New Pedagogies in Teaching and Learning & Understanding 21st Century Learners

Due to the highly conceptual and intangible nature of chemistry, many secondary school students perceive the subject to be a difficult one. Many educators (Johnstone, 1991; Gabel, 1999; Taber, 2013; Wong, 2013) support that the learning of chemistry by students can be augmented, if the teaching of the subject is done effectively at the three conceptual levels of understanding – the macroscopic, sub-microscopic and symbolic levels. Although there are simple resources available to provide learning experience at these levels, the pedagogical guidance for educators to link and deliver concepts effectively at these three conceptual levels of understanding is inadequate. This motivated us to conceptualise a lesson design framework that incorporates different strategies and pedagogical approaches to address the concern. Some of the research work infused into the framework include ideas of the social constructivist model (Gabel, 1999), a lesson planning worksheet proposed by Posthuma-Adams (2016) and the Predict-Observe-Explain strategy developed by White and Gunstone (1992). We weaved in these ideas into our framework methodologically and further developed our work through the implementation of several action research cycles. The framework was trialled in the designing of lessons for abstract concepts that are regarded to be difficult to grasp by secondary school students such as the strength of acids and the precipitation of salts. The efficacy of this framework is evident from the direct feedback through interviews of participating students and the positive teaching outcomes backed by both qualitative and quantitative data collected from various formative assessments such as concept cartoons. We continuously leveraged on the data and feedback garnered to improve on the framework and to address gaps in our teaching practices. We envisage that the work and resources shared in this paper would encourage like-minded educators to be more deliberate in applying the three conceptual levels of understanding chemistry in their daily teaching of the subject.

Recent reforms in science education emphasize the importance of inquiry practices for K-12 students. An inquiry-based instruction (I-BI) is an instructional approach by which students are actively engaged and progress towards becoming literate about what science is and how to do and communicate  science. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), science education becomes one of the nation’s priorities. The Ministry of Education exerts significant efforts to apply I-BI in schools. The literature shows that teachers view I-BI positively, however; little data exist showing that it is being used by teachers. The present research aims to answer the following two questions: (1) To what extent do Cycles 2 and 3 schools science teachers use I-BI as delineated in the five essential features of I-BI (questions, evidence, analysis & explain, connect, & communicate)? What are the factors that may facilitate or obstruct the implementation of I-BI in classrooms?     
Two questionnaires were administered to collect the data: Inquiry Essential Feature and their Inquiry Variations Survey and Factors Influencing I-BI Survey. The participants included Cycles 2 and 3 public schools’ science teachers in the Northern Emirates. One hundred-seventy-nine science teachers responded to the questionnaires; 81 males and 98 females. The results show variation among teachers in implementing features of I-BI. For “questions” feature, majority of teachers provided opportunities for students to pose scientific questions. For “evidence”, more teachers tended to give students data and instructed them how to analyze. For the features of “analysis & explain” and “communicate”, teachers guided students to formulate explanation and to develop communication. For “connect”, teachers allowed students to connect explanations to scientific knowledge. In addition, the results reveal significant differences among teachers based on their gender and Cycles in favor of male teachers across the majority of I-BI essential features. Teachers perceived instructional resources, teachers’ skills and knowledge, and students’ maturations as very important factors supporting the implementation of I-BI. On the other hand, teachers perceived overloaded science content, students’ motivation, and time as very strong factors hindering them from implementing I-BI. Recommendations to enhance the implementation of I-BI practices across cycles 2 and 3 schools were discussed.

Theoretical framework.  It has been recognized the importance of play and its effects on the early development of typically developing children. However, limited understanding of the effect of play on development of children with autism. Research question:  This paper aimed to synthesize the play in the early childhood from works of Vygotsky, Craft and studies of play with children with autism. It generates a conceptual framework on how play fosters creativity for children with autism whose ages are from 3 to 8 years old. The study posed a research question: “How does play foster creativity for children with autism in early childhood phase of development?”
Methodology. Eight published articles were selected for a meta-ethnography approach to synthesizing contents of play in early year development (Noblit & Hare, 1988). Key concepts and main findings of all articles were identified through deep and repeated reading of the articles. The third level interpretations for each article were generated. Using a constant-comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) the first author compared and contrasted metaphors or key concepts of all the articles. She translated them to generate meanings of play and development of creativity.
Findings. Reciprocal translations of key concepts of play and creativity by Vygotsky and Craft were done with those for children with autism. Three themes were confirmed by the translational analysis. The first theme “before play” included “profiling learner agency”, and “identifying zone of proximal development (ZPD). The second theme “during play” included “use of circumscribed interest (CI) in play”, “modeling and scaffolding”, and ”providing time to respond”. The third theme included “extending and expanding the play, and debriefing and evaluating the play”.
Conclusion. The outcome of the meta-synthesis was a line of argument and a visual representation of creativity development. The study concludes preliminary that children with autism are capable to develop creativity through the experience of play if ample guidance and support are provided to them. Play is important to develop creativity for children during the early childhood.