Tan Kim Chwee, Daniel

This study seeks to obtain an understanding of the use of dataloggers in secondary schools and junior colleges as well as how teachers use dataloggers to facilitate inquiry-based science. A nation-wide survey was carried out in 2004, targeting science teachers from all secondary schools, junior colleges and centralized institute. The scope of the survey covered the profile of schools and teachers using dataloggers, the ways in which dataloggers were used in the science curriculum, roles of pupils and teachers in the data logging activities, how pupils were prepared to work with dataloggers, how they were guided in inquiry activities with dataloggers, teachers' perceptions on the usefulness of dataloggers, the support structures needed as well as the challenges teachers faced in their use of dataloggers. Responses from 593 teachers from 151 secondary schools and junior colleges indicated that the use of dataloggers in the secondary schools and junior colleges was not pervasive. Teachers generally did not see the relevance of using dataloggers in the science curriculum. Data logging activities were largely teacher-directed with dataloggers used mainly in set experiments and demonstrations. Laboratory technicians, training on how to use dataloggers and the provision of step-by-step instructional manuals were surfaced by respondents as important support structures in their use of dataloggers. Some challenges highlighted by all users included the large amount of time spent on setting up data logging activities, inadequate IT equipment and facilities as well as technical issues. The second part of the study was an analysis of an inquiry-based data logging programme designed by a neighbourhood secondary school teacher for a Secondary. One science enrichment class. The aim of this part of the study was to provide insights into how the affordances of dataloggers could be tapped for inquiry science and the type of scaffolding by the teacher necessary to engage pupils in an inquiry-based learning environment. The analysis of the school's data logging programme revealed it to be content- laden rather than process-focused; the element of inquiry was not extensive and affordances of dataloggers not meaningfully tapped. Though pupils were generally able to set up and use the dataloggers for data capture, they were not engaged to think deeply about the activities and their findings. The teacher's motivation in the use of dataloggers for science learning was clear and some scaffolds were in place to guide pupils through the activities. Some issues which surfaced in the implementation of this inquiry-based programme included the teacher's ability to conduct and manage inquiry- based lessons as well as technical problems. Recommendations were put forth to address the issues surfaced from the survey to promote and support more pervasive use of dataloggers in schools.

Particle nature of matter is one of the most challenging models students encounter in secondary science. Numerous studies have written about the learning impediments and the alternative conceptions that students have while learning to understand and apply the particle nature of matter to explain phenomena such as thermal expansion and phase changes. This article illustrates how some common representations used in science texts and lessons can inadvertently constrain understanding of the particle model and offers suggestions on how students can be better supported in understanding these representations.

Grade 10 (15 to 17 years old) students have difficulties in understanding ion-exchange reactions and complex salt formation involved in the tests for cations in basic inorganic chemistry qualitative analysis. Many students believed that when an insoluble hydroxide was produced from the reaction between an unknown cation and a hydroxide ion, a more reactive ion displaced a less reactive ion to form the precipitate. Students also explained that the reaction between several hydroxides and excess alkali as the precipitate dissolved when excess alkali was added because more solvent was added or that no new reagent was added and no further reaction was seen. Possible reasons proposed for such student conceptions included conceptual interference and perceptually-dominated thinking.

In 1988 a scheme was launched by the Ministry of Education which promoted the use of project work as one of the formal means of assessment in the lower secondary science curriculum. Under the scheme, every lower secondary science pupil was expected to undertake a science project, in teams comprising 2 to 4 members, with assessment based on the products (research reports, models, etc.) and the team’s oral presentation. Besides the formal school science curriculum, science projects have also been given prominence through the annual Singapore Youth Science Festival which features a a science project competition every year, alternating between secondary/junior college and primary science projects. To further encourage project work, the Ministry of Education has revised the admission criteria for university admission to include interdisciplinary project work with effect from the year 2003. This paper discusses recent examples of actual science projects done by secondary school students and considers the lessons to be learned from them with respect to the conceptualisation and execution of projects.

Datalogging has the potential to facilitate and extend opportunities for inquiry-based science by providing data and different modalities of representation with minimum effort. The real-time data display provides an immediate link between an experiment and its graphical representation, enabling students to visualize the course of the experiment. It also frees experimentation from time constraints as data can be collected over days, and relieves students from tabulating data and drawing graphs by hand, allowing them to concentrate on the interpretation of data. This paper describes some aspects of a national survey of 593 science teachers on the use of datalogging in Singapore secondary schools (Grades 7-10) and junior colleges (Grades 11-12), interviews of three Science Heads of Department, and classroom observations of datalogging activities. The results suggest that the unique affordances of datalogging are not being fully realised in science learning because teachers generally lack the vision for how dataloggers can be used to enhance the student learning experience in inquiry-based science.

This paper draws on Foucault to (a) describe the production of classroom discourse in relation to how ordering manifests within the discourse, and (b) to explicate how chemistry classroom discourses are not fixed but are the site of constant contestations of power as displayed in an eighty minute high school lesson on organic chemistry in Singapore. This microanalysis of discourse provides opportunities to reconstruct how teachers teach and dispels the notion that power is uniquely their sovereign possession. Classroom instruction is in fact a complex activity that coordinates power/knowledge production through communication. Examining classroom instruction through Foucaultian lenses uncovers the taken for granted nature of communication and illustrates the capillary relations of power and knowing.

Previous research (Taber, 1999, 2000a) has shown that A-level students in the United Kingdom had difficulty understanding the concepts involved in ionisation energy. The purpose of this study, which involved the use of interviews and written instruments, was to determine if Grades 11 and 12 students (16 to 19 years old) in Singapore had similar alternative conceptions and explanatory principles of the factors influencing ionisation energy as their A-level counterparts in the United Kingdom (U.K.), as well as to explore students' conceptions of the trend of ionisation energy across different elements in the Periodic Table. The results showed that many students in Singapore applied the same octet rule framework and conservation of force thinking to explain the factors influencing ionisation energy as students in the U.K. In addition, the students resorted to relation-based reasoning to explain the trend of ionisation energy across period 3 elements. The authors believed that the way ionisation energy was taught.and presented in textbooks could be the cause of students' difficulties in understanding ionisation energy. Teachers and textbooks need to focus explicitly on the effects of nuclear charge, the distance of the electron from the nucleus, the repulsion/screening effect of the other electrons present, and the interplay between these factors to explain the factors influencing ionisation energy and the trend in ionisation energy across period 3.

Previous research has shown that grade 10 students in Singapore find quaiitative analysis practical work difficult to understand and carry out, and unrelated to the theory they had learned in class. This article describes a teaching package developed explicitly to teach the concepts, processes and thinking skills involved in qualitative analysis.