Abstract:

Scientific inquiry skills and understanding the nature of science are essential components of science education. These areas, however, are often neglected in Singapore science education. This paper is part of an eduLab project initiated by MOE Singapore, to combine the technology and pedagogy to enhance students learning. The project adopted knowledge building (KB) as a pedagogy, with the use of Knowledge Forum (KF) to bring about students’ understanding of the nature of development of scientific knowledge, demonstration of self-directed learning (SDL) and improvement in collaborative learning (CoL) and ability to plan scientific investigation.

Four secondary schools in Singapore are participating in the eduLab project. In each school, two secondary 3 classes (grade 9) – one treatment class and one control class – were selected on the basis of the equivalence in their perception of the nature of scientific knowledge, SDL and CoL competencies. Content analysis of online discussions on KF was performed using students’ postings as the unit of analysis to detect any emerging trend of idea improvement or theory building among them. A post-test were carried out using the same instruments for data collection as in the pre-test. An analysis of the effect size illustrated the magnitude of change of the competencies in planning of scientific investigation of the treatment class as compared to the control class.

Through the above methodology, students from the treatment class were enculturated in a knowledge building setting. The computer-based Knowledge Forum (KF) provided students a collaborative workspace which allowed them to contribute theories, build on new ideas and provide evidence to support their hypothesis. In these ways, their knowledge in science was advanced and the planning of scientific investigation was improved.

In the presentation, we will share the key aspects of the project like teacher development, student learning and research that contributed significantly to fulfillment of the project’s educational objectives.

Keywords:

EduLab, knowledge building, knowledge forum, scientific knowledge development.