Educational research for innovation and quality in education: a report of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA) conference 2008

This is a report of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA) 2008 conference, held at the National Institute of Education, Singapore (NIE), from 26 to 28 November 2008.     

Provision of early field experiences for teacher candidates in Singapore and how it can contribute to teacher resilience and retention

While teacher retention is a pressing issue for many jurisdictions, Singapore has a relatively low teacher attrition rate. Drawing on the experiences of student teachers from the sole institute for pre-service teacher education in Singapore, this article argues that it is important to expose teacher candidates to a substantial period of school experience as part of the teacher recruitment process. Before they are officially enrolled into pre-service teacher education, the Ministry of Education in Singapore requires all teacher candidates in the Postgraduate Diploma of Education program to go through a compulsory school stint. The authors' research findings show that this exposure to the realities and complexities of teaching can be an important contributor to teacher retention in terms of assessing and promoting teacher candidates’ resilient qualities, such as passion for teaching, self-efficacy beliefs, and positive emotion. In other words, early field experiences can help teacher candidates understand themselves as teachers and assess their own suitability for a teaching career. This study sheds new light on the policies and practices of teacher retention and teacher recruitment strategies.     

Developing reflective teachers: the experience of two modules in the teacher training programme at the national institute of education,Singapore

The Singaporean education system is undergoing many changes in order to develop schools and nation which cultivate learning and education. A crucial success factor to these initiatives is the teacher. Singapore needs reflective teachers who can continually reflect upon their own practices to find better ways of teaching as well as maintain their purpose and direction amid a sea of changes. This article describes attempts during the years of 2002 to 2004 to develop trainee teachers into more reflective teachers at the National Institute of Education (NIE), focusing specifically on the experience of two revamped pre-service teacher education modules. The experience suggests that a social constructivist approach, in which trainee teachers discuss and debate critical issues impinging on their professional practice, is more successful than the traditional ‘tell and regurgitate’ approach, in developing reflective teachers.     

On the identification of weather avoidance routes in the terminal maneuvering area of Hong Kong International Airport

The safety and efficiency of air traffic are significantly affected by adverse weather. This holds especially in terminal maneuvering areas (TMA) where, in addition to the impact of weather itself, potential weather avoidance routes are strongly restricted by air traffic regulations. A weather avoidance model DIVMET has been developed which proposes a route through a field of developing thunderstorms. Air traffic control regulations have not been included in it at this stage. DIVMET was applied to the TMA of Hong Kong International Airport as air traffic control (ATC) there has become interested in improving the controller’s work load, especially for managing incoming traffic by avoidance route simulations. Although visual inspection of simulated avoidance routes by ATC was satisfactory, a quantitative validation of simulated with real observed routes was also carried out. Two real adverse weather situations with thunderstorms within the TMA of Hong Kong and with heavily distorted traffic were chosen. The main objective prior to any validation, however, was to identify routes which are solely impacted by weather but do not show any signs of regulation. Route selection was done on the base of flight position data. Landing flights were selected and deviations from standard approach routes were analyzed. As a result, the majority of 272 flights were found to be affected by both weather and regulations (60%), highlighting the challenge for air traffic controllers to manage landing traffic under adverse weather conditions safely and efficiently. Only a few weather-affected flights (7%) were not regulated and could be used for validation. DIVMET simulation routes were presented to local air traffic controllers who confirmed them as potential and realistic avoidance routes. DIVMET weather avoidance route simulations within a TMA appear to be helpful but further model development has to incorporate traffic regulations, to include holdings, short-cuts, and slow-downs.     

The Effect of Cooperative Learning Approach Based on Conceptual Change Condition on Students' Understanding of Chemical Equilibrium Concepts

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the cooperative learning approach based on conceptual change conditions over traditional instruction on 10th grade students' conceptual understanding and achievement of computational problems related to chemical equilibrium concepts. The subjects of this study consisted of 87 tenth grade students from two intact classes of a Chemistry Course instructed by the same teacher. One of the classes was randomly assigned as the experimental group, which was instructed with cooperative learning approach based on conceptual change conditions and the other class was assigned as the control group, which was instructed with traditional instruction. Chemical Equilibrium Concept Test (CECT) was administered to the experimental and the control groups as pre- and post-tests to measure the students' conceptual understanding, and Chemical Equilibrium Achievement Test (CEAT) was administered to the experimental and the control groups as a post-test to measure the students' achievements related to computational problems. Science Process Skills Test was used at the beginning of the study to determine the students' science process skills. Multivariate Analysis of Covariate (MANCOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that students in the experimental group had better conceptual understanding, and achievement of computational problems related to the chemical equilibrium concepts. Furthermore, students' science process skills were accounted for a significant portion of variations in conceptual understanding and achievements related to the computational problems.     

Students' responses to experimental evidence based on perceptions of causality and availability of evidence

This study investigates students' causal beliefs about the relation between certain variables in an electric experiment and seeks to determine the degree to which their tendency to make either idea-based or evidence-based statements about the experiment depends on their having had a prior belief about the causal efficacy of that variable. Fourteen eighth-grade students of both sexes from an initial sample of 49 were presented with experiments and interviewed to determine whether their responses were idea-based or evidence-based, and whether these responses were correlated with the type of prior idea they had held about that variable (causal or noncausal). We found that 34% of all responses were idea-based despite the presentation of physical evidence. We also found that students who had previously thought that a particular variable would not affect the outcome of the experiment (i.e., who had a noncausal idea for that variable) were more likely to make idea-based responses than students who had causal ideas. Furthermore, students tended to make fewer evidence-based responses when evidence was unavailable rather than available. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34 : 57–67, 1997.     

Validity and Reliability of Trichotomous Achievement Goal Scale

The Trichotomous Achievement Goal Scale was developed by Agbuga and Xiang (2008 Agbuga, B. and Xiang, P. 2008. Achievement goals and their relations to self-reported persistence/effort in secondary physical education: A trichotomous achievement goal framework. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 27: 179–191. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) by including selected items from the scales of Duda and Nicholls (1992 Duda, J. L. and Nicholls, J. 1992. Dimensions of achievement motivation in schoolwork and sport. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84: 290–299. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Elliot (1999 Elliot, A. J. 1999. Approach and avoidance motivation and achievement goals. Educational Psychologist, 34: 169–189. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and Elliot and Church (1997 Elliot, A. J. and Church, M. A. 1997. A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72: 218–232. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and adapting them into Turkish. The scale consists of 18 items, and students rated each item on a 7-point Likert scale. To ascertain the validity and reliability of the Trichotomous Achievement Goal Scale, it was administered to 845 female and 861 male Turkish high school students attending three public schools in the 2008–2009 spring semester. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, and Cronbach's alpha and Fornell and Larcker's (1981 Fornell, C. and Larcker, D. F. 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18: 39–50. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) criteria were tested on the items that measured the students' achievements, screening for the three distinct types of achievement goals proposed by the trichotomous framework. Based on the results of the study, the 16-item Trichotomous Achievement Goal Scale can be claimed as a valid a reliable scale.