Journeys in the learning sciences: The Singapore experience
This article provides an overview of research in the Learning Sciences from a Design Research perspective, as it has been framed in Singapore by the National Institute of Education (NIE). The initial research agenda is considered in the light of challenges and the subsequent re-casting of objectives, based on the working out of a tripartite relationship between the NIE, the Ministry of Education, and local schools. A conceptual model is proposed as an attempt to provide structure for new research interventions going forward.
Building the science of research management: What can research management learn from education research?
Research management is an emerging field of study and its development is significant to the advancement of research enterprise. Developing the science of research management requires investigating social mechanisms involved in research management. Yet, studies on social mechanisms of research management is lacking in the literature. To address this gap, this paper proposes importing methodologies and theories from other social science disciplines to study the social mechanisms of research management and to build the science of research management. The paper first articulates what constitutes the science of research management, then proposes to appropriate Design-Based Research (DBR), a methodology in education research, for building the science of research management while at the same time strengthening the theory-practice nexus. A study of education research is then presented to illustrate how DBR is used to enact the theory of homophily which is imported from sociology. It reveals an opportunity to use social designs to develop social relationships among teachers from different schools for networked learning. Such a research endeavour also has potential to advance theories of relationship-building in sociology. Inferring from the example as an analogue to what is suggested for research management, the paper advocates a way to reciprocally connect research management as an emerging research field with more established social science disciplines at large and to advance both the theory and practice of research management.
Leadership in times of pandemics: Reflections from Singapore
The COVID-19 pandemic is compressing the timeline for Singapore’s digital transformation in education. Reflecting on the implementation of Home-Based Learning (HBL) during the pandemic, we examine three barriers that inhibit digital transformation and technological implementation in education with leadership considerations: the first order barrier is infrastructural and can be mitigated by leadership foresight; the second order barrier concerns design capabilities of teachers which can be mitigated by tight-but-loose calibration; and the third order barrier deals with sustainability which can be mitigated by ecological leadership. The tight-but-loose calibration optimises the ‘tight’ system-led innovations such as Student Learning Space (SLS) for efficient deployment and for equitable access of high quality online resources for students; and ‘loose’ opportunities for teacher-led innovations on learning designs within and beyond system-led innovations to nurture teacher agency and professionalism. We posit that ecological leadership is key to sustaining deep change together with the ‘tight-but-loose’ system calibration.
Can “less” create “more” in analogical reasoning?
Successful analogical reasoning requires an analogue in a source domain to have high degrees of structural and surface similarity with a learning task in a target domain. It also requires learners to have sufficient source- and target-domain knowledge. We review the literature and speculate that “less” might create “more”; in some situations, analogies that have fewer degrees of similarity may be more effective for learning. In this exploratory study, we engaged eight school leaders in dyads to develop a bottom-up perspective on innovation diffusion through analogical reasoning. The qualitative data in the study appears to echo our speculation. The dyads that have less prior target-domain knowledge face challenges with regard to innovation diffusion when they learn with analogues that have more degrees of similarity – both structural and surface. They, however, are able to learn with analogues that have fewer degrees of similarity. Learning was shown to take place when the dyads reflected on an analogue first, before they compared the analogue and innovation diffusion to make any analogical inferences. Although constrained by the exploratory nature of the study, the findings provide preliminary evidence that “less” is possible to create “more” in analogical reasoning under certain conditions, implying an interesting direction for experimental examination in future.
Integrating artificial intelligence into science lessons: Teachers’ experiences and views
Background
In the midst of digital transformation, schools are transforming their classrooms as they prepare students for a world increasingly automated by new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). During curricular implementation, it has not made sense to teachers to teach AI as a stand-alone subject as it is not a traditional discipline in schools. As such, subject matter teachers may need to take on the responsibility of integrating AI content into discipline-based lessons to help students make connections and see its relevance rather than present AI as separate content. This paper reports on a study that piloted a new lesson package in science classrooms to introduce students to the idea of AI. Specifically, the AI-integrated science lesson package, designed by the research team, provided an extended activity that used the same context as an existing lesson activity. Three science teachers from different schools piloted the lesson package with small groups of students and provided feedback on the materials and implementation.
Findings
The findings revealed the teachers’ perceptions of integrating AI into science lessons in terms of the connection between AI and science, challenges when implementing the AI lesson package and recommendations on improvements. First, the teachers perceived that AI and science have similarities in developing accurate models with quality data and using simplified reasoning, while they thought that AI and science play complementary roles when solving scientific problems. Second, the teachers thought that the biggest challenge in implementing the lesson package was a lack of confidence in content mastery, while the package would be challenging to get buy-in from teachers regarding curriculum adaptation and targeting the appropriate audience. Considering these challenges, they recommended that comprehensive AI resources be provided to teachers, while this package can be employed for science enrichment programs after-school.
Conclusions
The study has implications for curriculum writers who design lesson packages that introduce AI in science classrooms and for science teachers who wish to contribute to the development of AI literacy for teachers and the extension of the range of school science and STEM to students.
Towards a situative view of extending and scaling innovations in education: A case study of the six learning framework
This paper seeks to draw from contemporary understandings of translation science to highlight and elaborate upon possible norms and procedures which the authors have found to be critical in the successful extension and scaling of design-based research interventions in education into wider practitioner-based adoption and adaptation. The impetus for this interrogation is the desire to mediate the tensions which sometimes arise between researcher, practitioner, and other stakeholders in educational research – such as policy-makers and funding agencies. It is hoped that these explications will contribute to the as yet nascent body of literature on translation science as applied to innovation in education.