CONFERENCE PAPERS

1) Disseminating and Popularising Lesson Study in Malaysia and Southeast Asia CHEAH Ui Hock and LIM Chap Sam

Over recent years Lesson Study has become more popular as an on-site school-based teacher development approach.  This paper traces the beginnings of Lesson Study in Malaysia, its challenges and the road ahead in popularizing the Lesson Study approach, and also efforts by the Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics (RECSAM) to popularize Lesson Study in teh Southeast Asian region.  Full Paper

2) Making the Challenges Possible through Education Superhighway: A pilot project to motivate young learners towards Problem-based Learning (PBL) using technological tools Ng Khar Thoe

In light of the attention to project/problem-based learning (PBL), it is noted that PBL has been used in science education for gifted students for many years (Sitkoff, 1988).  Literature revealed that a renewed movement toward student-centered approaches has become possible instructional settings in which students define their own content and pursue learning based on own interests.  But this opportunity is limited to high-achievers (Betrus, 2007).  This paper reports on the author's experience in devising a support tool to motivate learners in technology enhanced PBL.  It outlines various technological challenges and provides possible solutions to minimize the barriers faced towards Education for All (EFA).  Emphasis was made on how could technological tools facilitate problem-based science learning via the integration of multimedia in PBL.  Full Paper

3) Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn: Improving Practice in the Mathematics Classroom through Lesson Study CHEAH Ui Hock

Teachers are still the most important asset of the school that influences students' performance.  Teacher professional development is therefore essential for any curricular reform to be successful.  This paper looks into Lesson Study as one possible model for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and compares it with action research.  The paper further discusses a pilot project on Lesson Study carried out to investigate its suitability as a school-based CPD program.  The pilot project was primarily aimed at using Lesson Study as an approach to assist teachers align classrooms lessons to new features in the Malaysian curriculum that focuses on mathematical thinking,  Initial findings showed positive reactions from both the teachers and the school leadership towards Lesson Study.  The teachers further showed improvement in lesson planning and their knowledge of the use of mathematical thinking and communication in their lessons.  The pilot study showed that Lesson Study is powerful model that can be used to guide teachers towards new practices geared at improving teaching and learning in the classroom.  Full Paper

4) Refining Communication to Improve Mathematics Didactics: A Case Study Ui Hock CHEAH

This paper presents a preliminary report of a case study on a lesson conducted as part of a project to introduce the Lesson Study approach to a group of teachers.  The lesson which was planned collaboratively by three teachers to focus on mathematical communication and thinking was then carried out by one of the teachers.  The lesson was videotaped and the communication that took place was then transcribed and interpretively analysed. The findings of the study revealed that the lesson tasks designed by the teachers were generally able to stimulate active pupil participation in the lesson.  However the communication in the lesson was mostly focused on the teacher attempting to lead the pupils to arrive at his answers.  While the study did raise some issues as to the way mathematical communication is carried out in the Malaysian primary classroom, it was found that the Lesson Study method was a suitable and non-threatening approach for teachers to improve and further develop mathematical communication in the classroom.      Full Paper

5) Teacher Perception of the Use of Different ICT Tools for Doing Practical Science Devadason Robert Peter

Practical work plays an integral role in the teaching and learning of school science.  However there are a number of shortcomings to doing practical work.  Among them is that they are too time consuming with too many things to focus that the intended goals of practical work is diluted.  We know for example, that, students tend to spend too much time on lower level tasks like recording data and drawing graphs that they do not have adequate time to focus on making meaning from them.  The use of ICT has been suggested to address many of these shortcomings.  A number of tools are readily available and they include microcomputer based laboratories (MBL), virtual laboratories and other interactive simulations.  This study explored how science teachers and teacher educators perceived the use of the traditional apparatus, MBL, virtual laboratories and interactive simulations to understand relationships regarding simple pendulums.  Four batches of teachers and teacher educators from SEAMEO member countries and African countries who attended a one month in-service course in RECSAM at various times during 2006-2007 participated in this study.  Full Paper

6) A Practical Framework for Technology Integration in Mathematics Education Cheah Ui Hock

In the era of globalization more and more countries are looking towards integrating technology into education.  Against this backdrop mathematics educators are also mulling at new reforms in mathematics didactics that emphasize processes such as mathematical thinking, reasoning, communications and connections.  This paper highlights a practical framework for including mathematical processes in the classroom as well as the role of technology in the framework. Examples of using technology in a process-focused mathematics classroom as well as the challenges in technology integration are discussed.  Full Paper

7) Promoting education sustainable development via student-centred learning programme Ng Khar Thoe, Chona Quezon Sarmiento, Cheah Ui Hock and Wahyudi

One of the various initiatives to promote student-centred learning includes the implementation of problem-based investigative projects being presented in science fairs or congresses. The "Search for SEAMEO Young Scientists"(SSYS) Congress biennially organized by RECSAM is a platform for exchange of experiences and ideas among young researchers in the region. This paper explores the concept of Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) and reports findings from evaluative studies on 4th(2004) and 5th(2006) SSYS congresses that incorporated "Sustainable Development" as themes. The SSYS teachers and students delegates’ responses to evaluation questionnaires administered on various aspects, i.e. their participation in event with impact on teaching and learning from socio-cultural perspectives were examined. Content analysis was also done on selected projects to illuminate how students in the Community of Practice(CoP) were guided by more knowledgeable others(MKO) in developing projects which reflected the philosophy of the "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development"(2005-2014). The findings revealed that student delegates hold positive views of the SSYS Congress. They reported "enhanced awareness of the interrelationship among Science, Technology, Environment, Society(STES); feelings of competence to conduct investigations; and motivation to participate in the event". This paper further discusses and recommends the follow-up actions on research ideas initiated by the young scientists.           Full Paper

8) Conceptualizing a Framwork for Mathematics Communication in Malaysian Primary Schools Cheah Ui Hock

In looking into the culture of the mathematics classroom, communication emerges as an important component to examine and consider. Communication serves as an important an essential tool for the teacher to look and probe the pupils thinking. This paper examines some of the present practices in schools and suggests a plausible framework for communications in the Malaysian primary classroom. Communication is examined in the context where it is collectively considered together with rich mathematical tasks, environment and lesson evaluation as important criteria in the creation of a classroom that focuses on mathematical thinking. Components for communication for the Malaysian context are also suggested.  Full Paper

9) African teacher educators' views and understanding about science, culture, and teaching and learning of science Wahyudi and Chona Quezon Sarmiento

The study explored teacher educators’ views on science, culture, and the connection between science and culture, and secondly on their understanding of teaching and learning science. A total of 32 teacher educators from Kenya, Africa responded to the Science and Culture Questionnaires. The questionnaire was adapted from Aikenhead and Huntley’s (1997) study to address the broad relationship of science and culture among senior Kenyan teacher educators. Focus group discussions and individual interviews were conducted to explore their understanding of teaching and learning science. These approaches were intended to reveal the teacher educators’ views being consistent with or disagreeing with the commonly held worldviews of science as portrayed in media and science education literatures. The results showed that the teacher educators had relatively similar views with respect to the five aspects of the questionnaire. A greater variance was only observed on the mean scores on two aspects, namely Science and Everyday Common Knowledge and in Teaching and Learning Science. No statistically significant difference was noted when the teacher educators’ views were categorised according to the length of teaching experience and subject specialisation. The statistically significant difference on their views was only found in the Science and Culture scale when they were grouped according to gender. The findings from the Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and interviews conducted separately in groups showed teacher educators discriminate with respect to different aspects of Culture and Science, however, were not against the application of technology for scientific advancements.  Full Paper

10) Calculation change of population using GIS C.Annamalai and Ng Khar Thoe

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is one of many information technologies that has transformed the ways geographers conduct research and contribute to society. In the past two decades, this technological tool has had tremendous effects on research techniques specific to the discipline, as well as on the general ways in which geographers communicate and collaborate.  Full Paper

11) Content Analysis of Youth Scientific Programme: An Innovative and Integrated Approach For Sustainable Development Among SEAMEO Member Countries Sarmiento, C., Wahyudi, Cheah Ui Hock and Ng Khar Thoe

The "Search for Young Scientist" (SSYS) Congress as a Youth Programme highlights the innovative and integrated approach of RECSAM as a Regional Center for Expertise (RCE) in Science and Mathematics Education.  The scientific projects done by the youth features ESD dynamics on public awareness, education and training to acquire understanding about sustainability, development of knowledge, skills, perspectives and values needed by the youth in making decisions to improve quality of life. The paper also discusses some limitations on the data and the methodology applied to the analysis.    Full Paper

12) Teacher perception of different modes of conducting a physics experiment Devadason Robert Peter

This study explores how experienced science teacher educators new to the use of ICT perceived the use of the traditional apparatus, data logging system, computer based interactive simulation and computer based virtual experiment to understand relationships regarding simple pendulums.  Twenty teacher educators with 15 to 20 years of teaching experience participated in this study.  The four modes of experiments together with three possible scenario of usage for each mode were demonstrated to the respondents.  Data was collected through two questionnaires, one measuring their attitude towards IT and the other their perception towards the use of each mode in the scenarios shown.  Although they showed a very high positive attitude towards IT, the respondents perceived the efficacy of traditional experiments more positively.    Full Paper

13) Enhancing meaningful teaching and learning of mathematics through the use of graphics calculator Jerome A. Chavez, Allan Leslie White and Cheah Ui Hock

This paper discusses how the use of the graphics calculator changes the teaching and learning of quadratic functions in the secondary classroom. Firstly, the paper compares teaching with the graphics calculator to the traditional chalk-and-talk method. The second part presents and analyzes the perception of students to the graphics calculator in their learning of mathematical concepts. It further discusses the findings based on data including students’ interviews that reveals how the use of graphics calculator enhanced their learning. Finally, the paper advances several recommendations for pedagogical strategies when using graphics calculators.  Full Paper