19th Century Singapore

A teacher Ellie broached the topic of migration in 19th century Singapore to her students by utilising their inquiries about the syllabus content.

She initially got each student to list 5 questions they had regarding chapters 3 and 4 of the history textbook. From the list of questions that resulted, she selected the question "Was Singapore an attractive option for the poorer immigrants to come during the 19th century? Why?" to be the overarching inquiry question for the topic, and posted it on a KF view '1D class question' (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. KF view '1D class question'.

Students were then split into groups of 5 and tasked with generating sub-questions that could help them better understand this broad inquiry question. Following this, Ellie instructed students to read and comment on other groups' work, and to refine their own work based on their classmates' comments.

In this manner, Ellie used students' own questions and ideas to prompt their curiosity in the topic and sustain their engagement in learning.

Colonial Singapore

The teacher, Melvin, started off by utilising the syllabus content; he instructed students to post on KF any questions they had regarding chapters 3 (Why did people come to colonial Singapore before WWII?) and 4 (How was life different for the various people in colonial Singapore before WWII?) of the history textbook (Fig. 1). 

Fig. 1. Students' questions regarding the syllabus posted on KF.

From the resulting list of questions that arose, he selected one student's question 'Why weren’t the people in Singapore being caught when they smoke opium in the 19th to early 20th century?' to be the overarching inquiry question of discussion in consequent lessons (Fig. 2). This was because he felt that the question relates to relevant content covered in the syllabus, such as crime, British administration, culture, and more. The question was posted on the same KF view 'Sec 1A History' (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2. The over-arching inquiry question.

Students were first tasked with working in groups to break down this broad inquiry question into sub-questions. Following this, they were instructed to answer the other groups' questions. Subsequently, Melvin split the students into different groups and got them to answer the overarching inquiry question. 

Fig. 3. KF view 'Sec 1A History'.

In this manner, Melvin used students' own questions and ideas to prompt their curiosity in the topic and sustain their engagement in learning.

Causes of WWI

The history topic that a teacher, Melvin, was to cover with his class was the causes of WWI.

His trigger activity was to split students into groups to work on the inquiry question “Was Germany responsible for WWI?”, but each group was assigned different roles of key players in WWI, e.g., Group A represented France, Groups B represented Britain, Group C represented Germany, etc. Students were instructed to answer the question from their assigned perspective. They wrote their individual answers on pieces of paper, which were converted into respective group flowcharts and write-ups in the next lesson.

KB pedagogy consequently came into play when Melvin took each group's flowchart and write-up and passed to different groups for peer review. Students were tasked with writing new things they learnt from reading the other groups' work, and posing questions for the group. In this way, Melvin got students to work on improving and building on to ideas.

In subsequent lessons where students were actively posting their ideas and inquiries on KF, students continually thought about, and questioned, the role of the key players in WWI (i.e., Britain, France, Germany, etc.). For example, in a KF view (Fig. 1) where Melvin questioned his students if the Treaty of Versailles (TOV) was fair to Germany, a student answered that "Germany did not cause the war to happen...", and named Austria, Hungary, France, and Great Britain as countries who should shoulder the blame as well (Fig. 2).

Fig 1. KF view "TOV fair?" of Melvin's class

Fig 2. A student's note in the KF view "TOV fair?"

Singapore History

Both Melvin and Ellie tasked their Secondary 1 History classes with posting questions on Chapter 3 and 4 and then choosing the inquiry question for their classes. These are the inquiry questions the classes worked on.

To view, click on the inquiry question.

• Why weren’t the people in Singapore being caught when they smoked opium in the 19th to early 20th century?
• Was life tougher during the 19th and early 20th century or was life tougher during WWII?
• 1C - Was life tough under British rule?
• Was Singapore an attractive option for the poorer immigrants to come during the 19th century? Why?
• Why did Singapore become a prosperous and busy port in the 1900s?

Natural Resources

Jaslynn kick-started the inquiry with the statement below. Excitedly, students began to throw out examples of resources, some mentioning the idea of deforestation.

“In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history.”

“What’s so wrong about cutting down trees?” Jaslynn asked. Ideas surfaced included having lesser trees to photosynthesize to construction of buildings where trees used to stand.

At this point, Jaslynn introduced a video reflecting Man’s impact on the environment over the lifetime of mankind.