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Editorial Board
Dr Azian T.S. Abdullah
(Advisor)
Devadason Robert Peter
(Chief Editor)
Dr Cheah Ui Hock (Editor)
Dr Warabhorn Preechaporn
(Editor)
Dr Wahyudi (Editor)
Ng Khar Thoe (Editor)
Contents
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1
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Learning Mathematics via ICT Integration in
Values-Based Water Education (pp 1 – 19)
Ch’ng Yeang Soon , Tan Khan Aun , Ng Khar Thoe
In our country where water is in
abundance, society tends to take for granted that whatever happened in
countries with water shortages are not their concern. But if we were to
scrutinize our situation here, we will notice that the effects of water
shortage in these countries are slowly creeping into our country as a
result of human indifferences and industrialization. Apart from increasing our standards of living,
industrialization also brings about air and water pollutions. All in all if we analyse the
situation we will notice that all these problems arise because of the
indifference of people lacking the 5 core elements of human values, that
is, right conduct, peace, truth, love and non-violence. Seeing the importance of the roles of educators towards
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), a cooperation project on
promoting ‘Human Values-based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education’
(HVWSHE) in Southeast Asian Schools was initiated by the SEAMEO Secretariat
and UN-HABITAT. A regional Training of Trainers (TOT) course on the
integration of HVWSHE was held in RECSAM from May 16th to 25th,
2007 as one of the capacity building initiatives to train teachers on the
integration of HVWSHE with conceptual understanding of its philosophy,
exemplary practices and its integration into mainly Science, Mathematics
and Social Science curricula. After attending a few sessions of the HVWSHE
course, the first author was inspired to plan a values-based Mathematics
lesson via ICT integration to teach directed number involving “computation
of integers and decimals using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division”.
A teaching try-out with Form 2 pupils in a secondary school in Penang was
also implemented. The idea of “water rationing” was incorporated in a
Mathematics lesson via Problem-based Learning (PBL). The students were
confronted with a real life problem which they needed to solve immediately
in order to survive with limited water supply. By using a spreadsheet
program as ICT tool, the pupils were guided to work cooperatively and
role-play as families to decide the amount of water they need per day. Several
guided attempts led them towards better solutions. The teachers provided scaffolded activities incorporated with human values to
help them learn about facts and figures. The pupils explored the concepts
of directed numbers in a very contextual and meaningful way. The activities
elicited higher order thinking with 5 core human values being integrated
subtly in the lesson plan so that the pupils would raise the issues through
their discussions in the process of solving real-life problems.
Pre-/post-test questionnaires using ‘Water Attitude Scale’ (WAS) (Yeap, Ng, Wahyudi, Cheah & Robert Peter, 2007) were
also administered to evaluate the impact of VBWE on students’ sustainable
water use ethics and the findings were disseminated in an international
conference (Ch’ng, Tan, Ng, 2007).
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2
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Building Bridges to Algebraic Thinking (pp 20 – 30)
Lim
Hooi Lian, Noraini
Idris, Wun Thiam Yew
Currently, mathematics researchers and educators
argue and describe that algebra is a way of thinking, a method of
expressing relationship, describing and representing patterns, and
exploring mathematical properties. Thus, 'algebraic thinking' has become a
catch-all phrase for the recent research. However, many students still
approach algebra as formal structure, manipulation of symbols and rote
skills. The SOLO model developed by Biggs and Collis can be adapted to
provide a useful four-step template of generalized questions, that lead and
help students to build a bridge in making transition from the basic concept
of algebra to the advanced skills of representation and generalization of
linear pattern by using algebra symbols.
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3
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Promoting Constructivist and Self-Directed Science
Learning Incorporating Technological Tools: A Research Lesson in a
Secondary School (pp 31 – 46)
Ng Khar Thoe, Devadason Robert Peter,
Linda Toh
With the ever-increasing demand in
knowledge and technological advancement, much emphasis has been placed on
the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in
science education. An example could be seen in the increased attention on
the use of animation software to stimulate students’ interests in science
learning. It is believed that the learning of many complicated scientific
concepts, principles or theories that could hardly be explained by plain
text or ‘chalk and talk’ may be achieved through visualization using 3-D
animation multimedia software. This articles reports on the experiences of
the authors in designing a research based science lesson with multimedia
integration that was implemented in a secondary school using the lesson
study (Yoshida & Fernandez, 2002; Isoda, 2008) or research lesson
(Lewis & Tsuchida, 1998) approach. During the
‘Lesson Planning’ phase, the use of multimedia as resource materials,
‘Novak and Gowin’s (1984) metacognitive
strategies as well as the five phases of constructivist approaches by
Driver and Bell
(1986)’ as specific steps developed for the lesson were dwelt on in
specific. The ‘Lesson Presentation’ phase includes a report on the tryout
of the Form 4 Physics lesson on ‘Energy and Heat’ with observation notes by the team members consisting mainly of the science
teachers in a local secondary school and the specialists in RECSAM. The
most important step in a researched lesson, i.e. ‘Lesson Reflection’ was
elaborated with an overview of the lesson and a summary of the comments or
feedback by the team members who had observed the lesson being carried out.
What was learned through this step could be applied in the next lesson
study in other science classes with similar focus areas. These would
include the suggested concrete alternatives of how the lesson could be improved
which would contribute towards developing an in-service model for the
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of science teaching.
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5
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An Affair with Math: Making Learning
Mathematics Fun, Meaningful and Experiential
Jerome A.
Chavez, Teoh Boon Tat
[Coming Soon]
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6
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Promoting Constructivist and Self-Directed
Science Learning Incorporating Technological Tools: A Research Lesson in a
Secondary School Classroom
Ng Khar Thoe, Devadason Robert Peter, Linda Toh
[Coming Soon]
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Learning Science
and Mathematics