Dr Wong Lung Hsiang Speaks on how Seamless Learning can Inform Home-Based and Blended Learning Practices

Dr Wong Lung Hsiang, Senior Research Scientist at the Office of Education Research, presented at two webinars to local teachers on how seamless learning can inform home-based and blended learning practices amid and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Wong was invited by local Chinese press 联合早报 (Lianhe Zaobao) to deliver a talk in Mandarin on 18 September 2020 at their annual Chinese Teachers’ Seminar, 2020 年华文教师交流会 (2020 Chinese Teachers’ Seminar). The seminar tackled the question of “线上教学方式众多，教师怎么做才能让学生一直保持学习的热忱？” (“With multiple ways to conduct online learning, how can teachers sustain students’ passion for learning?”)

In Dr Wong’s presentation, titled 《 “语言学习的穿越剧” 》 (“Language Learning that Transcends Time and Space”), he offered tips on how to conduct engaging and effective Chinese lessons in home-based and blended learning settings. In particular, he emphasised how teachers’ good understanding of the unique resources and learning opportunities afforded by individual learning environments (be it the physical classroom, home, or cyberspace) can help them draw the most out from these environments when designing a holistic, seamless learning experience. He then shared the lesson designs and students’ learning outcomes from his previous seamless Chinese learning projects, and discussed how such learning tasks could be adapted for Home-Based Learning (HBL) now, and in the future. The seminar was attended by over 130 Chinese teachers in Singapore.

On 12 October 2020, Dr Wong spoke to over 40 schoolteachers at the first meeting of the High-Ability Learners Networked Learning Community (Secondary) helmed by Dr Leong Swee Ling, Master Teacher (Secondary Mathematics) at the Academy of Singapore Teachers. In his talk, titled “What ‘seams’ shall we remove in the ‘old’ and new education normal? Understanding seamless learning and its place in formal curriculum”, Dr Wong recounted the history of international research in seamless learning supported by 1:1 (one-device-per-student) settings and his team’s decade-long school-based studies in redesigning formal curricula. He also shared pointers on how the seamless learning approach may inform enriched designs of blended learning, HBL and 1:1 learning, all of which will be implemented in secondary schools managed by the Singapore Ministry of Education from the next academic year onwards.