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Conference Paper: Promoting Self-Directed Learning (SDL) and Assessment as Learning (AaL) in Science Education in Hong Kong
Title | Promoting Self-Directed Learning (SDL) and Assessment as Learning (AaL) in Science Education in Hong Kong |
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Authors | |
Issue Date | 2018 |
Citation | International Science Education Conference (ISEC) 2018, Singapore, 19-21 June 2018 How to Cite? |
Abstract | Learning and teaching in the 21st century witness great changes in terms
of teaching pedagogies, learning environment and learners’ diverse
needs. In a typical science classroom in Hong Kong, students with mixed
learner diversity are grouped into one classroom. Science teachers
often then have to spend great efforts to cater for their needs: helping
students be engaged and motivated to learn science in EMI environment,
teaching students different language, cognitive and generic skills, as well
as creating differentiated scaffold, tasks and materials. In particular, for
successful and effective learning and teaching of science to take place,
science teachers need to create highly challenging yet well supported
science-learning activities to scaffold students’ development of science
knowledge, academic literacy and cognitive development (Gibbons,
2002). Conducting research studies on science literacy, language across
the curriculum (LAC) and content and language integrated learning
(CLIL) is crucial for application of innovative pedagogical approaches,
particularly in educational contexts where English is not used as a first
language like Hong Kong. Negligence on integrating content learning
and language might limit Hong Kong students’ development of 21st
century skills, which is of utmost importance of their future career and
academic advancement. In this study we address the issue of selfdirected
learning (SDL) in an EFL Science classroom as a way to provide
language scaffold for Hong Kong students who are learners of Science
using English as a foreign language (EFL learners). Our central thesis in
addressing this question is how to bridge our students from a dependent
learner to a self-directed learner by gradually releasing learners’
responsibility (GRR) in a language rich support learning environment. This
study thus aims to evaluate the extent of self-directedness in learning by monitoring the learning progress of students The research adopts
a design-based intervention design with two groups of Secondary two
(Grade 8) Science students in an EMI school in Hong Kong. One average
academic ability class is invited as the intervention group while another
class with similar academic ability is invited as the control group of this
research study. Students in the intervention class receive additional
language support and SDL elements in the teacher-researcher’s lessons
while students in the comparison class will receive no additional
language support. Through the research period, language support
used in the intervention group will be gradually removed by careful
scaffolding in order to increase learners’ responsibility (Fisher and Frey,
2013) and foster self-directed learning (Grow, 1991) to observe the
learning progress of students. Academic achievements of the two groups
are measured statistically through formative assessment tasks such as
results in uniform tests and examinations. In addition, teachers’ journals,
questionnaires were also used to understand the attitudes of the teacher
and students towards teaching and learning Science in English during the
study. Results, pedagogical and theoretical implications for CLIL and SDL
are discussed. |
Persistent Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/261585 |
DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.author | Cheung, T | - |
dc.contributor.author | Tsang, MKP | - |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-09-27T08:59:06Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2018-09-27T08:59:06Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2018 | - |
dc.identifier.citation | International Science Education Conference (ISEC) 2018, Singapore, 19-21 June 2018 | - |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/261585 | - |
dc.description.abstract | Learning and teaching in the 21st century witness great changes in terms of teaching pedagogies, learning environment and learners’ diverse needs. In a typical science classroom in Hong Kong, students with mixed learner diversity are grouped into one classroom. Science teachers often then have to spend great efforts to cater for their needs: helping students be engaged and motivated to learn science in EMI environment, teaching students different language, cognitive and generic skills, as well as creating differentiated scaffold, tasks and materials. In particular, for successful and effective learning and teaching of science to take place, science teachers need to create highly challenging yet well supported science-learning activities to scaffold students’ development of science knowledge, academic literacy and cognitive development (Gibbons, 2002). Conducting research studies on science literacy, language across the curriculum (LAC) and content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is crucial for application of innovative pedagogical approaches, particularly in educational contexts where English is not used as a first language like Hong Kong. Negligence on integrating content learning and language might limit Hong Kong students’ development of 21st century skills, which is of utmost importance of their future career and academic advancement. In this study we address the issue of selfdirected learning (SDL) in an EFL Science classroom as a way to provide language scaffold for Hong Kong students who are learners of Science using English as a foreign language (EFL learners). Our central thesis in addressing this question is how to bridge our students from a dependent learner to a self-directed learner by gradually releasing learners’ responsibility (GRR) in a language rich support learning environment. This study thus aims to evaluate the extent of self-directedness in learning by monitoring the learning progress of students The research adopts a design-based intervention design with two groups of Secondary two (Grade 8) Science students in an EMI school in Hong Kong. One average academic ability class is invited as the intervention group while another class with similar academic ability is invited as the control group of this research study. Students in the intervention class receive additional language support and SDL elements in the teacher-researcher’s lessons while students in the comparison class will receive no additional language support. Through the research period, language support used in the intervention group will be gradually removed by careful scaffolding in order to increase learners’ responsibility (Fisher and Frey, 2013) and foster self-directed learning (Grow, 1991) to observe the learning progress of students. Academic achievements of the two groups are measured statistically through formative assessment tasks such as results in uniform tests and examinations. In addition, teachers’ journals, questionnaires were also used to understand the attitudes of the teacher and students towards teaching and learning Science in English during the study. Results, pedagogical and theoretical implications for CLIL and SDL are discussed. | - |
dc.language | eng | - |
dc.relation.ispartof | International Science Education Conference (ISEC) 2018 | - |
dc.title | Promoting Self-Directed Learning (SDL) and Assessment as Learning (AaL) in Science Education in Hong Kong | - |
dc.type | Conference_Paper | - |
dc.identifier.hkuros | 291807 | - |
dc.publisher.place | Singapore | - |