Analysis of the course Existing Course Background

The selected course–Managing Learning in Science (SSB6034)–is a compulsory course for Master of Education (Science Education) in the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI). This

postgraduate degree is a one-and-half year (full-time) and a two year (part-time) programme. The course was designed to enable students to analyse the management of learning in school science education through the following general learning outcomes:

 Analyse learning theories

 Evaluate learning models

 Discuss critically the best practices to maximize learning and teaching

 Discuss and develop instruments to assess learning

 Collaborate with group members to perform assigned tasks

The course contents include theories of teaching and learning, assessment for learning, student misconception in science, teaching and learning effectiveness and school science laboratory management.

Aligning the course outline and the learning outcomes

According to Reimann (2011), DBR involves holistic perspectives of designing a ´learning environment´ that include tasks, materials, tools, communication and interaction, and means for sequencing and scaffolding. PBL is a “problem first” learning approach whereby the starting point for learning is in the form of realistic and contextualized problems. Unlike traditional curriculum contents which are arranged according to topics, the contents of a PBL curriculum are organized around problems. To ensure that these problems address all the learning outcomes and

simultaneously fulfil the course requirements, the traditional course outline has to be rearranged into the new course outline in the form of three PBL problems: Constructivism, Alternative Conception and 21^st Century Learning. These problems could be the latest issues in science education, innovation in science classrooms or issues in science classrooms. In general, the

67 researcher drew on several situations from his own experience as a teacher, educational researcher, and teacher educator. As shown in Table 20, several topics from the existing course were merged to form the three PBL problems.

Table 20: Comparison of the course outline before and after the redesign activity Course outline prior to PBL Improved course outline for PBL

approach i. Shift of learning from

behaviourism to the cognitive psychology

PBL1: Constructivism

ii. Best practices in science teaching and learning.

iii. The application of constructivist teaching approaches

iv. Management of authentic assessments and assessment for learning

PBL2: Alternative Conception

v. Eliciting student misconceptions

vi. Strategies to improve teaching and learning effectiveness

PBL3: 21^st Century Learning

vii. Laboratory management viii. Science learning in the future

The first PBL problem–Constructivism–is centred on principles in classroom teachings. It

represents contemporary views of how learners obtain knowledge in learning sciences. In addition, constructivism is a rather general topic which allows students in the current research to interconnect between different student-centered learnings. However, this PBL problem will focus on

constructivism’s central principles, and its application in classrooms; it also intends to identify constructivism elements from a learning session. The second PBL problem–Alternative

Conception–focuses on identifying alternative conception in science topics of a school science curriculum. Alternative conceptions are among the seminal issues in science education, which have been substantially discussed in the literature. The third PBL problem–21^st Century Learning–

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focuses on school science laboratory that promotes the 21^st century learning principles. Malaysian school science laboratories are designed for group experiments, in which school students in a group will perform a pre-determined experiment procedures. The current laboratory designs are not promoting deep learning and they are neither inculcating skills among school students. This is because they blindly followed experiments procedures from laboratory manuals (for detail discussion of each PBL problems, see part 3.4.4: The PBL Toolkit in this chapter).

Constructivism, alternative conception and 21^st century learning are among the seminal issues discussed in Malaysian science education and in international learning science community. By aligning the course outline into these topics, it was hoped that the students would be engaged in a process that would help them see the interconnection between the main issues raised in science education. Upon identifying the appropriate PBL problems without neglecting the course contents, it was also important to determine and match which learning outcomes can be addressed by which particular PBL problem (now is the course content). These were done by using a curriculum matrix, as shown in Table 21.

Table 21: Curriculum matrix to match the learning outcome to the new course content (PBL problems)

 Identify elements of constructivist teaching practices

 Provide justifications of the constructivist elements identified

 Differentiate constructivist and non-constructivist

 Construct an evaluation tool to evaluate a teaching

√ √

√

√

 Write a research report on students’ alternative conceptions

 Suggest ways to elicit students´ alternative conception

 Propose strategies to overcome students´

alternative conception

√

√ √

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 Explain the central tenets of 21^st century science learning

 Design a layout plan for a 21^st century science laboratory

 Justify the layout plan for 21^st century science laboratory

 Develop skills in searching for relevant information

 Ability to critically and creatively define the problem

 Acquire team skills through group work

 Demonstrate communication skills through presentation

 Ability to conduct individual studies based on the tasks given

As shown in the above table, each PBL problem has its own specific knowledge-type learning outcome that students are expected to achieve. The three PBL problems have addressed process and skill-type learning outcome to comply with the PBL principles, which emphasise on skills and competencies. Finally, the PBL problems were adapted, to fit in the new course content by preparing the PBL toolkit.