-based questions).

4. For hardcopy worksheet session: students were required to craft 12 questions for each question-type based on different theory topics identified by teacher and pen the questions on the worksheet (appendix d).

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5. For hardcopy worksheet session: students to provide answers for each question crafted based on different theory topics identified by teacher and pen the questions on the worksheet (appendix d).

6. For ICT-enhanced session: students were required to craft 5 questions for each question-type based on different theory topics identified by teacher and pen the questions in the designated chatroom for the session.

7. For ICT-enhanced session: students were required to answer the 5 questions posted immediately to allow for real time discussion and monitoring.

8. Session closure (summarising the importance of the revised Bloom’ question types which would help them in their revision by recalling facts and concepts) and debrief, teacher to make observatory notes.

9. Collation of revision session output (question and answers from students)

Session Two (if necessary) 1. Recapitulation session on previous session.

2. For hardcopy worksheet session: teacher to provide feedback on responses provided by students.

3. Session closure (summarising the importance of the revised Bloom’ question types which would help them in their revision by recalling facts and concepts) and debrief, teacher to make observatory notes and debrief, teacher to make observatory notes.

4. Collation of revision session output (question and answers from students)

Session Three1. Conduct Perception survey on how students receive the new revision strategy.

2. Collation of survey findings including observatory notes recorded by teachers, survey responses from student participants, theory examination scores.

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Session Four- Data analysis/ Outcome study

Results Quantitative The expected outcome of the study was for the students to get higher scores for their post-test (theory examination paper) after the implementation of the revision lessons with Bloom’s Revision tool.

This research project achieved what it set out to do by allowing students to they will be familiar with the different types of questions by section in the theory paper. The familiarity would in time build exam confidence. The revision tool produced a positive impact as the students proved to have obtained higher score percentages as compared to comparison group of 2016 in their post-test (theory examination paper) after implementation.

As shown in Table 4 below, for the post-test, simple arithmetic comparing the MSG (mean subject grade) of theory examination paper show a positive result of efficacy in the indicating that the Project group out-performed the Comparison group significantly (48% increase) for some groups. Another result outcome in our study, assuming ceteris paribus, the percentage passes in theory examination paper could possibly show the effectiveness of the introduction of the revision tool used in revision lessons.

Table 4. Comparison on MSG and Percentage passes of sample groups Project Group (2017)

Comparison Group (2016)

Result

Sec 2 N(T) Sec 2 N(A) Sec 2 EXP

Comparison

MSG

% pass

MSG

% pass

MSG

% pass

-

73%

-

66.6%

-

+6.4

6.0

60.1

6.0

57.5

0

+2.6

5.9

69.4

6.0

55.1

0

+14.3

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Sec 3 N(T) Sec 3 N(A) Sec 3 EXP

-

60

-

11.7

-

+48.3

5.9

0

6.0

0

+0.1

0

5.4

70.6

5.7

52.6

+0.3

+18

Qualitative The expected outcome of the perception survey was for the students to acknowledge the usefulness of the revision tool in relation to their level of confidence and readiness in their examination preparations. Table 5 below shows the responses from the Secondary Two (2017) project group.

Table 5. Perception Survey results from Project group Survey Questions

Yes

No

94%

6%

84%

16%

Q1. Having gone through this revision session, was it useful for your examination revision for the topic?

Q2. Do you think this revision method helped you to remember facts about the topic?

Findings from this survey indicate that students had a positive impact by being exposed to Sections A (i.e. Knowledge-based) and B (i.e. Comprehension-based) question-types. This would increase their preparedness and awareness of exam-type of questions. Hence this revision tool achieved what it set out to do and in time over repeated use build exam confidence.

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Discussion and Recommendations

Teachers are the key in ensuring the successful implementation by facilitating the students’ responses during the activity. The use of the instructional words is key to the success of the use of the tool. Teachers must provide affirmation towards the completion of each petal/bloom (KCA aspect) per theory topic. For high ability students in the ICT-enhanced lesson, the easy activity of crafting questions can be challenged by responding to how the questions are crafted as a peer critique as the chatroom is open for all to access at one time.

At the time of implementation, the session usually closes on a high note as students are highly enthused by the real-time discussion and The revision tool was effective in raising the score of the pupils’ post- test (theory examination). The introduction and implementation of a methodical structure using a revision tool designed with the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind helped students manage the theory knowledge. From the result findings, the project has proven to have a positive impact on the pupils. Besides the percentage increase in scores, the pupils have evaluated the effectiveness of the project through a survey. Survey findings show that 94% of the Lower Secondary Project group agreed that the revision tool is useful in their revision. 84% of them agreed that such revision method allowed them to remember theory facts. In the literature reference of “elaborative interrogation”, it was clear that the question-answer strategy of the revision focuses on enhancing memory.

The team is aware that though the results findings effect size is marginal for some levels of the project group, it takes multiple practice sessions of such revision lessons to produce a respectable effect size to acknowledge that the intervention of such a revision tool is successful. Admittedly, the team acknowledges the short implementation period with one or at most two sessions of the revision lessons.

Statistics aside, in all learning environment, we have to ensure that with every strategy that we introduce, the first step is to model accurately the use of the tool. In this case, teachers can demonstrate how to generate a KCA question with appropriate and entry level examples for all types of learners to grasp. This can be followed with a discussion in which students derive and generate answers for the 74

questions. In our study, the various answers are collated as a class for hardcopy worksheets or in the designated chatroom in TodaysMeet. A possible scaffold strategy as carried out by some teachers is the allocation of the students in pairs or groups and ask them to generate as many KCA questions and answers for the facts to be revised. Students are encouraged to read through the material to look out for clues to answer certain questions and to generate the abstract answers by self.

Remind them that there is no wrong answer in this learning process and to work out each question and answer through reflection and discussion. With time as students familiarize themselves with the strategy, students can frame the questions on their own and try to generate answers even when thinking in a second party perspective naturally as a learned condition.

With the positive feedback and recommendations collated, the revision method would be continued. Regarding the design of the strategy- the revision tool was crafted for all streams of students, however it can be modified easily for pupils with different abilities. The expected deliverables of the lesson can be reduced or simplified for understanding based on different abilities. For underperforming classes, groups of two to three students with mixed abilities are ideal and must intentionally done for better classroom management.

In terms of classroom management, the use of ICT may be a challenge for some teachers as TodaysMeet takes on the format of an active classroom conversation which requires teacher monitoring and guidance. It can be successful for learning if the teacher sets up guidelines for digital involvement with the premise of providing engaging content for every participant in the chatroom. The teacher takes on an active role as a moderator who manages contents and conversations. A common reinforcing action is the deletion of repeated questions and unnecessary trash talk. A positive feedback is that students benefit from information on how to formulate clear questions and responses and how to participate in discussions. A recommendation is that teachers must learn to propel conversations with initial and follow-up questions for revision purposes.

Despite the use of the tool as a revision strategy, the team acknowledges the need for other revision techniques to work together for a solidary nod that the participants’ confidence in exams has increased. Many participants requested the need for a

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compiled list of all questions and answers obtained from the activity, and it was provided in a form of a printed transcript or a printed set of worksheets. Therefore, the purpose of the printed transcripts and worksheets for re-reading and highlighting unwittingly reveals what our students perceive as one of the most effective techniques to support learning (revision). Ironically, such a mindset puts them two steps instead as it is known to be the lowest in terms of boosting performance (Dunlosky.J, et al. 2013, p. 21 . Effective revision should be about visible thinking and the team recommends an enhancement that can be done to allow our revision tool to maximise its use. If time allows for the project team to continue, the revision lesson can be planned to provide for ‘practice testing’ which is pretty straightforward technique – students continue to test themselves (or each other) on what they have got to learn. Based on the research paper (Dunlosky.J, et al. 2013, p. 35) this technique has been shown to have the highest impact in terms of supporting student learning. The team recommends Cooperative Learning strategies such Quiz-Quiz Trade.

Currently, the effectiveness of the revision tool can be further assessed in future implementation by tracking the frequency of the revision tool used during personal revision time, and individual performance instead of only group performance tracking after implementation of the revision tool. The statistics to study the impact of the revision tool could be better studied to provide concrete evaluative evidence with the use of independent T-test with the study of effect size as to whether the impact was trivial or significant.

The team drives the hope is that if students and subject teachers discuss and use the same techniques that have been shown to work, we could have a common and methodical structure to use in terms of revision. In time, we hope for such techniques to have a track record of success, to help build confidence and reduce some of their anxieties around revision and exams.

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References

Anderson, L.W. & Krathwohl, D.R. (Eds.) (2001). A taxonomy for Learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman Deslandes, Rollande.

Wilson Owen Leslie (2016). Anderson and Krathwohl - Understanding the New Version of Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved October 1, 2017 from http://thesecondprinciple.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Anderson-and-Krathwohlrevised-10-2016.pdf Food & Consumer Education Syllabus Teaching & Learning Guide. Retrieved October 1, 2017 from https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/defaultsource/document/education/syllabuses/sciences/files/food-consumer-education.pdf Seifert T. L. (1994). Enhancing memory for main ideas using elaborative interrogation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 19, 360–366.

Catlin Tucker (2013). TodaysMeet: The Beauty of the Backchannel. Retrieved October 1, 2017 http://catlintucker.com/2013/01/todaysmeet-the-beauty-of-thebackchannel/ Dunlosky.J, et al. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Retrieved October 1, 2017 from https://www.wku.edu/senate/documents/improving_student_learning_dunlosky_2013 .pdf

Appendix

a. Nutrition and Food Science, Sciences Branch, CPDD Bloom’s Knowledge Flower b. Nutrition and Food Science, Sciences Branch, CPDD Bloom’s Comprehension Flower c. Nutrition and Food Science, Sciences Branch, CPDD Bloom’s Application Flower d. Northbrooks Secondary School F&N Bloom’s Revision Tool

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A 0006

Supporting students’ thinking for the Geography open-ended question (OEQ) Ivan Wu, Mrs Rita Teo, Mdm Nuraida Bte Ajmaain, Ms Nurnadia Bte Abdollah Abstract Students often face difficulty with the open-ended question (OEQ) for Geography as they require a balanced response that demonstrates evaluation and judgement. David Hyerle (2008) conceptualised the bubble and double bubble maps which may provide a schema for students to compare and contrast issues.

This is a fundamental skill to support evaluation and judgement. In addition, these maps provide a way to make the thinking behind an OEQ visible to support students’ learning.

Introduction 1.

For the Elective Geography ‘O’ and ‘N’ level assessment, students have to complete two open-ended questions (OEQ), which constitute the highest weighting of 8% and 6% of the assessment respectively. OEQs require students to make evaluations and judgement on a geographical issue with a balanced argument.

Examples of recent OEQs at national examinations are in Table 1.

Source beautiful ‘O’ level Combined Humanities, Geography How far do you agree with this statement? Give Elective (2016) evidence to support your answer.

Question 3b ‘A fatalistic approach to earthquakes and tsunamis is ‘O’ level Combined more sensible than any other.’

Humanities, Geography How far do you agree? Give evidence to support your Elective (2016) answer.

Question 5d ‘When developing tourism, the employment ‘N’ level Combined opportunities created have the most impact on a Humanities, country.’

Geography Elective (2016) How far do you agree with this statement? Give Question 3c reasons to support your answer.

‘International responses to climate change, such as ‘N’ level Combined the Kyoto Protocol, are limited in their effectiveness.’ Humanities, Geography How far do you agree with this statement? Give Elective (2016) reasons for your answer.

Question 4f Table 1: Open-ended questions at the 2016 ‘O’ and ‘N’ level examinations ‘All tourists sceneries.’

Open-ended questions want destinations with

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2.

The assessment of the OEQ is based on levels marking where there are three levels of achievement. The highest level of achievement (Level 3) requires candidates to demonstrate judgement or evaluation of the given statement based on a suitable criterion. This requires candidates to first have the ability to compare the relevant issues of the statement, before making a judgement or evaluation. Currently, most of our Secondary 3 (2017) students are not able to reach the highest level for the OEQ.1 This was in spite of the Geography unit providing writing frames such as the PointExplanation-Example-Link (PEEL) structure to guide students for many OEQ practice attempts.

3.

This was the starting point of the PLT. The team was puzzled as to why our students were not able to achieve a higher level of achievement at the OEQ despite the scaffolding provided. This led the team to identify a fundamental difference between a writing scaffold, and a thinking scaffold. One reasons why students were not able to succeed at the OEQ was the lack of clear thinking when planning for the OEQ. Without the clear thinking, it will be impossible for students to identify the relevant content to compare and evaluate based on a criterion. In other words, the writing scaffold will not be helpful for students to achieve a Level 3 response for the OEQ without clear thinking. From this juncture, the team reviewed relevant literature on thinking to develop evaluation skills for the OEQ. Literature review 4.

Ritchhart and Perkins (2008) work on Project Zero offers a starting point on making thinking visible. In their seminal work, they outlined key principles on thinking and learning. Pertinent to the PLT’s research focus was the principle that “learning is a consequence of thinking” and that “fostering thinking requires making thinking visible” (ibid, pg 57 - 58). Project Zero ultimately culminated in the identification of eight fundamental thinking skills, and a range of thinking routines to explore ideas, synthesize ideas, and digging deeper into ideas; these routines need to be supported by a school culture that values such routines, encourages setting aside time for reflection (Ricthhart et al, 2011).

5.

In particular, the “Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate (GCSE)” (ibid) routine of concept mapping provides a suitable way of enabling our students to better analyse and think about the OEQ requirement. This is because concept mapping enables one to first map out relevant concepts surrounding a key question, and making connections to related concepts. This is a key skill required in comparing and evaluation, and hence will support answering the OEQ. 6.

However, the GCSE thinking routines requires time to be internalised, and may be more pertinent in organising concepts of a topic, rather than to support the analysis

1

As an illustration, the modal score for the Secondary 3 Express OEQ at the End-of-year geography examination was 5/8 which is a Level 2 response. For the Normal (Academic) stream, the modal score was 2/6 which is a Level 1 response.

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of an OEQ. That said, the act of mapping out one’s thinking as a way of externalising the thought process is helpful in the OEQ planning process.

7.

This led to the team to consider the work by David Hyerle (2008) on thinking maps. Hyerle identifies eight basic thinking maps to provide a “common visual language” to show a thought process. The maps covers skills such as describing qualities, compare & contrast and identifying cause & effect. Of particular interest to the PLT was the bubble maps (see Figure 1). The bubble map provides a way to generate ideas of an item, and can be expanded to a double bubble map to compare and contrast the content with other related items. The use of the bubble maps therefore has the potential to provide students with a visual way of (i) generating relevant content through populating the bubble map; and, (ii) identifying a common criterion for evaluation by using a double bubble map.

Figure 1: Bubble map and Double bubble map (modified) Method 8.

The team aimed to prototype a lesson package to address students’ gap in effectively analysing the OEQ to attain the highest level of achievement of evaluation.

9.

Identifying the student test group. Based on the PLT’s discussion, the student test group should include students who are receptive to new learning methods, have 80

been proactive in trying to improve but have not achieved success in the OEQ. This was to minimise false results where student attitude could affect the final results.

Based on this criteria, one Secondary 3 Express student was identified. To ensure that the student fit the selection criteria, a 30-minute interview was conducted with the student. During the interview, a range of questions were asked. This was to determine the student’s planning process when attempting an OEQ, and also to preclude the possibility of linguistic ability hampering the student’s understanding of the OEQ . The list of key interview questions are found in Annex A (recording of interview available by request). a. From the interview, it was evident that the student understood the constituent words of the question, but did not produce a plan prior to answering the OEQ. Instead, the student first identified what was deemed to be key words from the question and started writing all that was recalled, fitting the recollection in the PEEL format. This resulted in an answer that had the content, but not achieving any form of evaluation or judgement. The learning gap for this student hence matched the focus of the PLT; there was no evidence of planning to identify the criterion for evaluation. b. To further confirm this finding, the student was tasked to attempt another OEQ, and to detail the steps that were taken when writing the answer.

Figure 2 shows the students planning process which confirmed that there was no evidence of unpacking the question to identify the criterion for evaluation. Instead, the student started writing using textbook content.

Figure 2: Student’s planning process for the OEQ prior to intervention 10.

Developing the lesson package. Based on this finding, the team developed a lesson package. As identified in the literature review, Hyerle’s (2008) double bubble

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maps were used to develop the teaching material. 2 The PLT hence created a worksheet (see Annex B) to guide the identified student in the planning process for the OEQ, and also to introduce the bubble maps to make the thinking behind the OEQ visible. The worksheet was then used to guide the student on the planning process, before the student attempted a similar OEQ and provided with feedback.

Results and analysis 11.

Students had to complete one OEQ as part of the year-end Geography examination and this was used to evaluate the usefulness of the bubble maps as a tool to support achievement at the OEQ. The student achieved a Level 1 (3 out of 8 marks) for the OEQ (full answer at Annex C). An analysis of the student’s answer shows that the low score is attributed to the lack of details and the expansion of the content. However, the student successfully identified scale 3 as the criterion for evaluation, which indicates that evaluation was made successfully. As levels marking of the OEQ is cumulative, candidates must show explanation of content before credit can be awarded at the highest level. As such, the student was awarded a Level 1 score despite showing evidence of evaluation.

12.

This result shows that the intervention of using bubble maps to make the thinking required behind a Geography OEQ is possibly helpful in supporting student to identify a suitable criterion to achieve evaluation. However, students must first have the understanding of the content, and the ability to explain the content before the thinking maps can help to achieve the highest level of attainment.

Conclusion – Limitations and future work 13.

It is noted that the sample size of this PLT study is small (one student).

Therefore, it is inconclusive if the use of double bubble maps is useful on a larger scale.

This also points to the future work of the PLT. Students with similar learning gaps as the identified student in the study could be grouped and introduced to the use of double bubble maps. This will provide more robust data from the larger sample size to the efficacy of double bubble maps.

14.

In the longer run, the school may consider using a common language (visual and linguistic) in the teaching of thinking skills across subject areas. This will reinforce the use of thinking as a way of learning, and be pervasive as a learning culture.

2

Before arriving at this decision, the team had considered using other visual aids to help support the planning of the OEQ. For instance, the PLT team also considered the Venn diagram and the part-part-whole diagram as they also served to show connections between concepts. However, the Venn diagram required students to have a mathematical understanding of how it is used, while the part-part-whole diagram was less successful in supporting the generating of content at the planning stage.

3 The candidate used the word spread in the response.

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Acknowledgement 15.

The PLT team wishes to express thanks to Mrs Indra, Lead Teacher, for her useful comments on Making Thinking Visible.

References Hyerle D. (2008) Thinking Maps®: A Visual Language for Learning. In: Okada A., Shum S.B., Sherborne T. (eds.) Knowledge Cartography. Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing. Springer, London Ritchart, R., Church, M. & Morrison, K. (2011) Making Thinking Visible, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco Ritchhart, R. & Perkins, D. (2008) “Making Thinking Visible”, Educational Leadership, 68(5), pg 57 – 61.

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Annex A Interview questions Interview Date: 24 August 2017

Time: 3.45pm

Venue: Library

Key Interview Questions 1

Could you please tell me how you approach the question? Can you describe from the start to end?

2

Is there any reason for not using the PEEL structure?

3

What were you thinking when you approach the question?

4

Did you think of anything else to help you add on to your answer?

5

What else do you think was important for this question?

6

Did you plan out your answer?

7

After reading the question, what did you do next?

8

In para 2, you mentioned travel writer and media, could you tell me based on these words, do you see any relationships between these words?

9

Looking at the stakeholders, could you find any stakeholders belonging to the same group?

10

Can you explain how media is related to travel writers?

11

Can you give an example of a media?

12

How about travel writers, what do you understand them to be?

13

Is there any relationship between the two groups?

14

Can you explain what this sentence means to you?

Interviewer: Mr Ivan

Wu

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Annex B Worksheet to support thinking for the OEQ ‘Unfavourable political situation poses the most serious threat to tourist arrivals.’

How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer using examples.

[Revision Practice Paper 3] Part 1: Understanding the question Understanding the command word

This means I need to:  Evaluate the statement, which means I need to have a criterion (basis of evaluating).  Balance my answer, which is to show both how the statement may be true in some cases, but not true in other cases.

How far do you agree with this statement?

Understanding Most serious threat the key words of the question

Tourist arrivals  Refers to the number of tourists entering a country or area.

Unfavourable political situation

Thinking about other relevant content to use…

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Part 2: Analysing the question using bubble maps

Negative political situation

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Annex C Student’s Year-end examination OEQ response ‘Natural disasters have the greatest negative impact on tourist arrival.’

How far do you agree with this statement? Support your answer using examples.

Response

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Use of ICT in Teaching and Learning

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T 0001

‘What is the impact of using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to teach History and its impact on student’s engagement and academic achievement?’

Mrs Indra Mr Kesavan Mdm Aida Ms Chee Yuan Leng Synopsis The project’s purpose was to develop greater depth in understanding historical events that had been pivotal in shaping Hitler’s rise to power. Through an analysis of historical sources, Historians interpret and draw conclusions about events that happened in the past.

The team aimed to harness Information and Communication Technology as an enabler to develop students’ information literacy as well as engage students’ interest in the subject. We also wanted students to be more discerning about what they read and watch in the internet. This includes challenging the popular perception that the internet is the fount of all truth and wisdom.

Objective The team’s objective was to increase engagement level in students and develop potential academic achievements in History, using Information and Communication Technology. Our Research Question was: ‘What is the impact of using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to teach History and its impact on students’ engagement and academic achievement?’

Background of Reichstag Fire The historical event happened on 27 February 1933, with an arson attack on the Reichstag building (German Parliament House). The attack was believed to be planned by German’s Communist Party leaders and executed by the party members; in an attempt to cripple Hitler’s Nazi Party regime. Hitler saw this as an opportunity to consolidate his power and drive out the communist party from the parliament. His attempts gained traction and eventually, the Nazi regime established singular control over the parliament.

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The Reichstag fire has been conventionally argued to have been instrumental in Hitler’s consolidation of power; however, it is necessary and vital to analyse and evaluate the socio-political factors that has weighed in; and eventually catapulted the Nazi regime’s popularity and power.

Source-Based Case Study using Google Sites Students were required to analyse and evaluate the socio-political implication of the Reichstag Fire through the use of authentic pictorial and text sources. By doing so, students will gain a deeper understanding of a myriad of factors; which eventually, culminated to the rise of Hitler. Since, students will be exposed to multiple perspectives of the case study issue, it was agreed that using an ICT platform would be the most effective and user-friendly method to get students to analyse and evaluate the various perspectives and share their responses with teachers and fellow classmates.

The google site platform is useful for students in many ways. Firstly, the introductory page provides general details about the 1933 Reichstag Fire; and in order to develop experiential and authentic learning, specific online videos were also embedded in the introductory page of the google site. This enables students to develop good grasp of the historical happenings in a chronological order.

Secondly, the google site enables effective group learning. Students, in groups of four, will be able to browse to a specific page created for their own groups and type in their groups responses for the Source-Based-Questions. These responses will be visible to other group members, who are encouraged to provide constructive feedback on their peers.

Thirdly, the google site platform enables feedback from the teachers as well. The individual group’s google site has a section for teacher’s comments. After reading students’ responses, teacher will then provide their feedback. On the whole, this ICT platform provides authentic and experiential learning on the case study which enables timely and constructive feedback from peers and teachers.

Theoretical underpinnings for the PLT

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The primary theoretical underpinning of this project would be from the research done

by Bonwell & Eisen (1991) on active learning using technology – the hardware of the project. Their central argument would be that technology enables four main learning domains: acquisition, discussion, inquiry and collaboration.

The use of google sites amplified the four main domains and made them highly visible and effective - students were able to acquire factual details on the historical event, discuss their opinions with their fellow, inquire deeper into the case study by raising their doubts to their teachers; and also engage in collaborative learning throughout the course of the project.

A secondary theoretical basis was employed in the paper to enhance the effectiveness the lesson structure – the software of the project. The research on the 3 types of knowledge for 21st century students was crucial and apt to lay a foundation for this learning process of this PLT (figure below).

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As seen in the theoretical model, students’ learning is structured in 3 inter-connected processes: the foundational knowledge, meta knowledge and humanistic knowledge.

The foundational knowledge process provides students with factual information of the subject matter while the meta knowledge process encourages them to collaborate with their peers and engage in critical thinking.

However, the drawback of this project would be the lack in the development of Humanistic Knowledge within the PLT project. It is important for students to value their knowledge of the Reichstag Fire and make attempts to find meaning with their newly acquired knowledge. This knowledge domain could potentially be an area that teachers may want to focus in future PLT projects.

Conducting the PLT session Before the commencement of the PLT session, the historical event was briefly introduced to students in chronological order and how it was ultimately pivotal in the consolidation of Hitler’s power.

On the actual day of the PLT session, students will access the google site together with their team members. They will be instructed to read the general historical facts about the Reichstag Fire and watch the videos embedded in the introductory page of the google site. After which, they were instructed to access their group’s google site page.

In this page, students analysed sources with multiple perspectives and answer a few guiding questions, which will be useful in answering the final issue question, i.e. Has the Reichstag Fire allowed Hitler to consolidate power? Using the information from the sources, students will come up with an answer as a team.

There is no standard answer to the issue question and the accuracy of the answers is dependent on the strength of argument and the use of accurate evidences from the given sources to support their claim. Teachers have access to students’ responses and hence, will be able to give immediate comments. Furthermore, as a follow up, teachers will highlight some major areas of improvement that students need to take note when answering issue questions in a more balanced manner.

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Key Findings from the PLT Strengths 

Students were familiar with Google Doc and this helped students access the sources easily.



Immediate feedback from the teacher also helped students to clarify their misconceptions.



The visual sources helped students to understand the emotions of the Germans portrayed in the video

Areas for Improvements 

Students could be asked to provide peer feedback. Students were focussed on answering the questions and not reading their peers work. Time could also be allocated for each question so that students have the opportunity to read and critique their friend’s answers.



Students were not able to complete all the questions.



Students could also be asked to key in individual response. As students were paired, there was no accountability and only the better students responded to the questions.

One suggestion was to assign a colour to different students so that all their responses would be captured.

Future History Lessons

This PLT had a positive impact on students learning of historical events; and hence, it would be desirable to continue with a similar strategy in classroom lessons; when imparting historical accounts to students.

Since, the platform requires many hours of research, it is vital to plan ahead of time and gather appropriate resources for the google site. Greater prudence has to be exercised in creating a more ‘student-friendly’ site, where students will be able to provide constructive peer feedback. Furthermore, the site has to be, ‘teacherfriendly’ as well. Teachers should be able to identify individual student responses at ease and provide comments and suggestions to students.

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Reference Bonwell, Charles C., and James A. Eison. Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. 1991 ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports. ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, The George Washington University, One Dupont Circle, Suite 630, Washington, DC 20036-1183, 1991.

Kristen Kereluik, Punya Mishra, Chris Fahnoe & Laura Terry, What Knowledge Is of Most Worth: Teacher Knowledge for 21st Century Learning, 2013 Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Learning, Vol 29, 2013- Issue 4 Peter D. John & Rosamund Sutherland, Teaching and learning with ICT: new technology, new pedagogy? Education, Communication & Information Vol. 4 , Iss. 1,2004

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T 0002

Use of ‘Hudl Technique App to enhance Games Skills Development in PE.

Taufiq Sanusi, Paul Tham Alex Ang, Timothy Chong Low Aijiao, Au Lai Fei

Abstract The PE department piloted a project on how iPads can be used in PE lessons to video students’ performance in games skills as a form of Assessment for Learning (AfL). By loading the ‘Hudl Technique App’ into the iPads, students are able to view their own performance in slow-motion and compare against a performance checklist and identify how errors can corrected to improve performance.

Introduction The PE department at Northbrooks first started using video recording to provide feedback in 2015. It was piloted in some lessons as a way to allow students to view their own sports and games performance so that feedback for improvement can be given through comparison between students’ performance against a performance checklist or comparison against elite (professional) players. These early trials simply used the video recording function on the iPads.

The video recording was further enhanced by using the Hudl Technique App in 2016.

As we embarked on using the Hudl App the team asked the following questions to ascertain student learning using the PLT structure: •

What do we want our students to learn?

•

How will we know they are learning?

•

How will we respond when they don’t learn?

•

How will we respond when they do learn?

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The main objective for the project was for PE teachers to improve students’ performance of games skills through feedback given while students view a video of their own games skills performance recorded on the iPad. The secondary objective was to ascertain students’ understanding of good skills performance as they carried out peer observation and gave feedback followed by comparing and rating performance of their own group members.

Implementation In the process of implementation, we also asked ourselves:

•

What are the skills that we want to focus on?

•

Why are these skills important for the student to play a game well?

•

How do we break down the movement into smaller parts?

•

How will we teach the students to perform the skills?

•

How will we explain and different between satisfactory and good performance?

•

How will the students be assessed for improvement?

We identified game skills to be used in netball, basketball, volleyball and badminton as these games were the different games to be covered by the different levels from Sec 1 - 4. Hence the App would be used in lessons across all levels.

1) Having identified the skills to focus on, time was first spent to video record ourselves demonstrating these skills.

2) We also had to consider where the camera would be positioned to capture the action so that the skill could be assessed.

3) Some game skills performed by the PE teachers were video recorded from 4 different angles. We realised that while we were used to observing students and giving feedback, we had to zoom in how we wanted the movement to be observed from a learner’s perspective.

4) It was felt that development of performance rubrics showing the frames of different stages of a games skills execution was also needed so that students could compare between the rubrics against their own movement played back in slow motion on the Hudl App.

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Method

Subjects For the purpose of this paper, we will focus on a project group made up of one Secondary 4 Express class of 36 students (20 Boys and 16 Girls) although the use of the Hudl App was also applied to classes in Sec 1, 2 and 3 focusing on different games skills.

Design Students will attempt to perform a badminton ‘smash’ stroke with a shuttlecock served by another student using an underarm serve. The smash stroke will be recorded using the Hudl Technique App pre-loaded on an iPad. Students will then compare their action against a performance checklist describing the 3 stages of the smash stroke.

They are (a) The preparatory phase (b) contact point and (c) trajectory of the shuttlecock.

Procedure The formative assessment process takes place over 3 stages and a total of 4 lessons Lesson 1 : Preparation Stage 

In the preparation stage, the students were informed of the assessment.



Students were informed about the key points of the smash stroke with reference to a checklist showing the 3 stages of the stroke.



Students were then told to pair up and that one student would deliver an underarm serve while the partner returns the serve with a smash stroke.



In the process, students are also guided to learn that the prerequisite of executing the smash stroke during game play is that the shuttlecock must be in flight from a high trajectory from an overhead clear stroke or underarm clear stroke.



This lesson is also used by the teacher to identify 6 – 8 students who are able to consistently perform a good underarm serve or high overhead clear.

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Lesson 2 : Preparation Stage During this lesson students learn how to use the iPad to video record their classmates attempting to execute the smash stroke. Students learned to do the following: 

They are positioned on the side of their classmates where the arm is holding the racket side.



They are able to record the entire smash stroke movement – most importantly where the racket arm is fully extended and in contact with the shuttlecock.



Learn how to view the video in slow motion at ¼ or 1/8 frame per second



Learn how to use the features of the app to highlight lines, and measure angles



Learn how to use the app to concurrently compare videos of 2 classmates recorded on one iPad.

Lesson 3 : Assessment Stage Students were formed into 6 groups comprising about 6 students per group. NOTE : It would be better to be able to form 10 groups to fully utilize the available badminton courts. HOWEVER, only 6 students were identified as being able to consistently perform a good underarm serve to enable his/her group members to return the smash.

Each of these students was deployed to each group. Each group was also provided with an iPad and a performance checklist (Annex A) to for the group to collaboratively rate the different stages of their smash stroke.

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(Annex A – Performance Checklist) No Name Preparation (Racquet Contact Point – Arm Contact point – Angle Total facing downwards)

of approx. 25◦ - 35◦

fully extended

Deg between body and arm Slightly Very Not Slightly Very Not Slightly Very Not seen Clear seen Clear seen Clear 2-pts 2-pts 2-pts 040404pts

pts

pts

pts

pts

pts

1 2

After everyone in the group was video recorded, the groups proceeded to use the checklist to rate their peers.

Lesson 4 : Post-Analysis Before lesson number 4, the video clip of each student was analysed. In video clips where there were more than one smash stroke, the timing was noted for the student to view the stroke. The teacher would only correct the student rating on the performance checklist where it did not correspond to what was seen on the video clip.

In the post-analysis lesson, students will be asked to improve on at least one of the 3 stages of the smash stroke to increase the rating of that stage by one more level.

Results COGNITIVE UNDERSTANDING 1. Students can recall the key points or steps in the sequence of movement.

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2. Making thinking visible as students attempted to distinguish between levels of performance.

3. Able to place themselves at their current standard and how much is needed for improvement.

4. [UNINTENDED RESULT] – Frequent display of peer coaching and collaborative learning.

IMPROVEMENT IN PERFORMANCE 1. There was 25% - 30% improvement in at least ONE component of the skill in one lesson after feedback was analysed from the videos.

2. BASELINE – Only 6 students could demonstrate the ‘smash’ competently.

LEARNING POINT : 1. Successful PE movement / result is a SCIENCE. By applying the correct process / procedures – it can be repeated to CONSISTENTLY yield the same results.

Discussion and Recommendations

Teacher checking was time consuming and there was lag feedback – students had to wait for the next lesson before attempting to make improvement in their strokes. We would consider incorporating 2 more ICT tools to improve the project. Firstly, the use of Plickers so that students will be able to rate themselves and this will be captured more quickly. The second ICT tool is

Conclusion

Formative Assessment through analysis of video recordings engaged students as they viewed their own performance and demonstrated cognitive understanding of skills as the students checked off what was observable against a performance checklist. This increases the potential for self-improvement in skills development. Ability to acquire

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and perform fundamental skills for game play also increases students’ self-confidence and self-perception and increases likelihood of active participation in the game.

The use of the iPad in PE requires students to develop observation skills to identify and compare performance criteria. Such observation skills may also be applied in other subjects such as D&T, Science, F&N, Art, and Geography, just to name a few.

References

Loo Wee Boon, Winston Chua Seng Wee, Yeo Chin Hwei, Stacy Chong_Ang Ting Ting, Padma Ramachandran – Bowen Secondary School (2012) Use of Video Playback in PE to Improve Games Tactical Awareness in Tag Rugby. –MOE

Harris, F. (2009). Visual technology in PE using Dartfish video analysis to enhance learning: An overview of the Dartfish project in New Brunswick. Physical and Health Education Journal, 74(4), 24-25

Hamlin, B. (2005). Motor competency and video analysis. Teaching Elementary Physical Education, 16(5) 8-13 Landin, D. (1994). The role of verbal cues in skill learning. Quest, 46 (3) – 299-313

Liebermann, D.G. Katz, L et al (2002) Advances in the application of information technology to sport performance. Journal of Sports Science (2002) 20(10) , 755 – 769

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T 0003

Using ICT to Enhance the Teaching and Learning of Speech Writing in the Classroom Mr Shaun Tan Ms Aryssa Ngoh Mrs S. Jasvindar Singh Miss Lee En Ting Mr Low Yi En Mr Eddy Norisman Mdm Tang Weng Yee

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore how information and communication technology (ICT) can be incorporated into the effective teaching and learning of speech writing.

This has been done by testing the use of Padlet, an online collaborative platform, in two English Language classes of differentiated ability in the same level. Collaborative tools were anticipated to be useful in encouraging students to share their work without fear of embarrassment, and in allowing teachers to easily identify areas where students needed additional guidance. However, there were also some limitations in terms of time and infrastructure constraints for various in-class activities, and the level of communication between students in their groups.

Introduction The rapid development of Information Communications Technology (ICT) has revolutionised the way teachers teach and the way learners learn. The role of the teacher has also evolved significantly with the introduction of technology. The role of the teacher in the classroom has evolved into one where they are ‘designers of learning experiences who bring about engaged learning through transformative technology’ (Ministry of Education, 2014). As designers of learning experiences, it is imperative that the learning experiences are guided by the principles of differentiation, student-centeredness and promotion of collaborative learning. The use of ICT, guided by the three aforementioned principles, gives rise to opportunities to enrich and deepen the learning experiences of every student. Through a wide range of ICT tools, teachers are able to leverage on these tools to activate learning, promote thinking and discussion and facilitate demonstration of learning.

A key principle of ICT Masterplan 4 (Ministry of Education, 2014) is the opportunity for collaboration between students through the use of ICT. The benefits of collaborative learning has been extensively elucidated upon in other papers. These include greater peer support, increased commitment and responsibility towards group members and social learning (Chiong & Jovanovic, 2012) . However, a key concern for teachers is that collaborative learning may sometimes discourage the less confident students from participating. This could be due to the fear or being embarrassed or being put down 102

by their peers. This could be referred to as the feeling of being ‘powerless’ (Vandrick, 2000). Vandrick (2000) argued that this feeling of being ‘powerless’ applies in the context of ESL (English as a Second Language) learners where this lack of confidence could be a reflection of social experiences.

While Vandrick’s (2000) argument was posited in the context of ESL learners, the authors’ experience of teaching English Language to students in a Singapore classroom seems to suggest that students who come from families that speak their mother tongue as the primary language (L1) of communication tend to lack confidence or are reluctant to participate in group activities during English lessons. Such home environments can be referred to as ‘input-poor environments’ (Kouraogo, 1993).

Therefore, it is an imperative consideration of this paper to enhance the teaching and learning of English language for students through the use of ICT. The authors believe that the use of ICT in such classrooms would then provide opportunities for students from ‘input-poor environments’ to share openly and participate actively during group activities.

‘Padlet’ (www.padlet.com) is a free, easy-to-use platform for collaboration between students in real time. It allows for total class participation and contribution from all students. This is very useful as it eliminates the ‘free-loader’ phenomenal commonly observed in group-driven activities. In addition, its design allows for student-student and teacher-student interaction and immediate feedback. Fuchs (2014) stated that ‘Padlet’ is a great ‘equalizer’ as the anonymity of Padlet allows for students who are not as confident to share their answer. They are spared from embarrassment and this also helps encourage ‘freedom and experimentation’.

This paper will focus on the use of the ICT tool ‘Padlet’ to teach Speech Writing in the classroom. This paper seeks to compare the effectiveness of utilising ‘Padlet’ as an ICT tool to enhance the learning experience with particular focus on collaborative learning, immediate feedback and facilitating demonstration of learning of students. In addition, the lesson study will be conducted for two different streams (Express and Normal Technical) so as to ascertain differing effectiveness and to compare differences in learner experiences of using ICT to enhance the teaching and learning of Speech Writing.

Methods

First run of using ICT to enhance T&L of Speech Writing

Subjects

The first Project group in this study was a group of 28 Secondary Three Express students. The students were from an intact class without randomisation. All students fall within similar ability level based on their PSLE T-score as well as their Secondary Two overall streaming exercise.

Speech Writing has not been taught in previous levels and hence the 103

procedure of assessing how much the students have learnt in the process has high validity.

Design

Qualitative feedback is the main method of evaluating the effectiveness of using ICT in enhancing teaching and learning of Speech Writing. The qualitative feedback from teacher lesson observers are used to improve on the lesson design. A limitation of the design of the overall project is the restrictions in timetable and scheme of work set out for each level and stream, which caused the second of the same lesson in another level and stream.

Measure

1.

2.

3.

4.

Qualitative feedback on motivation and engagement.

Qualitative feedback on social behaviour.

Qualitative feedback on student attitudes towards learning.

Qualitative feedback on instructional features and information requested by the teacher.

Procedure Pre-lesson Observation Teacher to complete introducing the writing techniques (structure and language features) frequently used in effective speeches.

Lesson Observation 1. Students recap the writing techniques taught in the pre-lesson observation.

2. Students are divided into groups to analyse a section of a given full-length rich, authentic speech (contextualisation).

3. Each group (learning-focused interaction) to identify the writing techniques used in the section allocated to them, and to post what they observed on a pre-set URL on Padlet.com.

4. Teacher gives timely and useful feedback while going through the responses of each group. She checks if students are able to identify the language features and also explains the effects of using these features to make the speech effective.

Post-lesson Procedure Enabling application: Teacher models how to apply the skill learnt and demonstrates it. Then students are instructed to write a short speech paragraph using at least two of the language features learnt. The language features used are aimed to make the speech persuasive and effective in engaging the intended audience.

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Second run of using ICT to enhance T&L of Speech Writing

Subjects

The second Project group in this study was a group of 20 Secondary Three Normal students. The students were from a class of higher ability students in Normal Technical stream. All students fall within similar ability level based on their PSLE T-score. The process of Speech Writing was taught previously but the language features of an effective speech had not been taught to them yet.

Design

The same as the first run.

Measure Procedure

Results

Results of the first run of using ICT to enhance T&L of Speech Writing

Type of Outcome: Academic Learning Part 1: Lesson Progression 1.

The lesson is designed to be a natural progression from the previous lesson where explicit teaching on the language features of effective speeches was taught.

2. Identification of the language features of a model effective speech. The given speech is carefully selected as it needs to be rich in language features that persuade and engage the intended audience.

3.

Teacher facilitates discovery by prompting and posing questions to the students on their responses. Immediate teacher feedback on posts and missing/incomplete posts was helpful.

Part 2: Follow-up Task 1.

Crafting of a paragraph based on a given situational writing task.

2.

The availability of only one or two Ipad per group made it difficult for 5 group members to work on crafting the paragraph together.

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Type of Outcome: Motivation and Engagement Part 1: Lesson Progression 1. Group work encourages productive learning conversations..

2. Students are familiar with the Padlet app and found it easy to use.

Part 2: Follow-up Task Varying levels of engagement as some of the group members found the task challenging and hence contributed minimally to the crafting of the (effective) speech paragraph.

Type of Outcome: Social Behaviour Part 1: Lesson Progression Group work promotes discussion and clarifying prior to uploading of group response(s). To develop subject literacy, students were encouraged to use precise terminology when identifying the language features.

Part 2: Follow-up Task 1. Not all students are discussing because they prefer to complete a piece of writing on their own rather than co-construct with their fellow group members.

2. Not all students are engaged because it is difficult for all to contribute to a single paragraph and some are reluctant to accept differing inputs.

Type of Outcome: Student Attitudes Toward Learning As the posts are shown on the screen, groups are held accountable to being focused and completing the task.

Type of Outcome: Instructional Features, Information Requested by Instructor Part 1: Lesson Progression 1. Three-part post: (a) Language feature(s) (b) Supporting quote(s) and (c) Intended Impact.

2. Students were able to quickly identify the language features and supported them with quotes from the relevant sections of the given speech. They could also look at each other’s responses on the screen to check for responses that are deemed correct or 106

otherwise, interesting/unexpected inputs and similarities and differences. In some cases, classmates helped each other to correct the ‘errors’ before the final presentation.

3. Students struggled with being able to explain the intended impact of the language feature(s), which resulted in the teacher having to re-explain and re-teach by revisiting content taught earlier.

Part 2: Follow-up Task The follow-up paragraph writing was not completed due to time constraint.

Results of the second run of using ICT to enhance T&L of Speech Writing

Type of Outcome: Academic Learning Part 1: Lesson Progression 1. A progression from the previous lesson where the language features of speech writing and the contexts of the speeches were given to the students via viewing of relevant videos.

2. Identification of the language features of the given speech. The selected speeches were effective speeches that were rich in language features, authentic and familiar.

3. Immediate teacher feedback on posts and missing posts was helpful.

4. There was good student engagement as they actively discussed the language features they spotted and their impact on the audience.

Part 2: Follow-up Task 1. Crafting an effective speech based on a given situational writing task.

2. Students used computers instead of Ipads for group writing. This enhanced the interaction between the students during group work.

Type of Outcome: Motivation and Engagement Part 1: Lesson Progression 1. Group work encourages collaboration and discussions.

2. Students are familiar with the Padlet app and it is easy to use.

3. Students are motivated to complete the task well as they get to see the responses on the screen immediately. They can get immediate feedback from the teacher.

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Part 2: Follow-up Task Students had to complete a piece of writing individually, to show that they are able to apply some of the language features they had learnt.

Type of Outcome: Social Behaviour Part 1: Lesson Progression 1. Group work promotes discussion and clarifying prior to uploading of group response(s).

2. Some of the students did not know the appropriate social behaviour when posting answers on the padlet.

Part 2: Follow-up Task Ground rules need to be communicated to students on expected behaviour with reference to the posts they upload, so as to ensure that students do not misuse the tool to make fun of their classmates.

Type of Outcome: Student Attitudes Toward Learning 1. As the posts are shown on the screen, groups are held accountable to being focused and completing the task.

2. Differentiation of content from first run: Most of the students were interested in the learning as the content given for the speech task involved sports, which appealed to the students.

Type of Outcome: Instructional Features, Information Requested by Instructor Part 1: Lesson Progression 1. Three-part post: (a) Language feature(s) (b) Supporting quote(s) and (c) Intended impact on the audience.

2. Students were able to quickly identify the language features and selected relevant quotes from assigned sections of the given speech. They could also look at each other’s responses on the screen and evaluate the responses. In some cases, classmates helped each other to correct the errors before the final presentation.

3. Some of the students struggled with being able to explain the intended impact of the language feature(s), which resulted in a lot of teacher-talk.

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Part 2: Follow-up Task The follow up writing was conducted in a subsequent lesson where students used padlet to write a speech based on a given situational writing task.

Students Artefacts

Use of Padlet to help students identify language features (3NT class)

Use of padlet for group writing (3NT Class)

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Findings and Conclusions

Conclusions of the first run of using ICT to enhance T&L of Speech Writing

The use of ICT is indeed helpful in increasing student engagement in the initial stages of teaching Speech Writing, and to reduce the physical space constraints in getting students to share their responses as the digital board can be easily expanded and collapsed when necessary. It ensures that students are able to read their classmates’ responses in real time, and it also allowed the teacher to provide immediate feedback and to be able to track the groups’ progress as their responses appeared on Padlet in real time. The ICT tool made it easier for the teacher to identify learning gaps, monitor their learning in a shorter time than traditional methods of dipsticking or through writing the responses on the whiteboard.

Conclusions of the second run of using ICT to enhance T&L of Speech Writing After the feedback from the first lesson, the team selected several short speeches that would appeal to the profile of the 3NT class. So, the speech used for the first run was replaced with sports related speeches so that students could more easily identify with the contexts of the speeches and be more engaged with the learning.

In addition, the ICT tool served as a tool that facilitated classroom discussion regarding the different language features in the given speeches as students had the opportunity to see each other’s responses and this led to discussions as to why particular sentences/quotes were selected.

In the follow up activity, students had an opportunity to write a speech using the different language features taught, using Padlet as well. Students were engaged in the learning and were excited to present their speeches in an energetic and persuasive manner.

Limitations and Recommendations

In the first run of the lesson, time was a limiting factor as students needed to process information taught during the lesson, then post their responses as a group.

Furthermore, with one or two iPads being shared by a group of five students, the task became challenging for the members to work on the paragraph together.

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In order to ease accessibility to Padlet, the ICT tools used would require the support of infrastructure. During the lesson, students were allowed to using iPads as well as mobile phones. Unfortunately, some students had difficulty in accessing the school’s Wi-Fi network from some of their devices. The teacher had to spend some time monitoring and checking that the students were able to tap into the network before using the Padlet. A delay in task fulfilment and the potential of reducing the level of engagement and motivation of students in the activity was imminent.

While collaboration with students was the key principle in utilising ICT as a tool, it was noted that interactions between students were limited although they were initially seen to be discussing the task among themselves. It was unclear if there was depth or breadth in their discussions as their interactions were sustained for several minutes only. Little communication was observed when students directed their attention to the iPad or mobile phones to access Padlet to key in individual responses.

Although students were able to see the works of their friends and peers, the constraints of curriculum time did not allow for students to share and rationalise their work something which could have been beneficial in improving learning and selfassessment.

Potential Future Work

Despite the limitations, the use of ICT indeed has its benefits in enhancing students learning in the classroom. It creates authentic learning experiences by allowing students to participate in real-time discussions and to receive feedback from teachers and peers almost instantaneously.

It was evident that Padlet allowed both students and teachers to discuss and clarify an understanding of the topic through the online platform. However, more could be done to in terms of the lesson design that would take into consideration the desired outcomes of the lesson and its use of ICT.

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Acknowledgments

References Chiong, R., & Jovanovic, J. (2012). Collaborative Learning in Online Study Groups: An Evolutionary Game Theory Perspective . Journal of Information Technology Education: Research , 82 - 101.

Fuchs, B. (2014). The Writing is on the Wall: Using Padlet for Whole-Class Engagement. LOEX Quarterly, 7-9.

Kouraogo, P. (1993). Language learning strategies in input-poor environments.

System 21, 156 - 173.

Ministry of Education. (2014). Masterplan 4. Retrieved from ICT CONNECTION: https://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/masterplan-4/overview

Vandrick, S. (2000). Language, culture, class, gender, and class participation.

Annual Meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages .

Vancouver, Canada.

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T 0004

Infusion of Info-communication Platform ‘Canva’ as an Assessment for Learning (AFL) tool in Teaching of Multimodal Texts for Authentic English Learning

Authors: Vanishree Vengadasalam, Anbalahan Muthusamy, Chng Yi Na, Kesavan Thangam, Ler Kai Ming Gavin

Abstract The aim of this application study is to examine the feasibility of utilising an existing multimodal text creation platform ‘Canva’ to support authentic student learning as an Assessment for Learning (AFL) tool. With scenarios emerging respect to the symbiosis of ICT and education to better align our students’ learning with realistic future societal developments, the usage of ICT platforms in such learning is important to reinforce such embedded connexions. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: What are the existing student capabilities in the use of ICT in creating multimodal texts; Which parts of their theoretical learning in multimodal text analysis are they able to apply; What considerations are needed in the introduction of such platforms; What are the implications post-technology use on the teaching and learning processes for staff?

The initial hypothesis is that such an infusion should at its heart assist our students in processing the Text type, Register, Audience, Purpose, Tone (TRAPT) when engaging in creation, manipulation and analysis of multimodal text types.

Introduction Resolving the perennial issue of students’ being ‘spoon fed’ with information on their class tests and semester exams; and to nurture self-directed learners who develop responsibility for their own learning - these were the core impetuses for the development of the ICT PLT project.

It is widely accepted by educators in the school that students are very much dependant on the teacher's’ notes, practice papers and ‘last minute tips’ for their tests and exams.

This teaching and learning culture may be detrimental to students in the near future, where they have to be, and are expected to be self-directed learners. Being well aware of this challenge that lies ahead for the students, the PLT team decided to address it.

We realised that many students could be visual learners and thus decided to embark on revising Visual Stimulus of the assessment component in English Language Paper 2. The PLT task requires students to create their very own Visual Text based on any particular theme of their choice. While attempting to create the visual text, students must make reference and employ Register, Audience, Purpose and Tone (TRAPT) a framework taught to them earlier this year.

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The ICT platform, Canava, was chosen as a suitable platform for students, since it is free and user friendly.

Literature Review Using the Principles of Multiliteracies to Inform Pedagogical Change (Antsey & Bull, 2010) According to Antsey and Bull (2010), the Characteristics that are desirable in a Multiliterate Pedagogy are split into three main categories; ‘Characteristics of Classroom Interaction’, ‘Construction and Realisation of Literacy’ and ‘Literate Practices through Pedagogy and Expectations and Responsibilities’.

Amongst these categories, Classroom Interaction requires modelling and practice of Metacognitive Processes, which can be actuated through the provision of easy-access ICT platforms to facilitate. Construction and realisation also calls for the use of real and simulated contexts reflected through authentic texts and tasks. These identified components are common considerations in implementing new methods and platforms in learning. However, they are also a timely reminder in ensuring that such infusions are beneficial and do not detract from the original intentions of the pedagogical methods already in place.

In keeping with the English Language Syllabus 2010, the use of information and communication technology (ICT) was incorporated by teachers into the design and delivery of the task. The EL Syllabus 2010 also holds the following assumptions and beliefs about language and language learning that lends itself well to supporting the task that was crafted: • Language is a means of making meaning and of communication • Language use is guided by our awareness of the purpose, audience, context and culture in which the communication takes place Based on these beliefs, the task that was created aimed to help pupils achieve effective use of English through adopting a balance between a contextualised and holistic approach to learning that would provide a rich language environment for developing language skills, grammar and vocabulary. As such, pupils were provided an extensive opportunity to engage in a sustained, authentic and creative writing activity. There were plenty of opportunities for pupils to be exposed to and engage in producing a variety of multimodal texts to represent ideas effectively and with impact.

Such language exposure will broaden pupils’ learning experiences. The exposure will provide pupils with ample opportunities to use language in a variety of contexts, to revisit language structures and skills and to see how language works according to purpose, audience, context and culture. The learning task and activity was thus designed for pupils to learn the language in authentic and meaningful contexts of use.

Approach Subjects The subjects selected had to have covered the required theoretical understanding for multimodal literacies. We hence examined the pool of Secondary 2 Express and 114

Secondary 3 Express students and decided to support the Secondary 3 Express students in reinforcing their existing skills. This includes the ability to make predictions about the content of a text using their own prior knowledge, typographical and visual features, text features, organisational patterns and organisational structure.

Infusing Material To further support the existing material, it was decided that the materials provided to infuse the Canva platform into Multimodal text learning would be constructed in a manner to primarily support existing content and not to detract or add additional lesson objectives onto lessons. The primary concept and idea behind the material would thus be an instructional package that predicts, preempts and resolves questions that students may face when utilising the platform, to reduce the taxation that an additional platform may inflict upon existing lesson implementations. This document is as provided below (Annex A).

Gauging Effectiveness of Infused Platform The effectiveness of this platform will be examined in various ways. First, the resulting product will be examined on its overall level of quality. This should yield a representation of how well the subject population is able to utilise the platform, apply the theoretical content taught previously and reproduce authentic texts. The second layer of examining the effectiveness of the platform would occur through a post-activity analysis and discussion of the provided platform to gather qualitative student feedback.

Results The results were generally quite varied and reflected a good spread of the respective students’ understanding. In terms of representation of learning, students reflected to differing degrees the extent of their learning through the choice of language used, placement of wording and pictures as well as how the overall posters designed matched the provided questions and answers.

Analysis and Discussion Generally, students felt that the task allowed them to gain deeper understanding of the various features of visual text. Based on the survey results, it was evident that the task enabled students to better interpret and understand the underlying messages, purpose and intended audience of a visual text. Such benefits are marked and notable as they show that students have acquired a skill which works two ways. The first is targetted planning and design of multimodal texts, the latter in interpretation and conscious reading of text.

However, a small minority felt that the task was not very useful to them as they already possess a good grasp of knowledge in unpacking visual text; some stated that they had difficulties using the Canva application. Furthermore, students highlighted that they encountered difficulties in the process of creating the visual text. Some stated that they had difficulties choosing appropriate images for the visual text while some

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expressed that they were unsure of the appropriate phrases/ words that should be used for the visual text.

Given these observations, we can derive a few possibilities. The issues brought up by the students are reflective of a lack of ability to cognitively link and process what they aim to deliver in a text package. Future work to promote this platform as an Assessment for Learning avenue could further target these misunderstandings and make the most of these confusions as teachable moments with regards to authentic learning. After all, such problems are exactly what students may face in the process of constructing or analyzing multimodal texts in authentic settings.

Findings and Conclusions In the process of implementing this platform, there are two segments of the modern pedagogical approaches that have been broached. First and foremost, the ICT component introduced in here is primarily intended to be a non-intrusive and nondisruptive component aimed at supporting the teaching and assessment (or providing an alternative assessment platform) of multimodal texts. Through the end products submitted, although it does seem that there are still some implementation issues, the overall introduction appears to have gone through quite smoothly.

The second portion involves the authenticity of learning. At current, the platform is used to supplement the existing packages. With further deliberation and time, the authenticity can be expanded to include task authenticity (for example, designing a publicity campaign) or even integrated across other subject disciplines such as Art, or even as part of a Values in Action component to promote their projects. The pedagogy involved would then be reactive, and require students to reflectively assess their own works through a third party stand point.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Master Teacher, Mdm Jeyalaxmy Ayaduray for her fresh perspectives and guidance during the process of this paper.

References Bull, Geoff, and Michèle Antsey. “Chapter 5: Using the Principles of Multiliteracies to Inform Pedagogical Change.” Multiliteracies in Motion: Current Theory and Practice, edited by David R Cole and Darren L. Pullen, Routledge, 2010, pp. 141–159.

MOE. “ENGLISH LANGUAGE SYLLABUS 2010 (PRIMARY & SECONDARY).”

ENGLISH LANGUAGE SYLLABUS 2010 (PRIMARY & SECONDARY), www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/syllabuses/englishlanguage-and-literature/files/english-primary-secondary-express-normalacademic.pdf.

Annex A: Canva Instruction Worksheet 1. Go to ‘canva.com’ a.

Available as an app in Apple iTunes store 116

2. On the first page, sign up for an account using one of the three options. If you don’t have any one of these, please create an email account to register for a Canva account.

3. If you are signing up with an email, fill in the details below accordingly, and record your password in the space provided below.

4. Record your password below to ensure that you do not forget it.

My password is: _________________________________________________________

Creating and designing your own Visual Text Poster 117

Step 1 Examine the questions and answers carefully. What do you need to convey in your poster?

What are the main messages your poster needs to have? What is the most important thing that needs to be featured?

List them down in the space provided below.

Step 2 Log in to Canva and select ‘Create a design: Poster’.

Step 3 Once you click on it, a new window should open, and you should see a blank A4 sized area. You can now drag and drop designs from the left hand panel to design your Visual text.

YOU ARE STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TO USE/ RELY ON THE AVAILABLE LAYOUTS FIRST. *NOTE: DESIGNS AND LAYOUTS WITH A “$” OR A “$1 USD” ARE PAID CONTENT. Do not use them without permission from a teacher or parent.

(Shown below)

Step 4 With a given layout, your job is to fit in information and plan them where they belong.

Look at the information that you need to present from Step 1 again.

•

What should be the title/ most prominent tag?

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•

What needs to be kept?

•

What kind of font should you use?

•

Where should it be placed for that particular piece of information?

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T 0005

Harnessing ICT to provide Real-Time Feedback and Intervention to Common Mathematical Misconceptions

Team Members: Timothy Chong Wee Er Ng Puay Hoon Sanjay S/O Radakrishna Chong Jia Wen Audrey

1. Abstract Our research project aims to address students’ misconceptions on linear algebraic expansion by harnessing the use of ICT tools, in particular Plickers and Socrative, to provide teachers with real-time, quantifiable and specific statistics of any misconceptions a student might have. An engineered lesson model comprising of a cyclic diagnose-remediate component (with the use of Plickers at the start of the lesson), followed by a summative assessment (with the use of Socrative at the end of the lesson) was employed. This lesson model yielded positive results in improving students’ understanding on linear algebraic expansion. Our lesson model also yielded a medium effect based on the standard mean deviation improvement in students’ answer choices. Limitations and potential future work are also discussed in this report.

2. Literature Review Teachers often find it hard to pinpoint and address the multitude and variations of student misconceptions in Mathematics. The usual process of collecting students’ work to mark and provide individualized feedback is time consuming. As a result, some students will continue to bring these Mathematical misconceptions with them through their Secondary School years. This is a huge cause for concern as a significant number of topics are heavily based on the foundation of the preceding topic. To address this issue, we chose to target a class from lower secondary.

Another major issue teachers face when addressing misconceptions is the lack of realtime feedback. It would be highly inefficient to spend time to investigate the exact misconception a student may have using traditional diagnostic tests - A class may have as many as 42 students and each student has his or her own variety of misconceptions across a variety of Mathematics topics.

For feedback to be effective, the teacher must have information from students that reveal exactly what they do or do not know (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Studies have shown that students benefit substantially from receiving individualized immediate feedback (Moore, 1978). Students who have their doubts clarified immediately are more likely to be engaged and hence learn better.

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ICT tools can provide real-time analysis of the variation of students’ answers. This will allow a teacher to identify the exact misconception a student might have and provide intervention measures or feedback to the specific needs of any class. Furthermore, the interactivity of such ICT tools will truly engage students and allow them to reconstruct their misconceptions instead of too much teacher talk (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999).

For this purpose, we have identified Plickers to provide a real-time analysis of our group of students’ answers while Socrative was used as a summative assessment tool to conclude if students have indeed learnt from their misconceptions. A standard deviation comparison (Cohen, 1988) was also employed to gauge the effectiveness of our intervention strategies.

3. Methods 3.1

Lesson Planning

The research was conducted with a group of Secondary 2 Normal Technical class of 24 students who were generally motivated and willing to learn. The table below shows a summary of our planning process.

Table 1: Our Implementation Timeline May to July 2017

  

August 2017

  

September to October 2017

  

Identify research problem and questions Craft sample questions with common misconceptions Explore the use of various ICT tools such as Plickers, Kahoot and Socrative Creating a database of questions with misconceptions (Plickers) Test the feasibility of Plickers in various classes Creating end of class assessment questions (Socrative) Implementation of chosen ICT tools (Plickers and Socrative) during lesson Analysis of Project effectiveness Writing of research paper

Our group acknowledges that Algebra is an important foundation to many other topics in Mathematics. After discussion, we narrowed down to addressing students’ misconceptions on linear algebraic expansion. With the intention to use ICT tools in assisting our lesson model, we tried and tested a variety of tools that are available, before deciding on Plickers and Socrative.

Taking into consideration some of the strengths and limitations of the ICT tools, which will be discussed later, we customised a database of Multiple Choice Questions, with distractors that were carefully crafted. The crafting process relies heavily on the 121

experience of teachers who have taught this topic before as these teachers are likely to foresee the common misconceptions that students might have in this topic. There was also a gradual increase in the level of difficulty of the questions to build confidence, stimulate thinking and inject a sense of excitement and accomplishment in the students.

We chose Plickers for the first part of our lesson model as it is a simple yet powerful tool that enables us to collect real-time formative assessment data without the need of student having mobile devices. This eliminates problems such as students having no mobile devices or weak internet connection.

We then chose Socrative Space Race Quiz as a summative assessment tool as we aim to engage the whole class and also inject some competitiveness into the assessment where students get to compete against one another in a team. Socrative also allows us to get summarized feedback of the team's performance and analyse the effectiveness of the lesson.

3.2 Lesson Implementation The lesson is a revision lesson, where students had some prior knowledge about algebra and its various concepts. Our lesson model consisted of 2 parts.

In the first step of our cyclic lesson model, Plickers was used to facilitate the process of finding out students’ misconception. After the whole class answered one Multiple Choice Question, the correct answer was then revealed to the students. Plickers provide a real-time analysis by showing the distribution of students’ choices for that question. This served as a quick and effective way to check for the entire class’ understanding. As the choices were carefully crafted, the teacher would know exactly what misconception a student might have, resulting in him or her choosing that choice.

This allows the teacher to address that particular misconception immediately before deciding to attempt another question of the same nature or moving on to another type of question if the formative assessment results proves favourable. Students were also given the opportunity to correct their classmate’s mistakes and provide an alternative solution.

In the second part, we ended off the lesson with a team activity using the Socrative Space Race Quiz, where students attempted similar questions from Plickers. The summative assessment was conducted differently. Students were given 10 questions back to back to complete on their own time and a real-time progress bar was displayed on the screen for students to track their progress as they went on to do the quiz.

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4. Results 4.1

Analysis

During the initial diagnostic assessment, the average percentage of correct answers was 71%. This was over a series of 6 varied questions using Plickers. Students were exposed to these questions in the earlier part of the year and this exercise served as a recap of their prior knowledge.

Figure 1: Summary of Pre-Intervention Results (Plickers)

After intervention and immediate feedback per question, the students showed an improvement when they attempted similar questions on Socrative as part of their summative assessment. Students were paired up for this activity and the average percentage of correct answers improved to 86.9%.

One key finding we discovered through our method was that students were more likely to make mistakes involving questions with multiple brackets and negative signs. This was noticed from the repeated poor performance in our Plickers questions. Though the teacher may have highlighted these mistakes at the initial stage, its reappearance could suggest that students may still be confused with this concept.

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Figure 2: Summary of Post-Intervention Results (Socrative)

Analysing the students’ pre-intervention and post-intervention performance, we are able to see an improvement from 58.3% of the students. On average, students improved by 11.6% in their own academic performance. Students were achieving an average of 68.4% of correct answers before intervention and 80% after intervention.

This shows the effectiveness of the intervention as there was a positive jump in correct answers.

Figure 3: Summary of Improvement between Pre- and Post-Intervention

Table 2: Criteria for Comparing Effect Size of SMD SMD value

Effect Size

1.00 and greater

Very large effect

0.80 to 0.99

Large effect

0.50 to 0.79

Medium effect

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0.20 to 0.49

Small effect

0.00 to 0.19

Negligible effect

Table 3: Overall Results from Pre- and Post-Intervention Pre-Test

Post-Test

Class

N

Mean

SD

N

2D

24

68.4

23.5 24

Mean Diff. SMD

Mean

SD

80

12.8

11.6

Effect Size

0.61 Medium Effect

As a class, the students were showed more consistent set of results as the Standard Deviation (SD) dropped from 23.5% to 12.8% between the pre- and post-intervention stages. It is assuring to note that the results became more homogeneous (smaller SD).

As such, there was a medium effect (based on Cohen’s standard deviation criteria) between the pre- and post-intervention stages.

4.2

Findings

Findings of this study indicate that the use of ICT to address student’s misconceptions had a positive impact in students’ understanding of algebraic manipulation. Based on the improved scores over a series of similar questions, it was clearly evident that students demonstrated greater clarity and confidence when completing the summative assessment. For those who were able to perform well during the diagnostic test, the Socrative Space Race tool gave them an opportunity to challenge themselves as the students were subconsciously speed-thinking.

The detailed student results provided the teachers with a window into their thoughts and allowed us to identify some of their more significant misconceptions and mistakes.

It allowed us to analyse the questions that students performed weakly in and future lessons were planned to facilitate clarifying these misconceptions.

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5. Conclusion 5.1

Limitations and Recommendations

We wanted to enhance the lesson with an ICT tool that could provide real-time analysis, fast enough for the teacher to decide the remediation plan for addressing algebraic misconceptions. We also took into consideration that only the teacher was required to download the Plickers app, removing any connectivity issues on the students’ side.

However, Plickers limits the type of question that we can ask to only Multiple Choice or True/False format. This required the team to be mindful and strategic in providing appropriate distractors in the Multiple Choices. These appropriate distractors included a variety of common misconceptions that students may have based on the past experiences of the teachers. Plickers also does not provide a platform for students to justify their choice, unless students are being called to explain.

A common source of error may come from students who guessed the correct answer, either by luck or by elimination. This may give a wrong perception to the teacher who is facilitating the activity and as such some underlying misconceptions may not be identified during the pre-test.

Plickers does not allow many Mathematical symbols to be entered, as such only basic symbols, e.g. +, - can be used in either the question or the multiple choices provided.

The interface only allows questions to be uploaded in the picture format, but not in the Multiple Choices. As such if more complicated Mathematical symbols need to be included, to overcome this problem, the question, together with its choices needs to be uploaded as a picture.

Comparatively, Socrative offers an additional format of Short Answer, which gives students the flexibility to type in their algebraic expressions. The Space Race acts as a form of Exit Ticket to determine if our remediation plan was effective. The only problem we might foresee when using Socrative is that student may have limited data connection on their smartphones. However, the team overcame this problem by getting students to work in pairs instead, minimising the probability of students who do not have a data connection.

5.2

Potential Future Work

Overall, our team feels that both Plickers and Socrative are suitable tools for assessment that helps to provide real-time feedback. Teachers had a choice of showing or hiding each student’s answer, and this increased students’ willingness to participate as they know that their pride is protected. Students are also able to review their content knowledge in a fun and exciting setting. More importantly, teachers’ are able to assess students’ understanding quicker and more efficiently, giving them the flexibility to modify the lesson according to students’ needs.

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As a revision tool, our lesson model can be applied to many other mathematical topics to address other common misconceptions. Such use of ICT tools can also provide much critical data that teachers can then use to cater their lessons to their students’ needs.

6. References 1. Moore, G. (1978). Providing Feedback To Students. NACTA Journal, 22(2), 28-31.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43763423 2. Jonassen, D. H., Peck, K. L., & Wilson, B. G. (1999). Learning with technology: A constructivist perspective. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill.

3. Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112.

4. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.).

5. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

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Pedagogies

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P 0001

Physics Concepts Through the Use of Concept Cartoons

Henry Ng Andrew Shen Yanru Cheung Kah Hong

Introduction and Literature Review

The first Concept Cartoons were created by Brenda Keogh and Stuart Naylor in 1991. A brief outline of the Concept Cartoon strategy was first published in 1993 (Keogh and Naylor, 1993). The purpose for creating them was as a strategy to elicit learners’ ideas, challenge their thinking and support learners in developing their understanding.

Significant features of Concept Cartoons and how they are presented now include the following:  

 



 

They use everyday situations that does not appear to be scientific. This allow students lacking in confidence are less likely to be intimidated by the science and more likely to try sharing their point of view.

They present alternative viewpoints on the situation, including the scientifically acceptable viewpoint(s). Most of the Concept Cartoons embed scientific ideas in everyday contexts, and the contextual features can influence how the problem is interpreted, so that in many cases there can be more than one scientifically acceptable alternative. This presents an additional level of challenge to learners, especially to high achieving students.

They have a blank speech bubble, to give a clear statement that there may be more ideas that are not yet included in the dialogue so that learners are encouraged to explore alternative ideas.

The background text is written in students’ language, so they can be used independently by learners if the teacher feels that this is appropriate. This extends the range of ways that teachers can choose to use Concept Cartoons in their classrooms.

All the alternative viewpoints have equal status. When the teacher presents a set of alternative viewpoints in a Concept Cartoon, all of these viewpoints are seen as legitimate. This gives less confident students support in voicing what they think, because someone else has already articulated their ideas. If their ideas are incorrect then they can put the blame on the Concept Cartoon character.

The speech bubbles include common misconceptions, so these can be recognised and addressed directly in the lesson.

They present plausible alternatives that are based on research evidence about students’ ideas at different ages.

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Part II: Methods, Design and Procedure

The team decide to use concept art on two different topics; one using existing found online and one using concept art created by the teachers for the students to do their discussion. After much deliberation, the team agreed to use linoit.com as the platform for students to share their discussion. Using the online platform allow the students to do their discussion without having to set aside a timing and meet up to finish the project, it also allow the teacher to see their discussion and reply with guidance and help.

Concept Art 1: Thermal Heat Transfer (Annex A) The concept art were found online and the questions were crafted by the teachers.

The students work on their answers online and post them on linoit as show below.

After the first concept art exercise, the teachers met to discussed and realise that most of the discussion done among the students were not recorded as they students made their discussion using wadsapp group chat before posting their final answers on linoit. Thus, the teachers made adjustment to the second concept art project.

Concept Art 2: Lens (Annex B)

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Chat groups were created for students to do their discussion online before submitting their final answers onto linoit where the different groups get to see each other’s answers.

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Discussion among the students in each group were recorded this time round and teachers were able to give feedback on chat group and facilitate discussion among groups using linoit.

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Conclusion of Concept Art We discover that using concept art and online tools for discussion, some students who were less likely to share their view and opinion in class were more willing to share in their group chats.

Part III: Conclusion, Limitations and Recommendations

Findings and Conclusion Concept art and online discussion allow students who are less confident with the subject to take part in group discussion. Presenting misconception in the form of concept art allow teachers to embed them into students’ daily lives, thus increasing the students’ interest of solving these misconceptions and problems.

Limitations and Possible Recommendations Setting up the wadsapp groups and monitoring the discussions of students take up a lot of the teachers’ time. Some students were still not very keen in voicing out their views even on the online platforms. Discussion on chats can go off topics at time and require monitoring from teachers and feedback at time to get the students back on track. For future projects, group leaders should be assigned to keep the discussion in check and provide constant feedback on the progress to the teachers.

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Annex A

Physics in Life Name: __________________________________(

)

Instructions: 1. Examine the following conversation.

2. Record your thoughts, drawings, or answers in the boxes below.

Transfer of Thermal Energy

Sally

Joshua Jane

1. Who do you think is right in the cartoon? Why? a) The person I agree with: ___________ b) Principle (science idea): c) Reason (making the science idea relevant to the question): d) Outcome:

2. Where else will you see this phenomenon?

3. What are some uses of this phenomenon that you can think of?

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4. What is a question I would like to ask to help me understand the cartoon better?

Once completed: Visit this link and share your answer for 1a and 1c, http://linoit.com/users/cheung5567/canvases/transfer

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Annex B

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References

Naylor, S. and Keogh, B. (2012) Concept Cartoons: what have we learnt? Paper presented at the Fibonacci Project European Conference, Leicester, UK

https://arbs.nzcer.org.nz/using-concept-cartoons-assessment

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P 0002

Utility of Structured Note-Taking as Effective Content Reading Strategy to Improve Geography Learning of Upper Secondary Students Rita Teo Ivan Wu, Low Yi En, Stephanie Tok

ABSTRACT This project is a small-scale inquiry on the utility of note-taking as a content reading strategy to improve five Upper Secondary students’ comprehension of geographic-specific texts and their academic performance in geography in a Singapore Secondary School. Guiding this inquiry is the question, ‘To what extent does note-taking affect Upper Secondary students’ comprehension of geographic texts?’ A structured note-taking using Cornell method was utilised for the purpose of the inquiry with a group of five Upper Secondary students using a repeated measures approach as its design. Though there was a mixed effects on the student participants, the strategy has potential for making students more active readers of geographic texts i.e. selection of critical information specific to focus on key geographical issues. Limitations of the inquiry included its small sample size and insufficient time for familiarisation of strategy to draw conclusive findings on the significant impact on students’ academic performance in geography.

INTRODUCTION Research study shows geography learning is integrally connected to how students process and comprehend texts. Geography learning consists of a diverse and comprehensive list of texts such as maps, diagrams and other pictures (static or animated), graphics, charts and graphs, and geo-spatial representations of information. Hence students who struggle with reading have little or no support in developing their reading comprehension of geographic texts (Christina, 2013). In view of the connection between geography learning and reading literacy, this project is a small-scale inquiry on the utility of note-taking as a content reading strategy to improve students’ comprehension of geographic-specific texts in a Singapore

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Secondary School. A structured note-taking using Cornell method were utilised for purpose of the inquiry.

The initiation of project, by a team of geography teachers from the school, was to investigate a regression trend of student academic performance in geography. In the team’s investigation, the internal environment scan of geography learning in the school emerged a significant finding i.e. students who achieved poor academic performance in geography shared a common trait of being poor readers who lacked in effective reading strategies to assist them in meaningful sense-making of the geographic content they interacted with. The finding showed the students deployed a common but least effective reading strategy i.e. highlighting information. Anecdotal evidence from geography teachers of the students also suggested they were highly dependent on their teachers to guide them in reading and unpacking of the content before they could do any meaningful sense-making. Often, , the geography teachers had to put in a substantial amount of time and effort to scaffold their students in reading assignments in hope of deepening their content and connecting geographical conceptual understandings.

One consequence of exhibiting such poor reading behaviours, as observed by the team, was numerous unsuccessful attempts made by the students in using the geographic content to structure good quality of verbal and written responses. Often, the students demonstrated a superficial level of content understanding and made few connections to any geographical concepts. Hence they continued to achieve poor performance in geography and became seemingly unmotivated to read any geographic content independently. This was a recurrence problem in the school.

This recurrence problem gave considerable impetus for an exploration of effective reading strategies to support students in modifying their poor reading behaviours to enhance their comprehension of geographic texts hence make improvement in their academic performance in geography.

For the inquiry, the guiding question in the project is ‘To what extent does notetaking affect Upper Secondary students’ comprehension of geographic texts?’

Through this inquiry, it is aimed that the finding(s) could assist the team to resolve

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the recurring problem and to improve students’ academic performance in geography.

LITERATURE REVIEW Note-taking as reading strategy Note-taking involves a process of making notes from reading, lectures or class lessons (Sedita, 2010). Research study shows note-taking has two major functions; first, note-taking serves a process function that facilitates student learning through encoding which increase students’ attention, increase awareness of text organization, commit information into memory and support students in comparing text materials with their prior knowledge. Second, note-taking serves a review function that allows for an external storage of information by students that can be used in retrieving the content in delayed recalls or answering examination questions.

Thus, a main benefit of note-taking is that both functions support students in paying specific attention to important rather trivial information of reading texts (Kiewra, 1987). Hence, note-taking is an effective reading strategy to assist students in content reading. To ensure students are able to do good quality note-taking, research study also has shown a structured approach towards note-taking is more effective than an unstructured one.

Amongst a variety of structured note-taking methods such as graphic organisers and mind maps, one research-based structured note-taking method known as the Cornell note-taking method gained recognition of being highly effective (Broe & Chu, 2013). It was developed in 1949 at Cornell University by Walter Pauk. This method was influenced significantly by the SQ3R Method, a method for reading and studying that stands for surveying, questioning, reading, reciting, and reviewing (Kerstiens, 1998). This Cornell method is recognised for ensuring high student accountability for recording their learning in a meaningful and interactive way. It also stimulates critical thinking skill such as analysis and synthesis of information by students and creative communication. It has proven to increase information retention rates and establish a culture of inquiry in the classrooms (Pauk and Owen, 2011). An exemplar of the Cornell note-taking template is shown in Annex1 to describe its key features to support its usefulness.

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METHOD Study Participants A purposeful sampling approach was used to develop a detailed understanding of possible effects of the reading strategy on the student participants’ learning of geography and their academic performances. Being at piloting phase of this project cycle, a total of five student participants from Secondary Four Express were selected by their geography teachers in the inquiry. The selection of these five student participants was based on the following criteria: (1) Consistent poor academic performer in geography and (2) Poor readers with reading behaviours such as; 

use of highlighting as only reading strategy



high dependency on teachers to guide reading



poor retention of content information and



establish poor connections between content information and geographical conceptual understanding in both verbal and written responses.

Design For this inquiry, a repeated measures design where the same group of five student participants were involved throughout the stages so as to offer opportunity for mitigation of any undesirable side-effects they might experience in the inquiry process. To determine effects of the strategy, a comparable set of content reading assignments which focus on similar topic and geographical conceptual understanding were used in the geography classrooms. A total of three sessions spreading across two weeks were conducted with the students. All five were introduced to the Cornell note-taking method and given guided practice prior to their independent use. To examine the effect of using the reading strategy, the students had to complete a reading task which constituted writing an individual response to an open-ended question. Exemplars of student participants’ reading documents and written responses before and after utilising the reading strategy were two main sources of data collection for analysis in this pilot phase. One other

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source of data was interviews with student participants to clarify the annotations on their reading documents.

Procedure The procedural flow of the inquiry as shown in Figure 1 was implemented with the student participants.

Figure 1: Procedural Flow of Study

Session 1- Pre-Utilisation Stage - Issue 1st reading assignment for students to work independently activating existing reading strategy(ies) - Students to draft 1st response to reading task independently - Collection of students' reading document and 1st responses

Session 2- Strategy Familiarisation Stage Teacher Modelling & Guided Practice of Cornell Note-Taking Method (Annex 1) - Introducton of reading strategy through teacher modelling using 1st reading assignment with students - Students to practice the strategy together with teacher using 1st reading assignment - Students to draft 2nd response to the same reading task.

- Collection of students' reading document and 2nd responses.

Session 3: Independent- Utilisation Stage: Students' Application of Reading Strategy - Issue 2nd reading assignment for students to work independently using reading strategy - Students to draft response to reading task independently - Collection of students' reading document and response to 2nd reading task.

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Analysis Strategy For purpose of analysis, data collection was done at all three stages. Two main student artefacts analysed included (1) reading documents utilised by the students and (2) student responses to reading tasks 1 and 2. Analysis of the artefacts was conducted using descriptive analysis of reading strategies and a modified generic geography assessment rubric for open-ended question as shown in Figure 2 to determine the quality of student responses and demonstration of geographic literacy.

Figure 2: Modified Generic Geography Assessment Rubric for Open-Ended Questions Level

1

Quality of Response

    

2

   

3

   

Knowledge is either very thin or narrow.

The bulk of expected knowledge is missing.

Explanation is very limited, perhaps some simple points, but very big gaps.

Evaluation is in over simple statements and lacking supporting evidence.

Examples are very general, could be anywhere or are inaccurate.

Some knowledge is shown but lacking depth throughout or only good in places.

Some points are explained, but one or more important steps missing.

One or more evaluative statements have some valid support, but unbalanced or incomplete.

Examples may be relevant but lack depth and detail.

Good knowledge is shown, but may be thin in some places or have minor gaps.

Most expected points are explained, only small steps in logic missing.

Both sides of the argument are considered, each with valid support.

Examples show some place-specific details.

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Demonstration of Geographic Literacy Low

Moderate

High

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS Using the generic geography assessment rubric as shown in Figure 2, a comparison between the quality of student responses to reading tasks 1 and 2 showed insignificant change except for two student participants who progressed from Level 1 to Level 2 and an improved geographic literacy from low to moderate.

From the descriptive analysis of the students’ reading documents i.e. note-taking template, both student participants showed good deployment of the note-taking strategy. Two other student participants, however, did not show any improvement in their responses though their responses showed an improvement in providing more accurate use of examples extracted from the reading document as compared to reading task 1. The descriptive analysis done on these two students’ reading documents showed the transference of information to their note-taking template was disorganised and uncompleted for some. The left columns showed few annotations and questions raised about the reading document. The fifth student participant also did not make progression in quality of response between both reading tasks. The descriptive analysis done on the reading documents showed the student participant appeared to struggle with using the note-taking template and continued to activate the pre-utilisation reading strategy of highlighting information on the document itself. Most of the note-taking template was left blank.

Hence there were mixed results on the effects of using the strategy to improve students’ comprehension of geographic texts as well as improving their quality of responses and geographic literacy.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Though there was mixed effects of the strategy on the five student participants, it could be suggested that a finding of this inquiry is; the Cornell structured notetaking as a content reading strategy has potential to support reading comprehension of some Upper Secondary geography students. The components in the template impose on the student participants to be conscious and conscientious in thinking about questions they should be asking about the geographic texts they interact with. They become more active readers as some information processing would be required by the students to complete the

144

template. Moreover, the summary component of the template also encourages students to pay attention to critical geographical information featured in the reading document and to consolidate key reading points. This could also assist the students in transferring their reading to writing task more successfully. Perhaps, some modifications can be made to provide some teacher scaffolds. Backman (1994) suggested using guided instruction to effectively introduce and teach notetaking strategies. Teachers can then scaffold instruction so students take notes independently. Scaffolds in forms of guided geographical questions and/or vocabulary exploration section could be added to the left column to better support students who need more time to use the strategy more effectively. Such modifications can also to create reading focus specific to geographical issues.

CONCLUSIONS- LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE WORK This inquiry has a few limitations. Due to its small sampling of student population, the findings and discussion of this inquiry are restricted by experiences of the five student participants hence they could not be generalised to be representative of the Upper Secondary student population in the school or other secondary schools in Singapore. To explore the effects at that scale, the size of sampling student population should be expanded and more stratified to capture different student segments. Moreover, the challenge of having a short time frame to conduct this inquiry also restricted the amount of time allocated for student participants to be familiarised with the strategy so as to study its maximum effects on the students’ learning of geography. In the next inquiry cycle, it will be ideal to factor more time for the strategy familiarisation stage to ensure the strategy is deployed effective by the student participants prior to their use independently.

In conclusion, this inquiry has provided the team a glimpse of the students’ reactions to using the note-taking strategy and its usability to be extended to other groups of students beyond the poor readers as means to bridge academic performance in geography as a possible focus for its next inquiry cycle.

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REFERENCE

Backman, C. A. (1994). Finding an effective note-taking system for math students.

Teaching & Change, 2(1), 73-88.

Broe, D., & Chu, L. (2013). The effects of teaching Cornell notes on student achievement. Research Paper. Minot State University.

Christina, R.S. (2013, Sept 6). The Geography and Literacy Connection. Retrieved from https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/03/the-geography-andliteracy-connection Kerstiens, G. (1998). Studying in college, then & now: An interview with Walter Pauk.

Journal of Developmental Education, 21(3), 20-23.

Kiewra, K. A. (2002). How classroom teachers can help students learn and teach them how to learn. Theory into Practice, 41(2), 71-80. doi: 10.1207/s15430421tip4102_3 Pauk, W., & Owens, R. J. Q., (2011). How to study in college. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Sedita, J. (2010). The key comprehension routine. Rowley, MA: Keys to Literacy.

.

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ANNEX 1 An exemplar of Cornell note-taking template Cornell Notes Lecture,

Name: ___________________________________

reading/chapter/novel/arti cle during class, power

Class: _________________ Period: ________

point, movies (if need to collect info.)

Date: ____________________________

Topic:_______________ ____________________ __________

Essential Question:

Notes:

Questions/Main Ideas:

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Summary:

Source: https://www.template.net/business/note-templates/cornell-notes/

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P 0003

Improving Teaching & Learning through the consolidation of Key Ideas

Quah Wai Kuan Loo Min Yan Vanessa Yong Kiam Ham Janson Ng Puay Hoon

Abstract When we document our teaching strategies, we give ourselves more opportunities to reflect on our own or with fellow teachers and think deeply about creating purposeful learning opportunities. It could be through developing collaborative units that achieve a tighter connection between learning outcomes within the subject. The document should be a living one that not only tracks how we grow student learning, but also tracks the parts of learning that we value the most. As the document is always malleable, the reflection, the conversations and the changes happen naturally and organically. These opportunities build student learning and develop our professional learning communities.

This study explores how documentation of key ideas and teaching strategies in a document help in teaching and learning, particularly in the areas of (1) consistency, (2) collaboration and (3) reflective teaching.

Introduction Learning for the students’ needs to be scaffolded, and the same applies to the teaching process. Teachers may have different strategies in teaching a particular mathematical concept. This workshop demonstrates the consolidation of these strategies and standardising the common language to help scaffold the teaching process for the teachers and in turn, help the students learn better. By intentionally going through the key ideas and teaching strategies and documenting them down, teachers will learn from each other and collectively think of ways to make the learning process more manageable for the students.

Reflective teaching means looking at what is done in the classroom, thinking about why it is being done and thinking about if it works - a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. It is a deliberate process which helps teachers identify and explore their own practices and underlying beliefs. This may then lead to changes and improvements in their teaching. The Key Ideas document provides a concrete 149

structure for teachers to reflect on their own teaching pedagogies and to document them down, so that this collective effort will help to improve future teaching processes.

In other words, the Key Ideas Document can be seen as an end-product of an overt, conscious and deliberate process of reflective teaching, done collaboratively.

Literature Review

Schön (1987) defined the concept of reflective teaching by considering it as a socioprofessional activity through which teachers adapt knowledge to specific situations.

Research on reflective and collaborative professional development shows that, by using these strategies, teachers are able to improve their teaching practices to a greater extent than when attempting to do so alone or via traditional ongoing training (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005).

A core underpinning of the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) is that the knowledge base of a teacher helps to strengthen the theory-practice connection in his/her teaching practice. Teachers need to understand what and how to teach, in order to make the knowledge and skills accessible to the learners. It is imperative for us teachers to constantly reflect on ways to scaffold the teaching and learning process.

Methods The group first picked out the Secondary 4 Additional Mathematics topic ‘Rate of Change’ as the topic we want to scaffold the teaching process. In coming out with the Key Ideas Document, we first broke down the broad learning outcome ‘Apply differentiation to connected rates of change’ to smaller key ideas.

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Key Idea 1 Students should be able to interpret phrases such as ‘rate of change of y with respect to x when x  2 ’.

Key Idea 2 (a) Students should be able to express sentences in word problems mathematically. (b) Students should also be able to define variables if they are not provided in the question.

Key Idea 3 (a) Students should be able to apply Key Idea 2 in word problems by writing each sentence in the problem mathematically. (b) Students should be able to form the relevant connected rate of change after applying Key Idea 2. (b) Students should be able to use appropriate formulas linking the variables after forming the connected rate of change.

These key ideas were:

Key Idea 4 Students should be able to find constant rate of change in word problems.

Key Idea 5 Using similar triangles to relate the height to the radius in problems relating to cones.

After identifying these key ideas, the group came up with an elaborate teaching process and specific strategies which we think (based on the collective experience) may help students pick up these key ideas. In designing this process, teaching steps, deliberate questions which match the instructional objectives, as well as the key emphases at each juncture were clearly documented.

151

3.

Teacher then asks the students to find a relationship using the two variables involved in the missing derivative.

Teacher goes through Worked Example 13 (page 358). dA [i.e. Togoing find through the worked equationexample, involving A andasks r.] the students to write down each , find the 1.

Before teacher dr

sentence in the worked example mathematically.

Equation: A  r 2 dA dr

Derivative:  2r increases at a rate of 0.2 cm/s.

The radius of a circle [Let r be the radius of the circle, in cm.

4.

dr  0.2 cm/s.] dt

Teacher asks the students to find the final answer by substituting in the appropriate value.

Calculate the rate of increase dAof area when the radius 2is 5 cm.

Rate of increase of area   2 5  0.2  2 cm /s. dt dA [Let A be the area of the circle, in cm2. Find when r = 5.] d t [Teacher emphasizes again that since the unit for A is cm2 and the unit for time is s, dA

2.

the unit for is cm2/s.] dt Teacher then asks the students to form the connected rate of change by writing down the given derivative and the derivative to be found.

dA  dt



dr dt

Teacher reminds the students how the terms are arranged on the right hand side is based on the derivative on the left. Teacher can draw arrows to illustrate the idea again.

Based on this, the completed connected rate of change is dA dA dr   dt dr dt dA dA   0.2 dt dr

An example of the teaching process documented (for Key Idea 3) is as follows:

The same process was done for the prerequisite knowledge students must have before the teacher can start on the topic. The group believes that the teacher needs to address any learning gaps at the start of the lesson before going on to new concepts.

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Hence, there is a need to design a process to get the students to recall and apply the prerequisite knowledge before moving on to the lesson.

For each key idea, the group identified appropriate worked examples for the teacher to facilitate the teaching process, as well as practice questions for the students to directly apply the key idea taught by the teacher.

Essentially, the group has broken down the teaching process into smaller bits which are more manageable for both the teachers to go through and the students to pick up.

Findings and Conclusions

Throughout this project, several key areas stood out to us: consistency, collaboration, and reflection, as well as benefits to teachers and students.

Documenting key ideas fosters consistency: consistency within teaching and student expectations. Documentation creates the structure for a consistent educational experience for our students, whether the teacher is new in teaching or not. The department can also develop a curriculum that is contextualized to the student profile.

Documenting key ideas increases collaboration: collaboration between educators as they see their colleagues as valuable resources and allies in the discussion process.

It allows the legacy of the good work done on the students to be passed on to a new team of teachers.

Documenting key ideas allows for reflection: reflection on the strength and weakness of the strategies and pedagogies by comparing it alongside strides in student growth and proficiency.

Documenting key ideas improves the teaching process. It gives us tangible resources and goals, stimulates creativity, and enables self-reflection.

And, most importantly, documenting key ideas improves student outcomes. Students benefit from organized teaching standards held to a high expectation. Students benefit from teachers who work together. Students benefit from evolving teaching strategies which also empowers teachers when they get to see themselves what works and what does not.

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Limitations and Recommendations

This study was not able to ascertain the effectiveness of the Key Ideas Document on the learning of the students as there was no control group for comparison. A possible study could be conducted again on classes of similar ability, but with a control group where the teacher did not have access to the Key Ideas Document. A pre-test can be conducted to account for any differences in the ability of the students in the study and a post-test can be conducted to determine the effectiveness of the lessons.

It is also recommended to get the feedback of the teacher conducting the lesson and the students on the effectiveness of the series of lesson.

Potential Future Work

One potential area of work will be to create Key Ideas Document for selected topics which students commonly have problems understanding or are difficult for teachers to teach. These document will also need to be reviewed and modified to suit the profile of the students, to meet the changing syllabus or to include the new strategies or approaches to look at the concepts. In other words, for the document to be effective, it needs to evolve constantly to meet the needs of the students and the demands of the syllabus.

References

1. D. A. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

2. Darling-Hammond, L. & Bransford, J. (Eds.) (2005). Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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P 0004

Improving Instruction in Computer Applications – Applying the SIOP Model

Toh Chin Hwee Sarinah Bte Sabari

ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of improving instruction in Computer Applications.

This study aimed to improve the competencies of the students by enabling them to be independent in completing assigned tasks through the use of step-by-step guides accompanying the worksheets. The results from this study will aid in improving students' performance and refining the instructions to subsequent batches of students.

Keywords: instruction, SIOP model, Computer Applications, self-efficacy

INTRODUCTION Computer Applications is a compulsory subject offered by all students offering the Normal (Technical) curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2016). Teaching resources were provided by the Curriculum Planning and Development Department (CPDD) to facilitate the conduct of the lessons. The resources were adapted to include learning content objectives and success criteria for students to be self-directed learners.

Students are examined through one theory paper and two practical papers which cover six different modules. The practical papers require students to use computers with attached mouse to perform tasks as described in the question papers.

In Singapore, the access to computers and the Internet is relatively high. In the last survey conducted by Infocomm Media Development Authority in 2016, although 84% of individuals aged above 7 had used the Internet, only 73% of them did so using computers, laptops or tablets. This imply that more than 10% of them were accessing the Internet using their mobile phones. The 11-year usage rate of computer and the Internet is shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1. Individual Usage of Computer and Internet from 2006 to 2016 (Infocommunications Media Development Authority, 2017)

156

In Singapore, the number of broadband subscriptions has been increasing with the growing population. In particular, wireless subscriptions have been growing faster than home subscriptions. This trend of accessing the Internet on the go has been on the rise in the last decade and has been made possible primarily due to the availability of smartphones to consumers. The number of broadband subscriptions in Singapore from 2011 to 2016 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Residential and wireless broadband subscriptions in Singapore 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Residential 1237900 broadband

1277600

1295400

1347500

1359900

1335900

Wireless broadband

8823900

9260100

10083300 10518800 11088900

7898900

(Department of Statistics Singapore, 2017, p. 200)

In an earlier study of 3600 individuals and 3800 homes in 2015, 93% of them accessed the Internet from their mobile phones and 47% of them did so using other Internet-enabled devices, such as Smart TVs (Infocomm Media Development Authority, 2017a, p. 11). This is a huge increase from the 54% and 6% access to Internet using the same devices in 2011 respectively (Infocomm Media Development Authority, 2017a, p. 6). In the same study, only 89% of the children between 7 and 14 years old used computers in the preceding three months (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Proportion of computer users from 2013 to 2015 (Infocomm Media Development Authority, 2017b) 157

This is interesting as the children are school-going age and should have some form of access and use of the computer in school, even if not at home. As a result, this posed a problem when students attended lessons during Computer Applications.

Teachers observed that many students were not able to perform required tasks using the laptops. Smart phones primarily require users to use the devices through touch screens. Students who grew up in the last decade would have been exposed to touch screen devices from a young age. Prior studies have found that touch screen devices aid young children in the use of technology (Lu & Frye, 1992, p. 417).

However, the set of skills required to use a laptop with a mouse is vastly different from that of using a touch screen device. In particular, children had been reported to experience difficulty in clicking and dragging using a mouse when compared to using a touch screen (Lu & Frye, 1992, p. 418).

The gap between students’ use of smartphone and their inability to perform tasks with a mouse would not disappear on its own and would need some form of intervention to enable students to learn. With this identified problem, possible interventions were explored. Primarily, instructions to students had to be accessible to the students. The existing teaching resource did not provide adequate scaffolding and clear instructions for the students to refer to after the initial instruction by the teacher at the start of the lesson; and for students to progress to the next task when they were done. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model was found to be a suitable reference point to revise the existing teaching resource, especially so when the focus is on the preparation of the lessons. SIOP model was developed between 1996 and 2003 to enable students to achieve academic success despite being disadvantaged in English Language (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2017a).

The students in this study sat for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in 2016. The grades obtained by the students are presented in Table 2 and Table 3.

The total number of students for English Language and Mother Tongue are different as not every student was required to sit for the Mother Tongue examination.

Subjects are graded 1, 2, 3, 4 at the Foundation level while subjects at the Standard level are grade A, B, C, D, E, U (Clementi Primary School, 2013).

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Table 2. Students’ PSLE English Language grades

No. of students

2

3

4

C

D

E

4

5

5

12

12

1

Table 3. Students’ PSLE Mother Tongue grades

No. of students

1

2

3

4

A

B

C

D

E

U

2

5

3

2

5

10

4

3

2

1

From Tables 2 and 3, it can be observed that there were more students taking English at the Foundation level compared to Mother Tongue. Also, there were many more students obtaining a better grade for Mother Tongue than for English. It can be inferred that the students are more proficient in their Mother Tongue and although English Language is offered as a First Language, it is not the students’ native language. This also makes the SIOP model an appropriate reference as students appear to be disadvantaged by their command of English Language.

LITERATURE REVIEW The SIOP model was developed primarily to bridge the gap for students who were not performing well academically, with a focus on non-English speaking migrants in the United States of America (USA). Its purpose was to assist them in achieving academic excellence through effective instruction (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2017a). The SIOP Model is a framework of 30 design features that are organized in eight components: preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and review/assessment (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2017d; Echevarria, Short, & Powers, 2006, p. 209; Short & Echevarria, 1999, p. 15). A particular strength of the model is that it allows variation in the ways that the features are implemented. When the model is implemented consistently and to a high degree, student performance improves. The SIOP model has also evolved into “integrating language and content instruction in either content areas or language development classes” (Short, Echevarría, & Richards-Tutor, 2011, p. 364). This has been supported in studies involving different subjects, including Mathematics and Science (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2017b).

159

For example, Short et al. (2011) reported that there were significant improvement in students’ writing as a result of SIOP intervention with an effect size of 0.833, which is considered large (p. 366). In the same study, in addition to writing, there was evidence of some impact in reading ability and in content subject areas such as Mathematics, social studies (Short et al., 2011, p. 371). With these small successes, a third phase of the study was initiated and scaled up. It involved ten schools and more than 1000 students. It was then found that the more features of the SIOP model was implemented, the greater the impact it had on students’ learning and achievement (Short et al., 2011, p. 376). In addition, time is needed for the change in students’ ability to be observed and nine weeks of intervention was asserted to be insufficient to result in a large effect (Short et al., 2011, p. 376).

Bandura (1997) proposed a model that an individual’s self-efficacy can be derived from four principal sources of information: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states (p. 191). When students experience success in their learning, it can impact other aspects of their educational journey. For example, Schunk (1995) found that self-efficacy was an important factor that influenced students’ motivation, continued learning and performance (p. 112). In a review, self-efficacy was found to be sensitive to small changes in students’ performance and this influenced subsequent self-regulated learning and achievement (Zimmerman, 2000, p. 82). In another study, high levels of self-efficacy has been suggested to be necessary for an individual to develop sustained interest in an activity, including learning (Bandura & Schunk, 1981, p. 595). These examples show that self-efficacy can spiral upwards when students experience small successes as they are learning.

The positive impact does not come without necessary facilitating conditions. Training and coaching has been provided to teachers implementing the SIOP model (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2017c). More importantly, the teacher must be willing to change and devote time to design and implement then necessary changes (Short & Echevarria, 1999, p. 11). Short & Echevarria (1999) also found that peer support through collaborative activities and feedback were useful in effecting this change (p.

12). In addition, support from school administrators is necessary (Short, Vogt, & Echevarria, 2016).

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METHODS The design of this study is based on the repeated measures design, also known as within-subjects design.

The timeline for the implementation of the project is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Implementation timeline Activity April 2017

Conduct of first lesson using existing resources (MEL1) Identification of problem and solution

May 2017

Conduct of second lesson using existing resources (MEL2)

June 2017

Revision of existing resources (Part 1)

July 2017

Conduct of third and fourth lessons using revised resources (MEL3, MEL4) Analysis of intervention (Part 1) Revision of existing resources (Part 2)

August 2017

Conduct of fifth, sixth and seventh lessons using revised resources (MEL5, MEL6, MEL7)

September 2017

Analysis of intervention (Part 2)

September 2017

Report writing

Contrary to recommendations for experimental and control groups to be used for research to improve its rigour, this project did not adopt this practice for one main reason. There was a teacher teaching most students from the class while the other two teachers were present to facilitate the hands-on practical session. The other small pull-out group of seven students were progressing at a slower pace compared to the rest of class. The teacher felt strongly about the potential benefits of the proposed intervention and did not want to disadvantage any group of students. This contradiction is not unique and has been reported in prior studies (Konza, 2012, p.

83).

Hedges' g was determined to be an appropriate measure for the effect size in this study because of two reasons. Firstly, the sample size at each point of data 161

collection was different. Secondly, their respective standard deviation was not similar. This was recommended in prior studies (Stangroom, 2017).

Participants A total of 32 students from Secondary One were identified for this study as they were under direct instruction of the teacher. The breakdown of the students are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Distribution of students Gender

Class

Male

14

Female

18

Age

12 to 14 years

RESULTS Seven sets of results were reported based on the data collected during the implementation of the study. The maximum mark for each lesson was 21. The mean, standard deviation and number of students present for each lesson is summarised in Table 3.

Table 3. Means, Standard Deviations and Number of students MEL1

MEL2

MEL3

MEL4 MEL5

MEL6

MEL7

Mean

11.89

13.7

16.8

13.07

15.58

17.09

18.08

Standard Deviation

3.74

4.69

2.66

5.28

2.15

3.8

3.76

Number of students

28

31

26

27

31

28

29

The number of students who did not complete the lesson despite being present for the lesson is summarised in Table 4. MEL3 and MEL4 were the first two lessons conducted using the revised worksheet.

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Table 4. Number of students who did not complete the task MEL1

MEL2

MEL3

0

0

4

Number of students

MEL4 MEL5 2

MEL6

MEL7

0

0

0

The analysis of the students’ performance by comparing the number who performed above and below the mean mark for each lesson is illustrated in Figure 1. It can be observed that the number of students who obtained a mark above the mean mark was higher than the number of students who obtained a mark below the mean mark after the first lesson (MEL1).

20

20

18

18

16

16

14

14

12

12

10

10

8

8

6

6

4

4

2

2

0

MEL1

MEL2

MEL3

MEL4

MEL5

MEL6

MEL7

11.89

13.7

16.8

13.07

15.58

17.09

18.08

No. above Average

12

16

16

16

16

18

16

No. below Average

16

15

10

11

15

10

13

Average

Average Marks

Number of Students

Number of Students vs Average Marks Attained

0

Figure 2. Chart showing the number of students whose marks for each lesson was above or below the mean mark.

MEC1 The effect sizes of the interventions are reported first, followed by the significance tests.

Effect Sizes The effect size of the lessons (MEL2 to MEL7) is compared with the first lesson (MEL1). The value of Hedges’ g for each of the lesson is summarised in Table 5.

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Table 5. Summary of effect size for each lesson

Hedges’ g

MEL2

MEL3

MEL4

MEL5

MEL6

MEL7

0.424

1.503

0.259

1.226

1.379

1.651

The effect size for most lessons (MEL3, MEL5, MEL6, MEL7) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a large effect (d = 0.80) in this study. For the other two lessons, MEL2 (g = 0.424) and MEL3 (g = 0.259) were found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a small effect (d = 0.20).

The effect size of the lessons (MEL3 to MEL7) is compared with the second lesson (MEL2). The value of Hedges’ g for each of the lesson is summarised in Table 6.

Table 6. Summary of effect size for each lesson

Hedges’ g

MEL3

MEL4

MEL5

MEL6

MEL7

0.795

0.127

0.515

0.789

1.027

The effect size for MEL7 (g = 1.027) was found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a large effect (d = 0.80). For three lessons, MEL3 (g = 0.795), MEL5 (g = 0.515) and MEL6 (g = 0.789) were found to exceed Cohen’s (1998) convention for a medium effect (d = 0.50) in this study. For the remaining lesson, MEL4 (g = 0.127) was found to be below Cohen’s (1998) convention for a small effect (d = 0.20). This showed that the difference was trivial.

Significance tests Significance tests were conducted to determine whether the difference in performance between lessons were significant. This was done through t-tests set at 95%

The significance test of the lessons (MEL2 to MEL7) is compared with the first lesson (MEL1). The p value for each of the lesson is summarised in Table 7.

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Table 7. Summary of significance test for each lesson t

df

Sig (2-tailed)

MEL2

1.63

57

0.109

MEL3

5.53

52

0.000

MEL4

0.96

53

0.341

MEL5

4.71

57

0.000

MEL6

5.17

54

0.000

MEL7

6.23

55

0.000

The significance test of the lessons (MEL3 to MEL7) is compared with the second lesson (MEL2). The p value for each of the lesson is summarised in Table 8.

Table 8. Summary of significance test for each lesson t

df

Sig (2-tailed)

MEL3

2.99

55

0.004

MEL4

+0.49

56

0.626

MEL5

2.03

60

0.047

MEL6

3.03

57

0.004

MEL7

3.97

58

0.000

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Lessons MEL1 and MEL2 were conducted using the existing resource adapted from CPDD. As the SIOP model had not been applied, it was expected that there would not be any significant improvement in the students’ work. Students performed slightly better in MEL2 compared to MEL1 because the required drawing were broken down into a few tasks, which was expected. This supported the notion that with supplementary material as scaffolds, students are able to perform the assigned task 165

better. The other lesson which was also found to be non-significant is MEL4. This was expected as MEL4 was similar to MEL1, without any supplementary material provided other than the actual drawing students were supposed to draw. The other lessons, MEL3, MEL5, MEL6 and MEL7, with varying degree of supplementary material as scaffolding were found to be significant in improving students’ performance and reporting large effect sizes.

When comparing the lessons conducted using revised worksheets with the second lesson MEL2, which had some simplification of tasks; all were found to result in significant improvement in students’ performance except for MEL4. As highlighted earlier, this was to be expected as MEL had no supplementary material other than actual drawing students were supposed to draw. The lessons were also reported to have medium and large effect sizes.

One observation was that the first revised worksheet for lesson MEL3 with supplementary material, its placement was important. When the supplementary was integrated with the tasks, four students did not attempt the lesson. This was unexpected as there were no such cases for all the other lessons, except for MEL3 and MEL4. There were two students who did not attempt lesson MEL4. This was taken into consideration when revising the worksheets for lessons MEL5, MEL6 and MEL7. This concurs with prior research that adopting the SIOP model can improve students’ academic achievement (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2017b; Jackson & Ash, 2012; Short et al., 2011).

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS The purpose of this study was to explore how improved instruction could improve students’ task performance in daily work and eventually, during tests and examinations. Through the collection of students’ performance for lessons over four months, it was found that significant gains had been made by students after they were taught using revised teaching resources. This had been possible through the adoption of some of the features in the SIOP model. In particular, it had focussed on the development of supplementary material and inclusion of meaningful activities to attain this objective.

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One observation made by the teachers conducting the class was that more students were able to complete their tasks individually and there were more opportunities for interactions. This arose as an indirect consequence when higher progress students went around to guide their peers. This enabled the teachers to focus on those who needed assistance more urgently and students who did not want to read the instructions in the worksheet were directed to the respective pages for the supplementary material. A poll conducted with the students in class also supported this assertion that the revised teaching resources had indeed helped them in their learning.

LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This study has found that the revising the existing resource with reference to a few of the features in the SIOP model had improved students’ task performance. It is possible to explore the inclusion of more feature from the model to evaluate its effectiveness in further improvement in students’ performance and how the development of interaction among students and between students and teachers could influence the overall learning experience.

The data collected in this study consisted of students’ marks attained during various assessment over a period of four months. The changing standard deviations over the assessment puzzled the teachers and they wanted to found out how students’ performance could be more uniform. To yield richer data, especially from those students who have not fully benefitted from the interventions, studies could include the use of qualitative data to supplement the data collected as a mixed-method approach. Some prior studies have suggested this approach either to triangulate data or to provide a richer interpretation of the findings (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2011).

Given the potential benefit with these features has brought about, it would be to continue revising resource for subsequent levels to enable the progress made. In addition, the features should be adopted to other topics in the subject beyond the current one.

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POTENTIAL FUTURE WORK This study has explored a few of the features in the SIOP model and found that it positively impacted students’ performance. By conducting a longitudinal study, it is possible to explore the longer term impact on the students’ achievement.

It is also possible to do a progressive adoption of the SIOP model to include more features from the eight domains. This is especially so with the assertion that students’ achievement had been impacted to a greater extent when more features are included (Short et al., 2011, p. 376).

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.

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References

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change.

Psychological Review, 84(2), 191 - 215.

Bandura, A., & Schunk, D. H. (1981). Cultivating Competence, Self-Efficacy, and Intrinsic Interest Through Proximal Self-Motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(3), 586 - 598. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.41.3.586 Center for Applied Linguistics. (2017a). Foundational Research on the SIOP Model.

Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://www.cal.org/siop/about/history.html Center for Applied Linguistics. (2017b). Research Projects. Retrieved September 28, 2017, from http://www.cal.org/siop/research/ Center for Applied Linguistics. (2017c). Services. Retrieved September 28, 2017, from http://www.cal.org/siop/services/ Center for Applied Linguistics. (2017d). Using the SIOP Model. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://www.cal.org/siop/use/ Clementi Primary School. (2013). Grading Scheme for P5 and P6 Standard Subjects. Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://clementipri.moe.edu.sg/about-us/school-information/grading-schemefor-p5-and-p6-standard-subjects Department of Statistics Singapore. (2017). Yearbook of Statistics Singapore 2017.

Echevarria, J., Short, D., & Powers, K. (2006). School Reform and Standards-Based Education: A Model for English-Language Learners. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(4), 195-211. doi: 10.3200/JOER.99.4.195-211 Info-communications Media Development Authority. (2017). Individual Usage of Computer and Internet, 2006 - 2016. In individaual-usage-2006-2016 (Ed.).

Infocomm Media Development Authority. (2017a). Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households and by Individuals 2015. Singapore: Infocomm Media Development Authority.

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Infocomm Media Development Authority. (2017b). Proportion of Computer Users by Age Group, 2013 – 2015. Singapore: Infocomm Media Development Authority.

Jackson, J. K., & Ash, G. (2012). Science achievement for all: Improving science performance and closing achievement gaps. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 23(7), 723 - 744.

Johnson, R. B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14 - 26.

Konza, D. (2012). Researching in Schools: Ethical Issues. The International Journal of the Humanities, 9(6), 77 - 86.

Lu, C., & Frye, D. (1992). Mastering the Machine: A Comparison of the Mouse and Touch Screen for Children's Use of Computers. In I. Tomek (Ed.), Computer Assisted Learning: 4th International Conference, ICCAL '92 Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, June 17–20, 1992 Proceedings (pp. 417 - 427). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Ministry of Education. (2016, February 10). Normal Course Curriculum. Retrieved September 3, 2017, from https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/secondary/normal-course-curriculum Schunk, D. H. (1995). Self-efficacy, motivation, and performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 7(2), 112-137. doi: 10.1080/10413209508406961 Short, D. J., & Echevarria, J. (1999). The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol: A Tool for Teacher-Research Collaboration and Professional Development.

Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence.

Short, D. J., Echevarría, J., & Richards-Tutor, C. (2011). Research on Academic Literacy Development in Sheltered Instruction Classrooms. Language Teaching Research, 15(3), 363 - 380. doi: 10.1177/1362168811401155 Short, D. J., Vogt, M., & Echevarria, J. (2016). The SIOP Model for Administrators (2nd ed.): Pearson.

Stangroom, J. (2017). Effect Size Calculator for T-Test. Retrieved September 1, 2017, from http://www.socscistatistics.com/effectsize/Default3.aspx

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Teddlie, C., & Tashakkori, A. (2011). Mixed Methods Research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 285 300): SAGE. Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Self-Efficacy: An Essential Motive to Learn. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 82-91. doi: https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1016

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P 0005

Use of construction kits as teaching aid to implement Mechanism projects for Upper Sec D&T Curriculum. ___________________________________________________________________ Venugopal, Foo Weng Choy, Alex Ng Lian Sin, Shahrin Mansor

ABSTRACT

The current D&T Upper Secondary Curriculum demands an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms involved in designing and constructing controlled systems. Mere memorization of the content is insufficient to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge behind the controlled systems by students. It is imperative that the students understand the reasoning and are able to apply the knowledge in the real world context. They are also required to demonstrate their understanding of the workings of the mechanisms involved and apply them in their coursework to solve a problem effectively.

INTRODUCTION

Based on our observation, the students seem to struggle to answer Technological (mechanisms, electronics) questions in paper 1. This is attributed to the lack of understanding as the questions are usually application based. The second observation is that our students were not confident enough in applying some of their skills in making, which is tested in paper 2. This is attributed to the lack of know-how in making the product using better skills. Historically we have been struggling with time to teach the required skills and knowledge and we are using this PLT project time to merge this two areas and see if there is progress.

The Objectives of the Project aims to enable students to:

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(i) develop a broad understanding of these two technological areas through hands-on activities. (ii) apply the knowledge in one or more technological areas appropriately in context with their final coursework Projects. (iii) keep abreast of developments in these areas.

These innovative projects/teaching aids will be customized to meet the learning needs of the students. They will be tied to their syllabus content so that students can draw a parallel between these activities and their classroom learning. Through this innovative approach, our project aims to enable students to understand the relevance of its application. There will also be a follow-up activity conducted for the students to implement a solution.

This approach endeavors to provoke the students’ analytical ability so that they would be able to come up with innovative ideas or solutions. The content knowledge is also better retained as the students learn by doing rather than the traditional drilling method.

The students would be able to integrate Mechanism and Electronics and experientially learn how these systems interact with each other to produce the desired output.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Our research questions is: “will the students be able to understand the technological content knowledge better through the practical application and hands-on projects�

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METHOD

The participants of this mixed method approach –were Secondary 3 Express and Normal Academic students of Northbrooks Secondary School (mixed). A total of 39 students were involved in this project. The groups were separated according to their stream and students were tasked to work in pairs. The students had to plan, discuss and work as a team to complete the project.

We planned the activities and sourced for components and materials (eg: levers, linkages, gears) to be utilized as teaching aids to train the students. Mini projects that combines the use of these components will be employed as a practical teaching method to enable students to gain a more in-depth understanding of the real-life application.

July 2017



Identify the learning intentions & technological areas that students are weak in

August 2017



Identify skills and knowledge to be taught



Work on the mechanism principles and sketch out the product plan and layout

September 20107

October 2017



Prepare a mock-up/prototype



Fine tune and work on the improvements



Prepare material lists and procure parts/components



Test out and assembly



Implementation of the project



Analysis of the project and how to further address the learning gaps 174

Table 1: Project management schedule

Process to be learned: Acrylic Bending (curve), Metal Bending, Metal polishing

Process/Skill

Material

Mechanism

Bending

Acrylic

Linkages

Wood finishing (lacquering, spraying, laminating)

Plywood, Pinewood

Metal bending, metal polishing

Aluminum

Blow molding, Vacuum forming

Polypropylene

Crank and slider

Table 2: Skills and knowledge breakdown

Dates: Oct 24, 25, 26 (PM slots) 1:30-4:30pm Schedule:

3NA

24- Oct

25- Oct

26- Oct

Linkages

Crank and slider

1:30-3pm Demo on blow mould and Vacuum Forming

3 pm- 4:30 pm Demo on Wood Laminate, Finishing Techniques( lacquer, painting etc)

3Exp

Crank and slider

Linkages

1:30-3pm Demo on Wood Laminate, Finishing Techniques (lacquer, painting etc)

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3 pm- 4:30 pm Demo on blow mold and vacuum forming

Table 3: Implementation schedule

RESULTS

Students through their reflection and Q&A felt that the sessions were engaging and they were better able to relate to the reasons for applying certain mechanisms. IN this way they are also able to retain the content knowledge. Some of the students struggled to complete on time but in the process they learnt key valuable tacit knowledge and skills. For the 3 sessions, the attendance was 86.8% and it was encouraging to this response even though it was conducted in the afternoon.

CONCLUSION

The overall impact of this project would only be seen next year when the students are in secondary 4. In Term 1, we will be following up with the quiz to test their understanding and will be reviewed in Term 1 2018 if similar project is to be implemented. Through this project we were able to integrate the practical skills and theory knowledge to reinforce their learning.

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SOME SNAPSHOTS OF OUR PROJECT

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P 0006

Modified Flipped Classroom with Team-Based Learning

Jane Lee Mun Sum Quah Wai Kuan Ang Kok Wee Alex Chan Eunice Grace

Abstract

This study serves to explore the impact of active learning process on students’ engagement level and results. Active learning is any instructional method that actively engages students in the learning process. It is made up of four main components, namely, (1) activate learning; (2) promote thinking and discussion; (3) facilitate demonstration of learning; and (4) monitor and provide feedback. In this study, flipped classroom was conducted prior to teaching the concept. During lesson, team-based learning and experiential learning were also conducted. At the end of the lesson, a reflection component was incorporated to gather feedback from the students.

Introduction

A few concerns were raised with regard to the teaching and learning of Science. Some of the concerns include the lack of skills of students to be self-directed learner and lessons are often teacher-centered. Strategies to address these issues include the use of writing and note-taking skills, use of visual aids such as model kits, manipulatives and demonstrations, collaborative learning and questioning techniques.

Flipped classroom was conducted for 1 Express and 1 Normal Academic students where students were tasked to watch videos and complete a set of worksheet on Particulate Model of Matter. During lesson, students were given a quiz of 10 Multiple Choice Questions, where the questions were culled from past year exam papers. The marks of the quiz were not revealed to them. They then gathered into teams and discussed and explained why the other options were not viable. The team then decide on an answer together and a team score was given. When students are asked to reflect on their learning, they are required to articulate their thoughts and this would 178

help them to verbalise their thoughts and sharpen each other’s skills. Experiential learning in the form of experiments were also conducted to reinforce their learning.

Accordingly, our study examines if the use of flipped classroom, team-based learning and reflection component serves to increase students’ engagement and in turn, deepen their understanding of the concepts learnt.

Literature Review

Active learning is defined as the act of students learning together, with the teacher, to achieve educational objectives (Lantis et al, 2008). One of the key tenets of active learning is to use alternative texts to support the teaching of the main topic. For our project, the use of scratch cards and scenarios during questions help to provide a different context for our students. Lamy (2007) believes that providing scenarios as an application question has helped to make the problems more relevant to the student.

Another aspect strongly evident in this study is the use of team-based learning where students compare their answers done individually as well as in a team setting. Huitt et al (2014) posits that team-based learning promotes active learning well as it focuses on teamwork and problem-solving skills.

The case for a flipped classroom was strongly presented by Bergmann and Sams (2012). It was found that the current generation of students take to the use of ICT within their mobile devices to effectively prepare content knowledge before they begin their lessons. Being in a flipped classroom saves time on teaching content as the student arrives with questions on the content ready to be facilitated by the teacher.

This creates a class culture of critical thinking as class discussions are vibrant and students remain engaged.

Methods

Two weeks before the planned activity, students were given specific websites to access, with accompanying notes to direct their attention to big ideas on the topic.

These websites include the re-known bbc.co.uk as well as the lesson package put 179

together in the AsknLearn portal. Such assistance and scaffolding was given in the hope that students will take more responsibility in their own learning and be selfdirected. They were also informed to seek advice from teachers should there be doubts encountered.

Students were also informed that there will be a 10 Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) Quiz at the end of the two weeks, which focused on the topic they have done solely by their own effort. In the context of TBL, this individual assessment is termed as Individual Readiness Assessment (IRA). During the IRA, students are not allowed to refer to their notes or the textbook.

Students were not informed that they will be organized strategically into diverse teams of 3-4 students that work together throughout the class, to discuss the same MCQ Quiz for GRA (Group Readiness Assessment) at the end of IRA (Individual Readiness Assessment).

A typical Readiness Assessment Process (RAP) consists of both IRA and GRA. GRA usually involves the use of a scratchcard, where the groups will scratch for the option they think is correct. A symbol (usually a tick or a star) will indicate that the option is correct. For each question, the group will stop scratching until they obtain the correct answer. The scratch card was made use in the 1 Normal Academic class, but not for the 1 Express class. Instead, students in the 1 Express class were required to write down the group reasoning for the option they had selected for each question on a piece of foolscap paper. The presenters in each group was then supposed to present the reasoning for each question on behalf of the group. The reason for the modified version of GRA is to hold the students accountable for the answers they have agreed on, and to provide an opportunity for the students to communicate and present scientific ideas.

Subsequently, about a week after the discussion, the usual test was conducted for the students to determine if they have indeed retained materials they have read or discussed without teacher’s intervention.

To conclude the Readiness Assurance Process, a mini-lecture that focuses on concepts with which students struggled the most, was conducted.

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Results

About 71.4% of the students passed with an average `A2’ grade (>=70%) for their test.

Subsequently, about a month after administration of the IRA and GRA, another quiz on the same topic was administered to determine if the above results were sustainable.

The results were encouraging. Students were still scoring an average of 60% for the test.

Analysis and Discussions

About half of the respondents either failed or obtained borderline passes in their IRA. However, once they went to their teams to discuss on the same questions (GRA) all,

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except one, of the respondents passed with improved scores (averaging about 30% improvement).

The odd observation for one of the respondent could either be that he is already familiar with the topic of discussion, hence he was able to score well in the Individual attempt but once he was in the team, he either did not contribute to the discussion or just went with the flow, eventually scoring lower in the GRA.

The other possibility could be that he was unfamiliar with the scoring system, hence, did not correctly reflect the scores for the IRA or GRA.

Whichever the outcomes, the observation is that generally, the respondents bettered their scores whilst in teams. They were able to hear from their peers and present their opinions, hence have a better understanding and deeper discussions on the materials they were given.

Findings and Conclusions

At the end of RAP, students were required to complete a feedback and reflection form.

The following shows the analysis of the feedback provided by the students: -

96.9% of the Express and 88% of N(A) students believed that RAP helped them understand the concepts better.

96.9% of the Express and 91% of N(A) students enjoyed the readiness assessment process and the discussion they had with each other.

91% of the students believed that the activities helped them in their learning.

90.6% of the Express and 81% of N(A) students claimed that they were able to work well in their group during GRA. However, only 71.9% of the Express and 75% of N(A) students indicated that TBL made them more interested in Science.

Nonetheless, all Express students indicated that TBL helped them in their learning and 87.5% of Express and 88% of N(A) students would like to have TBL in their future lessons.

A common feedback provided by the Express students was that they liked how GRA allowed them to work together as a group, share their ideas with each other and to debate on which option they thought was correct. However, many of them also 182

expressed the concern that the time given for discussion was a bit short, especially when there were different opinions provided for some of the more challenging questions.

Generally, students welcomed this structured form of small-group learning that emphasizes student preparation out of class and application of knowledge in class.

Students liked that they were given opportunities to voice their opinions and hear from their peers.

Limitations and Recommendations

The project was confined to a relatively small sample size of two classes - 35 Express and 38 N(A) students, which may not truly reflect the effectiveness of the strategy.

Although preliminary investigations and analysis of the data appear to favour the use of this strategy - modified flipped classroom with team-based learning, more data need to be collected to further ascertain the robustness of the study.

It is recommended that for even better outcomes, mini-lectures can be conducted, to clarify the misconceptions that have surfaced so that the concepts can be more endearing and sustained.

It is also recommended that should this strategy be used for different topics in the future, the members in the group should continue to work within the same groups so that students do not need to spend time adjusting to the group dynamics, thereby reducing the time required for them to get used to the groups.

Potential Future Work

The team considers the encouraging outcomes to be sufficiently significant to recommend that this strategy be extended to the rest of the Lower Secondary Science level classes, so that teachers teaching these levels of classes can come together to design the questions for the IRA & GRA.

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Acknowledgements

Team Members: Ms Lee M S, Jane (1T), Mr Quah Wai Kuan (1G), Mr Alex Ang, Ms Eunice Chan,

References

1. Bergmann, S. & Sams, A. (2012) Flip your classroom. Reach every student every class every day. ISTE, ASCD. 2. Huitt, T., Killins, A., and Brooks, W. (2014) Team-based learning in the Gross Anatomy Laboratory improves academic performance and students’ attitudes toward teamwork.

3. Lantis, J. , Killie, K. and Krain, M. (2008) The state of active teaching and learning literature.

4. Lamy, S.L. (2007) Challenging Hegemonic Paradigms and Practices: Critical Thinking and Active Learning Strategies for International Relations. PS: Political Science and Politics 40 (1), 112–16.

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P 0007

Using Productive Failure in the learning of Science concept

Mr Henry Ng Mr Kenneth Yong, Mr Annamalai Kumar Ms Wendy Lee ABSTRACT: In this PLT, students learnt about the Model of Cells through interactive platform such as Edpuzzle where teachers could design important questions to facilitate students' discussion throughout different stages of the video (as teaching material).

Students would then be given a set of application-based questions such as how cells in superheroes such as Captain America function differently. Students are forced to use the limited knowledge they have learnt about the functions of different components of cells to answer complex questions. These questions are complex enough in such a way that lead to failure for students in the process of finding answer to the questions. These questions challenge but do not frustrate students, leading them wanting to find out and close the gap between what they need to know to solve application based questions. Eventually, intervention through subsequent Direct Instruction lessons will be given to provide more knowledge for students to relook and answer the application based questions.

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this work is to introduce different organelles and their functions in animal cells. The work consists of two parts namely interactive video through Edpuzzle and a set of application-based questions. The Edpuzzle interactive video helps to promote active learning allowing students to obtain information on different organelles and their functions. Application-based questions such as how cells in superheroes such as Captain America function differently. These questions activate learning as they challenge but do not frustrate students, leading them wanting to find out and close the gap between what they need to know to solve application based questions.

LITERATURE REVIEW: A meaningful Experience of Learning takes place when teachers: stretch students’ thinking so that they acquire a deep understanding of what they learn; connect students’ learning to new contexts and develop students’ control of their own learning. When teachers provide opportunities for students to engage in challenging 185

tasks, they inspire them in learning (Blumenfeld & Meece, 1988). This stretches their thinking and develop deeper understanding of the concepts taught. The super-hero tasks aimed to provide that connections between ideas in their learning and transfer them to familiar contexts.

Meaning and understanding can be built when students work with a rich information base that is not simply a large set of disconnected facts but a set of facts set within the context of a conceptual framework. This frames and shapes students’ understanding of new information and allows factual information to become usable knowledge within this framework (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999).

METHODOLOGY The PLT lesson was designed to be completed in 2 lessons.

A. 1st Lesson Lesson commenced with a video on animal cells through the use of EdPuzzle.

Students were tasked to complete their notes along with the progression of the video. Students will also be required to participate and answer all the questions posed throughout the video..

Thereafter, teacher commenced frontal teaching on the new chapter that the students were just exposed to.

Subsequently, students will begin on a group task. Teacher planned the groupings of the class beforehand based on their proficiency in the subject. Students were given till the end of 1st lesson to discuss the task on Science behind Superheroes where students have to use their newly-acquired knowledge on cells and organelles to discuss several questions on how superheroes get their powers.

B. 2nd Lesson Lesson revolved around groups presenting their answers to the task. Teacher facilitate discussions and leverage on teachable moments based on the different groups’ answers.

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Teacher to consolidate the learning package by highlighting the key learning objectives, fill in the learning gaps and condition the students for the next section of the chapter.

Results

Fig 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 are some examples of students’ works from the lesson.

Fig 6.1 Examples of students’ works

Fig 6.2 Examples of students’ works

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Fig 6.3 Example of students’ works

Evidently, the students were out-of-depth in their understanding of the subject matter and struggled to deal with the task they were assigned, which is exactly what the research team planned. Through the apparent lack in depth for the subject matter, the research team hoped that the students will be able to generate a lot of interesting ideas and concepts without the restraining shackles of actually knowing the science behind these superheroes’ transformations.

According to researcher Manu Kapur, Productive Failure is a “learning design that entails the design of conditions for learners to persist in generating and exploring representations and solution methods (RSMs) for solving complex, novel problems.” (Kapur and Bielaczyc, 2011).

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION EdPuzzle was an effective tool to introduce students to a new content as it allows teachers to optimise the use of a video in teaching. Questions used in EdPuzzle during the PLT lesson were varied in nature and are strategically posed to ensure students are following the video and understanding the content being delivered. The video serves to pique students’ interest in the subject, activate their learning and also to prepare them for the start of a new chapter.

The combination of use of EdPuzzle and frontal teaching was to give students the basics and fundamentals in order to go about crafting logical and meaningful answers to the superheroes’ tasks despite the questions being pitched at a much higher level.Tasks was designed where the content given to students and those that can be found in their textbooks are insufficient for them to tackle. As such, teachers hope that a difficult task paired with an interesting topic will see students going beyond what is expected of them and that they will take it upon 188

themselves to do their research and attempt the higher-order tasks.

Teachers realised that their tasks may be pitched way too high and despite extensive research on students’ ends, they lack the fundamentals to appreciate and understand what they researched through books and the internet and as such, were not able to tackle the tasks despite doing what the teachers expected them to do.

For productive failure technique to be effective, teachers have to revisit similar questions and tasks with the students. As such, more thought should be put into the subsequent lessons and how teachers can revisit similar tasks and when given the same work, students can be observed making improved answers as compared to the first time they attempted the questions.

FINDING AND CONCLUSION The use of Edpuzzle to view the video for SDL was useful, as the scaffolding was just enough, especially with the ICT tool here being relevant for pausing and asking questions. This formed the necessary pre-requisite for them to proceed on.

The idea of using the superhero stories to convey the message of cells was a unique attempt at helping the young mind see the application of their learning in an idealistic setting, where the possibility of genetic modification to achieve super powers is achieved. This generated a keen interest among the students.

In that respect, the project was successful. However, more scaffolding is needed to guide students to their answers. Perhaps a better structured worksheet with simple guiding questions could be produced to fuel that.

To better study the effect of productive failure in the science classroom, a longer period of time may be required for the process to take a lasting outcome of its desired outcome, which is to help nurture the spirit of inquiry and to help develop 21CC competencies in the students.

LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The time between grasping the concepts and doing the task about superheroes was really short. Certain terminologies like ‘fatigue’, ‘regeneration’ were not unpacked for the students. Students might still be unable to relate the learning in 189

class to the task at hand. It was a good trigger to bring in interesting tasks for students to try. We had yet to specify the types of outcome or learning that we hope to achieve at the end of this superheroes task.

It might be more relevant and meaningful to use the concepts learned in this chapter on daily life applications. Topics like genetic modified food, cloning and immunology are not new. Students might be able to apply their learning into these contexts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to thank Mr Sim Yong Ming (acting HOD/Science) and Ms Eunice Chan (SH/Biology) for their invaluable advice and guidance given during the course of the conduct of the project.

REFERENCES 1. Designing for Productive Failure, by Manu Kapur and Katerine Bielaczyc, 2011.

2. Animal Cells Video Animal cells https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2fWKhtkfnI

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P 0008

Algebraic Expansion and Factorisation using Algecards Chew Jia Li Joscelin Jemimah Tan Ying Jun Andrew Shen Yanru Au Lai Fei Nurul Ezza Jamaludin

Part I: Introduction and Literature Review

Many secondary mathematics teachers find it a challenge to teach expansion and factorisation of algebraic expression, especially quadratic expressions, to students who have weak foundations in algebra. We embarked on our project to help students who have been generally unsuccessful in the topic to gain greater proficiency in the concepts and skills involved with expansion and factorisation through the use of Algecards.

Research has shown that students with weak foundations in algebra face the following problems: ● students tend to view common conception of algebra as being “abstract” and thus beyond them; ● students lack pre-requisite algebraic skills (such as simplification of like terms); ● students have perception of the “cross method” as arbitrary, and the subsequent failure to make sense; and ● factorisation seen as an isolated skill to be learned without a broader context.

The use of Algecards in teaching expansion and factorisation has the following benefits for students: ● ● ● ●

algebra appears concrete to the students; students require minimum prerequisite algebraic skills; algebra is perceived as sensible and non-arbitrary to the students; students are able to connect the broader context of factorisation as reverse expansion; ● Algecards are useable directly by students as a method for test situations.

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Part II: Methods, Design and Procedure The team decided to do a project in algebra as many students struggle with the topic. However, all levels have completed the topic on algebra before the Midyear examinations.

After much deliberation, the team agreed to work on re-teaching expansion and factorisation of quadratic expressions. The team also agreed to use the Algecards as the approach instead of the usual ‘rainbow’ method in expansion and ‘cross’ method in factorisation. One of the team members shared that the use Algecards has been effective for his students as the approach provided students a concrete-pictorial way of learning.

About 20 students from class 2T and 2E who did not do well in SA1 were selected to participate in this project. Three lessons were conducted after the school in the Term 3. Lesson 1 and 2 were 1 hour each and Lesson 3 was 1.5 hours. Three teams of teachers were assigned to teach the lesson based on their availability.

In Lesson 1, a pre-test was conducted to find out the level of competency of the students and their misconceptions. Students also recapped the basic concepts of like terms/unlike terms and simplification of algebraic expressions involving addition, subtraction and multiplication.

(Above) Mdm Au conducting Lesson 2 on Expansion using the Algecard

In Lesson 2, students learned to perform algebraic expansion using the Algecards. Students were to arrange the cards based on the dimension (Figure 1). Expansion means to ‘find the area of the rectangle’. In the same lesson, they also learned to draw the rectangle diagram with the help of the Algecards.

Students progressed from linear expansion to quadratic expansion (Figure 2).

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Question 1

Expression 2(x + 1) = 2x + 1

Algecards Diagram

Rectangle Diagram

2x

2

x

x (x + 2) = x2 + 2x x2

2x

Figure 1

Expression (x + 1)(x + 2) = x2 + 4x + 2

Find area Breadth = x + 1 Length = x + 2 Area = x2 + 2x + 2x + 2 = x2 + 4x + 2

Rectangle Diagram

x2

2x

x

2

Figure 2

(Above) Mr Andrew Shen conducting Lesson 3 on factorization

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In Lesson 3, the focus was on algebraic factorisation. Students were taught factorisation as the reverse of expansion. They used rectangle diagrams to find the length and breadth of the rectangle given the area.(Figure 3)

Question 1

Expression x2 + 3x = x(x + 3)

Find Breadth and Length Area = x2 + 3x Breadth = x Length = x + 3

Rectangle Diagram x

3

x

2

x2 + 3x + 2 = (x + 1)(x +2)

Area = x2 + 3x + 2 Breadth = x + 1 Length = x + 2

x

2

x 1

Figure 3

A post-test was administered at the end of this lesson.

Part III: Results, Analysis and Findings

Generally, it can be reasonably concluded that the use of Algecards enabled more students to grasp the concept of expansion and factorisation of algebraic expressions better using the Algecards.

However, it needs to be noted that the students who took the Pre-test and the Post-test did not overlap significantly. In total, only 6 students sat for both the pre-test and post-test. This small pool of students, out of an initial target of 20, may not be an extremely reliable representation.

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Analysis of Pre-Diagnostic Test Expansion – most students were able to do, however one common misconception is that x multiplied by x gives 2x.

Factorisation – Students are stuck doing the cross method. They are unsure of what factors to use and/or how to obtain these factors.

Analysis of Post-Diagnostic Test ● All students who took the post test attempted to use the rectangle method to factorise quadratic expressions. ● However, students’ concept of factors is generally weak. They are able to cope with writing down factors for numbers less than 50, but may struggle with bigger numbers. ● They are also generally weaker with factors involving negative numbers. ● Most students are using the concept of the rectangle method for factorisation only. Only 1 student who took both the pre-test and the posttest was able to use the rectangle method to expand expressions of the type (a+b)(c+d).

Conclusion of student’s learning from Pre to Post Test

● The introduction of the rectangle method did help this group of lower progress learners to be able to visualise the concept of factorisation, as it gave them a more concrete picture / concept to link the concept of factorisation to. ● However, this link cannot be drawn as clearly for expansion.

Blank Pre-test [Clarissa Lim, 2E] 195

Successfully used the rectangle method, [Clarissa Lim, 2E]

Unable to use Cross method [‘Asri, 2E]

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Successfully used the rectangle method [‘Asri, 2E]

Part IV: Conclusion, Limitations and Recommendations

1. Findings and Conclusion (a) Effectiveness/Usefulness of Algecards The Algecards were used mainly in the second session when introducing expansion [Refer to 2(b)]. In general, most students seemed to be able to grasp the rectangle diagram quickly and apply it in their working. The Algecard approach is one single method which can be applied to both expansion and factorisation and hence students are able to see the relationship between both concepts and link it to the concept of length, breadth and area of rectangles.

With one single method, students seem to have less struggle of knowing which method to apply, for example, using the distributive law and the cross method.

The Algecards approach also helped to concretise the concept and the rectangle diagram is applicable in solving questions involving expansion and factorisation during tests and examinations.

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2. Limitations and Possible Recommendations Limitations

Possible Recommendations

(a) Duration of Lesson/ Lesson Content

Our PLT project covered three sessions which included revisiting the basic concepts, expansion and simple factorisation. However, as we also conducted pre and postdiagnostic tests to assess their learning, there was not enough time for students to practice the method and progress towards more challenging questions which will involve larger coefficients and negative numbers.

To have an additional session on factorisation so that more can be covered and that students can apply this method for more challenging questions.

(b) Implementation of Lesson

As our targeted group of students involved Secondary Two Normal (Academic) students, they have been exposed to various methods in solving expansion and factorisation. Thus some students are more comfortable with the previous method they have been using and it will take time for them to adapt to the new method.

Only 6 students sat for both pre and post test hence it is not a reliable representation.

Rather than unlearning and relearning, it is recommended that students start with this method from Secondary One. There should be consistency with the use of method between teachers and followup using the same method when students progress towards higher levels.

(c) Algecard Resources

Algecards are used mainly when introducing students to Expansion. As students move on from concrete to pictorial, they will use the rectangle diagram. When introducing Factorisation, students should already be familiar with the rectangle diagram hence teachers will demonstrate factorisation using the rectangle diagram. However if students face difficulties understanding the rectangle diagram, teachers may revisit

The department may consider purchasing Algecards for at least two full classes so that teachers can have the resources to introduce Expansion and Factorisation using the Algecard method.

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the use of Algecards.

References:

Leong, Y., Ho, W., & Cheng, L. (2015). Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract: Surveying its Origins and Charting its Future. Retrieved September 3, 2017, from http://math.nie.edu.sg/ame/matheduc/tme/tmeV16_1/TME16_1.pdf

Leong, Y., Yap, S., Teo, M., D/o Subramaniam, T., Bte Mohd Zaini, I., Quek, E., & Tan, K. (2010). Concretising Factorisation of Quadratic Expressions. Retrieved September 3, 2017, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ898700.pdf

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P 0009

Incidental teaching of vocabulary as a means of expanding students’ vocabulary for descriptive and narrative writing. Empowering students with a richer vocabulary for descriptive and narrative writing

Tang Weng Wee Aryssa Ngoh Huiyi Gary Sim Vanishree

2. Abstract: This project seeks to find if incidental teaching of rich vocabulary through a composition writing activity will lead to better descriptive and narrative writing by students.

3. Introduction Students tend to use simple vocabulary to describe events that happen in their essays.

The assumption made is that students do not have the rich vocabulary to make their writing more exciting and to elaborate on their ideas. Thus, introducing students to a rich vocabulary via incidental learning may help them to become better at describing events in a more vivid and interesting way.

4. Literature Review Wilkins stated in 1972 that “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. There is no doubt that learning vocabulary forms a very important building block in the success of a student’s mastery of language and subject content.

In the field of research on L1 and L2 vocabulary acquisition, one of the proposed theories is that vocabulary items are acquired `incidentally'. In other words, vocabulary acquisition is a by-product of the learner as the learner is engaged in a listening, reading, speaking or writing activity. This has led to the recommendation by many that the use of activities conducive to incidental vocabulary learning (i.e. many reading and listening activities) should be used to help students acquire vocabulary. At the same time, they discourage intentional vocabulary learning (Krashen, 1989) or the direct teaching of vocabulary.

When it comes to language acquisition, incidental learning is recgnised to be an effective method of learning vocabulary from context (Day, Omura, & Hiramatsu, 1991;

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Jenkins, Stein, & Wysocki, 1984; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985; Saragi, Nation, & Meister, 1978).

Thus, the team’s aim is to expose the students to rich vocabulary through a composition activity to see if students will be able to pick up the vocabulary introduced, i.e. learn the vocabulary incidentally, and use it subsequently.

5. Methods The students in 2G were introduced to a vocabulary package that contained rich vocabulary resources to describe basic emotions. The students were shown how they could use the rich vocabulary to replace common or simple words to indicate an emotion. The ‘show not tell’ approach was introduced to the students. This was done through a lesson demonstration by the teacher and then the students were given an opportunity to try out the same method in groups.

6. Results From the group work done by the students, it was evident that the students were able to use the vocabulary given to enrich their descriptive and narrative writing. However, this was not seen in the subsequent mid-year examination compositions that the students wrote. Many of them still used simple language to convey emotions required for the compositions they wrote.

7. Analysis and Discussion There is no doubt that acquiring the richer vocabulary provided by the teachers in the form of a vocabulary package is advantageous. From the group work done in class, the students were able to produce more interesting descriptive and narrative accounts.

However, the students had the vocabulary resource to refer to during the class group work but not during the examination.

8. Findings and Conclusions Exposing students to rich vocabulary is one way to help students with vocabulary learning, but it may not be sufficient to ensure that the students learn the vocabulary and have them in their long-term memory. More opportunities must also be given to students to use the rich vocabulary introduced and perhaps a programme to ensure that the vocabulary is learnt.

9. Limitations and Recommendations The conclusions derived are observations and inferences made by the teachers. It will be good to do surveys to find out the students’ reasons if the lesson done on vocabulary was useful and the reasons for them not using the vocabulary introduced in their subsequent writing.

10. Potential Future Work

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It might be advantageous to have a survey to find out how students currently learn new vocabulary and what deters them from acquiring a richer vocabulary. It will also be good to have in place structures that ensure that the vocabulary is learnt so that a comparison can be made to compare the difference in the effectiveness of incidental learning and direct teaching of vocabulary.

11. References Day, R.R., Omura, C., & Hiramatsu, M. (1991). Incidental EFL vocabulary learning and reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 7, 541- 551.

Jenkins, J. R., Stein, M.L., & Wysocki, K. (1984). Learning vocabulary through reading.

American Educational Research Journal, 21, 767-787.

Krashen, S. (1989). We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: Additional evidence for the input hypothesis. The Modern Language Journal, 73, 440-464.

Nagi, W., Herman, P., & Anderson, R. (1985). Learning words from context. Reading research Quarterly, 20, 233-253.

Saragi, T., nation, P., & Meister, G. F. (1978). Vocabulary learning and reading system, 6, 72-78.

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P 0010

通过专题作业提高中学生说明文写作表现以及提升华文学习兴趣之探讨 Enhancing students’ Expository Essay Writing skills and engaging their interest in learning Chinese Language through Project Work

Maying, Lin Lin, Huang Kee Hong, Xie Fuzhen, Liow Kum Hwa, Loh Mew Chew Goh-Ang Sor Pui

【摘要】 本研究目的旨在探讨，通过完成一个介绍无人机制作过程的专题作业是否能 提高中学生的说明文写作表现，以及提升中学生学习华文的兴趣。本研究以 思源中学两班中二快捷班学生为实验对象，学生将在宇航学应用学习课程 （ALP）课上学到的有关无人机制作过程，以专题作业的形式，用华文书写， 以图文并茂的方式说明其制作过程。实验前后学生完成一份说明文写作测试 以鉴定学生的说明文写作表现。学习兴趣方面则是在实验前后完成一份问卷。 实验结果显示，通过专题作业，学生在说明文的写作表现有明显的提升。

Abstract This study seeks to discover whether the students will improve their Expository Essay Writing skills and increase their interest in learning Chinese Language through Project Work. The participants were two classes of Secondary 2 students. They were taught of expository essay writing skills and to complete a task of introducing the procedures of making drone through Project Work with teachers’ guidance. Results from Expository Essay Writing skills and interest in learning Chinese Language are positive.

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一 引言

2010 年《母语检讨委员会报告书》中提到随着新加坡语言环境的改变，“不同家 庭使用语将影响孩子的母语学习态度以及能力，教学必须针对不同学生的需要做出适 当的调整”，报告书也指出“掌握语言最有效的方法是让学习者通过各种真实的情境， 主动积极地使用语言”，如果能够在真实的情境里创造让学生能够调动已知的华文知识 或技能，相信除了能够巩固相关技能外，也能够提升他们学习华文的兴趣。 另外，教育部自 2013 年以来，鼓励各校推出应用学习课程（ALP），以为年轻一 代提供兼具深度和广度的学习体验，并培养他们终身学习的精神。思源中学推出的应 用学习课程为宇航学，如果能将华文教学与学生在宇航学学到的知识做结合，或者利 用应用学习课程的机会让学生能够运用在华文课程里学习到的相关知识或技能，相信 也能够鼓励学生更积极地掌握华文华语。 因此，思源中学母语部的华文老师通过 PLT 设计了这一项行动研究，探讨通过专题 作业的形式，结合我校应用学习课程（ALP）以及华文学习，在真实情境里，是否能 够提高学生说明文的表现以及提升华文学习的兴趣。

二 研究方法 以下就研究对象、实验设计、实验过程与测量工具对研究方法作说明。

2.1 研究对象 本研究选定思源中学中二快捷的两班学生作为研究对象。学生的华文程度、学习 态度、家庭背景等都有一定的差异。 204

2.2 实验设计 本研究采行动研究法进行前测－操弄－后测。首先参与实验的学生将在前测时完 成一篇灯笼制作过程的写作以及一份有关华文学习的问卷；接下来教师将指导学生完 成介绍无人机制作过程的专题作业，学生可选择将制作过程以手册、海报等的形式呈 现；然后在后测时，学生完成一篇与前测相同题目的灯笼制作过程写作，以及和前测 一样的问卷；最后将前测、后测分数（结果）加以比较分析。 实验在第二学期到第三学期进行。实验结束后，则分析所得到的数据并完成报告。

2.3 测量工具 测量工具一共有 2 种，包括说明文的写作表现是灯笼制作过程写作的评估，而和 学习兴趣的数据则是通过实验前后的一份问卷进行收集。

三 实验结果 在经过两个学期的实验后，兹将通过专题作业提高中学生说明文写作表现以及提升 华文学习兴趣之实验结果罗列于下。

3.1 说明文写作表现 说明文的写作表现，原先的设定是两班学生均完成相同题目的前后测，但因为沟 通上的误解，只有一班的学生完成与前测相同的题目。以下的说明文写作表现，只是 针对其中一班的学生学生表现而言。计算出平均数及标准差（Standard Difference， SD），然后计算效果强度，检查两组平均数差异的大小，从而比较出效能。效果强度 的大小，则根据柯罕(Cohen)建议的标准确定。

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不过，在收集数据的过程中，由于没有做好沟通的工作，其中一组的后测并没有 完成，因此，以下关于说明文写作表现的前后测分析仅限于参与实验的 27 名学生，并 不能代表所有参与实验的学生。 如表 1 所示，在后测的书写测验中，学生平均得分 13.6 (2.47)，而前测平均得分 10.0 (2.71)，前后测平均得分相差 3.6，相应的效果强度为 1.39。根据柯罕的标准，这 是个极大的效果强度，学生在后测的表现比前测好。

表 1（说明文写作表现） 人数 前测

27

后测

均数（标准差） 10.0 （2.71）

差数

效果强度

-3.6

-1.39

13.6 （2.47）

负责评改前后测的教师反映，学生在后测的写作中，能够将在专题作业时学到的 有关说明文步骤的指示语，如“首先、其次”等加以使用，而且能够将步骤有条理而且 清楚地说明。

3.2 学习兴趣 在学习兴趣的测试方面，实验前后学生对于华文学习兴趣的提升并没有明显的差 别，选择同意／非常同意的学生，前测时是 63.6%，后测时是 66.7%。 而对于专题作业对华文学习的帮助，前测时 73.8%，后测则是 75%，虽然略有提 升，但变化依旧不大。 对于专题作业的表现，前测时 61.4%的学生表示有信心能写好介绍物品制作的过 程，后测时则有 66.7%；而有 75.6%的学生表示他们满意自己在准备准提作业时的表 现。

由这些数据中可以发现，专题作业对于学生学习华文以及提升华文学习的兴趣的成效 并不明显。

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四 讨论与结论 在实验完成后，PLT 小组组员们完成了一份反馈，其中对于本实验提出了一些看 法与心得，结论如下： 1. 华文教师们对于无人机的制作过程不甚了解，但是能够找时间到 ALP 课堂观课， 这不仅有助于了解本校的 ALP 进行方式，也能在学生在介绍无人机制作过程时 给予协助。由此可见，教师在设计专题作业前，必须对该专题作业的主题加以 了解，并且提供专有名词的中英文对照，这样才能在学生遇到问题时能够给予 指导也能帮助学生好好发挥。 2. 参与实验的两位老师均指出，学生对于较少接触的“制作过程写作”（其实对说 明文写作亦是）比较陌生，所以在专题作业的前部分显得有些无所适从，教师 们认为应提供学生写作的范文或者鹰架，让他们得到适当的指导。两位老师也 指出，专题作业的完成需要紧密的监督与不断地提醒学生，由此可见，教师在 安排专题作业时，有效的监督是非常重要的。 3. 学生们有机会将在其他以英文为主要教学媒介语所学习到的知识与华文学习做 结合，这个专题作业其实传达了华文不只是课堂上的语言，不只是“单科”，只 要加以设计，也能够让学生将各个科目的学习串联起来，让华文学习活在真实 情境里。 4. 精心设计的专题作业对于学生学习华文以及提升华文学习的兴趣能起到一定的 成效。 参考文献： 1 新加坡教育部《乐学善用——2010 年母语检讨委员会报告书》（新加坡：新加坡教 育部，2011）

附件：学生作品

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P 0011

Applying effective teaching strategies through scaffolded lessons in the learning of two different art movements.

Ms Lin KL Ms Diana, Ms Rosnani Ms Silver Lim

Abstract Our PLT aims to create a platform for students' creativity to take place. We seek to guide students to understand the selected art movement introduced (Pop art and Surrealism) through the visual presentation of artists' works. Student will then further apply their understanding through their art-making process (painting assignment).

Introduction

We focus to equip our students to be able to

 relate and appreciate the selected artworks  Understand and be able to differentiate works between Pop art & Surrealism.  identify and apply the characteristic of the chosen movement in their acrylic painting

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Literature Review

Ways of Seeing John Berger

“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak”. (p.7)

John Berger (1926-2017), an art historian and television presenter, was best known for his book and 1972 television series; both entitled “Ways of Seeing.” He is the most evident of art historians who taught us how to see differently. Part of Berger’s argument is about how to see through mind-sets different from our own, sympathetically and with the understanding that doing so reveals truths about what we see, and about ourselves.

Art from the past holds clues to life in the past. By looking at a work of art's symbolism, colours, and materials, we can learn about the culture that produced it.

We also can compare artwork, which provides different perspectives, and gives us a well-rounded way of looking at events, situations, and people. By analysing artworks from the past and looking at their details, we can rewind time and experience what a time period different from our own was like.

Looking at art from the past contributes to who we are as people. By looking at what has been done before, we gather knowledge and inspiration that contribute to how we speak, feel and view the world around us.

Among many art movements, two of the most transcendent in Art appreciation for young adults includes the Pop Art and Surrealist movements. Two distinct styles and subjects, the artworks in these two movements offer much comparison for discussion and evaluation.

Pop Art is characterized by techniques and themes drawn from popular mass culture like comic books, advertising, and mundane cultural objects whereas the Surrealist

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artists sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination.

In providing students with the right structure of inquiry into Art, we aim to expose students to a repertoire of Pop Art and Surrealist works to delve deeper into the different characteristics, styles and intention of these two diverse movements; and to apply in the creation of their own artworks.

Method

Targeted group All secondary 2 students in all streams.

Class 2G 2I 2T 2E 2D

SECONDARY TWO Stream No of students EXP 36 35 NORMAL 37 ACADEMIC 40 NORMAL 42 TECHNICAL

Lesson Design

Time

1225pm1240pm

Learning Activities and Teacher Questions

Expected Student Reactions

Teacher Support

Students may say:

Teacher may say:

Do it activity

What do we do now?

Yes, continue to work on your drawings while we wait for the

Student to settle down and continue with their

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Points of Evaluation (OBSERVERS)

art preparatory studies

Can we start drawing?

(observation drawing)

Teacher to get student to be prepared for lesson Greet the teachers

whole class to be ready for lesson.

Student greet the teachers

Teacher to launch the lesson by showing the lesson objectives.

1240pm1250pm

Activity Follow the instruction based on the worksheet/slides shown.

Students to pair up and receive an image of an artwork

1250pm1300pm

Can we choose another image?

Gallery walk

Each group to then do gallery walk to identify key words that link the image of the artworks (that the group have).

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No.

Each group to then place the image (of the art work that they were given) according to the identified art movement on the whiteboard.

1300pm1320pm

Use the magnet provided and place your image ( write your name below the image)

Teacher to proceed with lesson to introduce the art movement, artists and artworks.

Teacher to refer back to the white board and allow students to recorrect their placement of the image (artwork) if need be.

1325pm1335pm

Teacher concludes the lesson by getting the students to do a short reflection on how they can apply their chosen art movement in their painting.

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Recap on the lesson objectives.

Gallery Walk allows students to work together in small groups to share ideas and respond to meaningful questions/visuals.

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THINK-PAIR-SHARE Worksheet

Formative Assessment Quiz

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Results

Sec 2 Quiz Results Level of Understanding CLASS STREAM TOTAL Excellent Good Satisfactory 30 - 25 24 - 20 19- 15 2G EXP 36 17 14 2 2I 35 16 14 1 2T NA 39 14 13 6 2E 2D

NT

Excellent

40 42 185 %

17 9 73 39.4%

Good 78.3%

15 16 72 38.9%

5 11 25 13.5%

Below Unsuccessful Remarks 14 - 10 9 - 0 3 0 2 2 1 2 2 transfer 1 VR 2 1 2 0 4 LTA 10 4 5.4% 2.1%

Sec 2 Quiz Results Level of Successful of the lesson Satisfactory Below 13.5% Summative Assessment

Students’ Art Work (EOY Art Exam)

(Pending) Students’ Art Work (EOY Art Exam) 217

Unsuccessful 7.5%

12 Oct 2017

Analysis and Discussion

Lesson 1 PLT 2 Lesson 1

Class: 2E Lin Kaili

Conducted by: Ms

Date and Day: 10 July 2017, Tuesday Rosnani,

Observers: Ms Diana, Ms

Time: 1225PM – 1335PM Silver Lim

Describe what happened?

Ms

Teacher carried lesson out smoothly. All activities planned were carried out and students were very engaged. Various teaching pedagogies were implemented: worksheet, lecture, discussion in pairs, applying of knowledge in gallery walk, categorizing work (students appear to enjoy this part) and final discussion.

During the categorization, two works were in the wrong category – this allow for deeper discussion and questions to be raised. Teacher could address the confusion and help to deepen their understanding.

Students were also able to give good responses (e.g. what makes it so surreal? – they consist of two different worlds).

What was achieved?

Lesson was completed within planned time. Lesson objectives were achieved; students were able to distinguish artworks into the two categories based on the characteristics explained/discussed after the main activities.

Teacher was also able to relate artworks to school values and that gives meaning to what the students are learning.

Teacher was also able to relate artworks to students own experiences (“What movies are full of surreal things?”). This helps students to understand term better.

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What were the challenges?

 Some of the words that define the characteristics of the art movement were difficult for them to fully understand.

What can be improved?

 Students were not sure where to write their notes on.

Need to specify that parts of the worksheet.  Students were crowding at the whiteboard - allow them to go row by row instead to lessen traffic.  Brief description of Pop Art and its relation to commercialism / popular culture need to elaborate as it is key to their understanding of the art movement.  Certain terms such as ‘silkscreen’ can be written on the board so that students are clear of what was being said.  The styles can be described and thus explaining some of the terms/vocabulary given such as ‘comic-like, dots, hard edges’ and colours used.  Some information on the repetition of images in relation to mass production.  Can get students to think of relevance of characters with product (e.g. hulk and cornflake) – helps them to conceptualize or interpret art work.  When asking “What is the characteristics”, students may not understand. Break vocabs into category of STYLE and SUBJECT MATTER.  Surrealism was explained as “opposite of real”. It is in between real and unreal. “Dream-like”.  Have big-sized posters of the words at the front as students categorize the works.

Visual documentation of actual lesson (2E)

DURING ACTIVITY

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GALLERY WALK

CONSOLIDATION OF STUDENTS’ LEARNING

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Findings and Conclusions

Lesson 2 PLT 2 Lesson 2

Class: 2T Rosnani

Conducted by: Ms

Date and Day: 21 July 2017, Friday Kaili,

Observers: Ms Diana, Ms Lin

Time: 0855am-1005am

Describe what happened?

What was achieved?

What were the challenges?

What can be improved?

Ms Silver Lim

Lesson was broken into 2 days of lesson instead of one.

Activities planned were not completely carried out due to the lack of time (class was late as well). Different teaching pedagogies were carried out such as lecture, worksheet, pair discussion between students, categorizing of work and gallery walk. Students were disengaged at some points.

Generally, most of the students were able to distinguish artworks into the two categories.  Some key words that define the characteristics of the art movement were difficult for them to understand.  Due to time constraints, was not able to complete lesson as a whole.  Handful of students was not sure/understands the activities tasks.

 Teachers to pre-run the lesson and plan lesson according to their existing knowledge of the student’s profile in order to effectively carried out lesson.  Plan the questions that will facilitate thinking and understanding.  Need to plan and prepare the lesson setting before the start of the lesson such as strategically plan the location for respective groups for the gallery walk. Understanding the environment and using it as a third teacher in our lesson.

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 Clarity of instruction s. Students were unsure of lesson at some point of the lesson/activities such as:  Key words in gallery walk: Students did not know what to do with writing the keywords. They wrote only one key word. Need to specify to them which part of the worksheet to write on and to write how many keywords.  Teachers needs to insist strict management such as:  students need to raise their hands to answer instead of them insisting of shouting their answers across the classroom.  Better facilitate the activities: Eg. Observe and identify areas that students were not clear on and use it as a platform to dwell on their prior knowledge and clarify their doubts.  Many students did not know the meaning of some keywords that define the characteristics of the art movement. Therefore, need to expect beforehand which keywords they may not understand and explain to them what some key words meant.  Teacher need to keep track of time for each segment of the lesson.  Teacher to use students’ good responses to add on to the answers for the questions posed to them.

Visual documentation of actual lesson (2T)

DURING ACTIVITY

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GALLERY WALK

CONSOLIDATION OF STUDENTS’ LEARNING

Did not manage to carry it out 

Conclusion

Lesson resources and lesson sequences were well thought through and prepared.

However, good preparation and planning of lesson before and during lesson is just as essential. With the absence of these, it minimizes the potential of students’ learnings.

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Acknowledgements

John Berger (1973), John Berger's Ways of Seeing, British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books

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P 0012

Just Play!: Improving Musical Teamwork Ng Shou Jin Gavin Ler

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Introduction Northbrooks Secondary School’s Music curriculum has recently been based on the model of informal learning that was designed and developed by Professor Lucy Green from UCL Institute of Education, London. Informal learning was adapted due to its key characteristics that resonated strongly with the main deliverables decided upon by the Music Department, whereby Secondary One students should be able to perform in a basic pop band setting in small groups of at most 5 by the end of the year. Additionally, it was adapted as it was suggested by Green that informal learning boosts student engagement and motivation in terms of learning instrumental skills, and that lesson material involving authentic music pieces commonly enjoyed by students would further encourage them to pick up these skills (Green, 2008).

However, from performance assessments done by Secondary One students in 2016, it was observed that while students were able to cope with individual music roles relatively well, they were unable to work together in a team to produce a coordinated performance if the assessment involved more than two different musical roles. This meant that when every student from a group of four had to take on various musical roles, such as singing, playing the ukulele and maintaining the drum beat respectively, they were unable to work together as a team to produce a coordinated musical performance. Every student would be focused on playing their own role well while neglecting to cooperate with the other different musical roles within the group, thus resulting in a haphazard and fractured performance. Despite the teachers assisting to diagnose the problem and to guide the students as proposed by the model of informal learning (Green, 2008), it is generally observed that students were unable to coordinate their performance on their own when assistance from the teacher was removed.

As the main aim of the students’ learning from music lessons of the year was to enable them to function coherently as a pop band, in which every student would have to coordinate together while holding a different musical role in their group, it was critical for a solution to be found in order to remedy this problem that was observed throughout the entire Secondary One cohort of 2016. Hence, this project aims to design a teaching method that can help students to grasp the concept of performing together within a group while each student is playing a different musical role, such that the importance of musical teamwork and performance coordination is communicated to them.

Method (i) Subjects The research was conducted with one Secondary 2 Express class of 36 students, and one Secondary 2 Normal (Academic) class of 38 students. This is as they were part of the same cohort of students who were assessed in the previous year and found to have trouble coordinating in a basic pop band setting.

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(ii) Pedagogy and Lesson Material The pedagogy selected was adapted from Musical Futures, an action research programme that was started in 2003 in the United Kingdom with the intention of developing creative and engaging methods to teach music to young people. The teaching pedagogies designed by Musical Futures closely follows the principles of informal learning developed by Green, and the musical activity that was selected to be implemented in this project was their Just Play! activity.

Just Play! was developed with the intention of enabling students to become accustomed to ensemble playing. As quoted from Musical Futures whereby ‘key musical skills and knowledge, listening, following (the music), taking turns (to try out various instruments within the pop band), understanding how music is constructed, shaped and interpreted, knowing how and why different musical activities are taking place…are an important part of foundational musical development’ (Anon, 2017), these are the fundamental skills and knowledge that they aimed to target all at once with the implementation of Just Play!. These learning objectives suited the needs of our subjects within our project, and hence the selection of this pedagogy to implement in order to achieve the project’s aim.

As the Just Play! activity was due to be conducted on the second week of Term 1, the song chosen was one that had to be easily handled by the students on the ukulele and the chair drums for the lesson’s objectives to be met. Hence, Bruno Mars’ Just the Way You Are was chosen as the sample song for the students to play to due to the simplicity of the ukulele chords4, and its straightforward drum beats.

Following the conventions of a Just Play! activity, an instructional video for the students to view while playing to the song was made in order to guide the students along as they attempt to play the entire song. It was decided that this would be a class activity, such that the entire class would function as a pop band to play to the song in order to illustrate to the students that coordinating as a small group is not an impossible task for it is achievable as an entire class as well.

4

The chords utilised in the song for the ukulele part was the C, F and Am chords, and these are the three chords which students find the easiest to locate and change to when performing.

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(iii) Lesson Procedure Following the entire Just Play! activity, the students were tasked to perform to the song Just the Way You Are as a group in front of their peers without the help of the Just Play! video in order for the teachers to check if their ensemble playing skills had been improved following the Just Play! activity. In addition, students were asked to complete a survey in order for the teachers to understand how they felt while undergoing Just Play!, and if they thought that it had helped them gain a better understanding of performing in a pop band setting. Furthermore, the students’ endof-term task was to rehearse and coordinate in their small groups to perform their rendition of Shawn Mendes’ Treat You Better in order for them to further apply their learning from this activity.

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Results and Findings At the end of the experience, students were asked to answer a survey based on their opinions towards the Just Play! activity. The questionnaire included the following questions: 1. On a scale of 1-5, how interesting did you find this activity, with 5 being the most interesting and 1 being the least?

2. Why did you give that rating?

3. Would you want to do more of these “Just Play!� activities in the future?

The cohort’s thoughts on how interesting they found the activity is illustrated in the pie chart below, whereby most of them found the activity interesting, a small percentage had neutral feelings towards it and a smaller percentage reporting that they did not find the activity engaging.

Upon further analysis of the results of the survey, it was found that the students who gave an overall rating of 2 for the activity did not find it interesting as they felt that the number of instruments they could choose was very restrictive as they only options involved ukulele and chair drumming. The same comments were observed from the students who gave the activity a rating of 3. These were valid points raised that can be improved for future Just Play! activities, however for this project, it was limited to these two musical roles as they were the only ones that the student subjects had learnt in the previous year during music lessons. Introducing new music instruments at this point would threaten to jeopardise the main aim of the project, which is to help students learn how to coordinate with their group mates in order to perform functionally as an ensemble encompassing different musical roles. In the future, more instruments could be taught to the students before reintroducing the Just Play!

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activity to help them coordinate their different musical roles as they attempt to play as a pop band.

For students who gave higher ratings of 4 & 5 for the activity, most of them cited reasons stating that they found the activity interesting as they could have fun making music together with their friends. Some were excited with the fact that the entire class was able to coordinate rather well to perform in unison, and it was done in a way which was easy for them to understand how it worked. Other students were thrilled that despite having a large group of students (of approximately 36-40 students) play together, the resulting performance was not messy, especially since they got to combine the harmonic and rhythmic lines together in sync. Some students stated that this gave them a strong sense of accomplishment with their class, and felt that it was an activity that could potentially help them bond as a class.

Most of them also felt that it helped them to establish an understanding of how playing in an ensemble should be like.

After the Just Play! activity, the graded assignment for Term 1 was given to them, where they were supposed to form small groups of 4-5 to perform their own rendition of Shawn Mendes’ Treat You Better without the aid of the Just Play! video.

The performance rubrics given were similar to the one that was used for their end-ofyear performance assessment in the previous year in order to find out if the Just Play! activity had indeed helped them to gain an understanding of ensemble playing, and if they were able to apply their learning directly into a new performance task. Out of a full score of 20, 5 marks were allocated towards musical coordination. After their assessment in Term 1 2017, their musical coordination scores from the previous

year was compared to their current scores.

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As seen from the graphs, a clear improvement of scores for musical coordination can be seen in 2017 after the Just Play! activity was conducted as opposed to the previous year. Though there was still a small percentage of groups that were not able to coordinate their scores well enough, this percentage is significantly smaller compared to the previous year. Hence, from these assessments, it can be deduced that the Just Play! activity had helped to convey the importance of musical teamwork within groups of students holding different musical roles to a certain extent.

Conclusion Based on the results stated above, it can be observed that implementing a Just Play! activity before freeing students to do self-directed group work for performance could assist them strongly in grasping the concept of musical coordination and teamwork. This is as the use of a guidance video throughout the performance can help students to visualise the music that they are playing, and performing to the actual soundtrack could help them to internalise the tempo of the song as well as to pay attention to what the other musical roles are playing.

However, the results after the activity would vary from group to group due to the different student profiles, and to the level of focus each group holds during rehearsal sessions. Some groups would require more assistance in working together, while it was observed that many groups were able to self-direct their own rehearsals and troubleshoot their problems accurately.

All in all, it is recommended that the Just Play! activity would be continued on in the school’s music lessons especially when teaching the concept of musical teamwork and coordination so as to guide the students in achieving this skill within their groups on their own. Improvements to consider would be to expand the range of practical instrumental skills taught to the students prior to this activity so as to provide them with a greater variety of musical roles to alternate during group performance rehearsals. Additionally, the Just Play! activity music would have to be updated yearly in order to include recent songs that the students are familiar with so as to keep them engaged and interested in the music sessions in the future.

References Anon. (2017). Just Play. Retrieved from http://www.musicalfuturesinternational.org/just-play.html.

Green, L. (2005). Meaning, autonomy and authenticity in the music classroom.

United Kingdom: Institute of Education.

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Green, L. (2008). Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy. England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Rodrigues, F. (2014). Informal practices in a formal context of music education: An experience report. ISME: Relevance and Reform in the Education of Professional Musicians, pp. 108-117.

Annex A [Samples of Just Play! Music Videos] 1) Just Play!: Just the Way You Are by

Bruno Mars

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2)

Just Play!: Treat You Better by

Shawn Mendes

Annex B [Photos of Students Participating in Just Play!]

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Authentic Learning

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C 0001

Equipping EBS students with research and analysis skills

Lee Wen Lin Cinda Toh Salihah Jalial

ABSTRACT This project aims to improve students' performance in EBS coursework which demands students to be proficient in research and analysis skills. Students carry out a thorough background research on Eatzi Gourmet, a F&B outlet, to understand how it strategise its marketing mix. They then take on the role of customers where they experience the setting, operations and customer service of the business. With their detailed findings and first-hand experiences, students then analysis and provide suggestions on how the business can improve its marketing mix. The deliberate choices of the tasks enable students to practice the necessary skills required of coursework. Students demonstrate improved proficiency in these skills through their written reports.

INTRODUCTION The shift to an information and service economy, combined with the computerization of the workplace, required a corresponding shift in the skills required of the workforce (Burrus, Jackson, Nuo Xi & Steinberg, 2013). Analytic (Critical thinking, Problem solving, Decision making, Research and inquiry) and information processing (Information literacy) skills are thus identified, amongst others, as important 21st century skills as they cannot be performed by computers ( Binkley et al., 2010; Finegold and Notabartolo, 2008; P21,2012).

The results of these research works underpins the importance of students in learning research and analysis skills, not just for the purpose of performing in coursework but also as critical skills to be acquired in the 21st century.

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METHOD

The students involved in this PLT were 17 Secondary 3 Normal Technical students taking Elements of Business Skills (EBS).

The business identified for analysis is Eatzi Gourmet, a Food and Beverage (F&B) outlet. Students are tasked to answer questions posed to them on the marketing mix and customer service provided by the business. The marketing mix of a business comprises of its 4Ps - Products, Price, Place and Promotion. With the background research on the business, students then suggest how the marketing mix and customer service can be improved.

Students approach the tasks by critically searching the Internet for reliable and relevant information and by making decisions as to what should be collected as evidence for their report. They then extract information from the evidence to construct their answers.

Students were also given a first-hand experience with the setting, operations and customer service of Eatzi Gourmet by being customers at the restaurant. They critically observed and took notes of their experience to be used in their answers.

The project started in Term 4 and is ongoing.

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RESULTS Initially, students had much difficulty coping with the skills required of them as it was their first time handling competencies of such nature. The students had to be guided slowly with specific instructions and detailed demonstrations of the processes involved from evidence selection to report writing. Much scaffolding was given in the first question to let students taste success. This is a crucial step to build confidence in them before they feel incompetent and lack motivation to complete the tasks.

Eventually, students improved in their research and analysis skills as they practiced with more questions. Those who displayed competencies in the tasks were affirmed of their work while others who are weaker were monitored more closely and given more guidance.

Shown on the next page is a sample of a piece of student’s work which demonstrates her ability to critically extract relevant information from the Internet and hence giving an accurate and detailed answer which are backed with evidence.

Question: What product does this business sell?

Guiding questions: -

When you mention the business name, what is the main product that is connected to the business?

-

What categories of the product are there?

-

Describe the products in each category?

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Student’s Answers: Main product is Western food.

The different types of categories of food sold is ;

1. Appetizers 2. Main Course 3. Desserts 1. Appetizers There are soups and salads .

Examples of soups are Mushrooms Soup .

Examples of salads are Seafood Salad.

2. Main Course There are seafood and meat dishes

Examples of seafood dishes are Seafood Platter .

Examples of meat dishes are Grilled Chicken Steak .

3. Desserts There are ice cream and cakes .

Examples of ice cream are Summer Berries .

Examples of cakes are American Cheesecake .

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DISCUSSION

The display of improved research and analysis skills by students is encouraging. As the project is ongoing, we expect students to gain even more improvements in the mastering of these skills. The project members are conscious that although scaffolding is necessary, it should be slowly taken away as students become more confident in their work. Only then will we be able to fully evaluate the success of our project in building the research and analysis skills in the students. Eventually, students are required to be confidently equipped with these skills as their N’ Level coursework does not allow any form of guidance from teachers.

The EBS team will continue to carry out this lesson package with subsequent batches of EBS students to equip them with research and analysis skills.

REFERENCES Burrus, Jackson, Nuo Xi & Steinberg, (2013). Identifying the Most Important 21st Century Workforce Competencies: An Analysis of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Herman, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, M., & Rumble, M. (2010).

Defining 21st century skills (Draft white paper 1).

Finegold, D., & Notabartolo, A. S. (2008). 21st century competencies and their impact: An interdisciplinary literature review.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2012). Our history.

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Collaborative Learning

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CA 0001

Experimental Design of Relationship between Pressure, Force and Area for Secondary 2 Express Students Involving Collaborative Learning Low Ai Jiao Nur Sakinah Bte Ahmad Jupri Lau Shu Wei Tan Shin Yuen Michelle

ABSTRACT From past years, there has been observations made that one common misconception among lower secondary students is that they tend to overlook area as a factor in determining pressure and instead, only focus on weight of object as the sole determining factor for pressure. Hence, this Professional Learning Team (PLT) project aims to provide opportunities for these students to expand on their learning through the acquisition of experimental design and investigative skills on how area affects pressure as well. During the planning process, students have to think critically to choose the appropriate apparatus so as to ensure the experiment that they are designing would lead them to obtain fair experimental results in investigating the relationship between pressure and area. As students explore to formulate the relationship between pressure, area and force, they get to evaluate their experiment and suggest possible improvements. Compilation of students’ work revealed that they were able to formulate the relationship of pressure with area and force such that, the smaller the surface area, the greater the pressure exerted. In summation, the results collected reflect that this project has allowed students to design their own experiment, which forced them to reason, process and formulate their learning of the relationship between pressure, area and force more effectively than teacher-directed lessons would have been. Modifications to the lessons delivery would be made for the possibility of continuing the project in 2018 for the secondary two express.

1.

INTRODUCTION

1.1

BACKGROUND

From past years, there has been observations made that one common misconception among lower secondary students is that they tend to overlook area as a factor in determining pressure and instead, only focus on weight of object as the sole 242

determining factor for pressure. According to Martin et al., (2002), misconceptions are often constructed from a child’s experience. As such, this Professional Learning Team (PLT) project aims to provide opportunities for these students to expand on their experiences through construction of an experiment in which they acquire experimental design and investigative skills on how area can affect pressure as well.

1.2

RESEARCH FOCUS

The objective of this project aims to allow lower secondary students, to work well in teams, so as to design their own experiment and formulate the relationship between pressure, area and force. Through the project, students will learn to make predictions and hypotheses, make and record observations, interpret and evaluate observations and experimental results. During the planning process, students have to think critically to choose the appropriate apparatus so as to ensure the experiment that they are designing would lead them to obtain fair experimental results in investigating the relationship between pressure and area. While designing their experiment, students may evaluate that their initial experimental design might not lead them to obtain fair experimental results, hence understanding the need to improve their experiments. As students explore to formulate the relationship between pressure, area and force, they get to evaluate their investigation and suggest possible improvements. They will then clearly present their findings and explanations to their formulation of the relationship between pressure, area and force. At the end of the project, students will be challenged to answer application questions where they can correctly state the advantages of using high pressure or low pressure in different scenarios.

1.3

DEMOGRAPHICS

For this project, a secondary two express class of 36 students, of mixed genders, was selected. They were selected so as to further stretch their abilities.

2.

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

PROBLEM-SOLVING TEACHING

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Gallet (1998) explained the limitations of traditional teaching method as, while the latter allows students to achieve good grades, the good grades do not translate to their understanding of Science. Traditional teaching method offers knowledge but does not develop students’ thinking and does not aid in solving unfamiliar situations. Gallet (1998) also stated that traditional teaching resulted in students simply memorizing facts, without emphasising on application of knowledge. This resulted in superficial learning and very low content retention.

In view of the disadvantages of traditional teaching method, Gallet (1998) explored an alternative approach to teaching, which is problem-solving teaching. Problem-solving teaching dates back to the 1960s and was first implemented at Harvard University, Faculties of Medicine and Commerce. It had been proven that facts were better understood, recalled and delivered when students elaborated upon them. Problemsolving approach also leads to greater depth of learning. Students are more engaged in the process of understanding concepts rather than plain memorization. They are also better at explaining concepts than merely reproducing standard answers.

Problem-solving teaching provides students a problem to solve. Through this approach, students have to apply skills such as applying and gathering of new knowledge, investigating and making decisions, and also working with group mates.

Throughout the process, students are heavily involved while the teacher provides minimal intervention. In addition, the problem that students embark on should not be a regular classroom exercise or simply applying already acquired knowledge.

Problem-solving involves students to gain new knowledge, and that the problem should not be easily solved by relying on prior knowledge (Gallet, 1998).

Gallet (1998) further elaborated on what defines a problem. A problem exists when a person sees the need to attain new knowledge in order to progress but does not know how to bridge the gap. With problem-solving teaching, students make links specifically to apply problem-solving approach to laboratory work because the laboratory simulates the real-world context where theoretical knowledge is applied. Students are 244

able to formulate a hypothesis and test them out using reactions. Students are also able to exchange and discuss ideas freely.

3.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The project was carried with 36 secondary two express stream students (Class 2G) taking General Science in the second semester of 2017. The entire project took place over a total of six periods of 35 minutes lesson. The first two periods involved the planning and designing of the experimental set-up. The next two periods involved the execution of the experiment(s) so as to obtain and collect the results. The last two periods involved the consolidation, discussion and presentation of results. During the execution of the entire project, the teacher identified and clarified students' questions by prompting and addressing the issues they faced and led them to think of possible adjustments that could be made to their experimental design.

4.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

4.1

RESULTS

4.1.1 DESIGNING EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP

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4.1.2 GROUP PRESENTATION

4.1.3 SAMPLES OF STUDENTS’ WORK

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Fig. 413A

Fig. 413B

Fig. 413C

4.2

ANALYSIS

During group presentation, a number of students were observed to use the term weight instead of mass. This could be due to their understanding of weight as force, which theoretically, they are not incorrect to say so. However, emphasis has to be placed to students to use the correct term to master their subject literacy.

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From Fig. 413A, Fig. 413B and Fig. 413C, samples of some of the students’ work collected, it is evident that students are able to formulate the relationship between pressure, area and force as the smaller the surface area, the greater the pressure exerted.

5.

LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1

LIMITATIONS

Before starting the project, teacher should recap on how a fair experiment can be conducted by revisiting terms such as dependent variables and independent variables.

Emphasis has to be placed to the students that there can only be one dependent variable (either force or area) in their experimental design. For example, if they are using Play-Doh, the mass and thickness of the Play-Doh must be constant.

5.2

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE WORK

The project task can be given as graded assignment during students’ September school holidays so as to save curriculum lesson time. It can be modified to include use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools whereby students could videorecord execution of their own experiment(s) instead of classroom demonstration.

Rubrics for group presentation and peer critique could be created to allow for clear and fair assessment of the project and provide a clearer direction for students.

6.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, this project has allowed students to design their own experiment, which forced them to reason, process and formulate their learning of the relationship between pressure, area and force more effectively than teacher-directed lessons would have been. This project has also benefitted the visual and kinaesthetic learners as the execution of the project allowed them to learn best in their learning styles. As such, there is considerations of continuing the project in 2018 for the secondary two express classes but with modifications to improve on the delivery of the lessons.

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References Gallet, C. (1998, January). Problem-solving teaching in the chemistry laboratory: leaving the cooks... Journal of Chemical Education, 75 (1), 72-77. doi: 10.1021/ed075p72 Martin, R., Sexton, C. and Gerlovich, J. (2002) Teaching Science for all Children: Methods for Constructing Understanding. Boston: Allyn and Bacon

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Inter-disciplinary

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CP 0001

INFUSION OF APPLIED LEARNING PROGRAMME IN MALAY LANGUAGE WAU FOR SECONDARY 2 EXPRESS AND 2 NORMAL ACADEMIC STUDENTS

Mdm Zuraidah bte Abdul Karim Mdm Jariah bte Ramlee Ms Nuruljannah binte Juma’at Mdm Dian Farhana binte Akbar Mr Omar bin Ismail

Introduction

In alignment to the school Applied Learning Programme (ALP), the Malay Language (ML) unit decided to adopt the making of Wau. The target audience for this project is Secondary 2 Express and Secondary 2 Normal Academic students. This group of students was selected because they have been exposed to the making of aeroplane models during their Applied Learning Programme (ALP). As Wau is a traditional Malay kite, students were also exposed to the history of Wau, the different parts of Wau, as well as the culture of Wau in the Malay community in the past. This programme served as their Project Work for Semester 2.

Objectives

   

Students will be introduced to the history of Wau. Students will learn and use proper vocabulary relating to the making of Wau. Technical words are similar to the process of making an aeroplane.

Students will be self-directed learners in revising the Malay vocabulary.

Students will be using a reflection booklet to write their reflection before, during and after the lesson.

Approach

PETALS Framework was used as follows:

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Pedagogy

Authentic Learning, Experiential Learning

Experience of Learning

During the process of making the Wau, students will relate their experience as content for their reflection, whilst learning new vocabulary and appreciating Malay traditional games.

Tone of Environment

Fun and Conducive

Assessment

Presentation of Wau, Feedback Form

Learning Content

Vocabulary, Oral Presentation, Making of Wau, Appreciation for Malay traditional games

StudentCentredness

Group Work - Making of Wau

Process

Sec 2 Express - Term 3 Week 5-6 Sec 2 Normal Academic - Term 3 Week 9-10

Lesson 1:

2Exp - Monday, 24 July 2017 2NA - Friday, 18 August 2017

Introduction to the brief history, method of making Wau and vocabulary relating to Wau. An instruction manual on the process of making Wau was provided for the students.

Lesson 2:

2Exp - Thursday, 27 July 2017 2NA - Monday, 21 August 2017

The making of the frame for the Wau.

Lesson 3:

2Exp - Monday, 14 August 2017 2NA – Friday, 25 August 2017

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Reflection Meeting - Students are required to complete the Reflection Form at every stage of the process of making Wau i.e. before, during and after. Students were able to make improvements/refinements to their Wau. At the end of the practical lesson (making of Wau), students are required to complete the Reflection Form to provide feedback on what they have learnt. After the submission of the completed Wau, students have to complete the Peer Assessment Form.

Results

The students have to complete a pre-survey before the project so that the teachers are able to gauge their attitude towards the making of Wau. Table 1 shows the students’ responses in the pre-survey.

Table 1: Students’ Attitude towards the Making of Wau

Sec 2 Express:

Total number of students - 14

Sec 2 Normal Academic: Total number of students - 35

Item

No. of 2Exp Students

No. of 2NA Students

9 (64.3%)

33 (94.2%)

0 (0%)

1 (2.9%)

3. Have tried / It was fun

4 (28.6%)

1 (2.9%)

4. Have tried / It was not fun

1 (7.1%)

0 (0%)

1. Have not tried / Wish to try 2. Have not tried / Do not wish to try

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Table 2: Results of Semester 2 Project Work

Class

2 Graciousness

2 Integrity

2 Teamwork

2 Empathy

6

8

16

19

100%

100%

100%

100%

No of distinctions

1

2

6

6

% of Distinctions

16.7

25

37.5

31.6

No of Students % of Passes

Table 2 shows the students’ performance in the Project Work. The students made use of the instruction manual well and displayed good teamwork within their respective groups. They were self-motivated and conducted their own research on the frame and the design of the Wau. Since this was a new experience for many of them, the students found the project interesting and thus the students were enthusiastic to produce a nicely-designed Wau.

Besides the learning of new vocabulary relating to the process of making Wau, it was evident that the students displayed the school values such as fortitude, teamwork and discipline. Since they worked in groups, they have to exercise interpersonal skills (eg setting group expectations, decision-making and conflict management) and time management.

Challenges

Distraction - A few students needed frequent reminders to be on task to complete their project as they were easily distracted and lacked seriousness.

Materials - The kite paper is thin and not durable especially during painting.

Creativity - Some students followed the instruction manual too closely and it restricted their creativity. Some designs were too simple and not attractive as they lacked the elements of the Malay art such as flower and leaf motifs.

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Conclusion and Recommendations

The instruction manual should not include the specific measurements of the frame of the Wau as this restricted the design of the Wau. In the second round of lessons that involved the Sec 2 Normal Academic students, there was an improvement in the design of the Wau as the students were not restricted to the specific measurements given in the instructional manual.

In future, functional writing such as informal e-mail and descriptive essay can be considered as a form of assessment.

255

Snapshots - Process

256

257

Snapshots - Completed Work

258

References

1.

Ismail Hashim (1989). Wau, Kuala Lumpur: Makmur

2.

https://www.slideshare.net/tajul/malaysia-focus-2014-vol-12014

3.

https://vimeo.com/90412031

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Credits and Acknowledgements Special mention and credits to the following:Mr Ng Song Beng (SSD) for being the overall in charge of the entire monograph project.

Mr Kesavan S/O Thangam for 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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