Tan, Aik-Ling

Scardamalia (2002) discussed the knowledge building notion as one which is built on social cognitive principles of learning. She proposed 12 principles focusing on collaborative knowing among students gearing toward building a community of learners in classrooms. However, how teachers become the key mediator for fostering knowledge building in classrooms is not fully explored. This study aims to contribute to the knowledge building research in terms of teacher professional development. Set in Singapore, where the dominant pedagogy is teacher centred and routinised (Luke, Cazden, Lin & Freebody 2005), this paper examines the journey taken by two biology teachers trying to reform their classrooms by incorporating knowledge building principles. In one of our email exchanges with a teacher, she was exasperated with her attempt to bring knowledge building into her classroom. After a few sessions, she exclaimed “But I have not started teaching!” This prompted us to seek answers to the research question “What are the factors that will impact knowledge building efforts in a Singapore science classroom?” Interviews and transcript analysis of classroom lessons are used as data and interpretive methods of data analysis are used in this paper. The beliefs of the teachers are elicited through a semi-structured interview which takes the form of a post-lesson dialogue in this paper. The results of this study revealed three key areas of concern in adopting knowledge building principles, namely, renegotiation of institutional authority, changing beliefs about teaching, and learning and building students’ capacity for epistemic agency. In order for teachers to transform their practices in the classroom, there needs to be a structured and concerted understanding of these factors.

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.

This paper examines pre-service teachers‟ reflection on teaching after participating in an online course using teaching videos of micro-skills coupled with self-reflection and group blogs. A total of 137 online entries were collected from 26 participants. Larrivee‟s (2008) four levels of reflection (pre, surface, pedagogical and critical) were used to code the reflection by the participants. The findings showed that 67% of the reflection by pre-service teachers falls in the pedagogical category and 2% in the critical category. These findings show that pre-service teachers are capable of engaging in reflection beyond a surface level even with limited actual classroom experience, and micro-skills teaching videos coupled with self-reflection and online blogs can serve as stimulus for reflection about actual teaching practices. The resources that the pre-service teachers used to make sense of teaching are (1) their knowledge of learning theories; (2) their ideas of teachers‟ roles and responsibilities; and (3) existing ideas of what makes good teaching. The pre-service teachers reflected upon their learning and showed evidence of willingness to incorporate the learnt ideas of good teaching into their future classroom teaching. The use of videos and reflection allowed them to restructure their teaching knowledge through identification, comparison, modification and synthesising.

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.

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.

This paper reports an empirical study on the use of a teacher noticing approach to investigate how two teachers managed students’ classroom behaviours. We examined the integration of data from an eye-tracking device and video cameras, focusing on what the teachers paid attention to in classrooms with their corresponding managing practices. Our findings show that the experienced teacher was able to advise her students calmly and smoothly resume the lesson to preserve the welcoming environment for the students. The novice teachers constantly scanned for misbehaved students and at times used strong words and a stern voice that betrayed her emotions. The awkward silence of the class ensued, suggesting a break in the flow of the instruction.

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.

Research on argumentation has increased our understanding of knowledge construction, group learning, and scaffolding structures in CSCL although analyses of argumentation pose many difficulties. This could be due to the many theoretical positions that can be taken when approaching discourse data. In this paper, we use three popular analytic methods (interactional, content-specific, and linguistic) to compare the same fragment of scientific argumentation by Grade 4 children in Singapore. We show the complementary emphases and strengths of each disciplinary position as well as their weaknesses. The results imply that analytic methods arising from different disciplinary positions can potentially broaden our overall understanding of using argumentation in CSCL.