This study uses a TPACK-in-Action framework to analyze how teachers design technology-integrated ... more This study uses a TPACK-in-Action framework to analyze how teachers design technology-integrated lessons with respect to Cultural/Institutional, Physical/Technological, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal factors in a school-based environment. Transcripts from lesson planning meetings held by 25 teachers from an elementary school revealed that Physical/Technological factors determined the types of technologies teachers used whereas administrative duties were Institutional factors that curtailed their discussions about technology-integrated lesson design. While the school system encouraged teachers to adopt technology-driven student-centered pedagogies, teachers have yet to reconcile these with strategies used to prepare students for high stakes examinations. The TPACK-in-Action framework can be used to enrich teachers’ design capacity for maneuvering contextual opportunities and constraints. Its applications are discussed.
"In this article for Object: Australian Centre for Design, I profile Design Thinking for sch... more "In this article for Object: Australian Centre for Design, I profile Design Thinking for school education. Design Thinking can equip students with the skills of design to prepare them for tomorrow’s world. Many projects and initiatives around the world in this area have already taken place. I organise this as 'four modes of design thinking in education' - that is design thinking for, with, by and as education using a number of case studies from IDEO, Digital Eskimo, Engine, the Design Council and Stanford's d.school etc. to illustrate."
ABSTRACT Programming is more than just coding, for, it exposes students to computational thinking... more ABSTRACT Programming is more than just coding, for, it exposes students to computational thinking which involves problem-solving using computer science concepts like abstraction and decomposition. Even for non-computing majors, computational thinking is applicable and useful in their daily lives. The three dimensions of computational thinking are computational concepts, computational practices and computational perspectives. In recent years, the availability of free and user-friendly programming languages has fuelled the interest of researchers and educators to explore how computational thinking can be introduced in K-12 contexts. Through an analysis of 27 available intervention studies, this paper presents the current trends of empirical research in the development of computational thinking through programming and suggests possible research and instructional implications. From the review, we propose that more K-12 intervention studies centering on computational practices and computational perspectives could be conducted in the regular classroom. To better examine these two dimensions, students could be asked to verbalize their thought process using think aloud protocol while programming and their on-screen programming activity could be captured and analyzed. Predetermined categories based on both past and recent programming studies could be used to guide the analysis of the qualitative data. As for the instructional implication, it is proposed that a constructionism-based problem-solving learning environment, with information processing, scaffolding and reflection activities, could be designed to foster computational practices and computational perspectives.
ABSTRACT In school-based environments, teachers need to consider contextual factors such as the a... more ABSTRACT In school-based environments, teachers need to consider contextual factors such as the availability of technology and school policies as they apply TPACK to address instructional problems. However, qualitative TPACK studies tend to exemplify the seven TPACK constructs whereas its contextual influences have not been articulated in detail. This study describes TPACK-in-Action, a framework that can be used to visualize the interplay between TPACK and four contextual factors (Physical/Technological, Cultural/Institutional, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal) that influence teachers' design of ICT lessons. This was used to analyze the lesson design discussions of 24 school teachers from a Singapore primary school who were teaching the levels of Primary 1, 4, and 5. Content analysis of the transcribed audio-recordings of teachers' discussions and chi-square analysis of coding frequencies found that when the logistics of lesson implementation as per the Cultural/Institutional category dominated group discussions, it curtailed the emergence of TPACK. When Intrapersonal factors such as beliefs of teaching and students were articulated and its pedagogical implications considered, it facilitated TPACK. Furthermore, the team facilitated by an experienced educational technologist also demonstrated higher occurrences of TPACK. These results suggest that for ICT innovation to be effective, the composition of design teams need to be carefully considered. Teachers also need to develop competencies to facilitate and discourse about design such that contextual concerns can be turned into opportunities to support pedagogical improvement.
This study uses a TPACK-in-Action framework to analyze how teachers design technology-integrated ... more This study uses a TPACK-in-Action framework to analyze how teachers design technology-integrated lessons with respect to Cultural/Institutional, Physical/Technological, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal factors in a school-based environment. Transcripts from lesson planning meetings held by 25 teachers from an elementary school revealed that Physical/Technological factors determined the types of technologies teachers used whereas administrative duties were Institutional factors that curtailed their discussions about technology-integrated lesson design. While the school system encouraged teachers to adopt technology-driven student-centered pedagogies, teachers have yet to reconcile these with strategies used to prepare students for high stakes examinations. The TPACK-in-Action framework can be used to enrich teachers’ design capacity for maneuvering contextual opportunities and constraints. Its applications are discussed.
"In this article for Object: Australian Centre for Design, I profile Design Thinking for sch... more "In this article for Object: Australian Centre for Design, I profile Design Thinking for school education. Design Thinking can equip students with the skills of design to prepare them for tomorrow’s world. Many projects and initiatives around the world in this area have already taken place. I organise this as 'four modes of design thinking in education' - that is design thinking for, with, by and as education using a number of case studies from IDEO, Digital Eskimo, Engine, the Design Council and Stanford's d.school etc. to illustrate."
ABSTRACT Programming is more than just coding, for, it exposes students to computational thinking... more ABSTRACT Programming is more than just coding, for, it exposes students to computational thinking which involves problem-solving using computer science concepts like abstraction and decomposition. Even for non-computing majors, computational thinking is applicable and useful in their daily lives. The three dimensions of computational thinking are computational concepts, computational practices and computational perspectives. In recent years, the availability of free and user-friendly programming languages has fuelled the interest of researchers and educators to explore how computational thinking can be introduced in K-12 contexts. Through an analysis of 27 available intervention studies, this paper presents the current trends of empirical research in the development of computational thinking through programming and suggests possible research and instructional implications. From the review, we propose that more K-12 intervention studies centering on computational practices and computational perspectives could be conducted in the regular classroom. To better examine these two dimensions, students could be asked to verbalize their thought process using think aloud protocol while programming and their on-screen programming activity could be captured and analyzed. Predetermined categories based on both past and recent programming studies could be used to guide the analysis of the qualitative data. As for the instructional implication, it is proposed that a constructionism-based problem-solving learning environment, with information processing, scaffolding and reflection activities, could be designed to foster computational practices and computational perspectives.
ABSTRACT In school-based environments, teachers need to consider contextual factors such as the a... more ABSTRACT In school-based environments, teachers need to consider contextual factors such as the availability of technology and school policies as they apply TPACK to address instructional problems. However, qualitative TPACK studies tend to exemplify the seven TPACK constructs whereas its contextual influences have not been articulated in detail. This study describes TPACK-in-Action, a framework that can be used to visualize the interplay between TPACK and four contextual factors (Physical/Technological, Cultural/Institutional, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal) that influence teachers' design of ICT lessons. This was used to analyze the lesson design discussions of 24 school teachers from a Singapore primary school who were teaching the levels of Primary 1, 4, and 5. Content analysis of the transcribed audio-recordings of teachers' discussions and chi-square analysis of coding frequencies found that when the logistics of lesson implementation as per the Cultural/Institutional category dominated group discussions, it curtailed the emergence of TPACK. When Intrapersonal factors such as beliefs of teaching and students were articulated and its pedagogical implications considered, it facilitated TPACK. Furthermore, the team facilitated by an experienced educational technologist also demonstrated higher occurrences of TPACK. These results suggest that for ICT innovation to be effective, the composition of design teams need to be carefully considered. Teachers also need to develop competencies to facilitate and discourse about design such that contextual concerns can be turned into opportunities to support pedagogical improvement.
This case study research attempts to examine the pedagogical approaches for the teaching of Engli... more This case study research attempts to examine the pedagogical approaches for the teaching of English and Mathematics with information communication technology (ICT) in a primary school in Singapore. The study uses the learning with and learning from ICT framework in reporting and analysing how ICT has been used in the teaching of English and Mathematics. This framework also looks into the level of production (i.e., students’ creation of digital work) and collaboration when learning with and/or from ICT. From the review of documents and lesson plans; interviews with teachers; group interviews with students; and questionnaire survey of the students on their frequency of ICT use, the findings seem to suggest a difference in the pedagogical approach adopted by the English and Mathematics teachers. The frequency of ICT use was also reported to be significantly higher in English lessons as compared to the Mathematics lessons. Mathematics teachers primarily adopted the learning from ICT pedagogy with occasional learning with ICT approach. However, English teachers facilitated the students to learn from and also with technology with production and also with elements of collaboration. This case study illuminates the usefulness of the learning with and from ICT as a conceptual framework in guiding both researchers and teachers to be more aware of the pedagogical implications when ICT is added in the teaching and learning process. This case study also once again suggests the pivotal role of the teacher.
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Papers by Joyce Koh