Chang, Chew Hung

2013, Chang, Chew Hung

2016, Chang, Chew Hung, Pascua, Liberty

Climate change is an important theme in the investigation of human–environment interactions in geographic education. This study explored the nature of students’ understanding of concepts and processes related to climate change. Through semi-structured interviews, data was collected from 27 Secondary 3 (Grade 9) students from Singapore. The data was subjected to thematic analysis using Chi and Roscoe's conceptual change framework. The results showed that the students’ base knowledge of climate change is composed of incomplete and incorrect elements built within coherent and structurally sound mental models. Due to the consistency of the models in expanding the logic, albeit erroneous, of explaining the climate change conundrum, it is posited that students are unaware of mistakes inherent in their judgements. Transformation of these mental models through multiple and deliberate refutations should be foremost in a geography teacher's pedagogical approach.

2004, Sim, Hwee Hwang, Lee, Christine Kim-eng, Chang, Chew Hung, Kho, Ee Moi

WebQuest is an approach which uses the Internet as an integral part of teaching any subject at any grade level. Developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in 1995, it has generated lots of interest. There are now numerous examples of WebQuests available on the World Wide Web. WebQuest has the potential in bringing about more critical thinking and student engagement. This article will (1) explain what WebQuest is all about and explore examples in primary social studies to show its applicability in achieving important instructional goals in social studies teaching and learning, (2) demonstrate how WebQuests were used in a pre-service course for primary social studies teachers at the National Institute of Education, Singapore; and (3) share the responses of pre-service teachers towards the use of WebQuests in learning primary social studies content.

2015, Chang, Chew Hung, Pascua, Liberty

This study identified secondary school students’ alternative conceptions (ACs) of climate change and their resistance to instruction. Using a case-based approach, a diagnostic test was administered to Secondary 3 male students in a pre-test and post-test. The ACs identified in the pre-test were on the causes of climate change, the natural greenhouse effect and its properties, the enhancement of the greenhouse effect, the elements involved in heat-trapping and their characteristics. There were also notable ACs on the effects of climate change, mostly on how the phenomenon is related to non-atmospheric events such as tsunami, earthquakes, acid rain and skin cancer. The students confuse the Montreal with the Kyoto Protocol as the primary treaty aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Whereas there was significant improvement in students’ understanding in the post-test, the distribution of responses for each of the ACs showed that the reduction in erroneous responses was not sufficient to reject the ACs fully. The authors recommend that instruction should move beyond patchwork pedagogy to a more explicit acknowledgement, incorporation and direct refutation of misconceived knowledge structures.

2004-03, Hedberg, John G., Chang, Chew Hung, Lim, Ee Peng, Teh, Tiong Sa, Goh, Dion Hoe Lian, Theng, Yin Leng

Environmental identity or how we orient ourselves to the natural world, leads us to personalize abstract global issues and take action (or not) according to our sense of who we are. Indeed, the often emotional nature of environmental conflicts can be associated with our sense of personal and social identity. Are we willing to give up our SUV for a more fuel-efficient car albeit our knowledge about the enhanced greenhouse effect? (Clayton and Opotow, 2003). In an era where web-based student-centred inquiry is gaining popularity as a mode of teaching and learning about environmental issues and potentially developing students’ environmental identities, the role of digital libraries as delivery trucks (terminology by Clark, 1983) needs to be understood better. An obvious affordance of such a digital library is that it organizes information around themes for problems to be solved. A developmental project to build a first digital library for Geographical assets was undertaken. This digital library (G-Portal) serves an active role in a collaborative learning activity in which the students conduct a field study of an environmental problem, within a geospatial context – in this case, beach erosion and sea level rise. G-Portal not only functions as a digital library of information resources, it also provides manipulation and analytical tools that can be used on the information provided. The concept of personal project space allows individuals to work in their personalized environment with a mix of private and public data and at the same time share part of the data with their team members. This allows students to explore the information, process the information, solve the problem posed and perhaps even form new understandings and reflections of their role in the natural environment.

2021, Chang, Chew Hung, Singh, Shyam Anand

For over 30 years, the Southeast Asian Geography Association (SEAGA) has provided a dynamic platform for the exchange of knowledge, research findings, and ideas among academics, policymakers, and educators from Southeast Asia and those working on Southeast Asia. Using Marsden’s (1989) notion of the politicization of geography by significant power groups, this article describes a critical narrative of the key trends, themes, and topics defining scholarly discourse in the community of SEAGA and its potential impact on school geography in the region. For each of the three decades (1990-1999, 2000-2009, and 2010-2019), the authors analyzed significant themes and issues for each period. Employing purposive sampling of conference proceedings and topics presented between 1990 and 2017, the authors found the following trends over the years: i) the pluralization and diversification of themes and topics; ii) an increasing interest for cross-thematic studies, and iii) a greater emphasis on sustainability and environmental issues in recent years. Based on these observations, the authors acknowledge that the evolution of discourses in SEAGA conferences is also a part of broader thematic shifts in international publications such as the Journal of Geography and has a direct bearing on changes in the geography curriculum in schools in other places around the world. In addition, there is a natural confluence of academic geographers and geography educators in the region in discoursing topics that matter to Southeast Asia.

2010, Chang, Chew Hung, Liu, Yan, Bui, Elizabeth, Jin, Tao, Lossman, Hans

Arising from the metaphor and methods of the design and engineering fields, design experiment is a methodology whereby an artifact or intervention is designed based on a known theory with the goal of improving the artefact or intervention thrqugh the inquiry. Experimental design, on the other hand, refers to an investigative method in which variability in the experimental subjects or objects are compared. In developing a methodology to investigate if Geographic Information System (GIS) use with the problem based learning (PBL) approach will result in higher order learning outcomes, the concepts of design experiment or design-based research (DBR) and experimental design were considered. A combination of both approaches was adapted into a hybrid methodology that draws on the benefits of these two approaches to address the research question raised. In particular, experimental design was used in combination with microethnography to inform the design process of this study. The experimental design part of the study found that GIS use with PBL resulted in higher order cognitive skills use , such as applying and evaluating, while the use of recall reduced. Studying the preliminary results of the micro-ethnography showed that the affordances of the GIS technology such as spatial analysis tools helped students develop cognitive skills of analysis and evaluation. While initial conception of the methodology was a hybrid of both experimental design and design experiment, the resultant methodology was primarily a DBR which addressed the process of learning and the way that learning is supported by GIS. A key outcome in this methodology evaluation process is the importance of having a practitioner on the research team.

2015, Tan, Aik-Ling, Chang, Chew Hung, Teng, P. S.

This paper presents the reasons why teachers engage in professional development as well as the tensions and dilemmas that arise from professional development. The voices of 14 teachers are heard through individual semi-structured interviews. The transcripts of the interviews were analysed using thematic coding to uncover the themes related to the tensions that teachers feel when they are faced with decisions pertaining to professional development matters. Three dilemmas surfaced from our analysis and in this paper, we present them in a dualistic manner to highlight the tensions that resulted from these dilemmas faced by the teachers. The first dilemma concerns the issue of needs that are served through engagement in professional development activities. Here we discuss whether professional development should serve the needs of individual teachers or whether it should serve organizational needs. We highlight the forms of professional development activities that teachers should engage in and how they often find themselves torn between the urge to attend professional development activities that they personally enjoy and those that their peers and school would like them to attend. The second dilemma is related to teachers’ sense of responsibility to their pupils when they are engaged in professional development activities. The question that teachers commonly ask themselves before they decide on professional development activities is whether their students' learning will be affected in their absence. The last dilemma is related to the first and it deals with whether professional development activities should be made compulsory or whether it should be voluntary for teachers. Understanding the tensions and dilemmas of professional development as experienced by teachers allows the policy makers and professional developers to make better decisions so that the fidelity of professional development policies and programs can be enhanced.

2005-09, Goh, Dion Hoe Lian, Sun, Aixin, Zong, Wenbo, Wu, Dan, Lim, Ee Peng, Theng, Yin Leng, Hedberg, John G., Chang, Chew Hung

The personalized project space is an important feature in G-Portal that supports individual and group learning activities. Within such a space, its owner can create, delete, and organize metadata referencing learning objects on the Web. Browsing and querying are among the functions provided to access the metadata. In addition, new schemas can be added to accommodate metadata of diverse attribute sets. Users can also easily share metadata across different projects using a “copy-and-paste” approach. Finally, a viewer to support offline viewing of personalized project content is also provided.

2023, Chang, Chew Hung, Ow, Phoebe

There is an argument that a high school geography teacher should have a university degree in geography. By the same logic, must all sustainability teachers have a degree in Sustainability or a related discipline? Perhaps this argument assumes that subject matter knowledge and disciplinary ways of thinking have a direct impact on a teacher's classroom instruction and assessment about sustainability. This chapter examines the nexus between subject matter knowledge and pedagogical practices through the lens of (Shulman, Educ Res 15:4–14, 1986) idea of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Through a meta-analysis of the literature in selected environmental and geographical education journals, the discussion will consider how subject matter knowledge affects teachers’ choices and subsequently their classroom practices using the (Lambert and Morgan. EBOOK: Teaching Geography 11–18: A Conceptual Approach. McGraw-Hill Education, UK, 2010) curriculum-making model. Sustainability education should not only focus on raising awareness or instilling knowledge but also on the development of skills and behavioral changes that contribute to sustainable development. As a result, classroom instruction, or how it is taught, and assessment become important factors to consider in ensuring that knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavioral changes that promote sustainability are learned.