Tan, Aik-Ling

This paper, as part of a larger ongoing study, presents the use of a multi-layer approach to analyzing teacher noticing for the improvement of teaching practices. Situated in the field of teaching analytics, the use of multimodal sensors and analytics, especially for teacher noticing research, has provided affordances to discover deep insights for improving teaching practices. We collected data from a case study of one teacher over three lessons of science teaching in a secondary school. Multimodal sensors including an eye-tracking device, a microphone, and multiple video cameras were deployed in a classroom. The various sources of data were integrated and a multi-layer analysis was performed to uncover insights into the teaching practice. The findings show that a novice teacher in our case study was able to attend to events in her classroom, with some interpretations and sense-making of the events; some necessary actions were taken based on the teacher’s analysis but in some instances, necessary action was found to be lacking. Prior knowledge and the wealth of experiences or the lack thereof, together with visual cues in the environment, can affect the decision of novice teachers in executing certain actions in a classroom.

The role of language in science learning and teaching has been a focus of science education research for over three decades. This rich body of research has led to the insight that learning the language of science is constitutive of learning science: simultaneously with participating in classroom activities and conversations, describing observations and constructing conceptual understanding, students must begin to appropriate the language of science.

Biological knowledge for citizenship rests at the nexus of two important concepts -scientific literacy and citizenship education. Scientific literacy, the ability to make sense of and hence decisions related to scientific issues, operates under the broad construct of citizenship. Citizenship education is defined by UNESCO as "educating children, from early childhood, to become clear-thinking and enlightened citizens who participate in decisions concerning society". As society moves further into the 21st century, many of the challenges facing 'sustainable societies' require scientifically literate citizens to participate at multiple societal levels. At the international level, many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the world community have a scientific grounding in biology. This suggests that global citizenship education must take cognizance of biological knowledge. Through the theoretical lens of scientific literacy, pressing biological issues of food security, nutrition, biodiversity decline, and climate change are discussed in the chapter, making explicit the importance of biological knowledge for responsible global citizenship. These issues affect citizens at the community and individual levels through decisions linked to matters like food waste, diet, body mass index, and choice of food. Various learning approaches have been used to incorporate these matters into science curricula, such as through real-world learning.

To foster students’ learning of critical-thinking skills, we incorporated ill-structured problems in a Human Diseases module for third-year Life Sciences students. Using a problem-solving rubric and working in groups of three, students attempted to solve problems presented to them. We mediated their discussions by asynchronous online discussion forums (AODFs) as part of mass customisation of learning for 40 students where personalised learning was constrained by structure of the module. We examined the quality of students’ discussion, focusing on the feedback group members provided to one another, using an interpreted Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy to code students’ feedback. Our analysis indicated that the students were able to provide uni-structural and multi-structural level in relation to solving an ill-structured problem, even though they are not used to solving ill-structured problems. This indicated that in a mid-size class, while personalised-learning is not always easy, it is possible to mass customise learning for students using common ill-structured problems in a class by mediating problem-solving using student discussions as feedback. However, more can be done to scaffold peer feedback on solving ill-structured problems so that the level of collaborative-learning can be improved in a mass customised model that approaches personalised learning.

Teacher noticing patterns offer insights into in-the-moment decisions and actions of teachers that have a direct impact on students’ learning. However, research on differences between novice and expert teachers’ vision in lessons remain limited. Using a mobile eye-tracker, we collected and analyzed data from two science teachers. Findings showed that the expert teacher focused her attention on relevant information across the classroom, while the novice teacher’s attention was restricted to specific problematic areas. As a work-in-progress, this paper provides valuable insights that we can build onto existential work for further studies.

Researchers have indicated that assessment practices and methods ought to be tailored to support learners’ construction of meaningful understanding of knowledge. To achieve this aim, understanding students’ conceptions of science assessment would be essential since it will enable us to construct more realistic, valid and fair assessments. Understanding how learners conceptualize assessment would be imperative to serve as an essential reference to properly evaluate their learning progress. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the Singaporean and Taiwanese middle school students’ conceptions of science assessment. Within each country, gender comparisons were also explored. A total of 333 Singaporean and 424 Taiwanese grade eight students were invited to complete a questionnaire named Conceptions of Science Assessment (COSA) to capture their views on science assessment. The results indicated that, first, the COSA questionnaire was valid and reliable for measuring the Singaporean and Taiwanese eighth graders’ conceptions of science assessment, including Surface, Summative, and Formative conceptions. Second, the findings showed that the summative purpose of assessment still dominates in the Taiwanese science classroom, while both formative and summative purposes of assessment are usually perceived in Singaporean science classrooms. In contrast, the Singaporean students had a greater tendency than their Taiwanese counterparts to perceive the surface purpose of assessment as merely a way of reproducing scientific knowledge, and the formative purpose of assessment as improving learning, problem solving and critical judgment. No gender differences were found among either the Singaporean or the Taiwanese students regarding their three science assessment conceptions. The findings suggest that science educators in both countries should provide learners with more opportunities to experience process-oriented science assessment activities and de-emphasize the usage of examination-oriented practices to achieve the sophistication of conceptions.

This study examines the verbal interactions among a group of pre-service teachers as they engaged in scientific discussions in a medicinal chemistry course. These discussions were part of the course that encompassed an explicit instruction of scientific argumentation structures as well as an applied component, whereby the pre-service teachers learned the content of medicinal chemistry through cases developed using the strategy of competing theories. By adopting a case study approach using sociocultural framework of learning, we examined the interactions between the pre-service teachers using video data. We describe 12 possible forms of interactions during discussions ─ (1) seeking clarification, (2) figuring out loud, (3) sharing information, (4) agreement, (5) asking questions, (6) providing explanations, (7) raising strategic and procedural issues, (8) stating claims, (9) disagreement, (10) sharing perspectives, (11) offering alternatives, and (12) persuasion. The pre-service teachers engaged in figuring out aloud and seeking clarifications frequently, and used persuasion least in their discussions. To clarify their ideas and thoughts, pre-service teachers commonly rebut their counterparts and used warrants to support their own assertions. A similar pattern was also observed when figuring their thoughts out loud. Our findings suggest that pre-service teachers were able to carry out rebuttals in the argumentation process. However, the quality and function of their rebuttals can be improved by deepening their understanding of the subject matter knowledge and the science argumentation structure. Implications are discussed.

In this paper, we present narratives of three in-service biology teachers in their journey with the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in their practices. These narratives provide useful insights into the in-service science teachers’ ideas, dilemmas and actual usage of ICT. The use of narratives to present perspectives of biology teachers’ engagement with ICT is a deliberate one ─ different teachers have different experiences with their students and across different schools. As such, the stories generated are different but personal and real to each participant. The in-service teachers are purposively sampled: all of them having taught science in secondary school for at least three years and had shown a keen interest in technology during their pre-service teacher program. A series of questions was used to help the participants reflect on their experiences and craft their narratives. These narratives were then analysed using content analysis of recurring themes. From the narratives, we found that generic ICT tools could be used for evaluation of students’ learning while specific ICT tools such as sensors were used for the teaching of specific scientific concepts and to support scientific inquiry. Further, in deciding which ICT tool to adopt for their lessons, teachers took into consideration external factors such as availability of wireless networks, school infrastructure, ease of setting, and students’ motivation. In terms of professional development on the use of ICT, we found that sharing sessions on what works, time and space for experimenting with new ideas, and in-depth implementation of fewer ideas rather than many ideas worked for the teachers.

Questions are important in facilitating the thinking process that leads to learning. There are many research studies examining the use of students’ questions as scaffolds to facilitate argument construction but more needs to be done to understand how these questions are used in generating productive arguments. As such, in this research, we investigate (1) the types of students’ questions generated within a group and how these questions are used in generating productive arguments and (2) strategies used by groups of students who are deemed more successful in generating convincing arguments. Adopting a social constructivist perspective, we examined students’ talk about science within their groups and between groups. We worked with a group of 24 secondary three Biology students to complete a total of seven days of crime scene investigation tasks that required them to make evidence-based decisions to determine the cause of death and solve the crime. The data collected and analyzed included transcripts from students’ oral discourse and written artefacts. We found that asking hypothetical questions promotes the construction of quality arguments. Groups that were more successful in generating quality arguments adopted strategies such as using visible schema constructed from their own questions, testing the strengths of their claims and choosing claims that have the highest number of propositions.