Now showing 1 - 10 of 67
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Analyzing CSCL-mediated science argumentation: how different methods matter
    (2009-06)
    Yeo, Jennifer Ai Choo
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    ; ; ;
    Lum, Shawn K. Y.
    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.
      374  166
  • Publication
    Open Access
    The relational constitution of teacher becoming
    (2011-04)
    Lim, Wei Ying
    ;
    ;
    This paper provides a situative account of a teacher becoming a technology-using educator. The specific process of becoming was described on a micro-genetic level to show how the process of becoming is relationally constituted with an experienced other. The significance of this study is that it provides an empirical account on the increasingly important issue of identity and learning.
      99  104
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Knowledge work in science
    (National Institute of Education (Singapore), 2017)
      48  96
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Misconceptions on the biological concept of food: Results of a survey of high school students
    (1998-11) ;
    Diong, Cheong Hoong
    A questionnaire survey was administered to 66 secondary 5 Normal level students in Singapore to sample students' ideas on the scientific concept of food in school biology. Between 30% to 60% of the respondents believed that food yielded energy but this concept was context dependent and not widespread. Primary responses predominated as students felt that the biological functions of food were for sustenance, satiation, growth and general well-being. They seemed to hold a simplistic view that anything that was consumable (edible) was considered to be a food. More than 75% of the sample accepted the idea that food can be in liquid state. Students' understanding of the biological concept of food was anthropocentric and not applied across living organisms in heterotrophs (animals) or autotrophs (plants) as a whole. The components of a balanced diet were understood but many students confused the concepts of nutrients and water, believing the latter to be a food.
      162  773
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Development of lower secondary integrated science curriculum packages
    (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NIE NTU), Singapore, 2024) ; ;
      19  166
  • Publication
    Unknown
    Latent power in high school organic chemistry discourse
    (2006-11)
    Chue, Shien
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    ;
    This paper draws on Foucault to (a) describe the production of classroom discourse in relation to how ordering manifests within the discourse, and (b) to explicate how chemistry classroom discourses are not fixed but are the site of constant contestations of power as displayed in an eighty minute high school lesson on organic chemistry in Singapore. This microanalysis of discourse provides opportunities to reconstruct how teachers teach and dispels the notion that power is uniquely their sovereign possession. Classroom instruction is in fact a complex activity that coordinates power/knowledge production through communication. Examining classroom instruction through Foucaultian lenses uncovers the taken for granted nature of communication and illustrates the capillary relations of power and knowing.
      51  51
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Knowledge advancement in environmental science through knowledge building
    (2009)
    Yeo, Jennifer Ai Choo
    ;
    This paper describes how five elementary school students learnt about environmental science and the nature of science as they were engaged in Knowledge Building (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003) during a Nature Learning Camp project. Unlike the emphasis on "doing" in inquiry-based project work, which precludes making cutting edge discoveries by students, Knowledge Building channels students‘ attention on the continual advancement of group ideas and thus opens the way for appropriating the scientific process of knowledge creation. This is because it takes advantage of a young child‘s inquisitiveness to develop him/her to become a mature knowledge producer as he/she pushes up his/her level of understanding. In this study, we tracked the knowledge development of this group of students and its process as they studied about plants. Using qualitative discourse analysis, we found advancement in students‘ ideas about science process skills and the nature of science. However, much support from the teacher was needed for knowledge advancement to take place; the teacher played an important role in engaging the students in sustained talk around the topic and in directing the focus for on their own, students‘ talk was rather shallow and ideas were fleeting. We conclude that to engage students in Knowledge Building effectively, science argumentation skills are important discourse skills to develop.
      116  178
  • Publication
    Restricted
    Literacy in learning science: A Vygotskian approach
    (Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore, 2024) ;
    Hwang, Sungwon
    ;
    Kim, Mijung
    ;
    Wolff-Michael, Roth
    The purpose of this research project is to study the development of literacy in learning Science from a Vygotskian perspective. The concept of literacy in this research project is theorized by considering the real act of communicating Science. We studied the following research questions. First, what is the role of everyday language in learning scientific language? And how does collaborative communication develop in Science class in the course of developing scientific understanding? Second, how do scientific artefacts interface with (non-) verbal communication and conceptual understanding? Third, what are the forms of literacy that increase the possibility for people to learn Science and experience their Self differently?
      232  45