Dr. Teo Chew Lee, Senior Research Scientist from the Office of Education Research at National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, was invited by the media to comment on the useful synergies, when combined, can lead students to achieve a more enriching learning experience after Home-Based Learning was conducted during the Circuit Breaker period.
On synergies and lesson crossovers
Dr. Teo mentioned that among the various approaches and strategies that teachers have employed in schools during HBL, many of these innovative approaches can already be translated into use within a classroom.
For years, education researchers have been looking at meaningful learning that happened seamlessly in a formal school setting and in any out-of-school setting. There is also a powerful notion of pervasive knowledge building where empirical evidence have shown that learning is not confined to a particular location, occasions or subjects. Learning pervades in different aspects of our students’ life and in almost everywhere.
Be it HBL or regular schools, what is needed is the need to foster interest and motivation in the students, making learning meaningful, manageable and rewarding to students, by engaging students in content and resources that are relevant to them. The current system has been thoughtfully and systematically brought technology into the classroom to enhance the interaction between teachers and students, but, however, due to the over-reliance on face-to-face time in classes, many teachers and students were unable to fully capitalise on the power of technology in teaching and learning.
HBL has presented new opportunities for teachers to rethink the way they are engaging their students. Dr. Teo mentioned she had heard and read new creative ways of teachers during the circuit breaker period and also saw new convictions among the teachers. They became more more willing to engage their students’ ideas and questions during online discussion in HBL, and wanted to make things more exciting for their students.
The synergy is present as teachers and students think about both online and face-to-face learning as part of a holistic learning environment, that supports students in their learning journey, develop the competencies to collaborate and learn independently, and not just as part of the development of subject mastery.
On main challenges during HBL
Teachers and students were able to adapt to the constraints and opportunities for learning during the circuit breaker period, with many examples of teachers using technology and adapting instructional material and strategies to enable students to learn more independently and to also become interested about content of online discussions.
One of the key challenge is students’ access to online materials and resources when the students are learning from home, especially for younger students and those from less privileged backgrounds. Some students also do not have the luxury to remain seated and engage in a Zoom lesson without being disturbed. For example, there were children who need to take care of their siblings while attending online lessons and these are authentic issues that schools have considered and reached out to ensure these students were taken care of during HBL.
Another challenge is the common view of HBL as a supplementary component of school life. Schools may have implemented e-learning weeks but the extended HBL was a wholly different scenario from traditional e-learning and classroom learning. Teachers can no longer rely on getting back to schools to continue discussions, while they also need to also continuously think creatively about the engagement with students.
With regards to these two challenges, teachers should not imagine the exact transfer of what they conduct in classes onto the online environment. Rather, they should explore asynchronous environments or set up simplified activities that students can engage while at home. The principle of active teaching and learning does not changed just because of HBL.
On useful practices that mainstream schools can take away from HBL
Dr. Teo has been working on a mode of teaching known as the Knowledge Building pedagogy and using related technology, such as the Knowledge Forum. There are 12 Knowledge Building principles (e.g. real ideas and authentic problems, ideas that are improvable, pervasive knowledge building) that help teachers to rationalise their teaching moves and decisions. Knowledge building differs from traditional learning as this approach is positioned as an overt activity that produces knowledge and ideas that have a “public” front, and requires collective effort to learn. Students’ ideas are thus often made known to the class and everyone has a shared responsibility to improve these ideas. This is unlike traditional learning, which refers to an internal and invisible process within an individual and is usually geared towards producing change in individual beliefs or attitudes.
During HBL, teachers were able to continue using the knowledge building principles to rationalise their lesson and interactions with students. It enabled teachers to focus on student’s thinking, ideas, and inquiries, despite the challenges imposed by social distancing and HBL.
For example, Dr. Teo recalled that a Physics teacher requested Secondary 1 students to conduct an experiment and build a catapult using ice-cream sticks, bottle caps and rubber bands during the HBL period. The photos and videos taken from the experiment were subsequently uploaded onto Knowledge Forum for discussions.
This activity led to wide-ranging discussions on the topics of energy conversion, renewable energy and other authentic global problems, such as power shortages that were faced in less-developed countries and schools.
For other lessons that could be drawn from the HBL, please refer to the reproduced article on the following NIE website.
