Yancy Toh

Anatomy of a mobilized lesson: Learning my way

With the mass adoption of mobile computing devices by the current school generation, significant opportunities have emerged for genuinely supporting differentiated and personalized learning experiences through mobile devices. In our school-based research work in introducing mobilized curricula to a class, we observe one compelling mobilized lesson that exploits the affordances of mobile learning to provide multiple learning pathways for elementary grade (primary) 2 students. Through the lesson, students move beyond classroom activities that merely mimic what the teacher says and does in the classroom, and yet they still learn in personally meaningful ways. In deconstructing the lesson, we provide an in-depth analysis of how the affordances of mobile computing enable personalized learning from four facets: (a) allowing multiple entry points and learning pathways, (b) supporting multi-modality, (c) enabling student improvisation in situ, and (d) supporting the sharing and creation of student artifacts on the move. A key property of mobile technology that enables these affordances lies with the small form factor and the lightweightness of these devices which make them non-obtrusive in the learning spaces of the student. This article makes a contribution on the design aspects of mobilized lessons, namely, what the affordances of mobile technologies can enable.

The Singapore experience: Synergy of national policy, classroom practice and design research

In recent years there has been a proliferation of research findings on CSCL at the micro and macro levels, but few compelling examples of how CSCL research has impacted actual classroom practices at the meso-level have emerged. This paper critically examines the impact of adopting a systemic approach to innovative education reforms at the macro, meso, and micro levels in Singapore. It presents the case for adopting design research as a methodology for CSCL integration that meets the needs of schools, and discusses a specific CSCL innovation that holds the potential for sustaining transformation in classroom practices. Our driving question is: In what ways can the routine use of CSCL practices in the classroom be supported by exploring systemic factors in the school setting through design research? We will explore the synergistic conditions that led to meaningful impact (at the micro level), mediated by systemic approaches to working with teachers in the schools (at the meso level), guided by Singapore’s strategic planning for scalability (at the macro level).

Seamless Learning in the Mobile Age: A Theoretical and Methodological Discussion on Using Cooperative Inquiry to Study Digital Kids On-the-Move.

This paper shares the theoretical and methodological frameworks that are deployed in a 3-year study to examine how Singapore primary school students leverage on mobile technology for seamless learning. This notion of seamless learning refers to the integrated and synergistic effects of learning in both formal and informal settings, which is distributed across different learning processes (emergent or planned) as well as across different spaces (in or out of class). Drawing insights from the literature and our study, we assert that we should jettison the technology-centric view to adopt a socio-cultural framework. This move puts us in a better position to make sense of the rich complexities coalescing around the students’ in-situ use of mobile devices. We also critiqued the adequacy of our people-centred data collection method, in particular, cooperative inquiry in capturing instances of seamless learning. Challenges of operationalising the cooperative inquiry approaches are also detailed in the paper.

Pedagogical reforms within a centralised-decentralised system: A Singapore’s perspective to diffuse 21st century learning innovations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the dialectical interplay between centralisation and decentralisation forces so as to understand how schools leverage on its autonomous pedagogical space, influence the diffusion of innovations in the educational landscape of Singapore and how a centralised-decentralised system supports (or impedes) pedagogical reform for twenty-first century learning. Design/methodology/approach The paper first outlines the evolutionary stance of Singapore’s decentralisation from its past to present trajectories, thus providing a broader social-historical interpretation to its tight-loose-tight coupling of the education system; followed by situating the context of reform within the national narrative of Ministry of Education’s (MOE) twenty-first century competencies framework. The authors examine how school autonomy should be accompanied by systemic enabling mechanisms, through two case illustrations of whole-school reforms. Findings There are four carryover effects that the authors have observed: structural, socio-cultural, economic and epistemic. Middle managers from the two schools act as a pedagogical, socio-technological and financial broker outside the formal collaborative structures organised by the MOE. Such a “middle-out” approach, complemented by centralised mechanisms for “coeval sensing mechanism”, has resulted in boundary-spanning linkages and multiplier effects in terms of knowledge spillovers. Research limitations/implications Socio-cultural context matters; and what constitutes as co-learning between policymakers and practitioners in Singapore may be construed as policing that stifles innovations in other contexts. Originality/value In addition to the conceptualisation of how school autonomy may lead to school-based innovations, the paper provided some preliminary empirical evidence of how the co-production of knowledge has been engendered within, across and beyond individual Singapore schools through the mechanism of innovation diffusion. The unit of analysis is innovation ecosystem.

Innovation becoming trajectories: leveraging lateral and vertical moves for collaborative diffusion of twenty-first century learning practices

Abstract This paper argues for innovation diffusion as a “becoming” process in the context of lateral and vertical moves. The context of these innovations involves technology-mediated innovations and their diffusion trajectories in the Singapore education system. Embedded in a centralized-decentralized dialectics, this paper traces particular innovations from their nascent beginnings to their present state of play. We found that the cases we observed had lateral (or decentralized) moves and were subsequently supported by vertical (or centralized) ones. Characterizing these innovation diffusions was challenging as we found them to move across models according to different granularities and levels of analysis. Instead, we have chosen to characterize these diffusion patterns as “innovation becoming”. We attempt to distil some substantive generalizations from three case studies presented and how decisions can be made for future innovation diffusions. We recognize that the trajectory for innovation diffusion is inextricably linked to the identity projected by the particular innovation and the leadership supporting it.

Building Synergies: Taking School-Based Interventions to Scale

The proliferation of school-based research around the world has grown in tandem with the policymakers’ emphasis on scaling successful empirical-based studies. More often than not, successful innovations are episodic in nature and fail to scale up over time due to a confluence of factors. This presents a problem as the embedded knowledge is confined to isolated and short-lived pockets of success that do not eventuate into impactful learning and teaching. This chapter reports the scaling trajectories of two exemplary flagship projects in NCPS – Seamless Science Learning and MyCLOUD. Both projects explored the use of mobile technologies to connect formal and informal learning spaces for Science and Chinese Language respectively. A longitudinal effort, both projects are in the midst of scaling up the intervention to different sets of sister schools. In this chapter, we aim to articulate the research trajectories of the two projects using the scaling up framework expounded by Dede and Coburn (2007). Explicating on how the projects are being scaled up within the school as well as what has been scaled up as a result of such sustainable intervention, we distilled the factors that underpinned the success of innovation diffusion. These include the cascading interplay of broad cultures and structure where local scaling activities can be made more congruent and the creation of multi-level sustainability for innovations to thrive in challenging environments. In the discussion section, we propose to expand Dede and Coburn’s framework to include ‘coherence’ as the sixth dimension to help practitioners rethink the synergistic fit of the scaled innovations with the broader socio-technological landscape of the school.

A system’s model of scaling: leveraging upon centralised and decentralised structures for diffusion

ABSTRACT A key thrust of education reform is the spread of innovative ideas and practices oriented toward school improvement and advancements in student’s deep learning and teacher’s professional development. Framed within concepts of scaling and diffusion, trajectories of innovation spread can afford explanatory and predictive understandings of adoption or rejection of new ideas and practices. This paper seeks to trace and unpack the adoption and adaptation trajectories of innovative pedagogical practices facilitated by technologically-mediated innovations within the context of Singapore schools. Recognising the Singapore education system as affording both centralised structures (in terms of shared responsibility and accountability across the education ministry, teacher training institute, and schools) and decentralised tenets (in terms of manoeuvrability, autonomy and agency for schools on the ground to chart their own innovation path), the research (1) characterises the variant models of innovation spread within a context of innovations in Singapore, (2) explicates how such models leverage on the centralised-decentralised structures of the system, and (3) draws implications for “harvesting” of innovations for rootedness and sustainability in schools.

Traversing the context of professional learning communities: development and implementation of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge of a primary science teacher

ABSTRACT Background: Professional learning communities are increasingly recognized for their significance in building teachers’ competencies for educational reform. However, the knowledge development cycle of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) through multiple professional learning communities is not well researched. Purpose: This qualitative case study investigates a primary science teacher’s TPACK development in the context of two interdependent learning spaces: a joint-school and a within-school professional learning community. The school’s organizational and sociocultural influences on teacher learning are also examined. Participant: Teacher Sean (pseudonym) embarked on a science innovation project after two years of teaching in a Singapore mainstream school. He was tasked to integrate mobile-based inquiry learning and visible thinking pedagogical approaches, and to pilot the designed lessons for a primary three class. Design and methods: A case-study approach involving multiple sources of data with cultural historical activity theory as the analytical lens was employed, to unpack the complementary and contradictory interactions across different interrelated activity systems. The purpose was to understand the (mis)alignments within and between the two professional learning communities. Results: The findings indicate that Sean’s (subject) learning from the joint-school professional learning community to the within-school professional learning community faced multiple tensions that hindered his TPACK development (object). He faced difficulty in manipulating tools (technology and visible thinking routines) to translate the joint-school co-designed lessons into classroom implementation. Additionally, the volatility of the school’s organizational routines (rules) and the lack of communicative leader–teacher partnership (division of labor) did not afford sufficient infrastructure or instructional support. Conclusions: Interactions between the teacher’s personal and contextual factors inhibited the designed TPACK from being implemented successfully. For ambitious pedagogical undertakings as illustrated in this case, more perceptive and synergistic organizational design thinking is needed to support beginning teachers’ TPACK development.

Inductive Leadership: Activating Community-Oriented Student Agency towards School Improvement

This is the final draft of a book chapter published by World Scientific. The published version is available at https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10633

Educational Change for the 21st Century: “Leadership from the Middle”

This is the final draft of a book chapter published by World Scientific. The published version is available at https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10633