Future Learning in Primary Schools: A Singapore Perspective

222 Pages·2016·6.287 MB·English

by  Ching Sing Chai, Cher Ping Lim, Chun Ming Tan (eds.)

Ching Sing Chai · Cher Ping Lim
Chun Ming Tan Editors
Future Learning
in Primary
Schools
A Singapore Perspective
Future Learning in Primary Schools

Ching Sing Chai (cid:129) Cher Ping Lim
Chun Ming Tan
Editors
Future Learning in Primary
Schools
A Singapore Perspective
Editors
Ching Sing Chai Cher Ping Lim
National Institute of Education F aculty of Education and Human Development
Nanyang Technological University Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Singapore , Singapore The Hong Kong Institute of Education
Tai Po, New Territories , Hong Kong , SAR
Chun Ming Tan
Nan Chiau Primary School
Singapore , Singapore
ISBN 978-981-287-578-5 ISBN 978-981-287-579-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-579-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015949225
Springer Singapore Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016
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Contents
1 Introduction: Cocreating Technological Pedagogical
Content Knowledge (TPACK) for the Transformation
of Nan Chiau Primary School ................................................................ 1
Ching Sing Chai , Cher Ping Lim , and Chun Ming Tan
2 Reconceptualising Learning Collectively: A Whole-School
Reform for Fostering Twenty-First- Century Competencies ............... 9
Yancy Toh , Chun Ming Tan , and Angela Lay Hong Koh
3 Building Twenty-First Century Learning Infrastructure ................... 31
Kin Mun Wong , Muhd Nizam , Angela Lay Hong Koh ,
Seng Chee Tan , and Yancy Toh
4 Engaging English Language Learners with Mobile Devices
in the Twenty-First Century ................................................................... 43
Elizabeth Koh , Alex Wang , Annie Hui Meow Lim ,
Stephanie Siew Lin Chua , and Nur Ashikin Naharuddin
5 MyCLOUD: A Seamless Chinese Vocabulary- Learning
Experience Mediated by Cloud and Mobile Technologies .................. 65
Guat Poh Aw , Lung-Hsiang Wong , Xujuan Zhang , Yanqiu Li ,
and Guan Hui Quek
6 Bridging Formal and Informal Learning with the Use
of Mobile Technology .............................................................................. 79
Chee-Kit Looi , Khin Fung Lim , Jennifer Pang ,
Angela Lay Hong Koh , Peter Seow , Daner Sun , Ivica Boticki ,
Cathie Norris , and Elliot Soloway
7 Toward Digital Citizenship in Primary Schools:
Leveraging on Our Enhanced Cyberwellness Framework ................. 97
Wei Ying Lim , Chun Ming Tan , Muhamad Nizam ,
Wencong Zhou , and Swee Meng Tan
v
vi Contents
8 Building Epistemic Repertoire Among Primary 3 Students
for Social Studies ..................................................................................... 109
Ching Sing Chai , Hyo Jeong So , Pei-Shan Tsai , Erwin Rohman ,
and Li Ping Ivy Aw
9 Developing Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Mathematics
Knowledge (TPMK) to Build Students’ Capacity to Think
and Communicate in Mathematics Classrooms ................................... 129
Gina Wee Ping Lim , Puay Leng Ang , and Joyce Hwee Ling Koh
10 Teachers’ Voices and Change: The Structure and Agency
Dialectics that Shaped Teachers’ Pedagogy Toward
Deep Learning ......................................................................................... 147
Wei Ying Lim , Angela Ong , Lay Lian Soh , and Adam Sufi
11 Exploring Parental Involvement in Smartphone-Enabled
Learning ................................................................................................... 159
Helen Hong , Elizabeth Koh , Jason Loh , Chun Ming Tan ,
and Hui Mien Tan
12 Building Synergies: Taking School-Based Interventions
to Scale ..................................................................................................... 177
Yancy Toh , Jenny Yen Lin Lee , and Karen Soo Wee Ting
13 Successfully Addressing the 11 Barriers to School
Change: A Case Study from Nan Chiau Primary
School, Singapore .................................................................................... 199
Cathie Norris , Elliot Soloway , and Chun Ming Tan
Chapter 1
Introduction: Cocreating Technological
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)
for the Transformation of Nan Chiau Primary
School
Ching Sing Chai , Cher Ping Lim , and Chun Ming Tan
Introduction
The advancements of information and communications technology (ICT) have
brought irreversible changes to how we work, live, play and connect. To cope and
thrive amidst these changes, it is imperative for students to leverage upon emerging
technologies for epistemologically generative work. Such work contrasts the
t raditional classroom practices where knowledge as true beliefs and verifi ed by
experts is transmitted to the students through various pedagogical representations.
Bereiter and Scardamalia (2 006) characterize such knowledge work as idea improve-
ment. It is initiated by students’ authentic quest to understand the world they live in.
Students are encouraged to articulate their ideas about what they are inquiring and
to subsequently work on these ideas to achieve deeper understanding, employing
not just true/false criteria but also criteria related to the usefulness of the ideas.
Adopting such a constructivist approach, students are engaged in knowledge work
directly. This formed the foundation for them to become knowledge workers for the
twenty- fi rst century.
C. S. Chai (*)
National Institute of Education , Nanyang Technological University ,
1 Nanyang Walk , Singapore 637616 , Singapore
e-mail: [email protected]
C. P. Lim
Faculty of Education and Human Development, Department of Curriculum
and Instruction, The Hong Kong Institute of Education ,
10 Lo Ping Road , Tai Po, New Territories , Hong Kong , SAR
e-mail: [email protected]
C. M. Tan
Nan Chiau Primary School (Former Principal) , Singapore , Singapore
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 1
C.S. Chai et al. (eds.), Future Learning in Primary Schools,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-579-2_1
2 C.S. Chai et al.
I CT provides the tools for students to create digital artefacts that represent their
knowledge work and to share and collaborate with others to improve the artefacts.
Howland et al. (2 012 ) further explicate that ICT could function as a cognitive tool
to help students focus on higher-order thinking that undergirds authentic knowledge
work. ICT affordances in performing data crawling, storing, indexing and computing
undoubtedly allow students to attend to meaning making. Building on these ideas,
Tsai et al. (2 013 ) propose that education in the current age should foster the
d evelopment of students’ design epistemology. Given that ICT tools are shrinking
in size but growing in computational power, with access made ubiquitous through
cloud computing, it is now possible to facilitate seamless knowledge work amongst
learners (Wong et al. 2015b) . This would further enhance the learners’ connection
to epistemic work by providing anywhere-anytime environment. In short, the
technological advancement in the twenty-fi rst century calls for teaching and learning
practices that engage students in productive use of ICT for authentic epistemic
work. Chai et al. (2 014a ) claim that whilst the above-mentioned visions of future
learning have been accepted by many educators, there are gaps in actualizing
education reform for ICT-supported epistemic work. Chai and colleagues ( 2014a )
highlight the need of creating multilevel technological pedagogical content
knowledge (TPACK) by educators occupying different organization positions. This
volume brings together how school leaders, teachers, industry partners and researchers
are engaged in a collective and coordinated approach to develop new teaching
and learning practices mediated by multiple forms of emerging technologies. Before
we unpack how the multilevel TPACK is created, a brief history of the school is
presented below.
Brief History of the School
Nan Chiau Primary School is one of the six schools founded by the Singapore
Hokkien Huay Kuan (SHHK). SHHK was formed by ethnic Chinese from the
Hokkien province in China who have migrated to Singapore during or even before
the colonial period. As the Chinese tradition has always emphasized the importance
of education, SHHK donated the land and built the Nan Chiau Teachers’ Training
School in 1941. In 1947, SHHK converted Nan Chiau Teachers’ Training School to
Nan Chiau Girls’ High School which included an ancillary primary school later.
That marked the birth of Nan Chiau Primary School (NCPS). Since its inception,
the school has always been a forerunner in education, adopting English as its main
medium of instruction in 1980, and in 1984, becoming a co-educational school,
accepting both male and female students. It continued to operate as a full school
within Nan Chiau High School until December 2000, when NCPS moved to its
present location in Sengkang and functioned separately as a full-fl edged primary
school by itself.
In keeping with rapid changes in education brought on by technology, NCPS has
distinguished itself by its progressive ICT initiatives. The school was awarded the
1 Introduction: Cocreating Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge… 3
Lead I(C)T school status in 2006, and in 2007, it achieved the Best School (National)
Thinking Culture Award (TCA), Programme for School-Based Excellence (PSE) in
ICT Award and the Singapore Innovation Class (I-Class) Award. In 2009, NCPS,
together with the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education
(Singapore), set up the Centre for Educational Research and Application in ICT. It
was also selected to join BackPack.LIVE, a collaborative initiative by the Ministry
of Education (MOE), IDA and Microsoft that same year. In 2010, NCPS was
appointed the North Zone (NZ) Centre of Excellence for ICT and received the
Singapore Innovation Class (I-Class) Award for the second time. That year, it was
also named a Microsoft Mentor School. 2011 was a landmark year for the school as
it was accorded the status of FutureSchool@Singapore and was expected to explore
ICT-enhanced teaching and learning environments and activities, document these
promising practices and lessons learnt and share them with other schools in
Singapore, regionally and internationally. NCPS is dedicated to make education
relevant in the twenty-fi rst century for its students and community.
T his brief history attests to the deep-rooted traditional Chinese values upheld by
NCPS in striving for excellence in education and contributing to society by helping
others to reach their peak with regard to education. The devotion to education has
driven successive principals to be responsive to the change of time and to be engaged
with its stakeholders and the wider community. In particular, to fulfi l the future
school’s mandate of trailblazing future learning amongst students, NCPS has
adopted a whole-school approach to create different forms of TPACK. The school
management team and the teachers have worked closely with researchers and MOE
offi cers in this creative endeavour to transform students’ learning.
Creating Different Forms of TPACK
S chool transformation has always been a complex process. For such a process to
possess ecological validity where the changes made would remain as part of the
school day-to-day operations, all education professionals (teachers, administrators,
technical support staff, etc.) in the school have a part to play. More importantly, the
changes have to be owned by these professionals who run the system. This in turn
would require multiple levels of leadership working in a coordinated manner. Heck
and Hallinger (2 014) term this as ‘leadership for learning’, which encompasses both
instructional leadership and transformational leadership. Whilst the principals in the
school provide transformative leadership and develop the visions and strategic
directions for the technology and pedagogical dimensions, the heads of department
(HODs) and subject heads (SHs) work on instructional leadership in the technologi-
cal pedagogical dimensions and the pedagogical content knowledge dimension.
Chai et al. (2 014b ) document how distributed leadership for learning was enacted in
NCPS. The principal initiated the contextualization of the MOE’s framework for
twenty-fi rst-century learning and established collectively with the staff the general
pedagogical directions. Chapter 1 extends this work by providing more details of