Curriculum and Pedagogy Archives - Page 2 of 3

Index

Oh Ying Jie

Curriculum and Pedagogy

Historical Evidence: Archaeological Practice as a Pedagogical Tool for Historical Education in Singapore

Author/s:

Oh Ying Jie (Hwa Chong Institution (High School Section)) Keywords History Secondary School archaeological pedagogical tool Abstract Historical education in Singapore has seen much progress following the shift away from Rafflesian history to studies on pre-1819 Singapore with new publications and exhibitions. However, many educators still face difficulties in delivering this knowledge to their students. This […]

Oh Ying Jie (Hwa Chong Institution (High School Section))

Keywords
History
Secondary School
archaeological
pedagogical tool

Abstract
Historical education in Singapore has seen much progress following the shift away from Rafflesian history to studies on pre-1819 Singapore with new publications and exhibitions. However, many educators still face difficulties in delivering this knowledge to their students. This article looks at how historical education in Singapore can be enhanced by using an amalgamation of archaeological methods, historical evidence, and an inquiry-based approach as a pedagogical practice to teaching 14th-century Singapore.

Introduction
Archaeological research has provided much insight into the study of Singapore’s pre-colonial past. In 2007, 14^th-century Singapore was given some coverage in secondary school textbooks (Division 2007: 2-19). In 2014, the CPDD launched a new history textbook with an increase from one to two chapters about ancient Singapore (Division 2014: 2-91). It had been seven years since the inclusion of new materials. Students were, however, not given many opportunities to explore Singapore’s 14^th-century past as educators were equally unsure how they should teach this particular subject.

An informal check conducted among schools revealed that teachers tend to rush through or skip the pre-colonial section of the textbook as it is deemed unimportant or irrelevant for assessment. Another difficulty that educators face lay in the lack of necessary knowledge required for the study of archaeology and in turn, transferring this knowledge to our students. The instructors running teacher-training courses at the National Institute of Education (NIE) may also encounter difficulties coaching student teachers on pedagogical approaches to teaching pre-colonial Singapore due their own lack of familiarity with actual archaeology, given that archaeological work is not a common area of academic or educational expertise in history education.

I have been trying to develop and incorporate archaeology into the teaching of 14^th-century Singapore, Chapter 1 of Singapore: The Making of a Nation-State, 1300-1975, since I was an undergraduate student. Together with Associate Professor Goh Geok Yian, I started out with developing a workbook for secondary school teachers to guide educators in teaching archaeology in the classroom. The workbook contains relevant information on archaeology and its importance as well as some lesson ideas that teachers can employ in classrooms. I was then given the opportunity to teach history during my internship stint at a Secondary School where I improved on my workbook and developed a “Teachers’ Guide to Archaeology” based on my experiences in an actual classroom setting.

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Improving Student Ability in Interpreting Visual Sources through Action Research

Author/s:

Chew E E

Chew E E (St Andrew’s Secondary School (Singapore)) Marek Otreba (St Andrew’s Secondary School (Singapore)) Gwee Yi Fen (St Andrew’s Secondary School (Singapore)) Keywords History Secondary School pedagogical tool Abstract This paper reports the experience of a History Professional Learning Team (PLT) from St. Andrew’s Secondary School in 2017 in developing literary strategies to improve student ability to […]

Chew E E (St Andrew’s Secondary School (Singapore))
Marek Otreba (St Andrew’s Secondary School (Singapore))
Gwee Yi Fen (St Andrew’s Secondary School (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Secondary School
pedagogical tool

Abstract
This paper reports the experience of a History Professional Learning Team (PLT) from St. Andrew’s Secondary School in 2017 in developing literary strategies to improve student ability to read and interpret pictorial sources. An action research strategy was used with 150 students for this purpose. Students were explicitly taught the “Triangle Method” of source analysis, as well as specific persuasive techniques used in political cartoons to help them make sense of visual sources. The team found that the strategy of focusing on students’ prior knowledge and allowing them to engage in think aloud protocols had resulted in significant improvements in students’ ability to analyze pictorial sources.

Introduction
While the History PLT members at St. Andrew’s Secondary School had varying degrees of experience teaching upper secondary history, they shared a common concern in managing students’ difficulty with interpreting visual sources in history. Pictorial sources like political cartoons and posters convey various messages and offer diverse perspectives. They also offer both popular beliefs and discerning views shared by different sections of a society on particular historical events. However, the messages in political cartoons tend to be abstract; interpreting these sources would involve deep understanding of rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques that are seldom (explicitly) taught in history classrooms. (Schoelfeldt, 2000; Gallavan, Webster & Dean, 2012). Interpreting historical sources like political cartoons, then, would require a deeper understanding of historical context as they may contain hidden messages that are not easily deciphered or uncovered. As such, some writers have suggested that perhaps more intelligent or high performing students may benefit from analyzing such cartoons as they are more adept at critical thinking. (Haas, 2012). Yet, pictorial sources are a staple in the compulsory Source Based Question (SBQ) component of the national exams, which assesses students’ ability to understand, analyze and evaluate a range of historical source materials as part of historical inquiry (MOE, 2017). Hence, regardless of their ability levels, history students in Singapore must be equipped with the skills and the ability to interpret all manner of historical sources, including political cartoons and other similar pictorial sources. This undertaking has become quite a challenge for both history students and history teachers in Singapore.

In the course of our discussions, the History PLT identified three issues that seemed to imped students’ understanding of pictorial sources:

First, students face difficulties in “getting” the overall message of pictorial sources;
Second, many students are unable to provide relevant evidence to support their interpretation of the source (i.e. the “message” of the source); and
Third, students are more likely to describe and make observations without providing historical contextualization as the basis upon which the analysis or interpretation of the sources were made.

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Rethinking the Approach to Teaching Causation In the History Classroom

Author/s:

Noel T P Ong

Noel T P Ong (Ministry of Education (Singapore)) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School Rethinking Approach Introduction Core to historical research and the teaching of history is the concept of causation – in fact, E. H. Carr (1961: 87) famously opined, “the study of history is a study of causes”. Without an awareness and understanding of […]

Noel T P Ong (Ministry of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
Rethinking Approach

Introduction
Core to historical research and the teaching of history is the concept of causation – in fact, E. H. Carr (1961: 87) famously opined, “the study of history is a study of causes”. Without an awareness and understanding of the concept of causation, it would be difficult to comprehend the reasons why events happened the way they did, and that evidence could be marshalled within a historical context to justify the relative hierarchy of factors for any given historical occurrence. However, based on my teaching experience and interaction with other teachers as well as feedback from students, I discovered that students found it difficult to make causal explanations that harnessed their knowledge and understanding of events in history. Specifically, these difficulties included their inability to construct viable historical explanations and to evaluate the relative importance of certain causes in explaining an event, development or action. This article describes an intervention carried out in a school in Singapore in 2015, using ideas and strategies developed by history educators related to the concept of historical causation and the ways to improve students’ causal reasoning skills.

Challenges in teaching historical causation
Scott (1990) broadly defined causation as

an understanding of the difference between long-term and short-term causes; an understanding that some causes are likely to be more important than others; an appreciation of the difference between, and the interdependence of, motivatory and enabling factors; and an understanding of the inter-relationship of different causatory factors.

(Scott, 1990: 9 cited in Phillips, 2002: 42)

However, many students in Shemilt’s Evaluation Study of the Schools History Project (SHP) seemed to “misconstrue even the most apparently self-evident features of the causality concept” (Shemilt, 1980: 30). The tendency was for these students to see causation as “something with the power to make something else happen” (Shemilt, 1980: 30). Exacerbating this issue was the students’ inability to understand “motivated action” as they “insist[ed] on seeing History as a record of what happened to people rather than of what they made happen” (Shemilt, 1980: 32) [emphasis mine]. Much of Shemilt’s findings pointed to apparent difficulties students faced when trying to make causal explanations.

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Classroom Conversation: The Use Of Discussion-Based Strategy In The History Classroom

Author/s:

Jane Choong

Jane Choong (Tanglin Secondary School (Singapore), National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords History Secondary School Discussion-Based Introduction In Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, Sam Wineburg argued that historical thinking “in its deepest forms, is neither a natural process nor something that springs automatically from psychological development” (2001: 7). He proposed that in order to understand and grapple […]

Jane Choong (Tanglin Secondary School (Singapore), National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Secondary School
Discussion-Based

Introduction
In Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, Sam Wineburg argued that historical thinking “in its deepest forms, is neither a natural process nor something that springs automatically from psychological development” (2001: 7). He proposed that in order to understand and grapple with the past, we must change our existing mental structures. In reality, however, Singapore teachers often find themselves “telling history” to their students, as if particular stories about the past can be told in a linear manner or told through a given narrative. The idea that students would need to learn how to mentally wrestle with unfamiliar content, and to also become competent at requisite examination skills that demonstrate proficiency in managing the specified content, may perhaps seem an unfeasible expectation. But, as Wineburg maintained, historical thinking is “an unnatural act” – it requires students to think about the past in a way that goes against how they ordinarily think. Such an approach involves getting students to think about the past in a methodical way and enabling them to make sense of the past using disciplinary lenses. The inability to take on this approach in the history classroom may lead teachers to resort to the very familiar strategy which is to “tell history”, or what I would call “shouting history” at students.

As a history educator, “shouting history” may seem like a terrible notion but it has become a necessary method in our bag of tools. When we teach history to some of our weaker learners, we may find ourselves spending a lot of time getting these students to repeatedly recall materials already covered in previous lessons. When faced with such challenges, it may be easy for us to make certain assumptions about these students: that they are struggling with the subject because they do not read history sufficiently, or that the content is too much for them to digest in a short time, or that they lacked the language skills to comprehend historical sources. These difficulties are indeed real issues that confound students and impede their ability to learn history well. Yet, there are students who also may be “too lazy to think” as they prefer to simply wait for the teacher to give them the “correct answer”. The fact that they are working with the notion of “correct answers” not only points to certain flawed assumptions these students may hold about history, but also their understanding about the nature of historical study. So, why is learning history challenging for students? Is it challenging because it involves the learning of an overwhelming amount of factual details, or is it challenging because it is difficult to interpret sources in their specific historical contexts? I strongly believe it is the latter.

In this article, I am going to make two assumptions: first, that learning history is challenging because the past is not easy for students to picture or imagine; and second, that engaging in historical thinking is challenging for students because of the “unnatural” way students are expected to view the past. As history educators, we need to make this “unnatural act” more intuitive and instinctive so that we can develop students who are discerning in judgement and are able to think independently and critically about the world around them.

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Teaching for Historical Understanding through Role-Play

Author/s:

Goh Hong Yi

Goh Hong Yi (Beatty Secondary School (Singapore)) Tham Chin Pang Joseph (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore)) Keywords History Secondary School Role-Play Introduction For the average fourteen-year-old student in Singapore, knowledge about the nation’s road to independence may be limited to a rather narrow field-of-view, i.e. seen through the actions of leaders from the People’s Action Party (PAP) […]

Goh Hong Yi (Beatty Secondary School (Singapore))
Tham Chin Pang Joseph (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Secondary School
Role-Play

Introduction
For the average fourteen-year-old student in Singapore, knowledge about the nation’s road to independence may be limited to a rather narrow field-of-view, i.e. seen through the actions of leaders from the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the events that led to the achievement of independence under Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership. They may not be aware of the different political parties that were vying for political power at the time or the complex circumstances that paved the road towards independence. While the ruling party and our first Prime Minister undoubtedly played a significant role during this period in Singapore’s history, the sheer prominence of the dominant political party in the state’s narrative may impede students’ understanding of the past and their awareness of the diversity of experiences during this period. Students’ lack of knowledge about the historical context of post-war Singapore would lead them to view the current government’s dominance in Singapore’s politics as natural and inevitable. However, to develop deeper historical understandings, students would not only need to know the various personalities, as well as the actions of prominent leaders of the time, but also the reasons and the circumstances that led to the political contest and the PAP’s eventual victory in the elections.

How might we design suitable learning experiences that can allow students to appreciate factors that had influenced political developments in Singapore in the 1950s? One way is to perhaps reduce their fixation with attributing significance primarily to the actions of the PAP and to show how other political parties at that point in time were themselves seen as viable options in their own right. A teaching strategy that uses role-play as a centrepiece may help enhance students’ historical empathy and enable them to recognize the diversity of perspectives that existed during this complex period.

Issues in teaching the history of Singapore’s political development
Chapter 6 of the Lower Secondary History syllabus is titled, What aspirations did people have for Singapore from 1945 – 1959? This is an especially challenging topic to teach, and much of it may be due to inadequate knowledge base that students had to learn prior to this chapter.

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Using an International Videoconference in Problem-Based Inquiry Projects: The Role of Public Voice, Audience, and Positionality

Author/s:

J. Spencer Clark

J. Spencer Clark (Kansas State University) Keywords Social Studies Junior College Secondary School Teaching Practice Student Learning Contexts Abstract This article discusses and reflects upon a problem-based inquiry project that culminated in an international videoconference between multiethnic and multi-faith secondary students from Macedonia and the United States. The videoconference provided an opportunity for students to share […]

J. Spencer Clark (Kansas State University)

Keywords
Social Studies
Junior College
Secondary School
Teaching Practice
Student Learning
Contexts

Abstract
This article discusses and reflects upon a problem-based inquiry project that culminated in an international videoconference between multiethnic and multi-faith secondary students from Macedonia and the United States. The videoconference provided an opportunity for students to share their action plans, which proposed methods of addressing local problems or issues students had identified through their inquiry. This article focuses on three ways students engaged with the project and videoconference: inquiry, audience, and public voice. These aspects of the project illustrate how the students’ positionality on their chosen problem/issue shifted as they developed skills and knowledge through their inquiry. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for future problem-based inquiry projects in secondary schools.

Introduction
Many educators and schools are concerned with preparing students for civic engagement in their communities (Bischoff, 2016). Digital media and technology have only increased opportunities for schools to enhance their students’ civic engagement locally, nationally, and globally (Levine, 2008). In this article, I will discuss and reflect upon a project that aimed to civically engage high school students both locally and globally by addressing local issues. My discussion will focus on an international videoconference between multiethnic and multi-faith students from The Republic of Macedonia and the state of Utah, in the United States (U.S.). The videoconference served as the culminating event for semester-long, problem-based inquiry projects that were developed by students in both countries. The videoconference provided an opportunity for students to share action plans they created to address the local problems identified through their inquiry. The problem-based inquiry projects allowed students to examine their positionality and develop public voice related to local issues, while the videoconference provided an audience (Levine, 2008) for the students to engage their positionality and public voice, receive comparative perspectives, and corroborate new knowledge gained from their projects.

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Developing Conceptual Understanding in Social Studies Using Technology and Discussion

Author/s:

Mark Baildon

Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Michelle Lin (Pei Hwa Secondary School, Singapore) Gean Chia (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Keywords Social Studies Junior College Secondary School Conceptual Understanding in Social Studies Using Technology Introduction Social studies concepts are tools for understanding our experience, the past, and the social world. They are broad, organizing ideas that can […]

Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore))
Michelle Lin (Pei Hwa Secondary School, Singapore)
Gean Chia (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
Social Studies
Junior College
Secondary School
Conceptual Understanding in Social Studies
Using Technology

Introduction
Social studies concepts are tools for understanding our experience, the past, and the social world. They are broad, organizing ideas that can be expressed in one or two words and they are defined by key characteristics or attributes. They help us think about groups of objects, actions, people, issues, or relationships in the social world and can be applied to make sense of new situations and information that we encounter in our experience. Concepts help us learn by organizing new information and experience into mental constructs or schema. In social studies, concepts like trade-offs, identity, integration, and interdependence serve these purposes.

Important concepts that structure Issue One in Singapore’s new Social Studies syllabus include citizenship, trade-offs and governance. For example, to understand the concept of governance students are expected to understand the functions of governments, such as rule-making (i.e., laws) and the role of government in working for the good of society by maintaining order and ensuring justice (with each – the social good, order, and governance – also core social studies concepts necessary for students to understand). By understanding that governance consists of these common attributes – rule making, maintaining order and ensuring justice – no matter which society or government they are examining, students will be better positioned to think about governance, how different governments function, and analyze the role of government in making laws, maintaining order, and ensuring justice. They will be better able to think about the role that government plays in their own experience, the laws that affect them as young people, and what various levels of government do to help provide order and fairness in their community and even at school.

In this article, we share the experience of one Secondary Social Studies teacher, Michelle, in having her students investigate the question of whether or not the Singapore government has done enough to ensure progress in Singapore. Although initially taught prior to the introduction of the new syllabus, we believe it serves as an example of a Social Studies lesson focused on conceptual understanding. To understand the concept of governance and the role of the government in society, she asked them to consider another core social studies concept – progress. The concept of progress is central to the discipline of sociology. It is essential for understanding contemporary society and in developmentally-minded Singapore, the notion of progress is central to thinking about governance and the effects of government policy to support personal well-being, social improvement and economic growth. As the sociologist Robert Nisbet (1980) argued, “no single idea has been more important than…the idea of progress” (p. 4). The Social Progress Index provides several attributes that might help teachers and students consider different facets of social progress, such as well-being (e.g., healthcare, housing, social connection, etc.), whether or not basic human needs are met in society (e.g., clean air and water, safety and security, etc.), and opportunity (e.g., social mobility, inclusion, economic opportunity, etc.). In determining whether government policies had “done enough,” students might consider the extent to which they think policy adequately promoted these aspects of social progress.

We outline Michelle’s lesson in having students consider different attributes of progress by examining different perspectives through source work, class discussion, and the use of technology. After providing this short lesson vignette, we conclude by highlighting Michelle’s takeaways from the lesson and the shift in her thinking about teaching Social Studies.

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Leading Classroom Discussions About Population Policy in Singapore

Author/s:

Jackie

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https://hsseonline.nie.edu.sg jackie@ambercreative.sg

Introduction Iconic American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash recalled in song a boyhood experience of watching his parents monitor flood conditions at their 1937 Dyess, Arkansas, home by counting the number of front steps the water had risen; 1 step = 1 foot (0.305 m): How high’s the water, mama? Five feet high and risin’ In introducing […]

Introduction

Iconic American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash recalled in song a boyhood experience of watching his parents monitor flood conditions at their 1937 Dyess, Arkansas, home by counting the number of front steps the water had risen; 1 step = 1 foot (0.305 m):

How high’s the water, mama?

Five feet high and risin’

In introducing his 1959 Columbia release, Five Feet High and Risin’, Cash noted (AZLyrics, 2000-2015):

My mama always taught me that good things come from adversity if we put our faith in the Lord.

We couldn’t see much good in the flood waters when they were causing us to have to leave home,

But when the water went down, we found that it had washed a load of rich black bottom dirt across our land.

The following year we had the best cotton crop we’d ever had.

Structured Academic Controversy for Upper Secondary Social Studies

Author/s:

Ang Hui Xia

Ang Hui Xia (Hong Kah Secondary School, Singapore) Keywords Social Studies Secondary School Controversy Structured Academic Controversy Discussion This article will describe the use of Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) as a teaching strategy to help a class of Secondary Three Express students in Social Studies analyse issues from multiple perspectives and to strengthen their explanation, questioning […]

Ang Hui Xia (Hong Kah Secondary School, Singapore)

Keywords
Social Studies
Secondary School
Controversy
Structured Academic Controversy
Discussion

This article will describe the use of Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) as a teaching strategy to help a class of Secondary Three Express students in Social Studies analyse issues from multiple perspectives and to strengthen their explanation, questioning and listening skills.

The SAC lesson was implemented in a class of twenty Secondary Three Express students with above average ability who are able to work well together in a group setting. The duration for the SAC lesson was 70 minutes. It was the first time that they had experienced a SAC lesson. Generally, this class possesses good inference skills and are able to critically analyse sources that are provided to them. However, a quarter of the class tends to be soft-spoken and is reluctant to speak up in class. I decided to adopt the SAC as a teaching strategy for this class as I wanted to provide students who are less vocal an opportunity to speak up in a small group setting. At the same time, I wanted to help other students to be more aware of themselves and others in terms of practising their empathetic listening skills when their classmates are presenting. As SAC focuses on student-centred learning, it helps to promote and strengthen cooperative learning in class, which will help students to create new knowledge in the process.

Importance of Getting Students Prepared before SAC
A two period lesson was conducted prior to the SAC lesson to provide students with a better understanding of the challenges that Singapore faced in fostering social cohesion and maintaining harmony as a multi-ethnic society. Students were directed to engage in self-study using the textbook to find out about the measures that Singapore took to promote social cohesion and maintain harmony. After which, they recorded their key findings into a mind-map. It is essential for students to acquire the pre-requisite knowledge on the controversial issue, apart from their personal experiences, so that they are able to contribute meaningfully and participate in the SAC discussion in a constructive manner.

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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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Index

Oh Ying Jie

Authors List

Authors List

Historical Evidence: Archaeological Practice as a Pedagogical Tool for Historical Education in Singapore

Improving Student Ability in Interpreting Visual Sources through Action Research

Rethinking the Approach to Teaching Causation In the History Classroom

Classroom Conversation: The Use Of Discussion-Based Strategy In The History Classroom

Teaching for Historical Understanding through Role-Play

Using an International Videoconference in Problem-Based Inquiry Projects: The Role of Public Voice, Audience, and Positionality

Developing Conceptual Understanding in Social Studies Using Technology and Discussion

Leading Classroom Discussions About Population Policy in Singapore

Structured Academic Controversy for Upper Secondary Social Studies

Designing Classrooms of the Future Now!

HSSE Online

HSSE Online