Browsing by Author "Tan, Yuh Huann"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- PublicationRestrictedChinese language teachers’ conceptions of knowledge creation, knowledge and knowing(2017)Tan, Yuh HuannSet against the backdrop of education in the Knowledge Age, the current study answers calls in the literature to further advance knowledge creation in schools. Scholars observed that education in schools is not changing fast enough to prepare our young to meet the demands of the world’s workforce and citizens. Teachers are the key people educating students in schools, and scholars have highlighted a need to investigate their understanding of the phenomena. Sixteen Chinese Language (CL) teachers from Singapore were examined in this research as language teachers are primarily responsible for the basic literacies that form students’ foundation for lifelong learning. Positing that people’s cultural beliefs and the language(s) used are inseparable, CL teachers may possess an understanding of the different phenomena that reflect the influence of the Chinese culture by virtue of the language they speak and teach. To carry out the investigation, the current research adopted phenomenography — a methodology aimed at finding and systematising how people interpret the world around them — to learn about and to describe CL teachers’ conceptions of the phenomena.
Through the phenomenographic processes, four separate outcome spaces representing what the CL teachers understand of knowledge, knowing, knowledge creation in general, and knowledge creation in education, had emerged. Each outcome space represented the qualitatively different albeit limited understanding of teachers on a phenomenon. The critical variations in teachers’ understanding were presented in the different categories of an outcome space hierarchically. Critical variations aside, noncritical variations that have emerged from teachers’ conception were also captured.
The findings had shown that the CL teachers’ understanding of various phenomena did exhibit differences from scholarly conceptions. For example, the understanding of a shared outcome in knowledge creation had not emerged although theories of knowledge creation commonly described some form of shared outcomes as a key component of knowledge creation. Other aspects included community- related and process-related differences. In the understanding of knowledge and knowing, the emergence of direct definitions and types of knowledge during interviews, and the non-emergence of descriptions on the structural simplicity of knowledge were examples of the differences between theoretical and people’s conception. Besides demonstrating the differences, some of the CL teachers’ conception may be attributed to the influence of cultural beliefs. For instance, some of the CL teachers highlighted the non- receptive for changes as possibly an inhibitor to knowledge creation; their understanding of knowledge creation implied impending changes. Change, when seen as a disruption to existing harmonious state of things, was culturally undesirable. Similarly, the omnipresence of authorities of knowledge and the different ways of interpreting these authorities by different teachers reflected, on the one hand, the influence of hierarchy conscious Confucian-heritage culture; and on the other hand, the possible moderating effect of English language and Western culture on the Singaporean CL teachers’ personal epistemology.295 106 - PublicationRestrictedAn exploratory study on a metacognitive approach to teaching and learning of spontaneous speaking in Chinese language with audioblogs(2008)Tan, Yuh HuannLanguage learning involves four areas, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. This study focuses on speaking, an area that is often neglected by teachers for various reasons. In many Chinese Language classrooms, which are teacher-centered by tradition, students have minimal opportunities to actively participate in the negotiation of meaning during lesson. To develop students to become independent learners of speaking in Chinese Language, a metacognitive framework developed by Goh and Zhang (2002) was adopted in this study. Twentyfive Secondary Two Express stream Chinese Language students, aged 13 to 14, participated in this eight weeks study. Audioblogs was used as the mediating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool through which the students interacted as they developed their metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive awareness. Through the use of scaffolding questions, the students carried out self appraisals to evaluate and monitor their oral performances and planned for their future speaking tasks. The students were also tasked to provide comments for peers’ oral performances. Seven usable sets of data were analysed and based on inferential statistics, the treatment may have led the students to improve significantly in their pretest-posttest oral performance scores. Through peer commenting and self appraisal activities in the audioblogs, the students developed greater metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive awareness. The findings of this study provide much food for thought as I continue to explore innovative ways to teach speaking in Chinese Language by harnessing capabilities and potentials of emerging technologies.
467 31 - PublicationOpen AccessA metacognitive approach to enhancing Chinese language speaking skills with audioblogs(Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, 2010)
;Tan, Yuh HuannSituated in the field of computer assisted language learning (CALL), this article reports an instrumental case study on the use of audioblogs for developing students’ Chinese speaking skills. The intervention focused on scaffolding students in metacognitive reflection of their oral performances. The case focused on seven students who completed substantial part of the activities, and the main sources of data came from the oral recordings and interactions in their audioblogs. A significant improvement in the mean scores of pre- to post-test oral performance was found, which indicated the benefits of this approach. The students were found to adopt a systematic approach in their reflection: evaluating --> monitoring --> planning, with greater amount of attention devoted to the monitoring strategy. However, a disproportionate distribution of metacognitive knowledge usage was found in students’ self-assessment. Task knowledge was the predominant metacognitive knowledge used by students, whereas person knowledge and strategy knowledge were neglected by the students. Teachers who are keen to implement a similar instructional approach could develop strategies to focus the students’ attention on the latter two types of metacognitive knowledge.Scopus© Citations 17 222 456 - PublicationOpen AccessTeachers’ understanding of knowledge creation: A phenomenography of Singapore Chinese language teachers(2016)
;Tan, Yuh HuannKnowledge creation approach of education is critical to prepare our children for the knowledge society. However, uptake of redesigning learning activities using knowledge building approach by school teachers is slow and one possible factor lies in teacher's understanding of knowledge creation as a phenomenon, but research in this area is lacking. This is a phenomenographic study with 16 Chinese Language teachers in Singapore to explore their understanding of knowledge creation. Four categories of teachers' understanding of knowledge creation emerged: limited creation by specialized few; creation by anyone for self and others; interpersonal creation for self; interpersonal co-creation with others. These four categories are marked by variations along three key themes: types of creator, individual/group involvement, and purpose. We examine differences between teachers’ understanding with the 12 principles of Knowledge Building and suggest future interventional study that might facilitate teacher’s adoption of knowledge building approach.248 345