Conclusion of Practitioner Inquiry projects

From the Mathematics department, teachers Ms. Goh Li Meng and Mr. Samuel Lee were involved in a project “E-portfolio in Mathematics - Students Perceptions of Learning Mathematics". The study investigated the use of reflections in students’ Mathematics portfolio in helping students to self-assess their understanding and perceptions in learning Mathematics. The teachers also wanted to understand how the use of a Mathematics portfolio as a pedagogical tool can inform their practice, particularly in curriculum evaluation for the Mathematics Raffles Academy program for higher ability students.

Through their research, the teachers found that the e-portfolio has proven to be a platform where students could reflect, self-assess, re-look their learning journey and identify their struggles, strengths, weakness and potential. The teachers also found that the use of the e-portfolio, which includes students’ reflections on the assessments; their choice of the pieces of work in the portfolio; and the combination of traditional pen and paper assessments and alternative assessments, provided them avenues to conduct curriculum differentiation, self-directed learning activities, as well as peer learning initiatives. Through the e-portfolio, students also displayed a greater degree of self-awareness regarding their emotions associated with learning and assessments.

Their findings were presented in the Redesigning Pedagogy Conference.

Ms. Choo Li Lin and Ms. Stella Picca from the EL department embarked on a project “The Value of Class Participation as an Assessment Tool in the English Language Classroom” which was supported by the English Language Institute of Singapore (ELIS). The study was designed to investigate the dis/alignment between student and teacher interpretation of the scoring rubric through a comparison of 2 sets of data: the peer-assigned scores and teacher-assigned scores. From quantitative analyses, the teachers found that there were  differences arising in scores which were not due to students’ academic level (i.e., whether they are in Year 3 or 4), but could be due to other factors such as a differing teacher and student expectations in assessing class participation. From this study, the teachers plan to make adjustments to streamline expectations of the rubric so that class participation can be assessed more effectively in the classroom. This includes having more teacher-student dialogues prior to implementing the assessment, as well as introduce more scaffolding to interpret the rubric and structure the class discussions.

Their findings were presented in the ELIS Conference. The report can be accessed via the ELIS website here .

To learn more about the other research projects, click here .