Leading Change for the 21st Century

Our team incorporates blended learning using an envisioned enhanced tool. Super Padlet is a knowledge building tool coupled with problem-based pedagogy as a worthwhile interactive learning environment (ILE). There are four standards to design better learning environments: (1) authentic tasks (2) opportunities to build cognitive strategies, (3) social environment (4) constructive conversation. This study sought to evaluate the needs of teaching and learning as compared to our ideals. Super Padlet as a knowledge building tool enhances learning through the affordances of the knowledge forum. Super Padlet as a knowledge building tool scaffolds and accelerates the learning process, combined with computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) when students work in teams to organise and consolidate related information and concepts.
This study has identified several enhancements in the existing Super Padlet as a knowledge building tool. These features will inherit the existing advantages of Super Padlet such as: 1) Synchronous participation 2) Multiple layout 3) Zoom or pagination feature to accommodate more participants and 4) Keyword/activity analysis. The students targeted are Secondary 1 Science pupils. These students grew up in the digital age of new media, and are already adept at using technology.
By infusing cognitive tools and technologies, students can relate and be deeply engaged. The topic with our intervention is “Energy and Work Done”. To help the students understand better and align with the school’s directive and syllabus on use of the prescribed textbook, the teacher would orchestrate e-learning, textbook and learning environment. The topic would become a combination of synchronous blended learning and offsite, the normal curriculum would not be disturbed, blended learning would extend and supplement learning. There is no such thing as a perfect technology that can be a single solution for all our teaching and learning needs. We must consider the characteristics of each tool and how we can design appropriate new pedagogical approaches that are more student-centered and more collaborative.

Cognizant that its school system is often seen as stressful and examination-driven, not least by its own stakeholders (Mathews, Lim and Teng, 2017), the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore, has in recent years taken specific measures to de-emphasise the focus on examination results. By ending (in 2012) the practice of listing the top-scoring students in all national examinations to making a commitment to dismantle the aggregate score system for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) by 2021, the MOE has clearly signalled its wish to pivot toward the lifelong love of learning, of which learners’ motivation plays a key role. Against this backdrop, teachers now have to grapple with motivating students to do well without using improvement in test scores as an extrinsic source of motivation. Drawing on Alderman’s three instructional practices that affect student motivation and evaluation (Alderman, 2008), and using findings from surveys and small group interviews, this paper examines the importance of test scores in motivating a group of 50 Pre-University 3 students in the GCE A-Level subject, General Paper. Addressing the questions ‘Do test scores matter in motivating Pre-University 3 students in General Paper?’ and ‘What are the sources of motivation to Pre-University 3 students in General Paper?’, this study suggests that despite the overall de-emphasis on examination results by the MOE, improvement in test scores is still perceived by students to be an important source of motivation for their learning. 

The purpose of this paper is to find out​secondary school students’ perceptions towards ‘Joy of Learning’ in Singapore ​and the ways to promote it in lesson design. It aims to explore through the lens of students the way they experience joy of learning in the classroom, in school and outside school. The data was collected by tape-recording interviews with students aged 14 to 15 years in 2018. Based on the students’ opinions and experiences, a detailed description of their experiences of joy of learning in secondary education was documented. This method of data collection is applied until it reaches a level of saturation, where no new themes can be surfaced from the latest interview. Based on the themes in the coding process, characteristics of the joy of learning will be identified. This will guide educators to design effective lessons that promote the joy of learning in secondary schools and beyond.
Miss Goh Kim Lian, Margaret, Mr Tan Hoe Teck, Mdm Tay Phuay Leng Elaine, Mdm Frances Ong Hock Lin, Mdm Quek Eng Chiew