NJY Thrive Reflection

 Self-assessment is always seen as formative and high-stakes examination is seen as summative. Can these two concepts get well together? Yes. definitely. What we need to do it to conceptual the term planning and monitoring. Monitoring is no longer about project progress. Whether you complete or not, it is about the tracking of you thinking while working on the project so that you complete a project of good quality.

(1) The nature of objects in D&T (a) Visual representation - What differentiate D&T from Science and humanities? D&T - Sketching and drawings (presentation drawing or working drawing)  as a means to create products that benefit the society SS - Sketching and drawing as a means for interpretation of the political situation Science - Sketching and drawing as a means to explain nature phenenomon (2) The way of thinking through objects (a) Objects as tools, machines, knowledge, technique, processes and systems - what are D&T unique ways of thinking? I have been demonstrating how to use a coping saw to cut wood and I have got it wrong for more than 20 years. While it is definitely important to teach students to use to right tools, I should be teaching with the understanding of why we teach what we teach. The Way of thinking through Objects by Carl Mitchan in 1984 tells me that I should engage students in thinking through objects. So now, I will take out and display three...

The structure of the school is predominately driven by learning and assessment. What would a school as a knowledge creation organisation looks like? Term 1 - 3: Knowledge building with a concurrent, embedded assessment where evidence of knowledge building, its processes and outcomes were captured in technology that serves the dual purpose of formative and summative assessment.  Term 4: Research and development of reviews of Term 1 and Term 3: Critical act for teachers in D&T in collaboration with students. That is, students have a stake in the design curriculum for the next year.  This will result in cyclic improvement of curriculum and could redefine the role of instructional programme heads of departments (IPHODs).

(1) organization of knowledge - chat GPT help you to (a) unpack and classify knowledge and (b) when prompted direct you with your sources to ensure that it is valid (2) work with other AI tools by providing prompts see more in  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RRaYx205Pm-l4XPd_mAWT0NjwOgSI8W8WSl7qH3xTv8/edit#slide=id.g22d348d69c7_0_94  In Design Generate authentic problems that students can work on to develop their knowledge-building skills

I did not go to the course intentionally to set learning goals initially. I just got involved in the activity. philosophy writing, AI, open-ended shape borrowing, middle and closed-ended shape borrowing. I then add in my experience and set my objectives. Intentional learning is about going beyond the instructional goal of what a teacher asks for in the classroom.  It is the epistemic agency that a student exhibits. As an adult, I reflected on how my EdD has already subconsciously changed the way I learn in an in-service course. The slide shows what I did (this slide is not ant requirement if we choose to sketch on paper). The intention to co-design with AI is to experience the process so that I can share my experience on 25 May. The intention to come out with something different is to understand the effect of knowledge building on my (I applied the knowledge building pedagogy to myself) outcome.  I wonder if we could set high-level goals and work as a group or allow collaborat...

I tried dialogic teaching today and find that NT students in particular k, y sh have been disrupting the class.  I wonder what could be the way for that few. To let go of them so that the rest can learn? Cannot let them have their way as there are many who "suffering" in silence not knowing how much they deserve to have more because of the few that are robbing their opportunities to learn. Current solution: monitor their behaviour very closely with parents with book

 The principle of improvable idea has direct relationship with feedback cycle

Explain briefly our intent for students to learn what matters most to them Start with who matters to them Assumption: the profile of the students are emtionally driven They will have a say in term 2 what they want for term 3 while term 2 is technology aspect of learning. 

 When it comes to the making of prototype, it appears that there are no requirements for any form of learning technologies that could support the making processes. Should students learn how to make it by viewing DIY Youtube on the internet? Will safety be an issue? Should the workshop equip with individual cameras to record the making process so students could reflect on their making process

 Technical Drawing is a means to communicate according to a convention one's idea to another person. What is there to knowledge build? So when dealing with cases where one needs to acquire certain technical drawing skills. Will knowledge building pedagogy cease to function? Or are students seeking a convention that works for them at their level and continues to work towards a convention that is accepted in the industry. Again, this is a part of developing one's capacity. Instead of the capacity of knowledge building, it is the competency in technical drawing skills. As knowledge creation is different from acquisition and participation, should we be clear not to force fit the pedagogy? First, let's start with understanding issues related to the acquisition of this factual knowledge called working drawing. Students usually missed out on dimensions in their working drawings. So this is a knowledge problem. They can then brainstorm how to ensure that their working drawing is co...

Democratizing knowledge is one of the principles of knowledge building. It is important the understand the context where democratizing knowledge would lead to knowledge-creation. " The creation of knowledge is no longer confined to a few. Instead, all are empowered to create and recognised as valid contributors to advance the knowledge of the community." from https://www.kbsingapore.org/12-principles-of-kb In the design of a thoughtful gift, students' (childhood) experience of receiving a gift will make everyone a valid contributor to an interesting set of design specifications from the social and emotional dimensions.

In knowledge building, school is seen as a knowledge-creating organization. How can we create new experiences for our students? A knowledge-building experience. In Sec 2E, I crafted a high-level goal of producing a commercially viable product. Now, in designing 3NT / NA curriculum. I will need to create new knowledge in the designing of SOW. What could then be a high-level goal? Initially, it could be a commercially viable product. However, in trying to understand the concept of social need in gift design, the high-level goal becomes " To design and make a thoughtful gift that could change the gift-giving experience" The problem statement becomes how the gift is often disconnected from a particular meaning. The high-level goal will then be a task for our critical act. How will a teacher design a thoughtful gift? As part of a pedagogical framework, a tentative definition for high-level goal will be "A goal that provides opportunities for innovation by both the teachers an...

Strategy 1: Digital moments of success for NT students Empirical support "Barber et al. (2014) reported the strategy of participants sharing “digital moments”, which “represent an emotion, a moment from their week, a quotation, YouTube clip or art work” (p. 130). Barber et al. held that creating these digital moments helped to build relationships, trust, and developed a sense of ownership of the online community among the students." extracted from Tan (2022) What we can do? We can allow phones once a week just to celebrate, recognise and capture their success and reflect on the week progress

In a knowledge-building environment, students should have the epistemic agency to write their own stories about their design journey.  How can we build up students competency using knowledge building principles by integrating assessment into their learning How can we start them off with strategies like random lines? 

A quick note for future reflections In the classroom, the main purpose of collaboration is for deep learning. In real-life, situations often put us to test how well we collaborate in time of "crisis".  This week, I managed three "crisis" and it has to be resolved through collaboration. Interestingly I played very different roles in all these situations.  In the first scenario, I am the leader with a team of experts. In the second scenario, I was as lost as my team members, who are very diverse in experience. Third, I was the novice under an expert or more competent others. A work-life experience of a homogeneous high achiever group As a leader with an expert team, I work together to coordinate decision-making rather than making decisions; the crisis was resolved with a stroke of luck. So in the classroom, in a heterogeneous group of high achievers, the leader just has to be a listener to help coordinate decisions to resolve a learning problem.  A work-life experienc...

Knowledge building by Scardamalia has research findings over 30 years. The principles are very apt to Design and Technology and coursework-based subjects. While Knowledge Forum is mainly text-based, it can be transformed into a visual form.  How can peer feedback promote community participation, idea improvement, student agency, designerly discourse and trend-setting? While the current argument looks at the process of knowledge building rather than the outcome (which is deem not possible by some critiques in schools), we do see students design products that impressed industrial players and design education. Can D&T/NFS/ART take the lead then? Aren't these subjects about knowledge creation which is argued to be much needed in the knowledge society? The current roadblock is the assessment of individuals in design which is very different from the concept of community knowledge. 

 (1) If they really care about the problem and are curious about the solution, they may create new knowledge that may not be new to the adult world but new to the community (the classroom) (2) If groups are formed such that like-minded people are together to pursue their own interests and yet willing to cross-fertilized ideas across groups.  (3) If ideas are seen to be improvable and everyone feel safe to share half-baked ideas to be refined in terms of quality, coherent and, utility and usability (4) If diversity is accepted and the class believes that new knowledge can be achieved through messiness, complexity and quantity of ideas, everyone is a valid contributor (5) If the teacher is willing to be part of the knowledge-building process by understanding and learning how students build knowledge and make changes to the design of scaffold, grouping, monitoring mechanism together with the students.  (6) If the teacher provides directions to seek authoritative knowledge bu...

 I interviewed 2 students to look at their work for the day. My purpose was originally to see if staying back indeed helped them to produce quality work. To my surprise, these are what I found. "I wrote a lot here and knowing that it only requires a few lines" "I saved and did not submit because I want to get the correct answer." "I do not know how to read (Mother Tongue) the question."  "Look, this is my video" - showing me his photography of the sky by the month. "I'm too lazy to download the video now for the art." "These are games for us to revise, I just anyhow do" - Do you know that answer? "Yes" - Running very quickly, showing me the correct answer. "I have forgotten to do the maths, I will do it later" - showing me the given the hardcopy. Conclusion: Reduce curriculum, Understand students as curriculum. Read again "curriculum and the child" Do something that the students really care ab...

 Improvement to Coin-box project to provide opportunities for students to sketch from imagination. Training the sense of proportion. By setting constraints that a square acrylic cannot be cut, the hole size is fixed, and zero-waste design (all cut-out material has to be reused). Can students imagine the possibility?  A paper mock-up may be used as a scaffold in this case if the students cannot visualise.

Considerations of group formation Grouping Is there an optimal way to form groups? What could be the guiding principles? Let them choose who they can help in PF? What structure can we design to ensure that choose the right person to help? What information should be give to help them make the right choice? Let them choose who they wanted to seek help from? How do they know that they need to be a seeker and not help in the round of activities? Student-initiated group formation does not seem to be thought through carefully. In a class of 40, with technology, what will group formation orchestration be like? Can it be done spontaneously after some time? Teach them how to choose based on the task and their friends Should it then be a seeker and helper match? What is the best sequence of assessments by peer? Different stage of the project task In the assessment colloquium, a group teaching JC students shared how they want peers to be in the assessment   Draft 1 - criteria with unders...