It takes a village: Igniting the scientist in lower track students through partnerships

Abstract

The paper presents a study on a partnership between schools, a community welfare organization, Science Centre and the National Institute of Education to design, study and implement new approaches of learning for lower track students. Singapore as an inclusive society has sought to address the diverse educational needs of children in the country. This partnership seeks to ignite students’ interest in learning Science and address the affective needs in learning, which includes developing students’ confidence, competence and social skills. Leveraging on the diverse expertise and experiences, the partners designed tinkering activities to anchor students’ learning experiences in exploring, testing and constructing Science ideas. The activities are designed and enacted with linkages to the existing Science curriculum. However, setting a partnership with stakeholders from different backgrounds and domains is challenging. We will describe the journey of setting up the partnership, developing shared goals, building capacity and knowledge, and designing for learning. Also, we will share students’ learning and affective outcomes because of the partnership and participation in the designed tinkering activities. Our goal is to highlight how meaningful partnerships can be formed to better understand and meet lower track students learning and affective needs through collective social responsibility according to the familiar proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”.