Yuen Sze Michelle Tan

Promoting Teacher Learning Through Learning Study Discourse: The Case of Science Teachers in Singapore

The potential of a theory of variation-framed learning study, a teacher professional development approach, to help teachers overcome curricular and pedagogical challenges associated with teaching new science curricula content was explored. With a group of Singapore teachers collaboratively planning and teaching new genetics content, phenomenographic analysis of data corpus from classroom observations, teacher meetings and interviews revealed teacher learning that manifested in the teachers’ experiences. These were captured as (1) increased degrees of student-centered pedagogy and challenges to teachers’ prior assumptions about science pedagogy, (2) increased awareness of possibilities and limitations of their beliefs about science pedagogy, and (3) emergence of new understandings about new curricular content and science pedagogy. The possibility of transformative and generative learning is also discussed.

Enriching a Collaborative Teacher Inquiry Discourse: Exploring Teachers' Experiences of a Theory-Framed Discourse in a Singapore Case of Lesson Study.

This paper explores how a learning theory enriched a collaborative teacher inquiry discourse where lesson study was adopted as the educational action research model to promote teacher professional development. Four Grade 9–10 biology teachers in Singapore drew from variation theory to collaboratively plan and teach new genetics content as part of teacher research. As a researcher-facilitator, I have drawn from the teachers’ experiences of infusing variation theory into their teaching practice, of developing their own theories of teaching and learning, and of developing student-focused pedagogies to highlight the roles variation theory played. These included providing concrete examples of patterns of variations teachers could use, increasing the teachers’ attention and sensitivity to students, and developing the teachers’ theoretical lens in their approach to teaching. Reflecting on the teachers’ experiences, I made an appeal for teachers’ development of theoretical lenses in teacher inquiry, and bridging of theory and research to teaching practice.

Promoting Teachers' Collaborative Exploration of a New Science Curriculum: The Case of a Singapore Learning Study.

Through a case study, we explore how four Grade 9–10 biology teachers in Singapore experienced their collaborative approach to curriculum and addressed challenges associated with newly prescribed science curricula, such as the perceived lack of clarity and pressure to complete teaching curricular content. With the teachers participating in a variation theory-framed learning study as part of their professional development, we employed a thematic analysis of the data corpus, focusing on teacher interviews and reflective journals to elucidate the teachers’ experiences of approaching curriculum. Themes constructed included teachers drawing on prescribed curriculum as an ‘enabling constraint’ to promote increasing clarity, developing greater coherence in curriculum interpretation, integrating variation theory, and drawing on different resources to enhance their approach to curriculum. We further reflected on these findings to reveal notions of teacher empowerment and to urge for teachers’ more powerful ways of approaching curriculum, as we cautioned against the potential danger of the rhetoric of teachers moving away from technical implementation of curriculum. We also emphasized closing the gap between prescribed curriculum carefully conceptualized by the central authority and its subsequent implementation by teachers, in order to avoid ‘wasting’ the deliberation efforts of the central authority when teachers implement curriculum unreflectively.

‘The strawberry generation… they are too pampered’ Pre-service physical education teachers’ perspectives on outdoor education in Singapore

This paper explores pre-service PE teachers’ conceptions of outdoor education (OE) in Singapore. Survey questionnaires were administered to 120 pre-service teachers; 14 teachers participated in follow-up semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that OE is predominantly situated within the outdoor camp environment. Pre-service teachers regularly envisioned the purpose of OE as to instil a sense of discipline among students and to ameliorate the negative health impacts of an urban and wealthy lifestyle. We propose that the dislocation of OE from local and situated school contexts as well as the instrumental nature of OE pedagogy runs contrary to aims of fostering acquisition of life skills and character development. We concomitantly question how the pre-service teachers’ envisioning of OE can convincingly support holistic learning outcomes deemed beneficial to Singaporean youth and society more broadly.

Problem Finding in Professional Learning Communities: A Learning Study Approach

This study marries collaborative problem solving and learning study in understanding the onset of a cycle of teacher professional development process within school-based professional learning communities (PLCs). It aimed to explore how a PLC carried out collaborative problem finding—a key process involved in collaborative problem solving—that has received minimal attention in the extant literature. In line with this goal, we adopted the learning study approach, which highlights the application of a theory in research lessons. Multiple data sources were drawn upon to construct a narrative description of four consecutive meetings, detailing challenges and turning points that teachers experienced while engaged in collaborative problem finding, and how the process was facilitated by developing shared understandings of the complexity of possible curricular problems and establishing a common ground amongst teachers. Other modes of action and factors that can facilitate the process of collaborative problem finding are also presented.

The place and approach of outdoor learning within a holistic curricular agenda: development of Singaporean outdoor education practice

This paper details the potential contribution of outdoor education (OE) in Singaporean education given the recent raft of national curricular reforms aimed at fostering holistic and exploratory learning opportunities. In this context, we contend that increasing recognition of the value of OE, both internationally and locally, heralds specific challenges within unique Singaporean educational conditions that must be taken into account for this subject area to flourish. In particular, we seek to distil the ways in which local community, cultural and school conditions signal the need for a more place-based and contextualised version of OE. Our analysis further addresses the need for adequate professional development frameworks to be installed in order to enhance existing local teachers’ capacities to substantially educate pupils through the outdoors, within a Southeast Asian urban context.

Learning study is “hard”: case of pre-service biology teachers in British Columbia

Purpose This paper describes a pilot learning study (LS) comprising of three biology pre-service teachers (PSTs) in British Columbia, which took place during an initial teacher education (ITE) course and school-based practicum. The study explored PSTs’ learning experiences, and identified conditions that supported and challenged their engagement with the LS discourse. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from a variety of methods including teacher semi-structured interviews and reflective entries, the PSTs’ experiences of teaching and reflection were described and themes were constructed; course assignments, classroom materials, meeting notes and fieldnotes served triangulation purposes. Variation theory framed the LS and analysis of this case study. Findings Findings highlight how the PSTs developed comfort with the tension of making mistakes that supported their interpretation of classroom pedagogy and refining of instructional strategies. As the study alluded to how LS is ‘hard’, the PSTs demonstrated h...

Reflecting upon researchers’ and policy-makers’ tensions in the collaborative inquiry process: ‘what do different commonplaces contribute to curriculum deliberation?’

Abstract This collaborative inquiry, as part of action research, is framed within the unique context of two researchers working closely alongside two policy-makers (research collaborators) to explore how teachers could enter more profoundly into a curriculum discourse. Drawing from Reid’s concept of curriculum deliberation as located within institutional settings, the inquiry was purposed to elucidate physical education teachers’ perceptions of outdoor education (OE), in order to integrate the teachers’ perspectives within the first formal OE curriculum implementation in Singapore. This article reflects upon tensions that emerged in our inquiry process; these reflections were noted in journal entries, audio-recordings and notes of meetings and teacher seminars, as well as teachers’ interview transcripts. We, the researchers, employed a conceptual change framework to identify and confront the tensions, and consequently searched for further clarification and alternative ways of interpreting the tensions. In transforming the tensions into our positive learning experiences, we co-generated new knowledge through renewed understandings developed with our Ministry of Education research collaborators who were directly involved in the conceptualization and implementation of the new curriculum. The tensions include teachers’ gaps in understandings of OE; concern that the current project findings may be ‘too late’ to influence the design of the new curriculum; and power differences existing between researchers, policy-makers and teachers. Our reflections invoked deliberation about the teachers’ contribution of knowledge to inquiry and curriculum deliberation processes. We illustrated how such a deliberation could not be divorced from critical examination of the roles of, and kinds of knowledge contributed by, policy-makers and researchers.

Exploring the Process of Problem Finding in Professional Learning Communities Through a Learning Study Approach

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have established their niche as a key driver of teacher professional learning for about two decades. Collaborative problem solving, usually in the form of reflective inquiry, has been identified as one of the key features of successful PLCs. One approach that PLCs use in carrying out collaborative problem solving (CPS) is the learning study. In using the learning study approach for CPS, two key processes are involved – problem finding and determination of the solution procedure. Noting the imbalance in the extant literature in favor of the latter, this article seeks to explore how the process of problem finding takes place, as a PLC formed by biology teachers follows the learning study model. We focused on how members of this PLC negotiate to determine the object of student learning and, in the process, find the problem that would be addressed by the team. The findings and insights that were presented in this article were drawn from multiple data sources (e.g., minutes of meetings, field notes, teacher journal entries, and teacher interviews) that detail teacher interactions in four consecutive meetings of a PLC located within a Singapore school. On the basis of our findings and the relevant literature, we formulated recommendations to facilitate problem finding of a PLC via learning study.