Speaker: Dr Khoo Kay Yong BSc. (Malaya); MScITE(HKU); EdD(HKU)

Today’s employers want workers who can think critically, solve problems creatively, innovate, collaborate and communicate.

Furthermore, low-skilled workers are being "turned away at the factory door and increasingly becoming the long-term unemployed . . .”(Collins, 2014).

Many teachers and employers have been expressing concern that young people “cannot think”.

Indeed, research has shown that today’s students tend to be weak in critical thinking and do poorly in simple logical reasoning tests.

Case-Study

MOOC digital texts

Scaffolding

multimodal texts Situated Learning viewing/representing skills Bi-manual skills Experiential learning

HOTS

STEAM

Ubiquitous learning Pincer Pincher Collaborative learning

Learning through “coming to know”…

The world is multimodal …

We were no longer using “words” as the sole mean of communication, now we combine visual, sound, animation in our communication.

The learning must take place at anytime and anywhere…

The opportunity to learn is “ubiquitous”. Learning by repeating is no longer required, as it can be taken over by ICT. We need to apply “Higher Order Thinking …”

The learning must be authentic and improving the world.

Thematic teaching is focusing on something to “tell” and not to problem solve. STEM is designed with the objective of solving the authentic problem of the world.

This points to a disparity between the skills that worker have and those that employers need. In order to succeed in the information age, students need to develop 21st century skills, particularly the higher order thinking skills. This aspect of education must start from a very young age (Costello, 2013).

In many preschool programs and kindergartens, young children are engaged in filling out worksheet, reading from flash cards, or reciting numbers in rote fashion.But just because young children can do those things, in a normative sense, is not sufficient justification for requiring them to do so.

The developmental question is not “What can children do?” Rather, it is “What should children do that best serves their development and learning in the long term?

The process of the learning and not the product that matters!

KnowledgeA child acquires knowledge from someone’s answers to his questions, explanations, descriptions and accounts of events as well as through observation.

SkillsSkills are small units of action which occurs in a relatively short period of time are easily observed. Physical, social, verbal, counting, and drawing skills,…

FeelingsThese are subjective emotional states, many of which are innate. Among those that are learned are feelings of competence, belonging, and security.

DispositionsDispositions can be thought as habits of mind or tendencies to respond to certain situations in certain ways.

The process of the learning and not the product that matters!

Soon after Edison revealed his earth-shattering invention, a French reporter asked, “Mr. Edison, how did it feel to fail 999 times?” As the story goes, Thomas Edison just smiled and replied, “Young man, I have not failed 999 times. I have simply found 999 ways how not to create a light bulb.”

Science /Divergent thinking

Science /Come to know…

It is important to remember that technology did not begin in the digital age.People have been inventing and using tools for millennia, and we continue to use these simple devices in our daily life.

Reference: Moomaw, S. (2013). Teaching STEM in the early years. USA: Redleaf Press.

In our kitchen: apple slicers and peelers, hand-held juicers, and mortar and pestles, are applications of simple machines and technology that children can understand and therefore apply. In fact, experimentation with simple machines, such as pulleys, inclines, and wedges, can greatly expand children understanding of physics (Moomaw, 2013).