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Teaching Science amidst curriculum reform : Singapore teacher accounts of pedagogical practice
Abstract
This study is an explorative and descriptive investigation of how three teachers account for their pedagogical practices when enacting the Lower Secondary Science (LSS) Syllabus and the extent to which these accounts are made visible in their classrooms. Taking a socio-cultural perspective, this study is underpinned by two theoretical concepts – ‘pedagogical practice’ (Baker & Johnson, 1998; Freiberg & Freebody, 1995) and ‘layers of mediation’ (Luke, 2005a). The specific questions driving my study are as follows:
In the light of the recent changes in the Singapore science curriculum,
1. how do teachers account for their pedagogical practices in the lower secondary science classroom? and
2. to what extent are their accounts made visible in their classroom instruction?
These questions have been answered by interviewing, and observing the lessons of, three lower secondary science teachers in a government school. The accounts provided in the interviews and the interactions observed in the lessons are subjected to fine-grained qualitative analyses. For the investigation of the science teachers’ accounts, this study employed the analytical approach of Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) – a branch of Ethnomethodology (Freebody, 2003; Freiberg and Freebody, 1995; Gunn, Forrest and Freebody, 1995). In line with Freiberg and Freebody’s (1995) framework, the teachers’ accounts were used as an essential backdrop for reading and analyzing the transcripts of their science lessons. The latter were examined for their production of what counts as scientific knowledge and practices in the teachers’ classroom. Hence, features of the lesson talk like exchange structure and nature of teacher questions were analyzed. The detailed analyses of the interview talk and classroom interaction transcripts surfaced a number of issues of broader relevance surrounding the challenges of curricular reform. Many of these issues confirm the findings from past research studies, others have expanded and deepened current understandings of the issues.
The findings have been organized into the broad themes derived from the bringing together of common and related categories and their accompanying attributes evoked in the teachers’ accounts of their pedagogical practice. The themes which have been assembled are ‘The Neighbourhood School Student’, ‘Institutional and Systemic Factors’ and ‘Teacher Habitus’. The findings suggest that a divide exists between ‘neighbourhood schools’ and ‘top schools’ – heard largely through the teachers’ attributions accorded to the students which attend them. The ‘neighbourhood school student’ is constructed as unmotivated and lacking in skills necessary to cope with 21st Century schooling; the ‘top school’ student is described as motivated, independent, self-directed and possessing the relevant skills to deal with the demands of school. These contrastive attributions were then employed by the teachers to justify the employment of different ways of instructing these sets of students. These claims were visible in the interaction patterns they employed in their classroom lessons.
Another recurring theme, which emerged from the interviews, is that of institutional and systemic factors – high‐stakes examinations, time constraints, curricular factors – which come to bear on the teachers’ enactment of the LSS Syllabus. These perceived pressures are seen to pull the teachers in different directions. The influence of these pressures was evident again in the teachers’ choice of pedagogical actions in their classroom lessons. They continued to perpetuate rather traditional ways of teaching (e.g. whole class monologic lecture, closed IRE questioning), which run contrary to the LSS Syllabus aims of promoting an inquiry-based curriculum.
The assembly of individual histories of the science teachers – from home, to school and university, through teacher training – was organized under the theme of ‘Teacher Habitus’. The findings from the analysis of their accounts reveal how their past experiences with science are able to shed light on their current beliefs and assumptions about science teaching, and these are seen to impact upon the current activity structures and interaction patterns in their classrooms.
The study concludes that teachers cannot successfully enact an inquiry-based curriculum if they do not change the discourse patterns in their classrooms. However, even if they are willing to do so, it is likely that they will adapt them to their familiar patterns of interacting, given the entrenched nature of these patterns, and the knowledge and values embedded within them.
In the light of the recent changes in the Singapore science curriculum,
1. how do teachers account for their pedagogical practices in the lower secondary science classroom? and
2. to what extent are their accounts made visible in their classroom instruction?
These questions have been answered by interviewing, and observing the lessons of, three lower secondary science teachers in a government school. The accounts provided in the interviews and the interactions observed in the lessons are subjected to fine-grained qualitative analyses. For the investigation of the science teachers’ accounts, this study employed the analytical approach of Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) – a branch of Ethnomethodology (Freebody, 2003; Freiberg and Freebody, 1995; Gunn, Forrest and Freebody, 1995). In line with Freiberg and Freebody’s (1995) framework, the teachers’ accounts were used as an essential backdrop for reading and analyzing the transcripts of their science lessons. The latter were examined for their production of what counts as scientific knowledge and practices in the teachers’ classroom. Hence, features of the lesson talk like exchange structure and nature of teacher questions were analyzed. The detailed analyses of the interview talk and classroom interaction transcripts surfaced a number of issues of broader relevance surrounding the challenges of curricular reform. Many of these issues confirm the findings from past research studies, others have expanded and deepened current understandings of the issues.
The findings have been organized into the broad themes derived from the bringing together of common and related categories and their accompanying attributes evoked in the teachers’ accounts of their pedagogical practice. The themes which have been assembled are ‘The Neighbourhood School Student’, ‘Institutional and Systemic Factors’ and ‘Teacher Habitus’. The findings suggest that a divide exists between ‘neighbourhood schools’ and ‘top schools’ – heard largely through the teachers’ attributions accorded to the students which attend them. The ‘neighbourhood school student’ is constructed as unmotivated and lacking in skills necessary to cope with 21st Century schooling; the ‘top school’ student is described as motivated, independent, self-directed and possessing the relevant skills to deal with the demands of school. These contrastive attributions were then employed by the teachers to justify the employment of different ways of instructing these sets of students. These claims were visible in the interaction patterns they employed in their classroom lessons.
Another recurring theme, which emerged from the interviews, is that of institutional and systemic factors – high‐stakes examinations, time constraints, curricular factors – which come to bear on the teachers’ enactment of the LSS Syllabus. These perceived pressures are seen to pull the teachers in different directions. The influence of these pressures was evident again in the teachers’ choice of pedagogical actions in their classroom lessons. They continued to perpetuate rather traditional ways of teaching (e.g. whole class monologic lecture, closed IRE questioning), which run contrary to the LSS Syllabus aims of promoting an inquiry-based curriculum.
The assembly of individual histories of the science teachers – from home, to school and university, through teacher training – was organized under the theme of ‘Teacher Habitus’. The findings from the analysis of their accounts reveal how their past experiences with science are able to shed light on their current beliefs and assumptions about science teaching, and these are seen to impact upon the current activity structures and interaction patterns in their classrooms.
The study concludes that teachers cannot successfully enact an inquiry-based curriculum if they do not change the discourse patterns in their classrooms. However, even if they are willing to do so, it is likely that they will adapt them to their familiar patterns of interacting, given the entrenched nature of these patterns, and the knowledge and values embedded within them.
Date Issued
2012
Call Number
Q183.4.S55 Chi
Date Submitted
2012