CRPP - Conference Papers

This paper investigates what would be the right blend of these key ingredients in encouraging interaction to keep learners active and motivated. A group of in-service teachers were provided with these five key ingredients in one of their courses at the National Institute of Education. Their feedback was sought at the end of the course as to what they felt assisted them in their learning. This study hopes to provide some insightful thoughts into the question of what would be the right blend in sustaining active learning among in-service teachers in a blended learning environment.

Through an Activity Theoretic framework, mathematics classroom teaching practices are seen as an organized activity, a constituent part of an activity system of curriculum enactment. They involve the teacher taking certain actions in the classroom, mediated by artifacts or tools such as the various texts and symbols, material things or resources, specific types of talk or routines, etc. The outcome of such actions, in the main, is students learning mathematics and at the same time, an enacted mathematics curriculum as well. The analytical approach to study this process is to use a coding scheme which segments the observed classroom practices in units of lessons into four categories of actions, namely, heuristics-instruction, teaching concepts and skills, going over assigned work and student activities, and a fifth category of other classroom events. All categories except the fifth are considered actions in Leont’ev’s (1979) sense. The actions of the teacher in the observed lessons are coded. The resulting segmentation, the amount of time spent in each category, and how the time is distributed over a series of lessons serve as the staple data for analysis to address the question of the extent mathematical problem solving is emphasized in classrooms.

This paper reports on research carried out as part of a doctoral thesis which focuses on how the social software of the mobile internet, such as text messaging and picture messaging, is used by teenagers in the process of constructing negotiated and shared understandings of unfamiliar environments in which they find themselves. To this end, the study was constructed such that students were given opportunities to collaboratively explore and navigate unfamiliar environments using the technologies of the mobile internet, as well as to engage in debate, and use multimedia evidence recorded in the field to defend their positions both to peers in the field and in the classroom, regarding various issues of concern to these environments, with specific links being made to their studies in geography. Key research questions that delineate the bounds of the study are: 1) How do pupils seek to explore and understand the local environment in which they find themselves? 2) How are such understandings of three-dimensional environments communicated, through text, pictures and video, with their peers and friends? 3) What are the mechanisms (including textual and non-textual cues) which teens employ to coach their peers to successfully navigate alien environments? 4) How can the technologies of social software, specifically messaging technologies of the mobile internet, augment and / or detract from the semiotic processes of making and sharing meaning about place? Specifically, the requirement that the students engage in real-time collaborative interaction while still onsite in multiple remote locations can only be properly realized with the mobile internet. No longer should students have to wait till they return to school before sharing their thoughts with their peers. The study encouraged students to empathise with, and defend, different points-of-view. Through debate, students gained an appreciation of the issues pertaining to the geography around a particular location. The quality of the debate was a function of their powers of observation, and what they perceived as meaningful in their environment.

This paper describes part of the results of a pilot study investigating how adolescents make, share and negotiate meaning with their peers about their local environments. Specifically, the results presented in this paper focus on how adolescents perceive and interpret spatial and three-dimensional data presented in various formats, such as in terms of virtually-rendered objects, photo-realistic panoramas, and traditional maps. Participants were required to undertake both a pre- and a post-test, which were identical in task. These tests involved having the participants match a series of computer-rendered three-dimensional objects with similar objects rendered from the same perspective, as well as to deduce the axis of rotation and viewing perspective of a QuickTime VR cylindrical panorama when presented with a map of the same area (the preand post-tests were separated by an intervention activity which will be described but not analysed in depth in this paper, as the activity itself has been documented in other publications by the author). Performance data obtained from the pre- and post-test results will be presented and analysed, to establish the extent to which classroom practice in geography lessons might be improved to enhance students’ performance in map reading and interpretation.

This paper reports on the pilot study of a doctoral thesis which focuses on how the social software of the mobile internet, such as text messaging and picture messaging, is used by teenagers in the process of constructing negotiated and shared understandings of unfamiliar environments in which they find themselves. To this end, the study was constructed such that students were given opportunities to collaboratively explore and navigate unfamiliar environments using the technologies of the mobile internet, as well as to engage in debate, and use multimedia evidence recorded in the field to defend their positions both to peers in the field and in the classroom, regarding various issues of concern to these environments, with specific links being made to their studies in geography

Recent developments in handheld telephony have given rise to the ‘mobile internet' - a range of technologies, from multimedia-messaging to access of the internet through handheld devices. These trends have been accompanied by the increasing consumerization of the mobile phone. Many students today have access to a tool, which allows them to connect to potentially anyone else, regardless of spatial co-location. This paper describes a study which was carried out in the early months of 2004, focusing on how the social software of the mobile internet, such as text- and picture-messaging, is used by adolescents in the process of constructing negotiated and shared understandings of unfamiliar environments in which they may find themselves. Students were presented with opportunities to collaboratively explore and navigate unfamiliar environments using the technologies of the mobile internet, as well as to engage in debate, and used multimedia evidence recorded in the field to defend their positions both to peers in the field and subsequently in the classroom.

This study examined the feasibility of introducing alternative assessment into the teaching of Mandarin Chinese as a quasi second language at the elementary school level in linguistically heterogeneous Singapore. Drawn upon the ideas from the communicative language teaching theory, the framework of authentic intellectual work, the revised Bloom's taxonomy of knowledge, and the principles of alternative assessment, we developed five criteria for authentic intellectual quality. The criteria served as guidelines for the teachers to design and implement alternative assessments in Mandarin Chinese. The findings showed that the implementation of alternative assessment could result in improved students' engagement and interest in learning as well as higher quality assessment tasks and student work. Moreover, teachers' attitudes toward alternative assessment became more positive.

The mother tongue education component of Singapore’s bilingual policy aims at achieving a dual goal of empowering its citizens with linguistic capital (which they can use in interacting with people from emerging regional powers) and moral capital (which can help maintain their Asian value and identity). Unfortunately, this goal has seldom been adequately achieved. Among the various affecting factors, the unique language learning environment and the exam-oriented language teaching and assessment practices have imposed great constraints on the attainment of the wonderful intention of policy makers. One piece of evidence is that daily assessment practices in MT teaching focus too much on factual knowledge and knowledge reproduction which are characterized by examining discrete linguistic knowledge and practice and drills. To further improve the teaching of Mother Tongue languages in Singapore and better attain the dual goal, we may need to introduce new assessment practices into daily classroom teaching: alternative assessment practices. This paper presents an overview about the necessity, feasibility, advantages, how the use of alternative assessments can improve the quality of MT teaching and learning in the actual classroom context, and the practical constraints of introducing alternative assessment into MT education.

A key recommendation of the Tamil Language Curriculum & Pedagogy and Review Committee Report released in 2005 was that the Tamil alphabet be taught over a period of 2 years. With the increased emphasis on the use of Spoken Tamil in classroom, it is important that students use oral language as an important starting point. Although spoken language can be written down, written language is largely different from speech. The reading of texts aloud is a bridge between spoken language and reading, because it helps them to understand what written script looks like. Tamil orthography involves 24 7 letters to represent various meaning bearing words. The challenge to students then, becomes the gradual mastery of sub skills such as symbol sound relationships, the recognition of words and later comprehending the text. Several methods can be instrumental in strengthening the student's command of the language, these include, the use phonic, semantic and contextual strategies to develop confidence in word recognition, the fostering of spelling skills and comprehension, appreciating the alphabet, reading alphabet books creating words with alphabet, exploring different kinds of writing the alphabet, recognizing and producing the alphabet through word processing.

Authenticity and open-endedness are two important factors that are being greatly emphasized in mathematics teaching and learning nowadays. This study investigates how Secondary one student in Singapore solved an open ended mathematics problem, River Cruise, set in an authentic context. Over three hundred secondary one students from a high-performing school and a non-high performing school participated in this study. The results reveal that the majority of the students only take into account one condition in coming up with their solution, when it involves more than one possible condition. Working within the framework of that assumed condition, most students merely present one correct answer, when there exist multiple correct answers. The majority of the students do not adopt a systematic approach in solving the problem and the solutions presented are not well organized. However, it has been observed that students enjoyed working on the problem. The results suggest that students need greater exposure to authentic and open-ended tasks in mathematics learning. The exposure will not only help them to develop their problem solving ability and foster their mathematical thinking but also encourage them to make connections between mathematics and the world around us.

Open-ended tasks are one mode of alternative assessment used in mathematics. This study is part of a larger research project on integrating alternative assessment strategies into mathematics daily teaching and learning. It investigates secondary one students’ performance in solving open-ended problems in Singapore context. Over three hundred secondary one students from one high-performing school and one non-high performing school participated in this study. The test consists of three open-ended tasks, covering both arithmetic and geometry. The openness of the problems includes two aspects – multiple approaches, which allow students to begin working on the problems using different approaches, and multiple acceptable answers (i.e., more than one correct answer). The results reveal that the majority of students adopted “trial and error” as the only strategy, which limited the number of possible solutions that most students can obtain. The students also experienced much difficulty in organizing their solutions. The results suggest that more variety of problem solving strategies need to be taught and documentation is another important skill that needs to be paid attention to in problem solving.

This paper provides an anatomy of how individual seatwork is appropriated by students in a low track class in Singapore to enact „groupwork‟ as a counteractivity to the norm. Using the theories of agency-structure dialectics and contentious local practices, I argue that in their local struggles with structural influences, students create their own practices using groupwork as a cultural form to negotiate identity politics and hegemonic behavioral control at micro, meso and macro levels. Classroom observation and interview data are analyzed using qualitative methods (ethnographic and video discourse analysis) to reveal the dynamics of social interactional practices as the at-risk students use their identities-in-practice and agencies to position themselves heterogeneously despite their being streamed into the same low ability space.

This paper reiterates the issues and problems of the teaching and writing of expository essays in Singapore secondary schools and argues for a socio-cognitive view of language which links language to its cultural context. Such a view of language (Halliday, 1985, 2004) shows how different communities in the culture will use language in different ways. More specifically, the paper will provide pedagogic scaffolds which will assist students to help shape writing with an understanding of the cultural practices that embed writing. The paper is in two parts. The first provides a pedagogic framework for writing as a social practice. Using the Curriculum Cycle (Callaghan and Knapp, 1989) the paper will discuss the social contextual dimensions of writing an expository text: the field, the tenor and the mode. The role of the teacher and the student will be tracked through the three phases of the pedagogic framework, the modeling, the joint-construction and the independent stages. Some activities for explicit instruction, joint negotiation of meaning and independent instruction will be discussed. The second part of the paper will draw from some Singapore classroom practices to demonstrate the kind of instructional scaffolding provided by the teacher for shaping student thinking and genre practice in line with the social contextual dimensions of expository writing. Implications of the pedagogical approach documented will be discussed from the teacher's perspective. The viability of adopting the approach to help students gain mastery in the control of other school genres will also be explored.

Many teachers have noted that developing an argument to support a stance in an expository essay is a challenge for students. This problem deserves attention as ability to write adequately supported, focused arguments in various school subjects is the key to academic success. Taking the theoretical view that writing is simultaneously social practice and cognitive activity, this paper examines the extent to which explicit instruction in the genre practices and associated thinking processes that shape expository writing affects argument moves in student writing. Argument moves in 137 pairs of pre- and post-nstruction essays were analysed to determine the presence of stance assertion and stance support moves, and the type of stance support strategies used. Findings showed a pre- to post-instruction increase in stance assertion moves in the introduction of the essay and stance reiteration moves in the conclusion. Post-instruction essays had a larger number of stance support moves. Moves that significantly increased after instruction were explicit statements of support claim, use of personal knowledge as evidence, countering of anticipated opposing views and elaboration of support claims. The pedagogical implications of these findings will be discussed to explore the viability of moving from grammar- and topic-focused approaches to teaching expository writing to a socio-cognitive approach.

The conventional method of teaching expository writing in Singapore schools tends to be limited to suggesting topic content and providing a list of words relevant to the topic. This end-product focused teaching approach has not always been as effective as desired because many students are unable to use the content and vocabulary appropriately in their essay. Two alternative approaches to writing instruction are the cognitive and the social models which, respectively, view writing as a decision-making, problem solving activity (Flower & Hayes, 1981) and as meaning-making social activity (Halliday, 2004; Street, 2001). This paper presents an attempt to integrate the two models in a socio-cognitive framework for guiding the planning of learning activities and the writing of instructional materials in a research project to teach expository writing in two Singapore Secondary Schools. The paper begins by arguing for the pedagogical application of a theoretical view of school-based expository essay writing as a set of genre practices that issue from socio-culturally situated thinking processes. How a social cum cognitive model translates into classroom texts and activities that explicitly teach genre practices and associated thinking processes will be demonstrated with excerpts from the instructional materials written for the research project. The discussion section of the paper addresses some of the problems encountered in realizing a socio-cognitive model in materials design and in aligning teachers’ classroom behaviours with the model.

This study is part of a project in exploring how to design, sustain, and scale up an iMVT (Modeling and Visualization Technology integrated inquiry-based Learning) pedagogy in science in Singapore schools. The paper describes the co-design process of a student workbook and research through collaboration between a school teacher and researchers on the topic of Forces and Motion and findings during and after the enactment of the curriculum. The study involved eighty-two secondary one students from two experimental and two control classes of an above average school. The iMVT integrated curriculum with the topic of Forces and Motion took one month to finish in the experimental classes (Including pre-test, intervention and post-test) in this school. Pre-test and post-test data from experimental and control classes in the school were collected. Other data included post-survey, interviews of students and the teacher about the design and enactment of the curriculum, classroom observation field notes and videos. The statistical results showed that there was improvement in the students’ conceptual understanding measured by the post-test for both control and experimental groups; the improvement in the experimental group was statistically significant. Surveys about students’ views of the iMVT approach showed that most of students had positive feedback on iMVT implementation in classroom and appreciated its features. Students’ artefacts showed that they made their understanding of Forces and Motion explicit by making models from low quality to high quality. Teacher interviews showed that the teacher appreciated certain elements of the pedagogy and thought the iMVT was a systematic way to address students learning difficulties. The study contributes to the literature by providing strategies to curriculum material development and students learning in order to promote desired education change in schools.