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“We ‘own’ the teachers”: Understanding subcultures of Singapore lower track science classrooms.

2019, Teo, Tang Wee, Tan, Aik-Ling

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"We 'own' the teachers": Understanding subcultures of Singapore lower track science classrooms

2020, Teo, Tang Wee, Tan, Aik-Ling, Yeo, Leck Wee

Subcultures emerge from within dominant and mainstream cultures, and can exert influence on the outcomes of science teaching and learning. This is an explanatory study about the subcultures of Singapore lower track science classrooms with the aim to understand the sets of understandings, behaviours and artefacts used by lower progress students in the Normal Academic streams, and diffused through interlocking group networks. We want to look for explanations on how: (1) cultural elements in these science classrooms become widespread in a population, (2) local variations in cultural content exists in group settings, and (3) subculture changes dynamically. By applying the theoretical framework of symbolic interaction to generate explanations that provide substantive knowledge on how the lower progress students learn and their science teachers teach science. The methods of data collection in this critical ethnographic study will include lesson videos, intensive student interviews, teacher interviews, observations and conversations with students in informal school settings, and documentation of artefacts. Data analysis including speech act and facework analyses will be used to unpack the performativity of the students and teachers in the science classrooms and illuminate the negotiations of power relationships, collective and individual memberships and space that in turn, affect students' identification with or against the subcultures and their subsequent contributions to it. This study will contribute to the cultural sociology studies of science education, as there are limited (if any) empirical studies that discuss the existence of subcultures in educational contexts. The findings will offer to science teacher insights that illuminate the complex and dynamic forces that interplay with their science teaching, so that they can understand and work with, rather than against them.

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Developing the competencies of Singapore science teacher-researchers

2021, Teo, Tang Wee, Tan, Aik-Ling

The Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) encourages teachers to engage in continual professional development to keep abreast of the latest developments in research that inform teaching, learning, and assessment. Teachers can participate in formal and informal programmes to upgrade their knowledge and practices inside and outside classroom teaching. This book chapter focuses on the repertoire of opportunities available to Singapore science teachers to support them in their progression into established professionals. Besides short-term courses, obtaining a Master’s degree is yet another way to build the professional capacity of the teaching workforce. Investing time to pursue a Master’s degree requires commitment and, more importantly, support from the school leaders and MOE. In this chapter, we show how different routes to obtaining a Master’s degree and the different funding sources available to them. Bespoked professional development for teachers also come in the form of research partnerships that empowers teachers more than mere participation. Here, we describe the different projects that science teachers have embarked on to gain firsthand experience in research. Action research is popular among science teachers and has created opportunities for them to present at professional meetings such as conferences. In summary, this book chapter offers insights into how the Singapore science teaching fraternity builds up its human capabilities through committing time, effort, and many other resources into engaging teachers in research to support their evidence-based practices. In the process, these science teachers progressively develop into established professionals.

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Professional growth of STEM teachers: Viewing from Entrepreneurial Frame

2024, Tan, Aik-Ling, Teo, Tang Wee

This paper examines professional growth of a STEM teacher from the entrepreneurial frame. Using a personal narrative together with a STEM/science lesson package developed by the participant teacher, we unpack a teacher’s professional growth by interpreting her beliefs and actions using characteristics of entrepreneurial thinking. Our analysis and interpretations revealed that risk-taking forms of behaviour manifest as willingness to take calculated risks to make ‘cold’ calls to different organisations to request sharing or learning opportunities. The motivation to succeed stems from a belief that STEM education can improve the lives of students and that all students can learn. Passion for the discipline of STEM and personal beliefs to uplift students propel the teacher to persevere in her professional development despite busy schedules and conflicting demands of school and home. This study and its findings bring a fresh perspective to the idea of teacher agency from an entrepreneurial lens positioning teachers as self-empowered as compared to individuals who depended on the system to provide enablers for professional growth in the teaching profession. While self-empowerment to enact a curriculum is catalytic, teachers’ capacity for change is circumscribed by teachers’ capacity to act and accumulate practical knowledge. These entrepreneurial actions of successful STEM teachers could be used to facilitate teacher reflection on their professional journey. As the narrative approach sought to present an in-depth examination of the relationship between entrepreneurial thinking and teacher professional growth, the generalisability power of the assertions made is limited. The entrepreneurial thinking framework together with narratives from successful teachers enable teachers to locate where they are in their personal professional development and where they can aspire to move towards in their personal goal settings. Future research can examine teachers’ levels of entrepreneurial thinking and compare them against narratives of their professional growth to distil the behaviours that could lead to growth of entrepreneurial thinking. Curriculum leaders can also use the ideas of entrepreneurial thinking for professional growth to counsel and coach their team.

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Taking the lead in STEM: A case study of a Singapore primary science teacher's attempt at STEM

2023, Teo, Tang Wee, Tan, Aik-Ling, Soo, Johannah Li Mei, Tan, Timothy Ter Ming

The implementation of STEM is fraught with challenges for teachers as they struggle in the transformation from being single disciplinary-based teachers to cross-disciplinary trailblazers. Since the 1960s, there have been reports on how teachers find it difficult to cope during times of curriculum reform. The reasons are varied, but the unwanted ‘side-effects’ include teachers being deskilled and feeling dejected about the education system, resulting in high turnover. With the inundation of narratives about the promises of STEM education and how teachers need to adapt and prepare students for the 4th industrial revolution, how do teachers digest the narratives and take on this new challenge? What impact does this new wave of education goals have on primary science teachers who are mostly not trained in the STEM disciplines? This paper reports on a case study of a primary school teacher in Singapore who participated in a larger study and made efforts to introduce integrated STEM to his students. We followed the journey of this teacher who led a team of teachers in his school to learn, then teach, an integrated STEM curriculum that entails coding with humanistic outcomes. The findings illuminated his positive thinking about STEM teaching, the STEM capital he had harnessed to enact the curriculum, and the ways he empowered himself to carry out the curriculum effectively. The findings could offer insights for the enablers of STEM curriculum making even as teacher agency is circumscribed by traditional disciplinary and personal structures.

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Centricities of STEM curriculum frameworks: Variations of the S-T-E-M quartet

2021, Teo, Tang Wee, Tan, Aik-Ling, Ong, Yann Shiou, Choy, Ban Heng

This commentary is an extension to the integrated S-T-E-M Quartet Instructional Framework that has been used to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of integrated STEM curriculum. In our discussion of the S-T-E-M Quartet, we have argued for the centrality of complex, persistent and extended problems to reflect the authenticity of real-world issues and hence, the need for integrated, as opposed to monodisciplinary, STEM education. Building upon this earlier work, we propose two additional variationsjsolution-centric and user-centric approaches to the provision of integrated STEM curricular experiences to afford more opportunities that address the meta-knowledge and humanistic knowledge developments in 21st century learning. These variations to the S-T-E-M Quartet aims to expand the scope and utility of the framework in creating curriculum experiences for diverse profiles of learners, varied contextual conditions, and broad STEM education goals. Collectively, these three approaches problem-centric, solution-centric, and user-centricjcan afford more holistic outcomes of STEM education.

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The S‑T‑E‑M Quartet

2019, Tan, Aik-Ling, Teo, Tang Wee, Choy, Ban Heng, Ong, Yann Shiou

The issue of integrated STEM curriculum design and evaluation requires a more consistent understanding and clarity among STEM educators. In this paper, we propose an instructional framework of STEM integration based on the theoretical notions of disciplinarity and problem-centred learning. The proposed S-T-E-M Quartet instructional framework utilises complex, persistent and extended problems at its core, and the problem solving process as the overarching frame. The key difference between the proposed S-T-E-M Quartet instructional framework and models such as the STEM road map and the Cubic model for STEAM education is the emphasis on the connections between different disciplines. Similar to the STEM road map, the application of the S-T-E-M Quartet framework begins with a single lead discipline as the focus and subsequently examines how knowledge and skills of the lead discipline are connected and related to the other three disciplines. As an instructional framework, the S-T-E-M Quartet requires description of learning outcomes for each discipline when students work with the problem. The learning outcomes within individual disciplines constitute the vertical learning within a discipline. Depending on the problem described, the learning outcomes for some disciplines might be more in-depth than others. As the S-T-E-M Quartet foregrounds connections between disciplines, attention is also paid to the strength of connections, whether they are weak, moderate or strong. A case example of application of the S-T-E-M Quartet instructional framework is presented as an illustration of how the S-T-E-M Quartet instructional framework can be used to design and reflect on STEM tasks.

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STEM education from Asia: Trends and perspectives

2021, Teo, Tang Wee, Tan, Aik-Ling, Teng, P. S.

Asia is the largest continent in the world. Five out of the top ten high performing economies in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 are located in Asia. Why do Asian students perform so well in STEM-related subjects? This book answers this by examining the STEM education policies and initiatives in Asian economies, as well as the training programmes undertaken by STEM teachers in Asia. The book is broken into four sections, each accompanied by a passage of commentary that summarizes the key takeaways of the chapters. Section one focuses on STEM policy environments and how various countries have developed policies that promote STEM as an integral part of national economic development. Section two focuses on STEM teacher education in the Philippines and Thailand, while section three focuses on STEM curriculum design, context, and challenges in four Asian economies. The fourth and final section focuses on presenting snapshots of STEM education research efforts in Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore. Written by Asian academics, this book will provide valuable insights to policy makers, educators, and researchers interested in the topic of STEM education, especially in the Asian context. Chapters 7 and 11 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com

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Enabling classroom change by infusing cogen and coteaching in participatory action research

2017, Teo, Tang Wee, Mohamed Faizal Badron, Tan, Aik-Ling

Participatory action research is an empowering approach to advance research with participants. This paper describes and discusses the process and outcomes in engaging cogenerative dialogue (cogen) and coteaching in participatory action research (PAR) to support science curriculum change in a Singapore lower track classroom. The intervention was introduced after researching in a science teacher’s two lower tracker classrooms for about 18 months and observing that his lessons were teacher-centered and he experienced difficulty engaging the students. Using the empirical findings to inform teaching practice, the researchers engaged the science teacher and two selected students in two cogen sessions to identify issues with the science lessons. The students suggested solutions which were taken up and used to plan and design revised lessons co-taught by the science teacher and one researcher. This paper describes changes to the teacher’s and researcher’s teaching, learning, and research experiences through the lens of cogen and PAR. Transcripts from one cogen session, one cotaught lesson, one teacher interview, and one researcher’s written reflections were analyzed to distil affordances of PAR that led to changes in the classroom practices, views about science teaching and ways to carry out science research. The study illuminates the potentially transformative role of cogen, when coupled with action research, in Singapore and other classrooms.

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STEM inquiry and its practice in K-12 classrooms

2024, Tan, Aik-Ling, Teo, Tang Wee, Chang, Jina, Choy, Ban Heng

Through examining the theoretical ideas of disciplinarity and disciplinary practices, the book presents instructional aspects for teachers to explore when engaged with integrated STEM inquiry.

Are you interested to understand the difference between science inquiry and STEM inquiry? Do you want to introduce integrated STEM problem-solving to your students but need help with the key features of STEM inquiry? This book presents in-depth discussions related to the features and affordances of integrated STEM inquiry. Written for K-12 teachers and training teachers, this book conceptualizes STEM inquiry and integrated STEM and their enactment, using three practical STEM instructional frameworks: problem-centric, solution/design-centric, and user-centric STEM. The three STEM instructional frameworks serve as a key anchor for teachers to interpret and apply in planning various STEM lessons in meaningful, practical, and coherent ways.

Whether you are an aspiring K-12 STEM teacher or an in-service teacher teaching K-12 students, the ideas of integrated STEM inquiry presented in this book challenge educators to think about the principles of integrated STEM inquiry and how it can be incorporated into classroom practice and lessons