iSSues Explorer (Jul 2017)

JULY 2017

ISSUES EXPLORER SOCIAL STUDIES SECONDARY UNIT

Developing Our Students as Informed, Concerned and Participative Citizens

01 - 06 SELECTION OF THE MONTH

07-10 Dice it up

Redesigning Assessment

11-14 What's simmering

Exploring Societal Issues

Tackling Fake News 15-17 What's cooking

Professional Development

SELECTION OF THE MONTH REDESIGNING ASSESSMENT To engage students more in their learning process and to help students learn at higher levels

"

“Many teachers may initially say, “I taught them. They just didn’t learn it!” But with further reflection, most recognise that effectiveness in teaching is not defined on the basis of what they do as teachers. Rather, it is defined by what their students are able to do."

- Brian Greene

(Guskey, 2007:20)

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Assessments inspire us to ask these hard questions: “Are we teaching what we think we are teaching?” “Are students learning what they are supposed to be learning?” “Is there a way to teach the subject better, thereby promoting better learning?” Ensuring that every student learns and grows in our classroom is a great challenge, but a challenge we need to meet nonetheless. There is thus a need to invest in time and effort to redesign our assessment practices that have high yield and add value to the learning process, whilst motivating our students towards success.

Assessment practices vary in the Humanities classrooms in Singapore today. It is no longer enough to say, “I am always assessing my students,” but how effectively are we assessing our students. //01

SELECTION OF THE MONTH REDESIGNING ASSESSMENT

1. ENGAGING STUDENTS MORE IN THEIR LEARNING PROCESS

“When teachers join forces with their students in the formative assessment process, their partnership generates powerful learning outcomes.”

(Connie M. Moss, 2009)

Our students need to know what success in the Social Studies classroom looks like. One way to engage students more in their learning process is by keeping them informed of the demands of the questions and how their work will be assessed. More importantly, they need to understand those criteria and see samples that represent varying degrees of quality – to exemplify aspects/features of the criteria. One way to go about this is to teach students how to do error analysis by sharing with students samples of actual student work that exemplify the different assessment criteria, accompanied by explanations of why each sample exemplifies the level of quality claimed for it.

Teaching students how to do error analysis is a fundamental skill in effective self-assessment and is one of the most significant ways in which we can make assessment an act of learning.

(Jon Saphier, 2008)

After checking their responses against the assessment criteria and comparing with their own work, teachers can consider getting students to explain their errors. As a result, students are better able to compare their own work and their peers' work and understand how to do better by narrowing the gap.

When we engage students more in their learning process, students learn more, learn smarter, and grow into self-aware learners who can tell you exactly what they did to get to exactly where they are. In other words, students become self-regulated learners as they learn to gather evidence about their own learning and to use that information to develop into more confident and competent learners. //02

SELECTION OF THE MONTH REDESIGNING ASSESSMENT

2. HELPING STUDENTS LEARN AT HIGHER LEVELS

How do we go about encouraging students to write or respond to questions more analytically? How do we convince students to consider multiple perspectives?

Encouraging students to elaborate on their answers and responses ‌ such approach(es) to teaching and learning help students process information on a deeper level; students are more prepared to deal with learning tasks with more mental effort and in less shallow ways. As such, students are able to move beyond the literal information and infer or extrapolate other pertinent information. Unfortunately, such effective gap-closing approaches, direct strategic or elaboration-prompting teaching is conspicuous by its absence in formal classroom setting.

(Boykin, 2011)

Social Studies teachers are encouraged to employ more strategies that promote formative discourse and one such strategy that can help students learn at higher levels would be strategic teacher questioning. Strategic teacher questioning, when done effectively, provides a medium for assessing learning that is immediate and accessible for both teachers and their students. When teachers frame and ask high-quality questions during formative discourse, they prompt students to inspect their existing knowledge and experience to create new understanding. And as teachers ask strategic questions, they model for their students how experienced learners seek clarity and, in doing so, scaffold their students in refining their abilities to self-assess and self-regulate. (Connie M. Moss, 2009)

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SELECTION OF THE MONTH STRATEGIC TEACHER QUESTIONING “Strategic teacher questioning are skilful questions posed by teachers which focus students’ attention on content and concepts that are critical to the learning targets, build logically and directly on students’ prior knowledge, stimulate students’ reasoning in ways that help them formulate personal responses, and result in learning that is richer, deeper and more integrated.”

(Walsh J. A. & Sattes, 2005)

Strategic teacher questions scaffold student learning and pull cognitive development. To effectively help our students learn at higher levels, teachers need to take time to plan and design questions that focus student attention on just-right next steps to take when thinking critically about the lessons' content. These questions tend to be “open” rather than “closed” and require responses that demonstrate the student’s ability to think beyond factual recall or literal paraphrasing of content.

So how does strategic teacher questioning affect students' learning and achievement?

Strategic questioning helps our students to consolidate their understanding of a topic, organise and share their thinking and enhance their understanding and perspective building.

As teachers, these questions allow us to probe for how our students think about the topic or concept and this means we truly listen to the student and try to understand the student’s frame of reference or way of conceptualising the content. More importantly, we may also discover that apparently “wrong” answers aren’t really wrong at all if we understand the students’ assumptions and logic and we are then able to use the student’s frame of reference to re-explain the concept that will have more meaning for the student.

The next page contains examples of such questions:-

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SELECTION OF THE MONTH Verbal Behaviours in a Class That Let Kids Get Smart (Jon Saphier, 2008)

Teacher starts by aski gets students thinking.ng a good open-ended question that Then…

1. Ask students to explai

n the thinking behind th

2. Ask students if they ag 3. Ask students to com

ree/disagree with a st

ment/add on to a stud

4. Create and facilitate

eir answers

udent’s answer.

ent’s response/ idea.

dialogue about their id

eas.

5. Ask follow-up questio ns see if student really un that are similar to ones just discussed to derstands.

6. Ask students to mak e co said or something else nnections to something another student they know.

7. Credit meaning to st ud probe for student’s thinent comments, even obscure ones, and king (do the same with incorrect answers).

8. Use wait time for stud ents to struggle and dw ell on their idea.

9. Come back to a stud en is, given the commentst to check and clarify what his/her thinking of other students.

10. Ask questions to su rfa student says and the ince discrepancies between what the be? What’s going on heformation in front of them: “How can that re?”

Don't forget to also...

- Provide a clear visual display of the idea.

- Give encouragement.

- Praise good thinking.

- Validate students who acknowledge confusion.

- Express confidence in the students explicitly. //05

SELECTION OF THE MONTH What are students expected to do then?

1.

Do the majority of the talking

2.

Explain their thinking.

3.

Show that they are listening to one another.

4.

Be willing to admit confusion or not knowing.

5.

Challenge each other’s thinking non-judgementally.

6.

Take initiative to explain another student’s thinking, including how he or she might have made an error.

References Aljunied, S. M. (2016). Assessment in Singapore: Re ecting on Assessment of the Humanities for Singapore: Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board.

Boykin, A. W. (2011). Creating the opportunity to learn: Moving from research to practice to close the achievement gap. Alexandria, USA: ASCD. Connie M. Moss, S. M. (2009). Advancing Formative Assessment in Every Classroom: A Guide for Instructional Leaders. Alexandria, Virginia USA: ASCD. Guskey, T. (2007). Using assessments to improve teaching and learning. In Ahead of the curve: the power of assessment to transform teaching and learning. Bloomington: In: Solution Tree Press.

Brook eld, S. (1990). The skill l teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Price, M., Rust, C., O'Donovan, B., Handley, K., & Bryant, R. (2012). Assessment literacy: The foundation for improving student learning. Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, Oxford Brookes University.

Chicago

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DICE IT UP Tackling Fake News 1. What is “Fake News” and how does it affect us?

“Fake news” has been in the news, hogging headlines in Singapore and abroad due to concerns, particularly by governments, for its ability to mislead hearts and minds.

However, it is also important to recognise what “fake news” means and not let it become a catch-all term to discredit all kinds of stories. In its simplistic form, “fake news” refers to writing that resembles news articles but are completely made up and manipulated to resemble credible journalism. The intention is to attract maximum attention with sensational headlines and, with it, advertising revenue.

Another form of misinformation would be misleading news that supports an ongoing narrative, position or point-of-view either without any factual basis, or where grains of truth are selectively included or taken out of context. Such bias news is generally created more with the intention to sway opinion and persuade readers to adopt the same position.

Finally, “fake news” can also be published in the form of satire or comedy – examples include “The Onion”, “The Daily Mash” and newnation.sg – as humorous attempts to mock mainstream news. However, such stories still have the potential to fool readers when shared out of context.

As such, the first challenge is for readers to discern between hoaxes, opinions, facts and satires. The second challenge is to continually ensure that efforts to curtail or label “fake news” do not come at the expense of limiting a diversity of viewpoints and accurate information. Thus, dealing with “fake news” is not as simple as identifying and rejecting it outright, but to recognise the intent of such stories and prevent it from causing false alarm to individuals and society at large.

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DICE IT UP 2. What can be done to mitigate the effects of “fake news”?

Governments and private corporations have introduced measures to mitigate the detrimental effects of “fake news” both online and offline. The German government, for example, has announced plans to introduce laws to impose fines of up to €500,000 for distributing fake news. Similarly, Home Affairs and Law Minister, Mr K Shanmugam, has shared in a recent speech that the government is looking into introducing new legislation in 2018 to tackle the spread of fake news.

In the social media sphere, Facebook has started to tag articles as “disputed” by third-party fact-checking organisations so as to label and bury fake news appearing on the accounts of users. For the worldwide web, Google has introduced additional feedback mechanisms for users to report misleading, inaccurate or hateful content.

As Humanities educators, our role in facilitating inquiry and critical thinking in the classroom is just as important in directly shaping the minds of our students to become more discerning consumers of media. Supported by teacher facilitation, the Inquiry-based approach in Social Studies would help students to gain multifaceted insights and understandings about societal issues as they engage in discussions. In a discussion, as students draw conclusions and judge whether conclusions drawn by others are supported by evidence, they will be empowered to be more discerning. In addition, as students engage in Source-Based Case Studies, critical thinking skills are further developed through evaluating reliability, comparing and contrasting views, and drawing well-reasoned and substantiated conclusions.

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DICE IT UP 3. How can these skills be woven into everyday classroom teaching?

At Sembawang Secondary School, students are explicitly taught to critically evaluate information from different media sources during Humanities lessons, so that they can better discern between what is credible and what is not. These lessons are incorporated as part of the school's Applied Learning Programme in Media Literacy.

Beginning in Secondary 1, students progressively learn how to assess the reliability of information from its provenance, and through cross-reference to other reliable sources. Real-world examples are used to anchor the learning of these skills to help students see their relevance to daily life.

For example, as part of a lesson on how to identify fake websites, Secondary 1 students are first asked to pick out information on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/) using a worksheet, before it is revealed to them that the entire website is fake. Following this, strategies on how to identify such websites are shared and discussed with students. Students then consolidate their learning with a written reflection exercise.

Where possible, the school also leverages out-of-classroom learning such as field trips, learning journeys or talks by invited speakers. For example, Secondary 3 students were given a handout summarising some people’s views of the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) that were found on online forums, before a talk by SLA representatives. Students were then asked to verify the information given by engaging the SLA representatives directly during the talk. Such exercises help students understand the importance of checking the validity of information from authoritative rather than unverified sources.

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DICE IT UP 4. Conclusion

As Humanities educators, the role we play to shape the impressionable minds of our students cannot be more relevant. The skills we impart to our students through a robust Humanities curriculum will be useful not only in making them become more discerning, but are also lifelong skills that nurture their growth as critical thinkers and consumers of information.

The Social Studies (Secondary) Unit would like to thank Sembawang Secondary School for generously sharing their lesson ideas for the purpose of this article.

References www.ogilvy.com/topics/topics-pr/5-types-of-fake-news-and-why-they-matter-to-brands/ https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-05/merkel-cabinet-backs-facebook-fines-tostem-fake-news-in-germany http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/new-laws-on-fake-news-to-be-introduced-nextyear-shanmugam-8958048 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/google-launches-major-offensive-againstfake-news http://www.straitstimes.com/world/facebook-rolls-out-new-measure-to-combat-fake-news

Other useful articles:

Can governments stop fake news?

(RSIS, Han Fook Kwang)

S.U.R.E by National Library Board

(Source. Understand.

Research. Evaluate)

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WHAT'S SIMMERING #3 SOCIETAL ISSUES TO PAY ATTENTION TO What makes Social Studies engaging for students is the relevancy, relatability and currency of the issues discussed. Thus, this section looks at three currently evolving societal issues and provide suggestions on possible discussion questions that teachers can use in the Social Studies classroom.

ISSUE #1 Online vigilantism Where do we draw the line?

Exploring Citizenship and Governance

ISSUE #2 ABTM Saga Is Casual Racism ok?

Living in a Diverse Society

ISSUE #3 Singaporeans urged to be alert as terror threat level ‘remains high’ Being Part of a Globalised World

To access possible perspectives regarding these issues, please refer to the Word Doc. attachment

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WHAT'S SIMMERING ISSUE #1 Online vigilantism Where do we draw the line?

Exploring Citizenship and Governance Singaporeans have taken a more active role in voicing or acting against perceived social injustice or grievances on social media. Such actions can help to address the social injustice or grievances and at times bring about actions by the authorities to address the issues officially. However, sometimes the issues are aggravated and complicated as the responses spin out of control.

This article shows how the public responded to a video clip posted online depicting an incident whereby a couple had got into a dispute with an older man over the sharing of a table at a food centre.

These two article highlights the importance of reporting videos of wrongdoing direct to the police rather than sharing them online.

extra article #1 extra article #2

KNOWLEDGE OUTCOMES

Students will be able to understand:

1. The possible repercussions of overt online vigilantism; and 2. The role of citizens in addressing social injustice.

D IS C U

SS:

1. Do you think online vigilantism is effective in addressing social injustice? Why do you say so?

2. Suggest a consideration Singaporeans should take before posting possible incidents of injustice online.

To access possible perspectives regarding these issues, please refer to the Word Doc. attachment

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WHAT'S SIMMERING ISSUE #2 ABTM Saga - Is Casual Racism ok?

Living in a Diverse Society

This article speaks about an actor of the Indian race who auditioned for a role for the movie “Ah Boys to Men 4” and felt offended after being asked by the casting director to portray an Indian man with a thick Indian accent. He took to Facebook to raise the issue of ‘casual racism’ and to explain his unease of having to portray Indians in a stereotypical way.

The production company responded by explaining that this was meant to test the versatility of the actor and not to surface any forms of stereotypes.

Click here for additional readings:

extra article #1 extra article #2 extra article #3

extra article #4 extra article #5

* Casual racism can include racist jokes, stereotypes and thoughtless comments. Nearly 2 in 3 Singaporeans surveyed have heard racist comments being made, and about half the time it was by workplace colleagues and friends, according to a survey on race relations commissioned by Channel NewsAsia in partnership with the Institute of Policy Studies.

KNOWLEDGE OUTCOMES

Students will be able to understand:

1. Casual racism is still a form of racism; and 2. That sensitivity to other races is key to establishing a peaceful multicultural society in Singapore.

D IS C U

SS:

1. Do you think Mr Bhargava’s feelings of being upset were justified? Why do you say so?

2. Why is casual racism discouraged?

3. In your opinion, how can we prevent such casual racism from happening in Singapore?

To access possible perspectives regarding these issues, please refer to the Word Doc. attachment

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WHAT'S SIMMERING ISSUE #3 Singaporeans urged to be alert as terror threat level ‘remains high’ Being Part of a Globalised World This article talks about the results of a national terrorism threat assessment report released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which stated that the terror threat to Singapore remains at its highest in recent years. Singapore is named as a potential target in jihadist publications and videos and is also susceptible to home-grown terrorists.

Additionally, security experts emphasised the importance of gaining the public’s understanding on security measures that may be introduced and for them to work with the authorities by being vigilant at all times.

Click here for additional readings:

extra article #1 extra article #2

KNOWLEDGE OUTCOMES

Students will be able to understand:

1. The significance of the rising terror threat on Singapore; and 2. The need for a collaborative effort between and within societies to maintain security in a globalised world.

D IS C U

SS:

1. Why do you think the MHA conducts such terrorism threat assessment reports?

2. Why do you think the MHA is releasing these findings?

3. In your opinion, how can the government reduce the terror threat against Singapore? Explain your answer using two suggestions.

To access possible perspectives regarding these issues, please refer to the Word Doc. attachment

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WHAT'S COOKING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES

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For more information on the various courses, please refer to our email blasts! //15

WHAT'S COOKING USEFUL RESOURCES Heart of Public Service

Heart of Public Service consists of two inter-linked volumes. ‘Our Institutions' traces how key Public Service institutions helped Singapore progress from Third World to First in less than 50 years. 'Our People' tells 50 stories of public officers - a sampling of the many more who work tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to give life to the policies and programmes that have brought us forward together, and who provide the human touch that has made a difference to the lives of so many Singaporeans.

Click here to find out more: https://www.psd.gov.sg/heartofpublicservice/

Other useful articles: How should Singapore decide what to conserve?

(CNA, 10 June 2017)

Taking pride in ethnic identity does not contradict Singapore identity

The rise of smart cities

(ST, 2 June 2017)

(CNA, 11 June 2017)

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WHAT'S COOKING CURRICULUM UPDATES Here, you can find links to content updates relevant for the Express/Normal (Academic) syllabus. These updates will support you in bringing in dynamic content to support understanding of the core content in the syllabuses.

UPDATES TO LINKS IN ISSUES 1 & 2

Chapter 2, page 63, Link it Up For updates on Singapore’s public housing and policy of home ownership [HDB], please click here: http://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/ourrole/public-housing--a-singapore-icon

Chapter 3, page 78, Link it Up For updates on the NEWater process [PUB], please click here: https://www.pub.gov.sg/watersupply/four nationaltaps/newater For updates on water conservation in Singapore [PUB], please click here: https://www.pub.gov.sg/savewater

Chapter 4, page 127, Link it Up For updates on how the government provides a variety of assistance to the needy in Singapore [MSF], please click here: https://www.msf.gov.sg/assistance

Chapter 6, page 161, Link it Up For updates on examples of activities that take place in common space [PA], please click here: https://www.pa.gov.sg/Our_Programmes/Community_Integration //17