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Teo, Tang Wee
Preferred name
Teo, Tang Wee
Email
tangwee.teo@nie.edu.sg
Department
Natural Sciences & Science Education (NSSE)
ORCID
25 results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 25
- PublicationOpen Access
49 41 - PublicationOpen AccessRethinking teaching and learning of science inference competencies of lower track students in Singapore: A Rasch investigationCompetency in making inferences is an important aspect of student learning in the 21st Century, for making better-informed decisions. The purpose of our study is to investigate the type of science capital that can predict the science inference competencies of lower track students. Science capital comprises diverse social capital, cultural capital, and mental schema. A total of 1,397 Normal Academic (NA) and 637 Normal Technical (NT) Grade 7 students from 37 public secondary schools in Singapore participated in the study. Three separate science inference tests were administered to the students over one academic year, and test scores were calibrated and equated using Rasch analysis. The relationship between students’ perceptions of science capital and their development in science inference competencies was investigated using Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis. The results indicated that NA students’ self-views in science learning and their views about the nature of science were significant predictors of their scientific inference competencies. For NT students, their views about science teachers was the only significant predictors of their performance on making scientific inferences. Based on the research design and findings, we draw implications for local and international science curriculum policy. Additionally, we demonstrate the usefulness of Rasch analysis.
WOS© Citations 5Scopus© Citations 6 154 231 - PublicationEmbargoProfessional growth of STEM teachers: Viewing from Entrepreneurial Frame
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.
13 14 - PublicationOpen AccessTransitions from presence, belonging to engaged participation in an inclusive classroom: An eye-tracking studyWhile many studies about special education needs (SEN) have discussed inclusive efforts in educational settings, more proximal research examining ways to support students with SEN in-process to achieve is needed. This study discussed proximal data, collected from eye trackers and lesson videos, showing how students with SEN transit between the state of presence, belonging, and engaged participation in an inclusive classroom. Using an eye tracking case study of an inclusive science classroom, with a focus on how science teachers support students with dyslexia to learn science, we unpacked how the teacher supported students through such a transformative experience. We characterised the transitions and examined how these transitions happen and found that the transitions were non-unidirectional and could be prematurely truncated due to a change in the teacher’s eye gaze. Some students might not move to the state of engaged participation during a lesson. These transitions were facilitated by the teaching practices. Implications for teachers of inclusive classrooms and research in inclusive classrooms were discussed.
WOS© Citations 1 54 29 - PublicationOpen AccessAssessing lower track students’ learning in science inference skills in SingaporeIt is a generally held view amongst educators today that the development of students’ inference skills is an important aspect in their education as 21st Century learners as it requires higher order cognitive competences. Oftentimes, students in the lower tracks are considered slower learners and may have difficulties with the development of such skills. There is, however, limited empirical evidence to support such claims. As a result, there is a lack of understanding how such skills are taught, and how lower track students acquire them. The purpose of this study is to investigate lower track students’ science inference skills over one academic year, to better understand their learning and development. To determine this, three multiple-choice science inference skills tests were developed based on science syllabus and administered over a 9-month period. In total, 1397 Grade 7 lower track (i.e., Normal Academic) students from 38 Singapore secondary schools participated in the study. The students’ performances were determined through three equated tests using Rasch common-item procedures. The results showed that students experienced greater difficulty with tests over time. They particularly had difficulties with questions pertinent to graphs, tables, diagrams, or charts, or required them to extend their thinking beyond the given information. They also had difficulty in deducing answers using the elimination technique, and items that involved experiments and variables. Items that involved pattern recognition, concluding using range, application of a given concept, and limited information were easier for them. The findings also have implications for science teacher education in terms of assessment literacy, and the science teaching of lower track students.
Scopus© Citations 8 129 209 - 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.
141 55 - PublicationOpen AccessExamining power, knowledge and power relations in a science research apprenticeshipThe science laboratory is a politically entrenched space where complex power relations interplay while social agents learn about the rules and routines to ensure safety, precision and reproducibility in research work. This paper presents a case study of two Singaporean students undergoing apprenticeship in a 3-year school-based School Scientist Programme. They engaged in an open and authentic science inquiry involving chemical synthesis in the school’s science laboratory under the apprenticeship of an in-house School Scientist who started the programme. The goals of this paper are to offer an alternative—critical and nuanced—lens to the dominant positivist and social constructivist discourse about science research apprenticeship. Using visual ethnography approach, we collected videos and photographs of the students’ and School Scientist’s interactions during the science research over the first 18 months of the programme. The study documented critical events that showed shifts in control over knowledge construction and mastery of the chemical synthesis craft as the science research progressed. This paper contributes to the Foucauldian theory of power in offering an alternative view to the dialectical explanation of power and knowledge. First, it shows that while there is an overall gain in knowledge of chemical synthesis increased during the apprenticeship, the power relationship fluctuates when a different genre of chemical synthesis work was introduced. The fluctuation is related to the overtaking and relinquishing of control (power) with the latter leading to the construction of knowledge. Second, we show how the power relationship, involving the interplay of power and knowledge between the expert and apprentice, is more interconnected and complex. The findings of this study have implications for teachers who want to plan and enact authentic science inquiry with their students.
WOS© Citations 1Scopus© Citations 2 117 96 - PublicationMetadata onlyProblem spaces in STEM inquiry: A case analysis of an integrated curriculumMany empirical studies about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum present problems for students to solve. This paper draws upon the data collected from the enactment of an integrated STEM curriculum to discuss problems as constitutive of problem spaces where four Grade 5 Singapore students engage with the materialities and relationships to generate solutions from these spaces. The study seeks to address the nature of the problem spaces in STEM inquiry. Derived from the emergent coding of 12 hours of lesson videos, the findings illuminated that problem spaces emerged from familiar and dissimilar contexts in the curriculum. These problem spaces embodied epistemic infrastructures and epistemic emotions within which students exercised agency to collaborate productively and learn. Implications for STEM curriculum making that foregrounded epistemic considerations, rather than outcome-based learning, were discussed. This paper helps to further the field of curriculum studies in STEM education by contributing to the theorization of STEM curriculum by applying a process lens to deepen understanding of problems as problem spaces.
16 - PublicationOpen AccessThe S‑T‑E‑M QuartetThe 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.
357 182 - PublicationOpen AccessAn investigation of Singapore preschool children’s emerging concepts of floating and sinkingDespite Singapore’s excellent science achievements in international benchmark tests such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), little is known about Singaporean children’s (aged 4-8) emerging science conceptions as formal science schooling begins at Grade 3 (aged 9). This paper builds on the well-established literature on preschool children’s emerging conceptions and play to illuminate children’s ideas about floating and sinking. Using narratives of a 90-minute activity involving a group of Singaporean children aged 6, we surfaced emerging conceptions that an object floats or sinks due to its weight, and that objects sink because water is “soft”—a conception that has not been reported in previous literature.We also observed a shift from binary discourse about floating and sinking to more graded descriptions (e.g. “sink a bit”) as the children played more. The play-based activity provided opportunities for the children’s emerging conceptions to be elicited because it was conceptually-oriented and created opportunities for social interactions. It allowed children who were not proficient in standard English to express their thinking in actions. In sum, this paper illustrates how play-based contexts could be used to identify children’s emerging conceptions. Early childhood educators in Singapore could pay greater attention to what children say and do during play as these offer rich grounds for identifying and developing children’s emerging conceptions.
WOS© Citations 2Scopus© Citations 8 370 189
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