Ess Frances, Mayflower Secondary School

This workshop focuses on the quality of thinking that students can develop in class. Socratic Dialogue is used to develop thinking skills. Students are trained to think clearly by questioning assumptions, asking insightful questions and exploring alternatives.

In the Socratic Dialogue, entire lessons are devoted to fielding questions from the students instead of teaching from the textbook. A safe and inclusive environment is created which encouraged students to query and debate.

The target audience is for any educator who wishes to develop a Community of Inquiry in their classes. This session requires that you bring your own brain (BYOB) -- active participation is essential for the success of this workshop.

van Loo Marc, Loola Adventure Resort

Contrasting the –surprisingly sharp– differences between the local and the international education scene, and drawing on his experience as a teacher and curriculum designer, educational editor, corporate trainer, and founder/owner of a popular experiential learning resort, the speaker will share his views on the unique opportunities and challenges facing Singapore and wider Asia in its drive to produce a thinking curriculum. A number of bold and concrete observations and proposals – both on management and instructor level – will be put forward in the hope of prompting the audience to share their insights, in what is aimed to be a lively and interactive session.

After the discussion on general curriculum and overall school policies, the speaker will put forward his thesis that – amongst all subjects – mathematics is best placed to concretely kick-start the necessary educational change that will turn our students from passive learners into active and innovative thinkers. Again, some bold – but doable – concrete proposals will be offered for critical analysis by the audience.

Lau Wing Chi Margaret, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

We can make a difference to develop social skills in young children with joyful singing and musical games. In this presentation, the presenter will share her experience that many important social skills could be learned through songs if they are musically sound, interesting and fun for children. Sometimes, children may be unhappy or tired in school, but “music can nurture". She will make use of the songs she has written and composed for demonstration during the presentation. The songs are developmentally appropriate to kindergarten children. The presenter demonstrates how the musical games and songs could improve children’s social skills. As all the participants come from different parts of the world, the presenter accentuates that “Music has no barriers”. All participants will be invited to join in the song singing and will find interesting in learning how to incorporate the teaching technique into the curriculum. The participants will find the presentation enjoyable and full of inspiration.

Goh Stanley, Republic Polytechnic

The Socratic elenchus was a pedagogical tool that entailed examining a person’s knowledge or beliefs through questioning in the hope that they would be able to determine the meaning of their initial positions. The examination of such a method in relation to Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is especially apt in the areas of assessment of learning and triggering reflection about learning. In typical PBL environments, problems are used as the starting point for students to acquire knowledge. Students learn through the engagement with problems and the process of problem solving.

The Socratic elenchus involves questioning the bases of a student’s reasons for accepting a particular piece of information or point of view and getting him or her to restate and re-examine their stance to the problem. This often entails a line of questioning that may lead to epistemological instability in the student – causing them to question their prior knowledge about the subject and in turn search for possible ways of bolstering this knowledge with new discoveries. Those being questioned would be led towards

This workshop is aimed at introducing the method of elenchus to the participants through a series of problems commonly used in various courses in Republic Polytechnic. Participants will be questioned and have a chance to question each other using Socrates’ elentic mode of inquiry as a means of furthering their understanding of the learning issues embedded within the problems. Exploring the use of elenchus as a method of assessment and how instructors in a PBL environment can make use of this method of examination through questioning and dialogue would also be included in the workshop.

Lam Eric, Amdon Consulting Group

An inquiry-based curriculum is one that involves the learners and facilitates their understanding of key ideas through the process of discovery and guided questioning. As a champion of inquiry in the classroom, the Modern Educator now needs teaching tools that incorporate the most current concepts in pedagogy to stimulate the thinking process of his learner and to help them develop authentic and enduring understanding of concepts. At the primary level, these teaching tools go beyond merely posing complex problems to students and challenging them to solve them --- content needs delicately scaffolded and framed in a manner that engages the learner and invites him to explore in a non-threatening fashion. In this paper, we present a model of Inquiry-based Teaching that promotes up to level 4 Scientific Inquiry in young learners, as broadly categorized by the National Research Council (NRC, 2000). We will demonstrate, through a lesson walkthrough how the combination of the interactive whiteboard, interactive teaching software and laboratory kits can help the learners develop enduring understanding and scientific reasoning skills.

Lam Eric, Amdon Consulting Group

Christine Lee, Nanyang Girls' High School

Science education has the primary purpose to promote inquiry in learners in this new age. The role of the teacher is thus shifted from that of a presenter of knowledge to one who creates opportunities for students to be engaged in the learning process, invites his students to explore further and facilitates their understanding of key ideas through the process of discovery and guided questioning --- he is the champion of inquiry in the classroom. In this paper, we present a collaboration between Nanyang Girls’ High School’s (Singapore) and the Amdon Group to promote up to level 4 Inquiry (NRC 2000) through a holistic learning experience in the environmental sciences, comprising of:

An annual sabbatical programme that features a co-teaching model in an Inquiry-based pedagogy and integrates private and public collaboration in a project-based manner.

An inaugural bi-annual Regional Environmental Symposium that involves participants and environmental experts from more than 4 regional countries.

Student-initiated research projects with local centers of excellence in Environmental Sciences.

An overseas attachment stint to study elements of Environmental Sciences.

We will also share our experience in various implementation models and present a model that promotes Public-Private-School collaboration in a seamless fashion, promoting Enduring Understanding (Wiggins & Mctighe, 1999).

Mak Sarah, TechnoKids Hong Kong Ltd.

Bearse Shelley, TechnoKids , Japan

Today's children spend up to four hours each day in front of the computer. This means that they are skill-ready to take on computer knowledge. To channel part or all of this time into education requires an innovative approach in the methodology used.

No longer are children today willing to sit through dry, mundane computer lessons. Project Based Learning is a unique approach to teaching technology skills, and is an exciting alternative to traditional learning. Through teacher led theme-based activities, students can complete fun projects that focus around problem solving tasks. They will learn information and communication technology skills as they complete activities such as publishing a magazine, creating a multimedia storyboard, or developing a website.

The TechnoKids Computer Curriculum is a series of theme based open-ended, teacher-directed projects and hands-on activities that allows teachers to work from detailed lesson plans to teach essential technology and computing skills to students. We would like to share this innovative curriculum with educators by providng hands-on sessions for participants at the upcoming APERA conference.

Baker Duane, The BERC Group

Current educational reform movements have catalyzed the need for classroom observation instruments that are aligned with educational reform goals. The purpose of the STAR classroom observation protocol training is to help develop powerful teaching and learning by building educators’ skills so they can contribute to a school culture of peer observation and reflective dialogue.

The conceptual framework for the protocol was developed through a review of literature on powerful teaching and learning (or constructivism) and inspired by a number of sources including the Teaching Attributes Observation Protocol (TAOP; Fouts, Brown & Thieman, 2002), the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP; Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004), and the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP; Piburn, Sawada, Falconer, Turley, Benford & Bloom, 2000).

Ultimately, the STAR Observation Protocol was developed after conducting over 600 classroom observations utilizing the TAOP, and having the researchers review the essence of why they scored the protocol the way they did. The overall scores were continually influenced by a few basic elements: contextual learning, thoughtful reflection, relevant context, and positive relationships. These indicators were organized around the four educational reform goals (skills, knowledge, thinking, application) and a section on relationships was added to reflect the work of Newmann and Wehlage (1993).

The STAR Observation Protocol is a research tool that has been adapted for professional development. Used as a professional development tool, the STAR Observation Protocol helps teachers put language and a visual framework to the type of instruction that is aligned with educational reform goals. The STAR Observation protocol emphasizes having the observer learn about her own teaching and is not complicated to carry out. The tool helps educators foster awareness and individual reflection (Phase I); guide collaboration and dialogue (Phases II and III); and develop common language through calibration (Phase IV).

Seng Alice Seok-Hoon, Nanyang Technological University

Au Mei Lan, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

In the last ten years, arguments have been made for new forms of educational assessment with a focus on supporting student learning and thinking rather than on sorting, selecting and grading students for placement purposes. It is recognised that current educational measurement theory and practice do not seem to reflect what we know today about student learning and thinking potential. A paradigm shift calling for a change in perspectives is needed if we are to better understand and assess student learning potential. Dynamic assessment (DA) is proposed in this workshop as an innovative methodological strategy that assesses children's propensity to learn. Dynamic tests have been found to reveal the child's developing cognitive expertise and competence that are not shown by conventional static tests.

This workshop focuses on how dynamic assessment and mediated learning experience based on Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment and LPAD (Learning Propensity Assessment Device) tools can help students to develop their cognitive and knowledge structures. Deliberate attempts to develop the processes that are involved in knowledge construction will be demonstrated. Two pilot studies from a Singapore and HongKong setting will be explored. A number of challenges associated with developing content based DA for the classroom are identified and discussed.