MED858 Session 6

Consolidation and Assessment (Edited 2016)
Reflection (Final)

“The number of words normally does not exceed 100 for the Abstract part of a research paper”, said Dr Quek. She then checked our paper and asked us to reduce our lengthy Abstract. The last part of the module was at the top of excitement when we tried to produce a modest research paper. We had the opportunity to embark on a small investigative project as “beginning researchers”. Dr Quek shared with us almost every practical aspect about writing a research paper such as APA format (which she added that we could find out more ourselves by “Googling it!”- her favourite remark- for our independent and continual learning, I guess), proper format to present tables, difference between “References” and “Biography” etc. She also reminded us on ethical issue and encouraged us to be critical about our research paper. Together with SPSS, the last part of our learning journey was rather heavy going, though I was really grateful and thrilled with the experience.
Our group tried out Google Docs to complete the research paper. It was fun for three of us to log into Word online at the same time. Although we found out later that it was no designed for multiple log in (we received a lot of error messages throughout), we did enjoy ourselves using the same document at the same time, saving each other's work and chit-chating to each other in the same document. It is common and ok to make mistake in our learning journey as long as we learn from the mistake and try to enjoy.
Application of Learning Environment

The figure above depicts that a learning environment consists of three aspects namely physical, students and social. The possible factors or indicators for each aspect are shown in the respective coloured boxes. As educators, it is crucial for us to examine the various factors that contribute to students learning.

Based on my learning from this course and my personal teaching experience, I had created a "Learning Model" as shown below.

At the centre of the model is "students' learning". I feel that this should be the central focus of an educator. There are many factors contributing to learning. I have re-categorised the three aspects mentioned earlier (physical, students and social) to ‘student factor’, ‘teacher factor’ and ‘others’. The rationale is that in most lessons that I have conducted, I find that the two most important factors that lead to students learning are the student factor and the teacher factor. Factors that I classify under ‘others’ include, but are not limited to, physical aspect such as seating arrangement and noise level, resources, school factor, education policies such as assessment mode, number of periods per week. To me, certain factors especially those at a school level or at the Ministry level are rather far out from my circle of influence as a classroom teacher. Consequently my focuses and immediate concerns that are within my locus of control are students and myself as a teacher.
For 'teacher factor', it is clear that a teacher plays a vital role in enabling learning to take place in a classroom. We as educators have a great impact to students' learning. To me, if we constantly make 'students' learning' as our central focus, we will naturally devise effective teaching strategies that enhance learning in our students. For example, if we feel that our students show difficulty to understand a concept during our lesson, we will naturally think of an alternative way to help them to grasp the concept. This will lead us to good lesson preparation. In a nutshell, our focus on ‘student’s learning’ will drive all teaching activities such as lesson preparation, lesson delivery, classroom management, motivational skills etc, as shown in the figure below.

My blogging experienceI believe as in most people, I was rather apprehensive about blogging initially. Although I have visited several blogs of my friends, students and people whom I have never met, it never registers in my mind to create my own blog. This is probably due to my personality that I do not feel comfortable sharing my personal thoughts and reflections with others, in particular with my students and strangers.
I joined the world of blogging eventually on 17 November – mainly because of the requirement of the course. Being pragmatic, I tried to make my effort "worthwhile" by finding out how I can genuinely benefit from the blogging, instead of doing it for the sake of doing. I visited many other blogs and started thinking what my visitors and I myself could 'gain' from my blog. I feel sharing is very useful. I attended a Best Practices Award (BPA) sharing and the opening address mentioned that sharing is so useful that people now are more willing to share openly and others steal shamelessly. It shows the power of sharing. For me, I decided to share shamelessly and if my visitors wish, they can steal openly.
Later I chose "Learn and Enjoy" as the central themes of my blog because these are the two things that I look forward to achieve along my learning journey. Learning is not always enjoyable. Nevertheless I will try to make it a point to enjoy the process as much as possible. I hope to use my blog to gripe (when learning is not so enjoyable), share and connect.

I suppose it is the matter of habit and mind shift. After some time, I realized that I became more used to share learning points and reflect my thoughts (and feeling!) openly. Visiting other people's blogs also subconsciously reinforces this culture. And certainly I have learned a lot about the course as well as my course mates through the blogs!

My group membersYuen Han, our energetic and enthusiastic class monitress is a wonderful team player. She has a very commendable attitude towards learning. Yuen Han's blog has demonstrated engagement with many important issues raised through reading and class activities. She has painstakingly processed and reorganized her learning points from reading and class activities into a reader-friendly way for effective learning, instead of presenting the learning points "whole sale" from the original sources.
I always admire Wee Chong's ability to think analytically and critically. In his reflection, he challenges assumptions and raises thought-provoking questions to lend a wider and deeper perspective to issues discussed. How previleged I am to be in the Chong & Chong partnership.


My course matesI believe that fate has brought us together to go through this learning journey. Cheers to all of us that we have completed one more module - a fruitful one! Through this module and through the blogs, we have known each other even better. My fellow course mates, if you Google your name now, you will get many results - websites that show your name and one of our names because of our blogs. See the magic of the blogs? See how closely "connected" we are?

Dr Quek Choon Lang Gwendoline
Last but not least, my sincere thanks to Dr Quek Choon Lang, one of the best lecturers I have ever met. As we struggled she supported. As we complained she listened. When we became too overwhelmed, she said "Don't worry, don't worry". And through this module she gave us perspective on what is truly effective learning environment. Dr Quek you are simply unparallel!

I would like to thank you also for introducing blog to me so I have the opportunity to thank you here. (Another magic of the blog...)

(Hope you like our little surprise. :-> )

Good bye for now, wish all of you happy holiday and Merry Christmas!

MED858 Session 5

Learning points and Reflection 5
Assessing and Improving Classroom Learning Environment

Learning points
- WIHIC is simple to use and is relevant to many subject areas.
- Web 2.0 Framework (4 quadrants of web applications)
Examples of applications: Ning, Flicker, Blogger, YouTube
- Purposes of assessing learning environments: 1. to identify gaps and 2. to improve (to design interventions, approaches and strategies)
- Case study on using CPS in Physics classrooms; modified WIHIC – 4 scales adopted from WIHIC and 1 scale (Material Support) from another instrument
- A modified instrument can use different scales from various instruments as long as the instruments are validated and are subject to Moos's Scheme.

Reflection
At the improvement process, a great deal of personal reflection is required.

I am grateful that I attended this module. I notice that many research journals and educational articles mention about classroom learning environments, the instruments and the 'gurus' (influential figures) in this field such as Moos and Walberg. Now I am able to understand and appreciate these journals and articles better.

Dr Quek bought us fruits at lunch time. Thanks again. Our class have decided to give her a surprise… ;>

Today our group tried out Google Docs (docs.google.com) where we created a presentation file online and shared with our coursemates. It is simply phenomenal!

The afternoon session on SPSS was extremely exciting. For the first time I had the chance and the skill to generate statistical data such as Cronbach's Alpha for reliability and t-score for significant difference. Though it was rather heavy going, I was really thrilled with the experience.

We used WIKI as a collaboration tool where each of us was assigned certain tasks and contributed to the group project. It relied a lot on team work. I am glad that our group had been able to work along together. It was wonderful to see our work grew from day to day.

The journey to better learning environment begins with us as educators making personal improvements in our understanding and practice. This may require changes that will be difficult to achieve. However, I am glad that the course has allowed me to re-examine my personal philosophy as an educator and has broaden my thinking about learning environment to include psychosocial and systemic aspects.

My (modest) action plan after the course:
1. To decide one instrument to assess my classroom learning environment
Hopefully by going through the instrument, I become more aware of Moos's three dimensions of LE and consequently be more competent in facilitating LE
I will probably use CLES as I am more familiar with it after class discussion. It is also quite relevant to my aim to know my students better.
Now that I have learnt more about instrument modification, I will probably use WIHIC instead of CLES. WIHIC is easier to administer considering my target groups of Secondary 3 and 4 students. It can also be modified easily to assess my science classes. I will modify WIHIC by adding certain scales from CLES since I am familiar with the latter as well through class discussion.
I will also try to compute the reliability and significant difference of the assessment result using SPSS.
SPSS website: http://www.spss.com/
2. To design follow-up actions for improvement based on the result of the assessment

MED858 Session 4

Learning points and Reflection 4
Assessing the Classroom Learning Environments 2 – Case Studies
Learning points
Summary of influential figures and their landmark contributions in the field of LE (group learning through WIKI):
Kurt Lewin: personal behaviour is a result of the interaction between the individual and his/her environment; Behaviour = f(Person, Environment), applications of the field theory include group dynamics, experiential learning and action research
Rudolf Moos: 3 dimensions of MOOs's Scheme (relationship, personal development, and system maintenance and change), Classroom Environment Scale (CES) - used to measure the human environment in a variety of places such as hospitals, prisons and classrooms
Theo Wubbels: Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), focuses on the nature and quality of interpersonal relationships between teachers and students, drawn from a theoretical model of proximity (cooperation-opposition) and influence (dominance-submission), developed to assess student's perceptions of eight behavioural aspects
Herbert Walberg: participant perceptions of various learning settings, Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) (from Harvard Project Physics), teacher-centred (Visit our WIKI project at wetpaint for more information)

Others: Henry Murray (Need-Press Theory), Barry Fraser, Darrell Fisher
Influential figures in the field of educational psychology: Piaget, Skinner, Vygotsky and Pavlov
Action research: John Elliot

Reflection
The discussion on modifying CLES was very useful. It is important to think of our own classrooms and ask ourselves two questions: Why modify and How to modify. Through the discussion, many practical issues were raised and the importance of the two questions was better understood.

To me it all boils down to what we truly want from the administration of the instrument. The same set of the instrument may not serve all types of classes well. For example, in my opinion, many questions in CLES may not solicit ‘favourable’ responses from Secondary 4 and 5 classes. To me, it is not because of their classroom learning environments are more ‘inferior’ than those of Secondary 1 to 3. It is more on the learning environments that are driven significantly by the assessment mode (“N” and “O” Level Examinations) for Secondary 4 and 5 classes. Consequently, certain activities under ‘Uncertainty’ scale in CLES may not be carried out in Secondary 4 and 5 classes. As in Physics Uncertainty Principle where we can not measure the dual properties of a particle at the same time, we can not apply the same instrument to different classroom settings.

In the afternoon we attened APERA conference where a group of teachers from Marsiling Secondary shared on the use of Knowledge Forum (KF) in the teaching of D&T. Interesting to find that discussion –based forum is also possible for D&T.

The case study on the three different schools provided a big picture on learning environments. Through group sharing and various activities such as scoring the school on the scales based on SLEQ (Likert scale of 1 to 5) and a skit simulating two contrasting views of two parents on the school (learning environments), I came to realize that a classroom learning environment involves and affects not only students and teachers, but also principal, parents and community.

View our skit on parents' views on School A in the case study:


My (modest) action plan after the course:
1. To decide one instrument to assess my classroom learning environment Hopefully by going through the instrument, I become more aware of Moos's three dimensions of LE and consequently be more competent in facilitating LE
I will probably use CLES as I am more familiar with it after class discussion. It is also quite relevant to my aim to know my students better.
1b. To modify CLES to suit my classroom learning environment
2. To design follow-up actions for improvement based on the result of the assessment

MED858 Session 3

Learning points and Reflection 3
Assessing the Classroom Learning Environments 1 – Instruments and Approaches

Learning points
- A shift from generic instruments to subject-specific instruments
- Focus is to refine and improve the instruments rather than creating new ones
- After assessing LE, we need to plan follow-up actions for improvement
- Four questions about LE: 1. What is LE? 2. Why work on LE? 3. How to assess LE? 4. How to improve LE?
- Important components in LE are physical as well as students and psycho-social aspect of students
- Assessing LE - A shift in the trend from quantitative to a combination of quantitative and qualitative approach
- For the instruments, we need to be mindful about the target audience (maturity). For the design, we need to consider the number of scales and the number of items.

- WIHIC (latest instrument)
There is always instruction given to students
Can be modified for eg. changed to 'science class'
4-point Likert scale
Student cohesiveness (a few statements inder this dimension), Teacher support,
Student Actual Form - mid year, based on actual experience
A teacher converts the questions to statements in the survey
Teacher identify and address gaps
Among the instruments, WIHIC is the easiest to conduct (primary and secondary school students). QTI is rather difficult. Students have difficulty understading certain difficult word such as 'The teacher is enthusiastic.'


Reflection
In assessing LE, we look at the 3 dimensions of Moos's Scheme: relationship, personal development and system maintenance and change. Moos's Scheme provides a more holistic perspective to me in looking at a classroom learning environment. It helps me to device strategies based on the three dimensions.

Normally the LE is rather outcome driven. We need to balance it with the process (process oriented). We need to be mindful of the processes that are put in place in a classroom learning environment.

Student Preferred Form which is normally administered at the beginning of the year is useful for SEM (school self appraisal) to collect data for needs analysis.

Our group will be using WIKI to research on Herbert Walberg. WIKI is basically a social website that anyone can easily edit and contribute to. Utilizing the best features of blogs, forums and social networks, WIKI allows us to create, collect, and organize content on our own social websites.

I feel that through WIKI, we can develop various life skills such as ICT, collaboration, communication, team work and independent learning of students. Students will learn to work as a team towards their common goal. Features such as record of activities and top contributor may stimulate students to strecth their limit to do the best.

Dr Quek bought us drinks and fried fish during lunch. The fish is fantastic. Thank you Dr Quek again. It has been a pleasant learning experience so far with Dr Quek and my suppportive coursemates. I feel this is particularly wonderful amid the tight schedule.

My (modest) action plan after the course:
1. To decide one instrument to assess my classroom learning environment
Hopefully by going through the instrument, I become more aware of Moos's three dimensions of LE and consequently be more competent in facilitating LE
2. To design follow-up actions for improvement based on the result of the assessment

MED858 Session 2

Learning points and Reflection 2
Classroom Learning Environment


Learning points
- School learning environment = school climate
- There are four broadly categorised learning environments - learner-centred, knowledge-centred, assessment-centred and community-centred.
- Approaches to learning environment research:
- First we look at the big picture of learning environment and try to appreciate the usefulness in studying classroom environment. Then we look at how to assess the learning environment using a validated instrument. Finally we design follow-up actions for improvement.

Learning Environments Research
The learning environments research in Western countries emphasizes on the use of a variety of validated and robust questionnaires that assess students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment. Asian researchers have, on the other hand, cross validated the main contemporary classroom environment questionnaires.

Classroom Environment Instruments
Key features of historically important and contemporary instruments
Learning Environment Inventory (LEI): research related to Harvard Project Physics; designed to measure the social climate of a class perceived by the pupils within it
Classroom Environment Scale (CES): perceptual measures of a variety of human environments including psychiatric hospitals, prisons, university residences and work milieus
Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ): assesses those dimensions which distinguish individualised classrooms from conventional ones
My Class Inventory (MCI): simplified LEI for use among children aged 8--12 years
Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI): focuses on the nature and quality of interpersonal relationships between teachers and students
Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI): developed specifically to address the critical importance and uniqueness of laboratory settings in science education
Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES): assesses the degree to which a particular classroom's environment is consistent with a constructivist epistemology
What Is Happening In This Class (WIHIC) Questionnaire: combines modified versions of the most salient scales from a wide range of existing questionnaires with additional scales that accommodate contemporary educational concerns (e.g., equity and constructivism).

Most instruments incorporate the three dimensions of Moos's Scheme namely Relationship, Personal development, System maintenance and change. The various instruments developed are useful for assessing students' perceptions of classroom environment.

Reflection
We should try to strike a balance between the learner-centred and knowledge-centred environments. An environment that is solely learner-centred or too learner-centred may not help students acquire the learning that leads to understanding and transfer. On the other hand, an environment that stresses too much knowledge may impede the holistic development of students in learning as well as the integration of discipline.

A brief understanding on some historically-important questionnaires is useful. I am glad that I have the opportunity to be exposed to the various classroom environment instruments. Our students learn very differently now. We can’t presume they learn the way as we did in the past. Assessing our classroom learning environment especially in psychosocial aspect is of great help to us.

I also learned about http://www.copernic.com/ (personal files and digital media) and http://www.imeem.com/ (music) from my fellow coursemates.

I would like to express my appreciation to Dr Quek for enabling me to learn so much and for her generous hospitality at lunch time. I would like to thank also my coursemates who have been very wonderful and help make my learning an enjoyable one.

My (modest) action plan after the course:
1. To decide one instrument to assess my classroom learning
2. To design follow-up actions for improvement based on the result of the assessment

MED858 Session 1

Online Session & Reading

Read Chapter 6 'The Design of Learning Environment' of 'How People Learn' . For assessment-centered environments, formative assessment is crucial for timely feedback as well as intervention. This can be in the form of a simple test such as multiple choice questions so long as it assesses understanding of students' learning.

We could also try out verbal Q&A at the beginning of a lesson. Unlike the written test which is the summative assessment where we need time to mark, verbal Q&A allows us to solicit feedback immediately and consequently adjust our lesson accordingly.

As for the article 5_1 Science Learning Environments Assessment, Effects and Determinants, I read with great interest about one of the practical implications highlighted by the author: “Learning environment assessments should be used in addition to student learning outcome measures to provide information about subtle but important aspects of classroom life”. In the past I have been focusing too much on assessing the learning outcomes of my students. Now I am forced to challenge my mental models. The fact that students have a large stake in what happens to them at school means that their reactions to and perceptions of their school experiences are significant. The author has pointed out further: “Students are at a good vantage point to make judgements about classrooms because they have encountered many different learning environments and have enough time in a class to form accurate impressions.” In view of this, I am now more receptive to the idea that assessing the social and psychological aspects of learning environments of classrooms and schools is crucial.

Dr Quek's Podcast 'Understanding Learning Environment: Key Concept'
The key concepts of perception, school climate, school culture, classroom and school learning environments were discussed. Human behaviour reflects attitude, sense of acceptance and the ability to build positive relationships. The big picture is shown in the model 'Inter-relationships between Lewinan's formula and Murray's needs-press model'. Various components include the person, personal needs, human behaviour, learning environment are interconnected. Kurt Lewin's field theory states that a person's behaviour is influenced by the person and the environment. Behaviour = f(Person, Environment).

MED858 Pre Session

I created this blog today (17 Nov 2008). At last I joined many others to blogging world.

In this pre session, Dr Quek mentioned about the need for us to switch our role between a practitioner and a researcher. Her words struck a deep cord with me. The goals of education today are different from those of earlier times. The expectations of school experience have also altered dramatically. These changes cause us as educators to re-examine the existing education system to meet the new demands and challenges.

Today we are confronted with more diverse student populations than ever before. Students come with different backgrounds, capabilities and expectations. The call to reach out to every child has inadvertently made the job of educators more arduous and challenging.

Being a researcher we heighten our awareness of various teaching pedagogies. We also develop a more critical mindset. This is in line with the current expectations of a teacher. We need to constantly upgrade ourselves for continual growth to face the new demands and challenges.

Many IT terms were introduced this evening: Lessonbox, Gmail, blog, podcast, vodcast, WIKI, Wetpaint, Facebook... It is going to be exciting...