Jennifer Yeo

Students' multimodal construction of work-energy concepts

This article examines the role of multimodalities in representing the concept of work–energy by studying the collaborative discourse of a group of ninth‐grade physics students engaging in an inquiry‐based instruction. Theorising a scientific concept as a network of meaning relationships across semiotic modalities situated in human activity, this article analyses the students’ interactions through their use of natural language, mathematical symbolism, depiction, and gestures, and examines the intertextual meanings made through the integration of these modalities. Results indicate that the thematic integration of multimodalities is both difficult and necessary for students in order to construct a scientific understanding that is congruent with the physics curriculum. More significantly, the difficulties in multimodal integration stem from the subtle differences in the categorical, quantitative, and spatial meanings of the work–energy concept whose contrasts are often not made explicit to the students. The implications of these analyses and findings for science teaching and educational research are discussed.

Knowledge Creation in Education

This book arises from research conducted through Singapores National Institute of Education on such topics as integrating knowledge building pedagogies into Singaporean classrooms, with both students and teachers across school levels, from primary schools to high schools. Additionally, international scholars contribute research on theories of knowledge creation, methodological foundations of research on knowledge creation, knowledge creation pedagogies in classrooms and knowledge creation work involving educators. The book is organized in two sections. Section A focuses on theoretical, technological and methodological issues, where sources of justification for claims are predominantly theories and extant literature, although empirical evidence is used extensively in one chapter. Section B reports knowledge creation practices in schools, with teachers, students or both; the key sources of justification for claims are predominantly empirical evidence and narratives of experience The editor asserts that schools should focus on developing students capacity and disposition in knowledge creation work; at the same time, leaders and teachers alike should continue to develop their professional knowledge as a community. In the knowledge building vernacular, the chapters are knowledge artifacts artifacts that not only document the findings of the editors and authors, but that also mediate future advancement in this area of research work. The ultimate aim of the book is to inspire new ideas, and to illuminate the path for researchers of similar interest in knowledge creation in education.

Constructive use of authoritative sources in science meaning making

Researchers are skeptical about the role of authoritative sources of information in a constructivist learning environment for fear of usurping students’ critical thinking. Taking a social semiotics perspective in this study, authoritative sources are regarded as inscriptions of cultural artifacts, and science learning involves meaning‐making of these cultural artifacts. In studying the meaning‐making process of a group of students doing problem‐based learning (PBL), our findings show that authoritative sources played an important role in deepening and expanding students’ scientific knowledge. We also found that constructive use of authoritative sources involves interpretation of meaning in context. This structural coupling of authoritative sources and context for meaningful sense‐making has to be taken into consideration in the design of learning environment.

Online Learning Communities in K-12 Settings

This review aims to clarify the concept and boundary of research on online learning communities, identify the major trends of research, and suggest pertinent issues for future research. Four online learning communities, namely, Knowledge Building communities, Quest Atlantis, Virtual Math Team, and Web-based Inquiry Science Environment were reviewed. We compare and contrast the design principles and characteristics of these learning environments along cognitive, social, and technological dimensions. Potential implementation and research issues were discussed, including the contradictions with traditional school cultures and practices, the issues of authenticity versus simulation approach in schools, the cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes of online learning communities, and the possibilities and impact of advances in technologies.

Constructing a Scientific Explanation—A Narrative Account

Studies analyzing explanations that have been constructed by science students have found that they were generally weak and lack necessary features. The goal of this study was to establish the competencies that one needs to construct a scientific explanation. Scientific explanations can be looked at in three ways, in terms of their function, form and level, as being essentially sign-making processes. Taking a case study approach and using Lemkes multimodal framework, we analyzed the scientific explanation of an electromagnetic induction phenomenon constructed by one high school student. We found that such a construction involves the complex coordination of different types of signs, not only to represent the entities in the phenomenon, but also to support thinking and reasoning about it at abstract levels. Scientific conventions and rules, and everyday material and social tools were found to be crucial in shifting from one level of abstraction to another. The findings highlight the importance of developing the skillful use of schemes of scientific representation by students and familiarizing them with commonly encountered contexts.

Knowledge Creation in Singapore Schools: Our Journey and Ways Forward

This concluding chapter includes a reflection on the trajectory Singapore researchers have taken in introducing pedagogies of knowledge creation paradigm into classrooms and in developing teachers’ capacity in building professional knowledge and in facilitating knowledge creation pedagogies. It introduces some key research projects that are related to knowledge creation, including some that have not been featured in this book. Three broad phases of development were observed: exploration phase (year 2001–2004) that saw the initial attempts to introduce knowledge building practices to some schools; deepening of practices phase (year 2005–2012) that witnesses a spike in variety of research projects in schools, characterized by collaborative work with teachers to iteratively classroom practices; and the current effort (2012 and beyond) that focuses on empowering teachers’ agency and expanding students’ epistemic repertoires. This chapter ends with a glimpse into the research directions in the near future.

Knowledge Building as a Boundary Object in Formal/Informal Learning

The literature on informal science learning indicates that many benefits can be derived from structured/nonstructured enrichment programmes or hobbies, but school science learning tends not to tap on the potential of these informal platforms. This disjoint in learning between formal and informal environments creates a boundary around each context that ignores the fluid and relational set of practices which transforms learning. The focus of this chapter is to propose knowledge building as a bridge between formal and informal learning environments to engender the use of resources from both contexts for science learning. Using the notion of boundary object and boundary crossing from the third-generation activity theory, this chapter describes a case study of how a “homework” task assigned to students set in the context of knowledge building could result in a hybrid space in which resources from formal and informal settings mediate the process of knowledge advancement.

Showcasing Singapore Science Teachers’ Research

To support teachers in Singapore to face up to the demands of a changing landscape in education, teachers have been encouraged to inquire into their teaching practice through teacher-led research. The goal is to generate evidence-based knowledge about their own teaching and students’ learning that can be used to inform their curriculum and practices. The success of this initiative is evident in the number of presentations made by school science teachers of their research efforts at the International Science Education Conference 2014. This chapter highlights three studies that illustrate the research conducted by Singapore science teachers and the benefits and the challenges of conducting teacher-led research, as well as the collaboration among science teachers and ministry officers.

Analysis of a physics teacher's pedagogical ‘micro-actions’ that support 17-year-olds’ learning of free body diagrams via a modelling approach

ABSTRACT Great teaching is characterised by the specific actions a teacher takes in the classroom to bring about learning. In the context of model-based teaching (MBT), teachers’ difficulty in working with students’ models that are not scientifically consistent is troubling. To address this problem, the aim of this study is to identify the pedagogical micro-actions to support the development of scientific models and modelling skills during the evaluation and modification stages of MBT. Taking the perspective of pedagogical content knowing (PCKg), it identifies these micro-actions as an in-situ, dynamic transformation of knowledges of content, pedagogy, student and environment context. Through a case study approach, a lesson conducted by an experienced high-school physics teacher was examined. Audio and video recordings of the lesson contributed to the data sources. Taking a grounded approach in the analysis, eight pedagogical micro-actions enacted by the teacher were identified, namely ‘clarification’, ‘evaluation’, ‘explanation’, ‘modification’, ‘exploration’, ‘referencing conventions’, ‘focusing’ and ‘meta-representing’. These micro-actions support students’ learning related to the conceptual, cognitive, discursive and epistemological aspects of modelling. From the micro-actions, we identify the aspects of knowledges of PCKg that teachers need in order to competently select and enact these micro-actions. The in-situ and dynamic transformation of these knowledges implies that professional development should also be situated in the context in which these micro-actions are meaningful.

The Role of Representations in Students’ Explanations of Four Phenomena in Physics: Dynamics, Thermal Physics, Electromagnetic Induction and Superposition

Representations play a vital role in the explanations of natural phenomena that physics provides, yet we know little about how students use representations in producing a scientific explanation. A scientific explanation can be described in terms of its function, form and level. This study aims to identify the natures of ‘successful’ students’ representational capabilities when constructing explanations across four classes of phenomena in physics – dynamics, thermal physics and electromagnetic induction and superposition. Taking a case study approach, four representative and successful explanations produced by students in these topics were examined along three aspects: function, form and level. Using a multimodal analysis method, we identified two types of explanation which students produced – interpretive and causal explanations. It was also found that producing these two different types of explanations entail the use of multiple modes of representations, formal and informal, to clarify, elaborate and extend meanings, made possible by the different affordances of different types of representations to mediate the thinking and reasoning process. The findings also suggest the cognitive, cultural and epistemological functions of multiple representations in producing the function, form and level of a scientific explanation.