Abstract:
This project will develop student teachers’ capacity for collaborative problem-solving in two core courses on curriculum and assessment in BEd and PGDE programmes: TLS3003 and CUI5046. These two core courses enroll about 1,000 – 1,100 students each academic year. This project will involve about 280 students in three experimental class groups (~140 students) and three control class groups (~140 students). Small groups (4-6 students in each group) will be engaged in iterative collaborative problem-solving cycles to tackle problems in curriculum and assessment planning (See Figure 1 on Page 5). First, students will conduct regular online group discussions on Moodle to formulate solutions to problems of curriculum and assessment planning using text-based or multimedia materials. They will then test and consolidate solutions by (a) creating new curriculum / assessment plans, and (b) proposing implementation guidelines. Subsequently, students will share their plans in a whole-class social space on Google Sites (or Google Classroom) for peer-critique. Finally, students will showcase and justify two selected curriculum/assessment plans (revised by using peer groups’ critiques) during face-to-face in-class discussions. Through in-group and inter-group collaborations (De Hei, Strijbos, Sjoer, & Admiraal, 2016; Johnson & Johnson, 2009), students will be afforded a supportive community of inquiry (Garrison, 2016) in which they support one another’s productive learning. Project evaluation will be conducted using pre-and post-test surveys and focus groups.
Code:
T0247
Principal Project Supervisors:
Keywords provided by authors:
Start Date:
01 Dec 2020
End Date:
28 Feb 2022
Status:
Completed
Result:
The evaluation results were very positive, which suggested that students found the collaborative problem tasks to be helpful for their learning of the academic concepts in the courses and could relate the problem situations to the real school context, and that peer feedback they obtained from partner groups was helpful in identifying the weaknesses of their design tasks and improving their tasks. Quantitative analysis results indicated that as a result of engaging in collaborative problem-solving, students became more positive in terms of: (1) perception of the learning environment (supportive teacher facilitation and guidance, frequent social interaction, and active inquiry into learning problems), (2) being active in interacting with classmates to obtain peer feedback, (3) having greater interest in the course and enhanced ability of applying knowledge to problem-solving, and (4) increased receptivity of peer feedback (its helpfulness, their responsibility and ability to use it, and its influence on peer relationships). Qualitative analysis results suggested that students found collaborative problem-solving tasks to be helpful in understanding academic concepts, applying theory in authentic contexts, learning from peers through in-group discussion and inter-group peer feedback, and self-reflecting on learning. Thus, students recommended collaborative problem-solving tasks with peer feedback to be conducted in other courses.
Impact:
Phase 1 of the project which was implemented in the course TLS3003 in BEd programmes during Semester 2, 2020-2021. Phase 2 was implemented in the course CUI5046 in PGDE programmes during Semester 1, 2021-2022. In Phase 1, the course instructors conducted this intervention with four classes of Year 2 undergraduate students (n=160). In Phase 2, the intervention was conducted in one class of Year 1 PGDE students (n=40) who were in-service teachers studying part-time. In total, 360 students are engaged (280 students in experimental groups; 120 students in the control groups) in Semester 2, 2020-2021 and Semester 1, 2021-2022. By disseminating the project outcomes among course teams of the two courses in two programmes that were involved in this project, 15-20 course lecturers will have access to the resource package (including instructional PPTs, readings, and worksheets) in both English and Chinese versions, which will benefit their students in subsequent academic years. Further, we have conducted conference paper presentations at two international conferences (one of which being hosted by LTTC of EdUHK) and published one book chapter.
Deliverables:
Books/ Book Chapters/ Journal Articles/ Conference Papers
Yang, M., & Zhan, Y. (2021, July 5-7). Building communities of inquiries for university students during the covid-19 pandemic [Online conference presentation]. EDULEARN21, The 13th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. Palma de Mallorca, Spain. (Number of participants: 30) (https://library.iated.org/view/YANG2021BUI) (https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/building-communities-of-inquiry-for-university-students-during-th)
Yang, M., Zhan, Y., Chan, N. C., Yang, L., Chan, K. W. P., Law, H. F. E., Lee, L. M., Yung, W. H. K., & Wan, Z.H. (2021, December 9). Cultivating student teachers' capability for collaborative problem-solving in curriculum and assessment planning through communities of inquiry. Paper presented at International Conference on Learning and Teaching 2021 (ICLT2021), Hong Kong, China. (No. of participants: about 50) (https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/cultivating-student-teachers-capability-for-collaborative-problem)
Yang, M., Zhan, Y., Chan, T. N.-C., Lee, L. M., Chan, K. W., Yung, K. W. H., & Wan, Z. H. (2023). Building communities of inquiry for student teachers: A pedagogical perspective. In K. W. H. Yung & H. Xu (Eds.), Educating teachers online in challenging times: The case of Hong Kong (pp. 131-151). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. (https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/building-communities-of-inquiry-for-student-teachers-a-pedagogica)
Teaching and Learning Resources/ Materials (including online resources)
A resource package consisting of materials (instructional PPTs, readings, and worksheets) of a set of eight collaborative problem-solving strategy in the two course teams through Moodle course teachers' website. (No. of participants: 100 students from TLS3003 in BEd programmes and CUI5046 in PGDE programmmes) (https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/a-resource-package-consisting-of-materials-instructional-ppts-rea)
Financial Year:
2020-21
Type:
TDG