Educational Research AY2022/2023

In Singapore's educational landscape, where English predominates, Mandarin language instruction faces challenges due to student disengagement. This study explores the potential of ClassPoint, a Classroom Response System (CRS) with gamification features, to address these challenges. Gamification, integrating game elements into non-game contexts, has shown promise in enhancing student engagement and motivation. The study investigates how ClassPoint's gamified features can aid Primary School Chinese language teachers in managing classrooms and facilitating active learning. Through a literature review and analysis, the research delves into the effectiveness of gamification elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards in promoting active learning and improving classroom management. The study also examines using ClassPoint tools like interactive quizzes and presentation features to enhance student participation and facilitate effective classroom management. Findings suggest that ClassPoint's gamification features and effective classroom management strategies can create a conducive learning environment, fostering student engagement and motivation in Mandarin language learning. The study underscores the reciprocal relationship between classroom management and gamification, highlighting the potential synergy in promoting active learning. Overall, ClassPoint offers teachers a valuable toolset to address challenges in engaging students and managing classrooms effectively in Mandarin language instruction.

In Singapore, a dynamic multilingual and multicultural environment fosters interactions among diverse ethnic groups, facilitating the emergence of Code-switching, Code-mixing, and Polylanguaging. This study adopts Mufwene's model of The Ecology of Language Evolution to explore the external factors shaping individuals' language input systems, the feature pool of individuals, and the linguistic behaviours observed among student-teachers. The analysis reveals three key external forces: Singapore's linguistic context, the bilingual policy, and individuals' social circles and daily routines. These factors contribute to a rich feature pool for individuals, encompassing languages such as English, Chinese, Chinese dialects, and Malay. The linguistic output of student-teachers demonstrates the prevalence of code-mixing and code-switching, suggesting a widespread linguistic phenomenon in Singapore. The study also suggests using the term “Polylanguaging” to categorise these linguistic phenomena, as it is related to a broader ecological system. Moreover, it also highlights the “Polylanguaging” in Singapore being different from other countries as it is highly a subconscious act.

This research strived to find the effectiveness, also known as persuasiveness of messaging on the topic of social media comparison in relation to 2 key variables that are Gender (male/female) and framing (gain/loss). A zoom survey was conducted from a sample pool of 160 Singaporean undergraduates who are aged 21 years old and above. The results collected shows that effectiveness of messaging varies in relation to framing and gender to a notable degree. More specifically the perceived quality of the messaging varies among genders in relation to the type of framing. The result shows that males generally perceive the quality of either frame to be nearly the same while females generally perceive the quality loss frame messages more accurate than gain frame messages. Furthermore, males perceive gain frame messages as higher quality by a slight margin and females perceive loss frame messages as higher quality by a wide margin. Hence, these findings lead to a conclusion that the type of message framing impacts the perceived quality in terms of persuasiveness, notably among females.