ABSTRACT Professional agency is key for teachers’ professional development, for constructing their professional identity, and for promoting student learning. This longitudinal study explored the development of teachers’ (N = 201) sense of professional agency in the classroom in the professional transition from early career teachers to more experienced ones. We used latent profile analysis to examine the individual variation and change in teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom in a five-year follow-up. The results showed three distinctive profiles: a high sense of professional agency (64%), a moderate sense of professional agency (32%), and a low sense of professional agency (4%) in the classroom. The changes detected in the three teachers’ sense of professional agency profiles varied. The profiles were associated with teacher groups (i.e., primary teachers, subject teachers, and special education teachers), but not with stress, attrition intention or school size. The results imply that teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom does not always increase in tandem with experience, and thus, different kinds of support are needed for cultivating teachers’ sense of professional agency over time.

ABSTRACT In this paper, we put forward a theoretical framework for understanding data literacy in initial teacher education. We have come to understand that data literacy is non-linear, non-hierarchical, and requires pre-service teachers to be able to work with a range of data sources to respond to the complexities of a classroom. Knowledge, therefore, can be seen as interconnected rhizomes. These rhizomes grow and are retained or a pruned as a result of direct instruction and vicarious experiences. Three theories have been presented here that enable researchers to grasp the complexities of data literacy. These theories being Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), Rhizomes of Knowledge, and Knowledge in Pieces. Through understanding that knowledge may be formed in interconnected rhizomes that are activated to complete a task, a potent standpoint is offered for understanding the dynamic nature of knowledge and knowledge development in pre-service teacher education.

ABSTRACT Self-regulated learning, reflective thinking, and meta-cognition have been given greater emphasis in Singapore’s education system as central to the development of 21st century competencies and lifelong learning capacities. This study explores students’ perceptions of their Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) strategies in Secondary Social Studies after engaging in a Computer-Based Learning Environment (CBLE) lesson with online information sources. Semi-structured group interviews were used to tease out the SRL strategies utilised by students from two different schools. SRL strategies were embedded in the CBLE as instructional prompts created for the purpose of assisting students during task completion. Students were then asked to reflect and comment on their work to identify SRL strategies they utilised in their learning. Findings demonstrate a range of SRL behaviours conveyed by students in the areas of planning for learning tasks, monitoring their learning, and reflection on their learning. The study highlights the importance of SRL strategies in Social Studies education to improve student learning.

The Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly created major shifts in human existence today. Norms of living, ways of interaction and the process of just being and becoming differ dramatically now, compare...

ABSTRACT Large-group activities have increased in higher education since 2000. Research focused on the possibility to have positive effects on students’ learning, regardless of the number of students by identifying facilitating factors. Hence, the achievement of learning results is used as a criterion of effectiveness. This review summarises the findings of research studies on conditions that determine the effectiveness of large-group learning activities in higher education contexts published from 1996 to 2016. The PRISMA declaration for conducting literature reviews was followed. Articles were searched through the ERIC, Web of Science, SCOPUS, SCIELO, and EBSCO databases, including additional sources. A total of 78 articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected for thematic analysis. These studies came from a wide range of disciplines, types of institutions, and locations. Five themes emerged as conditions that facilitate the effectiveness of large-group learning activities: (1) student–teacher and student–student interaction, (2) implementation of active learning strategies, (3) classroom management, (4) students’ motivation and commitment, and (5) the use of online teaching resources. The discussion is centred on the conditions by which large-group activities can be effective learning strategies in terms of student’s achievement of learning outcomes.

ABSTRACT In many Singapore schools, there are large class sizes comprising about thirty to forty students in each class. In such large classes, the opportunities for interactions between teachers and their students and among students can be limited, especially when teacher-centred, didactic teaching practices are adopted. This small-scale research project explored the potential of a flipped classroom pedagogical practice in one Singapore primary school on how it can contribute to primary level classroom interactions. Through interviews with teachers who had implemented flipped classrooms, the practice was explored if it has the potential to contribute towards classroom interactions.

ABSTRACT Learning is a complex phenomenon where a learner constitutes a system operating at neural, physiological, cognitive and social levels, with interactions between and across processes and levels, effecting neural to cognitive to social levels and vice versa. In tracing historical paradigms, theories of learning have been traditionally fragmented in nature, typically focusing on sub-process or sub–levels of the system. For example, theories of cognitivism focuses on internal processes and connections that take place during learning, negating observed behaviours or outward behaviours of learning, while theories of social constructivism place strong emphasis on human development and knowledge construction that is socially situated, with less attention paid to individual differences and variations. In recognizing inherently complex interrelated learning systems, a more integrated and comprehensive understanding of learning is necessary. Such an understanding entails research endeavours that can harness multiple, complex parameters of the learner system through mapping and understanding interactions between and across learning processes and levels. Such endeavours entail the use of multiple sources of scientific evidence, across multi-modal data capture modes and multi-levels of analyses, informed by multi-disciplinary theoretical framings. In this paper, we argue that an overarching scientific ethos towards learning optimizations need artful implementations of pedagogies and interventions that close the circle—from scientific findings translated into practical applications in education and back to addressing problems in education as impetus for evidence-informed theorizations of learning.