Dr Teo Chew Lee Gives Keynote Address and Co-Authors Two Conference Papers
Based on research findings from a project she is co-Principal Investigator in, Dr Teo Chew Lee, Senior Research Scientist at the Office of Education Research (OER), has given a keynote address, and co-authored two conference papers. The project, titled “Leveraging leadership to sustain the dynamic professional development and identities of preschool teachers and beyond: The case for Knowledge Building Community”, is funded by a national research fund administered by the Institute for Adult Learning Singapore and led by Principal Investigator Prof David Hung, OER Dean. The research project seeks to create a sustainable professional development (PD) model that embeds the design of collaboration, ownership of learning, and leadership into the PD experiences of preschool teachers.
Speaking at the virtual graduation ceremony of students from the Singapore University of Social Sciences’ Early Childhood Education programme on 9 October 2020, Dr Teo’s speech, titled “Can young children work together and build knowledge?” drew on her experiences working with preschool teachers and students as she gathered data for the project.
The research process has also adapted to accommodate the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Dr Teo and Dr Alwyn Lee, OER Research Fellow, have investigated a case study of preschool teachers who continued their professional discussions on a virtual and asynchronous discussion platform throughout the lockdown period caused by COVID-19. This resulted in a paper, submitted to the 28th International Conference on Computers in Education, organised by the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education. The paper, titled “Connecting Teachers during a Global Crisis: A Knowledge Building Professional Development Approach to Embracing the New Normal”, deals with the considerations and implementation of a community-based PD effort to work through the ‘new normal’ and how this professional culture is conducive for tackling the constant change and disruption faced in the educational landscape. The paper was published in the conference proceedings which can be accessed here.
Additionally, Dr Teo and Dr Lee worked with Ms Gabrielle Ong, OER Research Assistant, and Assoc Prof Kim Mi Song from Western University’s Curriculum Studies and Studies in Applied Linguistic Academic and Research Cluster, to write and present the conference paper “Enhancing Pre-school Teachers’ Professional Development using Knowledge Building during Home-Based Learning” at the Virtual Knowledge Building Summer Institute on 20 November 2020. The paper analysed a preschool teacher’s contributions on two platforms to explore how the teacher used knowledge building to enhance her PD and how this can be extrapolated and applied more widely.
