Fostering Collaborative Criticality Through a Multiliteracies Learning Analytics Innovation in Singapore: Promises and Problematics

• In Event: Innovating Learning and Teaching in a Centralized Education System: Potentialities and Problematics

Abstract

Collaborative and critical literacies are essential to young people’s productive participation in contemporary global knowledge economies. Yet, research has shown that the classroom can often be an uncomfortable and problematic space for developing such skills and dispositions (Anstey & Bull, 2011; Beck, 2005). Several reasons have been posited for this learning problem in Singapore secondary English classrooms (Tan, Daud & Tay, 2015): First, while students’ lifeworlds now see them interacting predominantly with multimodal texts in rich social media platforms, the English texts used during formal curriculum time are still largely print-based in nature. Second, in the conventional curriculum and pedagogical setup, students and teachers have limited opportunities to extend their reading practices and interactions in socially, cognitively and technologically engaging ways, beyond the allocated class time. Third, students and teachers have limited access to meaningful and timely formative feedback on their personal reading engagement and progress that can enable ongoing self-monitoring and adaptation of learning behaviours and teaching practices.
This paper documents a design-based research (Barab & Squire, 2004) study of a techno-pedagogical innovation—WiREAD—that was designed to address the learning issues identified above. In brief, WiREAD is a web-based collaborative reading and learning diagnostics environment aimed at fostering students’ critical reading skills, deepen reading engagement, and promote self-regulated and collaborative knowledge construction, both during and beyond formal English class time. Its primary objective is that of motivating and scaffolding students to develop richer dialogue and quality interactions with peers around multimodal texts, thereby deepening their personal connection to and appreciation for reading as a highly relevant and meaningful social practice. The core learning design of WiREAD is underpinned by socio-constructivist (Stahl, Koschmann & Suthers, 2006) and connectivistic (Siemens, 2005) learning theories and a Multiliteracies pedagogical framework (Tan & McWilliam, 2009).
The efforts undertaken to implement and evaluate WiREAD as an integrated component of the upper secondary English curriculum in one ‘seed innovation’ school in Singapore will be critically discussed. This discussion is situated in light of the higher call by policymakers and funding stakeholders of WiREAD to engender broader translation and diffusion of 21C technology-enhanced teaching and learning practices across Singapore schools. Drawing from empirical evidence from (i) inferential statistical analyses of quantitative data (pre/post-tests, student self-reported questionnaire, online learning data) and (ii) membership categorization analysis of qualitative data (staff interviews and student focus groups), the paper foregrounds the educational promises and problems that arise as the ‘rubber’ of well-intentioned learning innovations such as WiREAD ‘hits the road’ of entrenched socio-institutional beliefs and practices in mainstream schooling. These insights will be framed through a unique combination of four critical stakeholder perspectives—a facilitator-researcher, an English head of department and teacher, a policymaker, and approximately 240 secondary 3 (year 9) students. In conclusion, the author deliberates the enablers and barriers—technological, pedagogical and cultural—to the successful ‘scaling’ of learning innovations such as WiREAD, within and beyond one incubator school.

Author

• Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University