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Tan, Aik-Ling
- PublicationEmbargoUnravelling ideas and artefacts: Tracking Progression of Ideas during STEM LearningThis study tracks the progression of students’ ideas by understanding how ideas are adopted or rejected. Understanding the discourses that lead to idea progression could help illumine sense-making and decision-making processes within student group discussions. Student-generated artefacts in the form of vertical farming prototypes were analysed. These artefacts were from four groups of students who were engaged in an integrated STEM activity to improve existing vertical farming solutions in land-scarce Singapore. In the authors’ analysis to understand how the final prototype came to being, they examined the progression of ideas through lesson phases of envisioning, sketching, collaborative modelling, feedback, and evaluation. A coding scheme was used to track whether ideas were rejected, improved, or assimilated in the final prototype. Idea maps were generated to track key developments of ideas. The findings revealed that groups that took greater risks in generating more ideas had more rejected ideas and were also more engaged in the feedback process. This resulted in richer idea development. Idea fluency was highly varied across all four groups. This suggests that group engagement and a culture of reflection and monitoring could significantly improve idea quality, although the lack of curriculum time could limit desired divergent idea generation.
98 3 - PublicationOpen AccessDesign thinking from multiple perspectivesDesign thinking is interpreted and implemented in various ways as detailed by the five articles in this special issue. Besides offering a summary of the five articles, this editorial commentary advocates for the need to view design thinking more holistically by considering the larger system in which the solution resides and also giving thought to the end-point of design thinking cycles.
51 59 - PublicationOpen Access
66 97 - PublicationOpen AccessTheorizing STEM leadership: Agency, identity, and communitySTEM education, when perceived as integrated learning that encompasses knowledge, skills and practices of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, points to a need to re-examine ways of classification of school subjects and learning. Consequently, dilemmas related to integrated STEM education arise. School leaders are faced with the task to organize teams to address issues such as the ownership of STEM, identity issues such as STEM teacher or teacher of STEM subjects, evaluation of STEM programs and resources to support STEM education. The unique characteristics of integrated disciplines demand leaders who understand the unique characteristics and demands of each discipline and to apply them to build a synergistic platform to magnify the similarities and harness the differences for learning. In this paper, we present an argument for STEM leadership to focus on building STEM teachers’ agency, identity and sense of belonging to a community. These three aspects are important for meaningful planning, enactment and sustainability of STEM programs since teachers’ beliefs, intentions, actions and empowerment are known to be instrumental in the success of many educational reforms.
145 60 - PublicationOpen AccessApplying concepts of plant nutrition in the real-world: Designing vertical farming systems(Taylor & Francis, 2022)
; ; ; Koh, Dominic Jing QunThis integrated STEM activity on the design of a vertical farming system has biology as the lead discipline and relates to the concept of photosynthesis. Students investigated the optimal design of vertical farms that will deliver appropriate amounts of water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to plants such that there will be optimal yield. Through design, testing and refinement of their design, students appreciate the connections between photosynthesis, food supply and design.WOS© Citations 1 88 18 - PublicationOpen AccessThe effect of learning experiences on interest in STEM careers: A structural equation model(Journal of Baltic Science Education, 2021)
; WOS© Citations 4Scopus© Citations 6 162 192 - PublicationOpen AccessUse of a competency framework to explore the benefits of student-generated multiple-choice questions (MCQs) on student engagementStudent engagement in large Life Sciences classes can be problematic, especially with the course work done outside formal class contact hours. To enhance student engagement with the content outside class time, we designed an assignment spanning one semester that required students to author MCQs. We used Bloom’s taxonomy to evaluate the MCQs. Additionally, we derived a three-level framework to analyse the demands on the student question-setters by determining the competencies required to construct the MCQs. This two tier analysis of MCQs allowed us to gauge the level of student engagement with course materials. The three-level competency framework referred to students’ foundational domain knowledge at level 1 to application and prediction of cellular functions in normal and abnormal situations, within a topic at level 2 and across different topics at level 3. From 40 sample MCQs, slightly over 50% targeted mid- to high-level Bloom’s taxonomy. Slightly under 50% of the questions required attainment of level 2 and 3 competencies for construction. However, we noted a high level of academic engagement and some level of cognitive engagement among several students which are consistent with self-reports in an anonymous student survey conducted after the semester. We suggest that using a competency framework to analyse student-authored MCQs can make explicit students’ efforts at constructing MCQs.
WOS© Citations 4Scopus© Citations 5 286 230 - PublicationEmbargoDeveloping content teachers' language awareness through practitioner-researcher inquiry into student writingThis study describes an inquiry approach involving a practitioner-researcher partnership and examines its impact on teachers' capacities to conduct explicit instruction of disciplinary literacy. The partnership comprised iterative cycles of sessions that engaged content teachers in exploring their students’ language challenges using student writing as the stimulus of inquiry. Data from the inquiry sessions and lessons provided evidence of the impact of the inquiry on the teachers. The impact includes self-reported changes in their language sensitivity, beliefs and assessment practices as well as observable changes in their classroom instruction. The relationship between the impact and teacher language awareness are discussed.
WOS© Citations 2Scopus© Citations 3 79 2 - PublicationOpen AccessGender differences in high school students’ interest in STEM careers: A multi-group comparison based on structural equation model
Background Females are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields all over the world. To encourage more girls to choose STEM majors and careers, it is critical to increase their interest in STEM careers. Many studies have investigated the factors that influence females' entry into STEM fields, but few studies have explored the gender differences in the relationships between these factors. Therefore, based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study explored the gender differences in the effects of environmental factors (school education, informal education, social support, and media) on high school students' interest in STEM careers through the mediating roles of STEM self-efficacy and STEM careers perceptions.
Results A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1240 high school students in Hunan Province, China, and the results of t-test, regression analysis, and structural equation model multi-group comparison showed that: Firstly, the scores of male students in all the dimensions except for STEM career perception were significantly higher than those of female students. Secondly, the environmental factor that had the greatest effect on male and female students' interest in STEM careers was different. Finally, there were gender differences in the mediating roles of STEM self-efficacy and STEM careers perceptions between environmental factors and interest in STEM careers.
Conclusions This study revealed the influence mechanisms and gender differences in male and female students' interest in STEM careers in the context of Chinese Confucian culture, and the conclusions are as follows: (1) Male students' interest in STEM careers was significantly higher than that of female students; (2) The environmental factors that had the greatest effect on male and female students' interest in STEM careers were social support and media, respectively; and (3) Environmental factors could affect male students' interest in STEM careers through the mediating roles of STEM self-efficacy and STEM career perception, while environmental factors could affect female students' interest in STEM careers through the mediating role of STEM self-efficacy. Finally, the mediating mechanisms of STEM self-efficacy and STEM career perception between environmental factors and interest in STEM careers, and the importance of STEM self-efficacy for female students were discussed.
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