2. RESEARCH EDUCATION [RE] IN RAFFLES INSTITUTION. AN OVERVIEW. 1.
RATIONALE AND PHILOSOPHY. It is essential in the education of the gifted ...
RAFFLES PROGRAMME 2012
RAFFLES INSTITUTION
RESEARCH EDUCATION [Overview]
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RESEARCH EDUCATION [RE] IN RAFFLES INSTITUTION AN OVERVIEW 1. RATIONALE AND PHILOSOPHY It is essential in the education of the gifted and talented to equip them to be producers of knowledge. This is based on the vision that the students have great potentials and when provided with opportunities, resources and encouragement, they could become productive individuals who could contribute to societal improvement. Hence, there is a need to equip the students with the necessary values and skills. It is based on the philosophy for students to engage in independent self-directed learning and be empowered in the learning process that sets the direction for the Research Education curriculum design in RI. The main aim of RE is to develop students’ information literacy skills, research skills, generic work skills and valuable Habits of Mind. RE provides the opportunity for students to work on real-life problems and in the process, develop research skills as well as other work-related skills necessary to be successful in further education and life-long learning. 2. OBJECTIVES & OUTCOMES In carrying out RE, students should be able to achieve the following outcomes: 2.1 Generating Knowledge • demonstrate information literacy skills • effectively conduct self-directed learning • demonstrate responsibility towards use of knowledge and generating knowledge 2.2 Communication • communicate one’s stand effectively and convincingly • produce a written product which adheres to required academic standards • document the process of knowledge seeking and generating 2.3 Generic Work skills and Habits of Mind • develop personal effectiveness to facilitate positive social interaction and effective team building • appreciate and apply effectively the powerful habits of mind for regulating their behavior, thinking critically and creatively • demonstrate responsibility for their own learning
3. STRUCTURE AND FORMAT Information literacy skills and most research skills are taught during RE curriculum. A few research skills such as scientific experimental skills have been infused into the Year 1 Science curriculum since 2004. Poster design and analysis of data skills (descriptive statistics) were likewise infused into the Year 1 Art (2004) and Maths curriculum (2007) respectively. In 2008, Internet Search and evaluation skills were taught during CS classes. In 2007, research projects adapted from ‘A’ level project work framework was introduced to the Year 2.
RE Curriculum Time Allocation 2012 Year 1 : 100 minutes per week over a 14-week cycle (1B to 1H in Semester 1 and 1I to 1Q in Semester 2. The 2 Y1 EW Baker Sports classes will have a special customized RE programme taught by their form teachers. Year 2 : 1 hour per week [ Except: Y2A will be doing an intensive course in RE at the end of the year] Year 3 : 100 minutes per week The RE Programme is divided into four main phases from Year 1 to Year 6 [Secondary 1 to JC 2]
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3.1 PHASE 1 Year1 RE Curriculum The main features of RE in Year 1 includes: • appreciation of the spirit of inquiry • basic research skills build-up [foundational skills] • application of research skills in academic subjects The students would be introduced the various definitions of the term Research, Spirit of Inquiry, Information Search as well as specific data collection methods. Examples are library and internet search skills, social survey and interview skills. The focus would be on the basics of research. More scaffolding would be provided in the access of information, information search, evaluation, data collection and presentation. Assessment 2012 Pupils will carry out 6 assignments based on a Project Task which explores the macro-concept of “Change”, with a focus on a specific skill for each assignment, spread out through Terms 1-3. Assignment 1 – Framing a Research Topic Assignment 2 – Conducting a Social Survey Assignment 3 – Conducting an Interview Assignment 4 – Report Writing Assignment 5 – Making an Oral Presentation th The first 4 assignments will be submitted as written work while the 5 assignment is an oral presentation to assess pupils' oral cum poster presentation skills. Assessment will be based on rubrics for all the 5 assignments. The teacher mentor will also assess other process skills, such as collaboration, planning, communication, time management, task commitment, based on observation of a pupil's work with his team members through the entire programme. An overall assessment report on project work will be included in the end-of-year report book for each pupil.
In 2008, the Sec 1 RE Programme was fine-tuned. Pupils were required to procure a set of 3vols Proj Works books as their RE text for the 6 year duration. As part of the cohort purchase arrangement, the pupils were given 4 free lectures by the author, Ms Soh Joh Chih. The 4 lectures are: 1. Choosing a Research Topic 2. Introduction to Research Methodology 3. Data Analysis and Interpretation a. Quantitative Data Analysis b. Quantitative Data Interpretation 4. Writing the PW report 3.2 PHASE 2 Year 2 RE Curriculum The main features of RE are: • interest based projects • learning relevant research types and data collection methods at greater depth • similar to the ‘A’ level project work framework whereby every student will have to submit their Preliminary Idea (PI), Group Project Proposal (GPP), Evaluation of Material, Written Report, Insights & Reflections, Individual Portfolio and Oral Presentation. In Year 2, pupils will work on a larger project of their choice and interest. There would be some options given. They are expected to consolidate and apply the various research skills learned in Year 1. Starting in 2011 each student have to choose to do a particular type of project from a range of project categories such as Thinkquest, Science Investigative Projects. Laser Animation, Toy Design Competition, Design for Change, Design Imagination, World Scholars Cup, Mathematics, AEP, PUB Water Projects, Future is Wild and Sports. The above project categories include the following research types:
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Creative / Literary/Aesthetics Humanities, Behavioral & social sciences (Non-experimental) Scientific Experiment Innovation Programme research projects Historical IT/Multimedia
Students would be required to attend compulsory courses such as oral communication and report writing workshops. However, for data collection methods, they need only attend those relevant to their research topic. Just-in-time workshops and lectures aimed at developing deeper understanding of a specific research strategy and methodology at a higher level or in more depth would be provided. The year 2 pupils will be required to complete their RE reports in August Term 3 Wk 6. Oral assessment is conducted in Term 3 Wk 7-9. For Oral assessment, project groups are grouped according to types of projects and assessed by at least two teacher-mentors not belonging to the group being assessed. Each student will eventually receive an RE overall assessment report on their performance. Special curriculum for Y2A students The Y2A students will have to do an intensive RE course conducted by an expert lecturer as a post exam activity after end of year exam. The course duration is 24 hours over a span of 5 days. The 2A boys are to work in groups of 3-4 and practise the skills of crafting a project topic, literature review and background reading, survey/interview, report writing and oral presentation.
3.3 PHASE 3 Year 3 RE Curriculum The main features of RE are: • based on a specific content /area of study /part of Raffles academy course • mastery of in-depth knowledge • interest and aptitude based • showcasing of products • team projects In-depth research projects that include exploratory labs, academic-related courses (Raffles Academies), community-based projects, both internally and and working with external organizations and tertiary institutions are encouraged. Egs are: • Creative Arts: Film Study / Design /Visual art/ Innovation • Destination Imagination • Entrepreneurship/ Business@School • IT: web-publishing / Robotics / Programming /ThinkQuest/ GEP Ex-lab • Leadership Studies • Literary: writing / publications • Humanities & Behavioral Social Sciences/ Humanities Social Science Research Programme/ Moot Parliament Programme • Service-Learning (Children & youth, elderly, special education, environment groups, disability) • Sciences: Photonics/ Tissue Culture/ Analytical chemistry / Food Science / Biochemistry / Science mentorship Programme / Science Fair / SSEF/ Engineering/naturalistic field studies • Or a combination of a few of the above such as Environmental studies (Science / Behavioural Social Science) In RI, the Year 3 pupils will be required to complete their RE reports in August. They will receive an RE overall assessment report on their performance in Term 4. Year 4 pupils are also given the option of embarking on a totally different research project of their choice. This will be taken on beyond curriculum time. Alternatively, some Year 3 pupils would continue with the projects when their external mentors would like to continue.
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Year 4 RE Curriculum Y4 RE terminated in 2009, in view of the many subject-based project demands on the Y4 students. Examples of which are Social Documentary, major Chinese Project and other performance tasks.
3.4 PHASE 4 Year 5 & 6 RE Curriculum [based primarily on JC1 Project Work Curriculum] Interdisciplinary group research project based on one of the 2 project tasks. The research project should meet the task requirements laid down by MOE Project Work Unit. Pupils should use their previous knowledge and apply them in the ‘A’ level PW. 4. Teaching and Assessment 4.1 Teaching strategies Mass Lectures, tutorials & workshops As mentioned earlier, the teaching of specific research skills such as ‘The Spirit of Inquiry’, Information Literacy and Documentation/Citation styles in Year 1 has been changed from lecture-style to classroombased. Starting in Jan 2011, four Year 1 RE specialist teachers anchored the new Year 1 program by conducting classroom-based teaching of the specific RE skills. Two RE teachers co-taught each class, and each teacher mentored about 3-4 groups per class. Each class had one 100-minute period of RE lesson per week. Lessons were conducted in Computer Lab 4 to facilitate group project meetings when students needed access to computers. For the Year 2 and Year 3 students, in Phase 2 and 3, just-in-time advanced research skills will be offered to smaller groups needing the skills through lecture and/or workshop approach. In addition, students were encouraged to create blogs for their team and individual reflection entries. This was especially popular with service-learning groups. Wikis were also introduced to help students manage their online and print references and writing citation and referencing for their reports. 4.2 Assessment Year 1 During the 14-week cycle of RE, the Year 1 pupils will be required to apply research skills taught in a few performance tasks, 5 of which will be graded based on rubric. The summative report which comprises the 3 main components areas are shown below. The Year 1 RE Programme is one based on the explicit teaching of a few foundational research skills. The RE assessment will be based primarily on the 5 assignments given after the teaching of the skills. Process [48%] 1 Individual Portfolio containing Preliminary Ideas [Assignment 1] 2 Social Survey Skills [Assignment 2] 3 Interview Skills [Assignment 3] 4 Planning, Teamwork, Task Commitment and Time Management Product [32%] 1 Group Report [Assignment 4] Oral [20%] [Assignment 5] 1 Delivery, Poise (Individual) 2 Coordination, Visual/IT, Managing Questions (Group)
Skills Assessed Framing a Research Topic
Weightage 12%
Conducting a Social Survey
12%
Conducting an Interview
12%
Personal and Inter-personal Effectiveness
12%
Report Writing
32%
Oral Communications Oral Communications
8% 12%
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Year 2-3 In Year 2-3, assessment of research projects will be both formative and summative. In both instances, rubrics with descriptors will be used. The summative report comprises 3 main components: • Product [32%] • Process [48%]* • Oral [20%] Based on various marks given to the Process, Product and Oral components above, an RE grade and an overall assessment report will be awarded at the end of the programme. For Year 3 Service-Learning projects, the mark allocation in Process component is different. The portfolio component constitutes only 8 marks, instead of 12m, as found in other categories of projects. The rationale was that the additional 4 marks were used for another rubric criterion, reflection, which was an essential part of service-learning projects. The formative rubrics could be based on those used by the MOE Gifted Education Branch. The recommended categories of achievement are: “Exceptional”, “Accomplished”, “Developing” and “Novice”. Examples of rubrics are: • Proposal (research question, design, choice of strategy /method) • Literature review • Data collection • Analysis & interpretation • Presentation • Portfolio • Review & Reflection (HOM, self-reflection) The set of rubrics serve as some form of guidelines on students’ performance. Moderation of the assessment using the rubrics is recommended. Besides assessment by the teacher mentor, the assessment by peers is encouraged. A separate RE report will be printed for the students to be included in their formal report book. This report will include a brief description of the type of research project and comments by the teacher mentor.
Updated by Joycelene Lim (Year 1 RE), Yau Pooi Har (Year 2 RE) & Chew Yoke Tong (Year 3 RE) July 2011 & Cheryl 2012
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