Kin Guan WEE1, Stephen En Rong TAY2
1School of Mathematics and Science, Singapore Polytechnic
2Department of the Built Environment, College of Design and Engineering (CDE), NUS
wee_kin_guan@sp.edu.sg; stephen.tay@nus.edu.sg
Wee. K. G., & Tay, S. E. R. (2024). Fostering higher order learning in a core curriculum module at Singapore Polytechnic [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2024, 3 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecs/hecs2024-kgwee-sertay/
SUB-THEME
Opportunities from Engaging Communities
KEYWORDS
Service-learning, general education, communities, volunteering, social services
CATEGORY
Paper Presentation
BACKGROUND
Singapore Polytechnic (SP) adopted interdisciplinary education through the SP Common Core Curriculum (CCC) in 2021 (SP Common Core Curriculum, n.d.). Within the SP CCC, the Data Fluency (DF) module aims to equip students with skills to employ data-handling processes. The assessments require students to demonstrate competency to use data to examine one aspect of a UN SDG (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals)1 and generate insights to support a theoretical solution to a UN SDG.
The motivation to use scenario-based student-generated questions and answers (sb-SGQA) arose from the lack of understanding and application of the module content by some students even after Bigg’s Constructive Alignment (Biggs, 1996) and Michaelsen’s Team-based Learning (TBL) (Michaelsen & Sweet, 2008) framework were employed for DF in the previous academic years, evidenced by the low assessment scores in the submitted assignment CA2.
The sb-SGQA pedagogy builds upon student-generated questions (SGQ) (Rosenshine et al., 1996), which leads to active engagement of higher domains in Bloom’s taxonomy (Bates et al., 2014). The positive outcomes of the sb-SGQA implementation in other university courses (Du & Tay, 2022; Tay & Liu, 2023) provided confidence for its implementation for DF in SP.
Hence, our research questions are:
- How does sb-SGQA help with students’ learning, as measured by the scores and the students’ artefacts in CA2?
- How do students perceive the implementation of sb-SGQA in CA2, as measured by a post-module survey questionnaire?
METHODOLOGY
In Academic Year 2024/25 Semester 1, the sb-SGQA (termed as “Data Q&A”) was implemented at the middle of the module. Students are tasked to collect data from the community and develop a dashboard in a team. Subsequently, findings are summarised in five questions and answers. A post-module survey was administered at the end of the term. After data cleaning, a sample size of 475 CA2 submissions and 16 survey responses were obtained. The study was approved by SP’s Institutional Review Board.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Students’ mark distribution
A histogram of students’ CA2 mark distribution (n = 475) is illustrated in Figure 1. The distribution is slightly left-skewed, which signifies a higher mean than median mark. While a comparison with the control group was not possible due to changes in the assessment modes, an analysis of students’ artefacts revealed an improvement in the quality of assignments.
Figure 1. Histogram of students’ CA2 mark distribution (n = 475)
2. Survey result
Students perceived the implementation of sb-SGQA in the module as helpful and constructive, as evident in the positive responses (“Agree” and “Strongly Agree” options) to Questions (1), (2), and (3) (refer to Table 1). In addition, the students agreed that the skills learnt in the sb-SGQA process are transferrable for their future, as shown in Questions (4) and (5). Qualitative feedback will be discussed during the conference due to the abstract word limit.
Table 1
Sb-SGQA survey result (n = 16, bracketed numbers indicate the percentage across the row)
3. Students’ artefacts
Based on the dashboard (Figure 2), it was noted that the students were able to address questions and develop answers that incorporate thinking skills of varying orders (level 1 in Q1, level 2 in Q2 and Q3, and level 3 in Q4 and Q5 in Figure 3). Specifically, students demonstrated how the skills taught in DF were able to provide them insights into the community’s use of energy and water.
Figure 2. Student team’s Dashboard
Figure 3. Student team’s Data Q&A
CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCE
The sb-SGQA was successfully implemented in the DF module, which is part of the SP CCC. Though a comparison with a control cohort that has the same assessments was not possible, initial results were positive, indicating increased student engagement and learning in interdisciplinary subjects. Students appreciate the approach’s utility in their learning and professional development. The lack of hardware and software costs greatly aided with implementing sb-SGQA. The authors hope that this collaboration between IHLs could support and motivate similar efforts in the future.
ENDNOTE
- The UN SDGs are 17 global goals established in 2015 to address challenges such as poverty, inequality, and climate change. Further details about the goals can be found on the official website: https://sdgs.un.org/.
REFERENCES
Bates, S. P., Galloway, R. K., Riise, J., & Homer, D. (2014). Assessing the quality of a student-generated question repository. Physical Review Special Topics – Physics Education Research, 10(2), 020105. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.10.020105
Biggs, J. (1996). Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment. Higher Education, 32(3), 347–364. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138871
Du, H., & Tay, E. R. S. (2022). Using scenario-based student-generated questions to improve the learning of engineering mechanics: A case study in civil engineering. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2022, 7-8 December, National University of Singapore.
Michaelsen, L. K., & Sweet, M. (2008). The essential elements of team‐based learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2008(116), 7–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.330
Palinscar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117–175. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci0102_1
Rosenshine, B., Meister, C., & Chapman, S. (1996). Teaching students to generate questions: A review of the intervention studies. Review of Educational Research, 66(2), 181–221. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543066002181
SP Common Core Curriculum. (n.d.). Retrieved 3 July 2024, from https://www.sp.edu.sg/sp/education/common-core-curriculum/about-the-ccc
Tay, E. R. S., & Liu, M. H. (2023, 7 December 2023). Exploratory implementation of scenario-based student-generated questions for students from the humanities and sciences in a scientific inquiry course. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/exploratory-implementation-of-scenario-based-student-generated-questions-for-students-from-the-humanities-and-sciences-in-a-scientific-inquiry-course/