Abstract
Through the use of the Stanford Mobile Inquiry-based Learning Environment (SMILE), students are provided with a digital platform to generate questions, with the purpose of clarifying conceptual doubts, as well as to challenge and learn from each other. This paper seeks to find out whether SMILE has any effect on the nature and efficacy of learners’ questions in Singapore and assess whether SMILE is an effective and reliable tool in helping students achieve better conceptual understanding and accuracy. It also demonstrates how the use of SMILE can be translated as well as sustained in schools, in alignment with the ecological framework which is the thesis of the present book. SMILE lessons were conducted at a secondary school during Physics lessons, with students being encouraged to generate questions related to the subject. Survey data was collected from both teachers and students, and the questions generated by students from three classes were analysed according to content relevance, conceptual accuracy as well as question type, the latter of which is categorised by Bloom’s Taxonomy. There do not seem to be significant changes with regard to the percentage of accurate questions generated, nor the proportion of higher-order thinking questions per student. Nevertheless, both teachers and students are fairly optimistic about the use of SMILE in engaging students in critical thinking. This finding correlates with data indicating an increase in variation of question type over time.
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Lim, K.Y.T., Song, B.H., Kho, M.X. (2019). Exploring the Change in Nature and Efficacy of Learners’ Questions Through Progressive Interaction with the Stanford Mobile Inquiry-based Learning Environment (SMILE). In: Hung, D., Lee, SS., Toh, Y., Jamaludin, A., Wu, L. (eds) Innovations in Educational Change. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6330-6_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6330-6_11
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