Junior College Archives - Page 7 of 7

Index

Diganta Das

Junior College

From Classroom to the Field and Back: Understanding the Ways Fieldwork Empowers Geographic Learning

Author/s:

Diganta Das (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Concept Geography Perspective Fieldwork is an integral part of learning Geography. Fieldwork has been widely used in both research and as pedagogic approaches as it provides a platform for students to understand their classroom content in a better way and help them to […]

Diganta Das (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Concept
Geography
Perspective

Fieldwork is an integral part of learning Geography. Fieldwork has been widely used in both research and as pedagogic approaches as it provides a platform for students to understand their classroom content in a better way and help them to become real geographers. This article begins with understanding fieldwork in geography, touching its importance in contemporary human geography, and then describes the ways a one-day fieldwork was planned, prepared and performed in Singapore to understand human geography concepts. The fieldwork helped students experience concepts through everyday urban practices and apply geographic methods into practice. In the conclusion, students’ perspectives about what they learnt and the ways it complemented their classroom learning is discussed.

Introduction
Fieldwork is a means of collecting information and involves engagement with the outside world beyond the classroom (Phillips & Johns, 2012). As Cindi Katz (2009, p. 251) observed, fieldwork can be “a means towards examining the relationships between people and their environments”. Fieldwork in geography helps us document these experiences and their complex relationships. Fieldwork is an integral part of Geography with a long historical tradition in both geographic research and teaching. It not only provides an opportunity for the student to understand classroom content, it also helps in training students about conducting fieldwork, set-up equipment (especially for physical geography fieldwork), and learn the relevant skills of interviewing and interacting with people in real settings. Fieldwork contributes toward students’ personal development, social skills and ecological and political literacy (Job et al., 1999). According to Phillips and Johns (2012), fieldwork differentiates the genuine geographer from the not so genuine one. Fieldwork has been seen as the bridge between theories and practical concepts (Kent et. al, 1997).

The importance given to fieldwork in geography education has been influenced by many prominent geographers around the world. Carl Sauer (1956) argued that the fundamental training of the geographer should come from fieldwork. Sauer transformed the fieldwork tradition in American geography education (Phillips & Johns, 2012). Beyond North America, fieldwork has a very long tradition in the United Kingdom, pioneered by the Royal Geographical Society and very much integrated into the university and college level geography education system (Phillips & Johns, 2012). Beyond the western world, fieldwork has been incorporated into the geography education system, and is seen as a tool that encourages engaging, creative and independent learning processes (see Goh & Wong, 2000). In Southeast Asian contexts, Goh and Wong (2000) said that learning geography without fieldwork would be seen as “deficient” (p 99).

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Designing Classrooms of the Future Now!

Author/s:

Ron Starker

Ron Starker (Singapore American School) Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords Geography History Social Studies Junior College Secondary School Primary School Learning Environments Classroom Design In this article we showcase the work of three teachers in redesigning classroom learning environments to enhance student learning. Through short interview excerpts, a video, and classroom photos we feature […]

Ron Starker (Singapore American School)
Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
Geography
History
Social Studies
Junior College
Secondary School
Primary School
Learning Environments
Classroom Design

In this article we showcase the work of three teachers in redesigning classroom learning environments to enhance student learning. Through short interview excerpts, a video, and classroom photos we feature ten design ideas they used to redesign their classrooms. In the article we also argue that despite lofty rhetoric espousing pedagogical innovation and 21^st century learning, classroom design provides the most visible sign of what schools and educational leaders actually believe and value. We call for greater attention to the ways classroom spaces constrain and enable teaching and learning that can better support important 21^st century educational outcomes.

Introduction
Every year, thousands of educational studies seek to find the best methods and conditions under which students learn. As educators we are constantly looking for ways to adapt new approaches to teaching and learning and improve our teaching methods and curriculum. Many educational leaders call for classroom practice that is more student-centered, innovative, collaborative, inquiry-based or project-based, and for teachers who are empowered to help students develop 21^st century competencies (e.g., see MOE, 2014).

However, school culture can often constrain or inhibit new and innovative classroom practice. Cornbleth (2001) has described different school cultures that often interfere with educational innovation or make teachers reluctant to use innovative instructional strategies. She has described these school cultures as often highly bureaucratic (emphasizing order and control), conservative (to maintain the status quo), and excessively competitive with a great deal of attention given to student testing, accountability, and school rankings. This puts teachers in a sort of double bind in which they receive conflicting messages about the need for innovation while school culture and classroom environments remain quite conservative or place an emphasis on order, accountability, and stasis (Baildon & Sim, 2009).

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Patriots, Collaborators and the Undecidables in Between: The Contestation between Official and Unofficial History in Malaysia

Author/s:

Jackie

Using Film in Historical Inquiry: As Medium, as Evidence, for Empathy

Author/s:

Jeremy Stoddard

Jeremy Stoddard (College of William & Mary, USA) Keywords History Junior College Inquiry Concept Film Prespectives Though often portrayed as a clichéd example of poor history pedagogy, there is now ample research and numerous models of best practice to support the use of film in an inquiry-based history curriculum. In this article I present best practice […]

Jeremy Stoddard (College of William & Mary, USA)

Keywords
History
Junior College
Inquiry
Concept
Film
Prespectives

Though often portrayed as a clichéd example of poor history pedagogy, there is now ample research and numerous models of best practice to support the use of film in an inquiry-based history curriculum. In this article I present best practice models and practical examples of using film as a medium to engage students in inquiry. In doing so, I will attempt to answer the following questions:

What happens when film portrays history, and especially controversial events?
What are some effective goals and models for teaching with film?
How does film act as a historical text or as historical evidence?
How should I select films and structure film-based lessons?

History on Film
History is always shaped by the context in which it was recorded and constrained by the perspectives and evidence it contains. Similarly, any time a film is made to represent historical events, issues or peoples, whether it is a documentary or fictitious, it should be viewed as containing “perspective laden-narratives” (Hess, 2007). This is because films are: 1) made by people with particular views and within a particular context, 2) often based on written accounts that are compressed or adapted using dramatic liberty due to the need to fit the narrative and time constraints of film, and 3) usually driven with profit in mind – and thus need to attract an audience.

Further, because of the need to represent narratives that extend over long periods of time, great distances, or multiple perspectives, films also rely on genre conventions to help the audience follow the narrative and keep track of what is going on. This is why war movies often include stock characters such as the tough sergeant, or rely on cinematic effects such as lighting and music to help the audience identify the hero and villain easily. These conventions can be limited to particular audiences, such as those from the particular language, national, or cultural group for whom the film is intended, and may be interpreted very differently by audience members from outside of this intended audience. Regardless of whether or not a person is a member of an intended audience, however, every individual may interpret or understand aspects of the film differently based on their own knowledge of the events or people being represented, their experience in viewing film, or as a matter of personal preference.

Documentary films can be particularly problematic as they are often viewed as being objective accounts of the past because they include interviews with experts, film of actual events, and are most akin to written history. However, these films are still the result of thousands of decisions made by the film’s director and editor and are also reflective of particular genre conventions that shape the story being told. Historically, documentary style film has been a medium of propaganda used to influence audiences on political and social issues.

This does not mean that films are not useful as either historical accounts or as historical evidence. As films are shaped by people from particular contexts (e.g., time, place), and with particular views, they serve as a reflection or artifact documenting different time periods and societies. They serve as historical evidence of particular values, interpretations, and material culture. They also serve as a medium for historiography and for raising particular historical questions or controversial issues.

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“No One Icon”: Secondary Students’ Judgments of Significant Representations of Singapore

Author/s:

Syazwani Binte Amrun

Syazwani Binte Amrun (Raffles Girls’ School) Keywords History Junior College Singapore Representation Significance Concept This study was designed to explore how students in a secondary school make sense about the significance of different representations of Singapore, and to examine their ideas on what they conceived as icons of Singapore. The research was conducted in a premier […]

Syazwani Binte Amrun (Raffles Girls’ School)

Keywords
History
Junior College
Singapore Representation
Significance
Concept

This study was designed to explore how students in a secondary school make sense about the significance of different representations of Singapore, and to examine their ideas on what they conceived as icons of Singapore. The research was conducted in a premier all-girls’ school in Singapore. The data used in this study was derived from semi-structured interviews that included both a task requiring students to choose from among a set of thirty captioned images, and a set of questions designed to elicit their understanding of significant representations of Singapore. Twelve students, aged 14 to 15 years old, were interviewed in groups of either three or four per group.

The key question guiding this study was “What is the icon of Singapore today?” In order to address this question, students were expected to work with the concept of significance in history. Although the question did not specifically require students to refer to their knowledge of Singapore’s history or to have them make connections with representations of Singapore’s past, student responses may shed light on the way they think about the country’s past, and enable us to build a picture about how they perceive their identity and the country’s heritage. By identifying items they believed were iconic representations of Singapore, students’ responses appeared to reveal the kind of values they held about the country and the means by which they identified themselves as Singaporeans. The findings from this study will be useful for educators in planning programmes that would enhance our students’ understanding of specific icons and cultivate in them a deeper appreciation for Singapore.

Research Methods
Setting and Participants
This study involved interviews with twelve students from three different Year Three classes, with the age of participants ranging from 14 to 15 years old. These students were selected to participate in this study as they had all completed one year of studying Singapore’s history in Year Two. The decision to select Year Three students also was made with the assumption that participants would have a basic knowledge of Singapore’s history as their understanding of the milestones in Singapore’s history may affect their perception of what they conceived as iconic of Singapore. All the students involved in the study were Singapore citizens except for two who were Singapore Permanent Residents (PR). The students selected consisted of both high and average achievers within their history classes, and the selection also took into consideration the ethnic backgrounds of the participants. Students were interviewed in fours largely due to convenience as these interviews were conducted during breaks in their curriculum time. The first group of students consisted of two ethnic Chinese Singaporeans and two ethnic Indians (one of whom was a PR from India); the second group of students consisted of 4 ethnic Chinese Singaporeans; and the last group consisted of one ethnic Chinese Singaporean student and three ethnic Malay students (one of whom was a PR from Indonesia). For more information of the participants, refer to Appendix A.

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Squatters into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern Singapore. By Loh Kah Seng. Singapore: NUS and NIAS Presses, 2013. 330 pp. $38.00 (paper).

Author/s:

Mark Baildon

Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords History Junior College Book Review Singapore History Loh Kah Seng’s new book, Squatters into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern Singapore (NUS & NIAS Presses, 2013) provides a highly interesting social history of urban kampongs in Singapore and the modernist public housing scheme that […]

Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Junior College
Book Review
Singapore History

Loh Kah Seng’s new book, Squatters into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern Singapore (NUS & NIAS Presses, 2013) provides a highly interesting social history of urban kampongs in Singapore and the modernist public housing scheme that transformed Singapore. Loh, currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute for East Asian Studies at Sogang University in South Korea, is also the author of Making and Unmaking the Asylum: Leprosy and Modernity in Singapore and Malaysia (2009).

Loh’s book is a well-written and accessible narrative that blends the author’s personal history (his early years in a one-room rental flat and interviews of his parents) with oral history methods, ethnography, and disaster studies. He also analyzes different “mythologies” and the ways they operate in Singapore. In his chapter on memory, myth, and identity, for instance, Loh examines the ways the Bukit Ho Swee fire is treated: from the celebratory official narrative promoted by the People’s Action Party (PAP) in various public texts to the nostalgic view of the kampong and kampong spirit, as well as the “counter-myth” of rumors and “wild talk” that circulated in Singapore about the fire. Each of these “myths” and how they work in shaping views of the past is highly relevant to history educators and anyone interested in the ways different discourses about the past, public policy, and public space work in Singapore. The book also highlights the challenges historians of Singapore often face when they are unable to gain access to public records (e.g., classified government records held by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and the Ministry of Home Affairs).

The book also provides an alternative account and conceptual frame through which Singapore’s past and public spaces can be viewed. Noting that linear and mostly celebratory views of Singapore’s housing policy obscure the resistance and social contestation that took place, Loh demonstrates the ways policy-makers used a language of crisis (i.e., disease, crime, disorder, social danger, communism, etc.) with scientific-rationalist visions of order and development that didn’t recognize the agency, self-reliance, and autonomy of local communities. Loh argues that national developmental goals do not necessarily cripple local communities, even though the transitions required by new policies are often painful. Singapore’s kampong culture exhibited high aspirations, social autonomy, a blending of traditional and modern views, and a desire for development that is respectful of traditional values and cultures. Like Pankaj Mishra, in his excellent book, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia (2012), Loh points to the way traditional or more communal values and capacities can serve as a buffer against social dislocations caused by government interventions.

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Research into Practice: Tuning in to the “Chorus of History” Through the Use of Oral History in the Classroom

Author/s:

Brady Baildon

Brady Baildon (National Institute of Education) Kevin Blackburn (National Institute of Education) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School Primary School Oral History sing oral histories in history and social studies classrooms can highlight the fact that historical sources are authored and contain particular assumptions, biases, and perspectives about the world. They require critical evaluation to understand why […]

Brady Baildon (National Institute of Education)
Kevin Blackburn (National Institute of Education)

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
Primary School
Oral History

sing oral histories in history and social studies classrooms can highlight the fact that historical sources are authored and contain particular assumptions, biases, and perspectives about the world. They require critical evaluation to understand why people might have said what they said, why they might view particular events or issues in certain ways, the kinds of insights, emotions, and attitudes they have about what happened in the past, and the reasons they give for acting in the ways they did. Because oral histories have become more widely available and utilized due to electronic and digital means of preservation and access, they can be easily used with students of all ages. To learn more about the use of oral history in the classroom and consider how students can work with oral sources, I reviewed the work and ideas of Associate Professor Kevin Blackburn, a proponent of using oral histories in classrooms.

In Singapore, Kevin Blackburn is an Associate Professor of Humanities and Social Studies Education at the National Institute of Education (NIE). His ideas and experiences with the use of oral histories to teach history are of great use to teachers who are interested in having students work with oral history sources in their classrooms.

In sitting down and conducting an interview with Associate Professor Kevin Blackburn (a prime example of the process of recording and using oral history), he revealed that he first began working with oral histories with his education students at NIE during what he refers to as the “Big History Revamp” in 1999. This move by the Singapore Ministry of Education towards an inquiry-based approach to teaching history and towards using source-based material in history education required pedagogical change and seemed like an appropriate time to introduce oral histories in his history courses.

Blackburn was drawn to oral histories because of the way they allowed for what he refers to as a “democratization of memory” (Blackburn, 2012). He asserts that throughout history, a large majority of the historical sources we have access to have been written and created by those privileged few with money, publishers, and an education. Many people throughout history were without access to publishers, but still possessed interesting stories, opinions, and points of view about the world around them. Their memories – the memories of the marginalized, minorities, and those with an outside perspective – can be brought to light and to the public through the recording of oral accounts and histories (Blackburn, 2012).

As Blackburn (2012) sees it, “ordinary people do extraordinary things.” Those whom we would typically refer to as nothing more than the “common people” are far from just passive eyewitnesses to the events that have unfolded in their lifetime; instead, as Blackburn declares, these people are the “chorus of history” and regularly chime in to supplement the song of the past.

Within the classroom, Blackburn has had aspirant teachers work on a family history project, in which they interviewed family members in order to look at the way people have lived their lives and to examine both the challenges they have faced and the defining moments in their lives. With this project, Blackburn revealed how he thought that the interview process and recording of oral family history allowed his students to better understand cultural change within their families.

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Research into Practice: Understanding the Vietnam War from the Communists’ Perspective

Author/s:

Royce Chan

Royce Chan (National Institute of Education) Cheng Guan Ang (National Institute of Education, Singapore ) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School Southeast Asia History Vietnam Most of us are familiar with the narrative of the Vietnam War as it is commonly told in history textbooks: (1) the United States got involved because they were afraid of the […]

Royce Chan (National Institute of Education)
Cheng Guan Ang (National Institute of Education, Singapore )

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
Southeast Asia History
Vietnam

Most of us are familiar with the narrative of the Vietnam War as it is commonly told in history textbooks: (1) the United States got involved because they were afraid of the possibility of a domino effect of Southeast Asian countries falling to communism; (2) there was a huge public outcry back in the United States as American casualties increased dramatically and the horrors of war were shown in every home; (3) the US eventually withdrew its troops; and (4) North and South Vietnam were reunited. But in this unjustifiably sketchy summary of the typical portrayal of the Vietnam War, it is evident that most students of history only look at materials that, ironically, the losers of this war provide. American versions of these historical events often point to the failings of the South Vietnamese regime (the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem), the failed US containment policy or domestic opposition as the reasons behind the fall of Vietnam.

Associate Professor Ang Cheng Guan’s work will be of interest to teachers seeking to look beyond the history textbook in enriching students’ understanding of the Vietnam War. Currently the Head of the Humanities and Social Studies Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Dr Ang’s research interests include international history of the Vietnam War and post-World War II Southeast Asia. He has written and published extensively on the subject of the Vietnam War, including The Vietnam War from the Other Side: The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective (2002), and its sequel, Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective (2004). He has also published another book titled Southeast Asia and the Vietnam War (2010).

Dr Ang’s book, The Vietnam War from the Other Side: The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective, analyzes the Vietnamese struggle for independence. The book follows and “attempts to re-construct the evolution of decision-making on the communist side of the Vietnam War, particularly between the years 1954 to 1969, and to show the progression of the Vietnamese communists’ struggle from one that was essentially political in nature to a full-scale war” (Ang, 2002, p. 4). The Vietnam War from the Other Side examines the motivations and process behind the decisions taken by the Communists during the planning and execution of the armed confrontation with the United States. It also analyzes the changing relations between Hanoi, Moscow and Beijing and its influence on the strategic decisions taken by the Vietnamese communists in their struggle for reunification (Ang, 2002).

This book provides an alternative to the perspective that is available in most history textbooks. Students of history need to understand the communist perspective so that they can better analyze events, issues, and personalities in light of the full evidence available. In particular, The Vietnam War from the Other Side contributes to students’ understandings of the Vietnam War as a struggle for independence and reunification by the Vietnamese. This will add to what students already can gather from history textbooks, which tend to focus more on the regime in South Vietnam or America’s containment policy in Southeast Asia.

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HSSE Online

Index

Diganta Das

Authors List

Authors List

From Classroom to the Field and Back: Understanding the Ways Fieldwork Empowers Geographic Learning

Designing Classrooms of the Future Now!

Patriots, Collaborators and the Undecidables in Between: The Contestation between Official and Unofficial History in Malaysia

Using Film in Historical Inquiry: As Medium, as Evidence, for Empathy

“No One Icon”: Secondary Students’ Judgments of Significant Representations of Singapore

Squatters into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern Singapore. By Loh Kah Seng. Singapore: NUS and NIAS Presses, 2013. 330 pp. $38.00 (paper).

Research into Practice: Tuning in to the “Chorus of History” Through the Use of Oral History in the Classroom

Research into Practice: Understanding the Vietnam War from the Communists’ Perspective

HSSE Online

HSSE Online