My art pupils were having difficulties in getting ideas to jump start their art work. They faced difficulties in using the sources of ideas gathered to create a “composition”. Therefore I tried an experiment using the principles of “SuHaRe” from SHORINJI KEMPO. In Japanese, it means “to copy”, “to modify” and “to innovate”. These have helped many new practitioners to learn the sophisticated arts. So I tried the principles in teaching art at the lower secondary level.

This session will bring teachers through the same learning process via discussion on the principles, and further explore the possibilities in teaching art.

The presenter will share on the development of “Southmoor Learning Principles” which is based around pupil voice and involvement. Every aspect of the School is influenced by these mutually agreed principles; from lesson development and planning to lesson observation and staff coaching. The belief is everyone in the school is a life-long learner, pupils and staff alike. Practical examples will also be shared on how learning objectives are shared with pupils at the start of a project and how both pupils and staff assess work as it progresses and at the end.

Endeavour Primary is one of five MOE Prototype Schools, where a Whole School Approach is taken to leverage on ICT to help pupils develop 21st Century skills (3Cs).

Pupils can use phonics to help them in their pronunciation of English words, but not Chinese characters. Pupils can understand the meaning of the words being pronounced, but fail to recognise the words. Voice Recording can help in word recognition, and the transfer from short-term to long-term memory.

This project received a National Innovations & Quality Circles (NIQC) Gold Award in 2009.

Teachers will learn about the success factors and challenges of using Voice Recording for Primary 1 pupils.

The aim of SEL Teaching is to instill in students the right values, and enable them to manage their own emotions and acquire social communication skills, while developing a strong character and becoming an independent person. At the same time, they would be able to transform the learning so as to apply it in a new situation. The presenters have designed the teaching approach based on the “Constructivist Learning Design” model, including the selection of teaching themes, the provision of authentic situations, and classroom activities.

The presenters will share the process, the lesson plans and the teaching materials with the teachers.

Drama is able to help low ability pupils to bridge their learning gaps in particular, language learning. Pupils are empowered with the drama experience to create their own cognitive structures and it allows them to be actively involved in their own learning. Through the 3 main Drama strategies, pupils role-play as different characters in the story, and the learning focuses on pupils’ use of appropriate action words to describe surroundings, feelings and responses.

Teachers will be taken through the learning process via the discussion on the lesson study. Possibilities on how to extend this approach will also be shared.

Children enter school with intuitive knowledge of problem solving strategies that can serve as a basis for developing basic mathematical understanding at the elementary stages. Thus, without direct instruction, children can construct viable solutions to a variety of arithmetic problems.

Cognitive Guided Instruction (CGI) advocates using children's mathematical thinking as the foundation for classroom instruction. Teachers can plan their instruction to steer students towards learning important mathematical skills with understanding. In a CGI classroom, children spend most of their time solving word problems and communicating their solution using a variety of ‘self-developed’ strategies.

Teachers will be introduced to the fundamentals of CGI.

Recognising students’ varying learning styles and readiness, Differentiated Instruction was chosen as a mean to meet their different learning needs. Manipulatives were deployed to help students better visualise the angle concepts, which enhanced their understanding of the concepts. Students’ interest in learning was heightened and they were better able to verbalise their mathematical thinking. The challenge of designing and implementing such lessons effectively led to the use of Lesson Study as a platform for collaborative lesson planning and improvement.

Participants will be taken through our learning process of using differentiated instruction and manipulatives to teach Solving of Simple Three-Dimensional Problems.

A video paper combines text, videos and diagrams to provide a multi-sensory learning experience for students and teachers alike. Through the use of technology, we hope to address various issues faced by students (e.g. lack of analytical skills and how to approach to the question) and teachers (e.g. insufficient tutorial time and repetition) in today’s education culture.

Teachers will be taken through the process on how they can create their own video paper using the software Video Paper Builder. Further possible enhancements will also be shared in the session.

The purpose of this project is to explore how Civilization IV, a history simulation game may be taken up in secondary schools to support humanities learning among students. In Civilization IV, history and geography become tools for game play and understanding of concepts across world history and geo-politics. The results of the project suggest potential for using simulation games in understanding the interplays of geography and politics in the shaping of world history. The gaming experience also provides opportunities for multi-intelligences and cooperative-learning lesson design.

Teachers will be taken through the learning process via a hands-on approach.

Assessment of learning, for learning, or as learning? Ever wondered how best to marry what you feel needs to be taught with what is tested in examinations? How do we make sense of all these assessment ideas and use them so that they add value to our students’ learning without overwhelming ourselves?

We will discuss these issues as we share why and how we re-designed our EL Department’s Assessment Framework. We will also share our Framework, tools and rubrics with all participants. Included will also be a set of guiding questions for schools/departments looking at re-designing its own Assessment Framework.

The workshop will focus on the use of Socratic Questioning techniques for facilitating the learning of critical thinking skills and for checking understanding. This questioning technique could be used in the EL classroom for encouraging discussion and verbal inquiry, probing beneath the surface, and challenging assumptions.

While it is difficult to establish a concrete format for questioning within a variety of circumstances, Socratic questions may be utilized diagnostically as the teacher/facilitator moderates discussion and verbal inquiry. The role of the skilled teacher/facilitator is to keep the inquiry train on track, and to allow the students to travel to a viable destination of their own design.

Ya Kun. The Youth Olympic Games. Stalin’s Great Purge. What do all these things have in common? At NJC, we weave in authentic learning experiences in the teaching of literary and language skills to achieve communicative competence. Where appropriate, our Upper Secondary students collaborate with external organisations, like Ya Kun, and analyse real-life case studies, like Stalin’s Great Purge, to help them become effective, confident communicators.

In this session, we will share strategies used to assess students’ understanding of visual-verbal texts and to explore how themes reflected in The Crucible and the novel Flowers for Algernon play out in reality.

To prepare students to meet the challenges of a rapidly globalised society, today’s learners need to be technologically competent, and able to collaborate with peers from different cultures and countries. E-learning is a dynamic approach that teachers can apply in their teaching practices to enhance the quality of the students’ learning outcomes.

The E-learning collaborative programme developed for Home Economics will be shared. This includes the “International Collaborative Programme in Home Economics”, a collaborative initiative between Japan and Singapore. It incorporated the ICT resources of wiki and moodle to enable students from the 2 countries to work on projects together.

It is necessary to evaluate a talent development programme to ensure it is relevant, and guarantees its services are sufficient and efficient (Callahan, 2009).

This presentation shares a proposal of an evaluation plan for such a talent development programme, using the NAGC gifted standards as a guideline. Teachers will be taken through the proposal, which would enumerate the evaluation procedures, the evaluation criteria, the evaluation and monitoring tools, and the communication plans of the evaluation process and outcomes; and then how the evaluation findings would be used to validate the existence and influence decision-making on the progress of the programme.

With the call to “Teach Less Learn More”, it is clear that alternative assessments, far from being just a luxury for select students, should be an important part of classroom assessment in all schools. This paper will present Nanyang Girls’ High School’s adoption of alternative assessments school-wide: the rationale for a more balanced combination of conventional and alternative assessments, the processes in place, the challenges, the successes and the findings of a two-year study of its effects on students.

This presentation has relevance for all who believe in developing self-regulated learners with the capacities needed for the 21st century.

PDS@Temasek is an on-going in-house professional development series which expands the staff’s professional knowledge base, encourages collaboration, promotes sharing of instructional methodologies, and fosters a culture of reflective inquiry. The series is predicated on a system of integrative principles and driven by the ‘Pedagogical Growth Spiral Model’ in its implementation. Participants will be shown how the different phases of the PGS Model interact to engage the staff in a continuous spiral of learning progression which sees them constantly morphing from the teacher as a leader to the teacher as a learner and vice versa.

Participants will see how the teaching of reading and writing skills can be infused into Primary 3 Science to enhance learning by pupils, especially weak readers. The project uses the lesson study approach and is a collaborative effort among P3 Science teachers from Bukit View Primary and Reading Specialists from EPD.

The lesson study process had positively impacted teachers’ perceptions and teaching practices. Teachers learnt how to teach reading and writing skills and became convinced that literacy teaching has an important and rightful place in Science lessons. Their perceptions changed due to the beneficial impact of literacy instruction on their pupils’ level of engagement and learning in class.

Have you ever wished that laboratory closure was not so early and your students could continue to carry out practicals to review their QA skills? In Woodlands Ring Secondary, we have overcome this problem through the use of interactive-video practical via the Learning Management System. This provides opportunities for independent and self-directed learning to the students from their homes.

Results of a pre- and post-test conducted on a class of academically weak students have shown significant impact on the students’ confidence and competence in understanding QA, in preparation for their Practical Examination.

Teachers will learn about the effectiveness, success factors and challenges of the implementation.

To develop students holistically as student leaders with passion and integrity, the Yishun Junior College Science Department embarked on a Science Inquiry Curriculum in 2009. Teachers make use of the 7’E’ inquiry model to facilitate in-depth student learning about the nature of science, its relevance and applications. In this curriculum, every science student is given the opportunity to work on a science research project, and pick up science process skills such as planning, manipulation, measurement, observation, analysis, conclusion and evaluation.

Teachers will be introduced to the ‘7E’ inquiry model and how they can incorporate it into their lessons.

Digital Story provides the opportunity for students to experience lessons which integrate Art and English Language through a collaborative-process-driven integrated learning approach. Through Digital Stories, students experience electronic/lens-based Art cum English lessons using software such as Windows Movie Maker, Photoshop and Audacity to produce an original 3-minute video clip. In the process, students hone their writing, speaking and listening skills through scriptwriting and voice-over. Students are empowered to make decisions in choosing their own themes and visuals.

Teachers will be taken through a presentation which will show the implementation of the Digital Story in Hai Sing Catholic School.

As educators, we are educating the whole child, not just teaching a subject. While the curriculum remains central, the presenter will share methods that equip students, particularly ‘At Risk’, with 21st century life skills, developing them to become resilient, independent and confident in their work. The presenter will also share how rapid changes in communication technology will affect education in the future and how educators can harness them to teach holistically. The aim of the approach is to develop students as a whole by allowing them to practise a variety of transferrable skills and develop themselves as persons who are ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

This presentation will enable participants to reflect on why it is important that we give students opportunities to engage in global issues and that it is not just something that should be part of the Geography curriculum. The presenter will share an effective approach of engaging students and staff on global issues, where students learn in a cross-curricular way about a global theme. This approach not only helps develop students’ knowledge and understanding but also provides an opportunity to explore their attitudes towards different issues and also to develop life skills as a global citizen.

In the session, participants will explore the definition and rationale for service learning as well as practical ways to incorporate it into classrooms across levels and disciplines. The presenter will facilitate brainstorming and sharing of ways teachers can integrate it into their own instruction effectively and turnkey the information to colleagues. Multiple forms of service learning will be reviewed to best meet the needs of any school situation. In addition, ways that service learning can standardise test scores and engagement of diverse students will be discussed. Resources to assist teachers and educational leaders in the process of bringing service learning to their schools and districts will be shared.

This presentation will address the holistic development of students through innovative programs in a primary school and a secondary school. The project at the primary school aims to expose our pupils at a young age to ‘give back’ to the community that goes beyond our shores. The program at the secondary school includes the Sec 1 Interest Electives and the Sec 2 Service Learning Project, which is a year-long research project that marries problem-based learning, service learning and research skills – in an attempt to tackle a real-world problem.

The presentation will show how the programs discussed bring about greater engagement and a focus on the development of the whole child.

Before being “bytten” (bitten) by “reality” (the use of real/authentic materials), Factual Recounts were taught in an un-engaging ‘chalk-and-talk’ manner where the text-type’s structure and language features are first explained, and model essays then used to reinforce teaching.

Through our project, we incorporated the use of IT in our teaching to make learning as relevant and as close to reality as possible. “Reality Bytes”! IT is used to complement our teaching of Newspaper Reports; and to support an authentic scenario to make Situational Writing ‘real’ and relevant.

Teachers will be shown how this engages the students and affect their learning outcomes.

This session will guide teachers through the use of Film as a means to engage even the most reluctant readers in their classes. The workshop will be filled with proven and practical ideas that can be used with Lower Secondary classes of all ability levels as the schemes of work cover texts with a range of genre and difficulty levels. Teachers will be able to choose the film / book that best suits the learning needs and capabilities of their students.

Detailed schemes of work, including lesson plans and worksheets, will be provided for each school in attendance.

An innovative procedure for accelerating learning in student assignments through reverse metacognition was tested and successfully implemented. Teachers’ marking time was reduced whilst marking effectiveness was increased. Student cognition also improved. Modes of assessment include the additional element of students consciously justifying in detailed writing how they feel their assignments meet teacher’s pre-determined requirements. Teachers additionally assess the justified student thought processes. Reverse student metacognition facilitates teacher marking whilst concurrently accelerating learning and increasing retention, and improves the quality of student assignment feedback. This award-winning methodology was part of the presenter’s “Most Inspiring English Teacher Award” in 2009.

Literacy is a tool that can help to unlock learning in all subjects. It should be a set of skills that all learners have at their disposal in order to function adequately in society. These skills should be owned by the learner so that they can apply them in everyday settings. In order to do this, assessment for learning techniques are an essential part of learning. This presentation will provide a framework for enhancing literacy skills as a learning community and also outline techniques used to help secondary students to develop writing skills in all areas of the curriculum.

In a Mathematics lesson, once the essential concepts and skills have been taught, time should be set aside to play! By means of carefully prepared ‘what if’ questions, the stage is set. The classroom suddenly becomes charged with anticipation and excitement. I will demonstrate some examples on how I used ‘what if’ questions with my pupils and the unexpected results generated. Everybody discovers something new, including the teacher. The challenge is that the teacher will have a hard time stopping this runaway train at the end of the lesson. When it’s fun, who wants to stop?

In collaboration with Assistant Professor Leong YH, AP Yap SF and AP Tay EG from NIE, the 2-cycle LS project (incorporated with an AR) explores different strategies of teaching Geometrical Proofs to address the challenges faced by teachers and students.
Teachers’ Challenges:
Found it difficult to deliver a good lesson.
Lack confidence in teaching.
Students’ Challenges:
Do not like the topic.
Lack the skills in solving a 'proving' question.
Benefits:
Students are more positive towards the learning of this topic, and have gained greater retention and deeper understanding.

Teachers will learn how this approach helped to develop both the students and the teachers involved.

This project uses the Lesson Study approach to examine the effectiveness of an ICT application (GeoGebra) in the teaching of Functions and Graphs (Upper Secondary Elementary Mathematics). This study, which took place over 6 months, aims to create a self-exploratory learning opportunity for students to generalize and sketch quadratic graphs based on equations of different forms. The desired outcome is to enhance students’ ability in making connection between various forms of quadratic equations and the information that these equations provide. Teachers will be taken through the Lesson Study processes, and observe how the classroom lessons are refined through students/teachers’ feedback.

Students who convert all mathematical problems to rote memorisation or formulaic procedures miss out on the deeper understanding and appreciation for mathematical concepts and the ability to apply their mathematical knowledge to new problem-solving situations. Technology is a tool that can assist in making connections between the symbolic, numerical, and graphical representations of mathematical situations. The presenter will share how to maximise available technology to bring clarity to concepts which challenge many students. While technology is not a panacea, it is a valuable tool which enables teachers to increase student comprehension. Examples using dynamic geometry software are used to model problem-solving situations from geometry through differential calculus.

“Three-in-One” approach to teaching Chinese Language allows pupils (lacking in exposure to Chinese) to learn picture story telling, picture composition and understand the text all at one go. The following will be carried out:

• - Teachers engage pupils in discussing the picture, allowing them to grasp the meaning of vocabulary from a chosen
• - Formal teaching of the text
• - Pupils to write a picture composition using newly gained vocabulary.

This study demonstrates teachers’ team efforts to develop metacognitive thinking relevant to the 21st century. As a Lesson Study collaboration, the Chinese Language teachers approached the problem of students’ inadequacy in logical thinking. Students were engaged in discussions through teacher facilitation of Socratic Questioning. Lessons were designed using the Understanding by Design approach. Three classes of Secondary Three Higher Chinese medium ability students were involved. The study showed an improvement in students’ ability to think critically. There was an improvement ranging from 1.54 to 2.61 based on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test.

Teachers will learn about the benefits and limitations of this teaching method.

Using the seven kinds of multiple intelligences would allow us several ways to teach. By using the MI theories, no pupil, regardless of his ability or background will be left out in the teaching and learning of the Malay proverbs. The learning of Malay proverbs is not just focused on memorizing the list of proverbs but the students have to understand the meaning behind each proverb so as to be able to apply the proverbs in different context.

Teachers will also be taken through the lesson plans as well as various games and teaching strategies employed in this teaching package.

With the shift in focus to developing oral skills in Tamil Language, a group of Tamil teachers worked together to come up with various activities that could be conducted in their own classrooms. These activities were designed to not only equip pupils with oral skills to ensure that the students speak the language well but also to promote joy in learning the language. Thus, “Nurturing Orally Competent TL Learners - With a Creative Difference…” is a course definitely not to be missed by all teachers who would like to keep their classes alive and nurture competent Tamil Language speakers.

A stimulated archaeological dig is a hands-on, interactive approach to the study of history. It caters to students’ diverse learning styles, and offers them a glimpse into the work of an archaeologist-cum-historian. Students’ critical thinking skills are honed as they examine and analyse the unearthed artefacts. Follow-up activities, such as newspaper projects, further consolidate students’ learning by developing their sense of how history is used. The entire process ignites students’ interest in the subject.

Teachers will be taken through the learning process via a discussion of the methodology. Possibilities on how to extend this approach will also be shared.

The main objectives of IH are to bridge the two disciplines of History and Geography together and to make the learning of Humanities fun and engaging. In this session, the team will guide the participants to our journey towards developing a school-based curriculum design, the various pedagogical approaches that became our main driving force in shaping of IH lessons and also the problems and challenges faced by the team in the reshaping of curriculum and syllabus. Finally, we will also share with the participants our efforts in improving our IH curriculum through the use of Lesson Study.

Scientists@Work! is an innovative Science Programme designed by teachers in Lianhua Primary School. It involves the explicit teaching of Science investigative skills through the provision of authentic learning experiences that simulate the work experiences of scientists at work. The study examines the impact of the innovative approach used in the programme to engage pupils and to enhance their ability to plan fair-testing type of investigation. The learning activities in the Scientists@Work! lesson package have been designed according to the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) 5E instructional model. Participants will experience for themselves the work of a scientist.

This presentation describes how Lesson Study can help in the design of an inquiry-based Chemistry Lesson. We believe in the potential of this tool as a means to understand students’ thought processes and enable us to innovate in the teaching and learning of an inquiry-based lesson.

We will share our experiences at each stage of our study and role play to give a better idea of how this tool can be used to analyse what takes place in a research lesson. We will also discuss how the data collected from the research lesson enabled us to eventually achieve our outcomes.

Students must learn how to learn. Through the approach of "learning by doing and learning by interacting" in Physics, students are taught the attitudes, skills, knowledge, and values for self-directed learning, problem-solving and communication. With this approach, they arranged their lesson time; perform a series of experiments to learn the attitudes, skills, knowledge, and values on a specific topic; and oral presentations to explain their findings and understanding. Learning to learn is very important for students in order to possess the necessary skills for life-long learning. This pedagogy was designed to foster students with necessary self-directed learning skills.

Curriculum mapping is a school-wide approach in which we aim to address some questions: Who is doing what?  Are the curriculum, instruction and assessment aligned to the goals?  How are we able to work effectively and efficiently to enhance the pupils’ learning? It seeks to provide an opportunity for a common understanding and language to be established amongst the staff.

The session intends to share how CM attends to various aspects of Physics teaching and learning:

• - issues of skills spiralling and conceptual understanding,
• - challenges encountered in the process
• - benefits to teaching and learning
• - areas for improvement

The internalization of the school’s core values is able to develop key Social Emotional Learning competencies in pupils. However, the school’s core values present an abstract concept for pupils to understand. In conceptualizing the values in the form of games, the school hopes to allow pupils to exercise discern and to make informed decisions as they answer scenario-based questions. In collaboration with Singapore Polytechnic, School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology, the school developed Starmax, a game portal. Teachers will be led through the collaborative process as well as the implementation phase of the portal for teaching and learning.

TW2 SAW Model showcases the unique Singapore Education System: The Fission and Fusion of the Best Learning Technologies of the East and West. This model uses effective learning technologies to motivate students to enhance their learning experience and academic performance. It comprises initiatives to cultivate strong mindsets and other strategies which have been adopted and modified from "Sun-Zi-Art-of-War", DISC, HEY, The Secrets of the Effective Leadership Qualities and the Millionaire’s Mind. Teachers will be shown how the model teaches one to be a good strategist and trains one to be both “book-smart” & “street-smart”, thus gaining an advantage over others.

Learning through interaction is a move away from the traditional mode where loads of information is transmitted to students who reproduce them when needed. The asynchronous nature of interaction, supported by technology, enables participation to take place at any time, thus giving students sufficient time to reflect before contributing their ideas.

This instructional strategy which is based on the social perspective of learning is implemented in the C&T department of Marsiling Secondary School. How teachers in D&T, F&N and Art play the key role of coaches/guides to facilitate student learning will be shared in this conference.

This paper describes how the Outdoor Education programme in NorthLight School has contributed to the Character Education of the students. Evidences from students’ journals as well as teachers’ assessment based on SEL Competencies rubrics and HOM (Habits of Mind) shows how the programme has helped students develop character attributes by providing a desirable character education environment. Using the (LEQ-H) Life Effectiveness Questionnaires (Neill et al 2003) as a tool to measure the effectiveness of the Outdoor programme, this paper examines the effect of the Outdoor Education module in contributing to the positive growth of the students in Northlight School.

Chestnut Drive Secondary has adopted a practical approach to structured mentoring to induct Beginning Teachers. SMP, Checklist for Teacher Mentors, SOP, and school wide support such as coaching skills, reflective teaching practice, and individual career plans were developed and implemented.

Feedback from BTs has been very positive since its implementation. SOP (Structured Mentoring) and Checklist for Teacher Mentors won MOE Cluster West 6 Best Staff Suggestion for July 2008. Part of it was shared with MOE East /West Clusters (July 2008) and The Third Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference (June 2009). Commendable feedback was received.

Participants will be taken through the learning process.

In line with the Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) initiative, Ang Mo Kio Secondary School embarked on Alternative Modes of Assessment (AMA) to promote self-directed and independent learning. Here, adopted by various academic departments as part of formal assessment, AMA tasks are aligned to the school’s curriculum content and initiatives. Assessment involves teacher and peer evaluation, guided by comprehensive and learner-friendly rubrics, thereby facilitating Assessment for Learning and Assessment as Learning. Whole-school approach to AMA incorporation calls for great school support in terms of structured curriculum timelines and staff development. This session covers useful strategies in adopting whole-school AMA incorporation.

Do you have difficulties promoting communications in your Mathematics class? Do your students lack confidence in expressing mathematical ideas?

In Gan Eng Seng Primary, teachers use ‘Show and Tell’ as an instructional approach. Through this approach, we allow students to talk and write about their thinking process when solving mathematical problems. We expose pupils to higher-level thinking skills and sequential logical reasoning through the Explore-Action-Reflect (E-A-R) model. We will also be sharing how we develop and use our in-house manipulatives in engaging pupils in Mathematics lessons.

Through Experiential Learning Cycle (ELC), which incorporates four stages of the structured learning process, namely: Concrete Experience; Reflective Observation; Abstract Conceptualisation and Active Experimentation, students learn to appreciate the use of Mathematics in everyday life and how they can apply the learning to new contexts.

In the session, teachers will be taken through the ELC process via the discussion on the research data and lesson plans on how ELC is carried out in the teaching of Mathematics topics which makes the learning of Mathematics interesting and at the same time, bringing out the relevance of Mathematical concepts in everyday life.

Participants will be taken through a sharing on how technology and picture cards were used in a JC lesson as innovative pedagogical tools to enhance students’ visualisation skills and understanding of volumes of solids of revolution. Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) approach was adopted in the implementation and design of these tools. A lesson study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of this teaching approach. Students’ misconceptions were also unravelled using the picture cards during a research lesson.

Participants will discover the thought processes that students go through as they learn this topic. Implications on teaching will also be shared.

This sharing explores the value of implementing authentic performance assessment to improve inquiry-based and cooperative learning to heighten the level of engagement in science education.

Using the topic Enzymes, students experience real-life scenario problem solving, where they are required to apply accurate and relevant concepts to synthesise a logical solution. In addition, they also undergo cooperative learning in a separate laboratory practical where they act as investigators of ideas rather than passive receivers of knowledge. As the students, each with specific roles, work in their groups, they are encouraged to develop 21st century skills such as self-directed learning and active contribution.

In recent years, cognitive apprenticeship has become increasingly prominent as a model of instruction. It is a collaborative approach to instruction in which tutor and pupil interact to facilitate knowledge construction.

The presenter will highlight the initial problems faced when teaching the topic (diffusion and osmosis). To address these problems, I will discuss how I designed a lesson using technology as a cognitive apprenticeship model and the impact of this lesson on the students’ learning. Lastly, I would look at some of the constraints posed by the cognitive apprenticeship model.

Based on the constructivist theory, students do not come as blank slates. Therefore, when the prior knowledge is flawed, future learning is affected.

Concept teaching is not new. This study is unique in that concept change is proposed at three different levels as opposed to one. The use of the different levels allow for the handling of the different extent to which the knowledge is incorporated into the learners’ pool of knowledge.

This method can be applied to any subject. Teachers will be taught how to use the technique to find areas where they can conduct further research.

The use of assessment for learning in the teaching of composition aims to engage students to assess their own work, thereby encouraging them to transform from passive learners to independent and self-directed learners. With the use of assessment rubrics, students understand the assessment requirements and are able to track their own learning progress. The use of self-check lists helps cultivate the awareness of self-monitoring and positive learning attitude amongst students.

Teachers will be taken through the approach via the sharing of the school-based research on P4 students in the area of writing picture composition.

St Hilda’s Primary School Tamil Language (TL) teachers championed an Action Research (AR) Project together with three schools in the E6 Cluster. The project aimed to provide scaffolding support for P5 pupils in Picture Composition writing. An intervention programme was designed to stretch students’ creative thinking. The package integrated formative assessment strategies to enhance pupils' learning.

The key findings and learning experiences acquired through this project will provide new and fresh insights for our fellow TL teachers in teaching of Picture Composition. The study design used in this project will help to broaden and deepen our teachers’ understanding of AR.

Media Literacy today has expanded beyond the traditional boundaries of the ability to read, write and comprehend. Through Media Literacy, pupils are exposed to various media, both print and non-print. Pupils are able to build their competencies in the Malay Language and enrich their vocabulary and hence enhance their language use. In addition, values are also being taught.

In this session, participants will be able to see the infusion of media literacy in the Malay Language curriculum instruction. Teachers will also be taken through the learning process and the appropriate use of media at various levels in the primary school.

The Oral component has been given more weighting in the national examinations. Malay Language students can improve their oral communication skills through practice of oratorical speeches using “Audacity”, a recording software. By using Audacity, they are able to rehearse their delivery and standard pronunciation. In line with the Assessment for Learning framework, they also practise self and peer assessment through the use of rubrics in which they are made aware of the assessment criteria of a good speech. Teachers will be taken through the procedures in conducting lessons using Audacity and rubrics.

Making “Literature Circles Meetings Alive” is for teachers to deepen their students’ literary works through small group discussions of literature texts.

The focus will be on the benefits, strategy lessons, books selection, discussions and response journals. Teachers will gain from the experiences of Holy Innocents’ Primary with numerous examples from students, and strategies for assessment and student self-reflection.  Teachers learn "What is worth worrying about and what is worth letting go?" and receive answers to some common questions about literature circles. Teachers keen to introduce this approach will receive handouts to start L.C.M. immediately.

The presenters will demonstrate strategies for developing thinking and reading skills for English or General Paper students. These strategies are based on research into how learning is enhanced by activating students’ metacognitive awareness i.e. enabling them to reflect on their own learning processes and thus refine them.

The presenters will model the strategies so participants can experience for themselves the increasing awareness of their own thinking and reading processes and also feel the sense of satisfaction derived from creating new understandings or solving a problem. This should enable participants to empathise more fully with the classroom experience of their students.

This session explores the various ways in which ICT can be incorporated in the teaching of English Literature. Popular ICT platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Wikispaces and Blogs are very useful in encouraging independent and collaborative learning in the English classroom. These ICT platforms can be used in a variety of ways to supplement and complement more traditional methods of teaching.

Strategies on the various ways in which English teachers can use the aforementioned ICT platforms to teach and/or assess comprehension of plot and characterization, quoting and critical analysis skills will be shared in this session.

The presentation will focus on the use of experiential classroom teaching to impact students’ character development and building. 10 different documentary videos were compiled into a series of teaching materials. Documentary videos include different topics and contents such as family care, education, love, history, and animals, etc.

The presenter proposes to cultivate and educate students’ sense of appreciation, sense of motivation, sense of discipline, and sense of responsibility toward the loyalty of our country through these videos learning.

Teachers will learn how this helps to inspire the students, and the success and challenges of this implementation.

Macro-concepts such as ‘Systems’ and ‘Change’ are overarching concepts in curriculum design and should be assessed in both formative and summative assessments (Van-Tassel Baska, 1986). In doing so, pupils will have the essential knowledge of the discipline which increases their discipline’s disposition to interpret the world (Mansilla & Gardner, 2008).

Through this presentation, teachers will be taken through the scaffolding and the crafting of the assessment of macro-concepts through formative and summative assessments which reveal pupils’ understanding and appreciation of the complex world, their metacognition ability and their ability to think as a Geographer.

The introduction of the “Elective Modules Programme” (EMP) in West View Primary School in 2008 was in line with MOE’s paradigm shift to equip our pupils with 21st century skills. EMP’s uniqueness lies in its skills-based approach to developing high ability learners that transcends subjects (Science, English, Social Studies), and in its ability to develop soft skills and values-attributes vital in a new economy.

Assessment rubrics have confirmed the success and effectiveness of the EMP in providing pupils with the necessary skills.

Teachers will be shown how this gives better pupil outcomes and enhanced teacher-pupil relationships.

Imagine using music videos to enhance students’ understanding of movement and balance in Art and creative writing in EL. Students interpret, conceptualise, draw, and craft out their concept through language. Hence, Art becomes a language to teach the skills in writing.

In this workshop you will see students’ well-written concepts, art works, creative writing and presentations of visual and written art forms to their peers, teachers, parents and professionals. As participants, you will create work, and experience what our students went through, to be in a better position to critique and apply this process of learning, using Art as a Language of Learning.

To prepare for successful 21st century careers, students must develop skills as team members who can work together and solve real-world problems. They must be challenged to think critically, make cross-curricular connections, conduct research, strategise, be creative, and produce tangible products. To this end, they must communicate effectively in groups and use their time/resources wisely. As educators with many responsibilities, planning project-based learning and teaching group communication skills can be overwhelming. This session, participants will be introduced to Cognitive Coaching as an engaging way to teach collaborative skills and The Big6™ to plan & evaluate project-based learning for any content area.

We must change the manner in which we teach our students and educate them to become independent learners. Students need to translate their education into careers. Through the creation of Technical Academies, students focus on an area of interest where they show aptitude. In these Academies, students take courses in their field, enroll in advanced and regular academic courses, and involve themselves in projects and programmes that show them how these courses can lead to a career. Participants will be shown how to implement these strategies, how to work with these students and how this process creates a new generation of independent learners.

Theories taught in classrooms become meaningless unless students apply them in real-life situation and reflect on the outcomes of such application. The presenter will share how the Galaxy Bazaar, a successful Experiential learning approach with multi-fold objectives, successfully transform usually bored and disinterested students into active and engrossed learners during this process.
Participants will also learn how Electronic Portfolio is not only an effective formative assessment tool for students that provides teachers with a richer picture of students’ strengths but also gives them a foundation for personalisation of learning and understanding their students better. Building E-Portfolios for teachers is tremendously helpful in keeping track of ones professional growth.

Economics is a challenging subject to many students. Although they generally understand the economic concepts taught, they find it difficult to relate theory to issues in the real world.

The presenters have used a combination of Paul’s Reasoning Model (PRM) and economic games to help students critically understand economic concepts, and the implications and consequences in the real world.

This workshop explains how we teach the elements of thought using PRM and the rationale in the use of economic games. Participants will also have a hands-on opportunity to experience this strategy for themselves in an economics mock-up lesson.

RGSPeRL aims to foster a culture of informed practice, asking fundamental questions about what works in the classroom and why. In a culture that prizes academic achievement, such evidence is critical to its stakeholders. It provides a platform for the publication and presentation of teachers’ research-related work. RGSPeRL aims to provide a localized context to educational research which may reveal different findings from that conducted in other countries but are yet, applied widely in our schools. It actively seeks collaborative research opportunities with other educational institutions.

This presentation will expound on the objectives and challenges of setting up a school-based educational research lab.

The presenters will share about the implementation of the Stamford Primary School’s Professional Development Model. The acronym we have given the programme is TEAM@sps. TEAM is the acronym for Together Each Achieves More. This Professional Development Model is based on experiential learning. If experiential learning works for students, it works for teachers too! This model should be applicable for participants looking out for whole-school or departmental approach to professional development.

Participants will be taken through the Professional Development Model, and get to know the strength and synergy that such a model provides.

Yu Neng makes use of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) to enhance student learning. Pupils are tasked to develop individual animated clips. This process allows pupils the space to document their thinking process and later to reflect by playing back their clips to assess their own metacognitive processes. Pupils will then view and critique their peers’ clips. The commenting in class blog creates collaborative learning opportunities. This online mode improves pupils’ communication skills.

The presenters will share how CSCL benefits the pupils’ metacognitive and collaborative skills, and how they deepen their professional practice in this project. They will also share challenges in the implementation process.