Mix of online, in-person classes at TJC

With a mix of online and in-person lessons, Mr Hendri Adriadi Rizal has found more opportunities to get his students engaged in meaningful debates.

And more debates of that kind, which are conceptually deeper, are made possible when students have picked up a base level of knowledge at home before class as part of blended learning, said the senior history teacher at Temasek Junior College (TJC) yesterday.

TJC has been experimenting with blended learning since 2018, a technique that integrates online and face-to-face teaching.

A key strategy employed at TJC is "flipped" learning - the students first study the lesson content and take simple quizzes on an online portal, and then attend class where further clarifications on the subject matter can be made.

This is a reversal from the traditional way of learning where students learn content in school and then apply it after class when completing homework assignments.

For instance, TJC's subject head for Chinese, Ms Cai Jun Jun, said students may watch a recorded lesson on letter writing before applying this skill with a teacher's guidance in class, allowing them to have a clearer picture of what letter writing entails before they embark on it.

Mr Koh Weining, head of TJC's humanities department, said the "flipped" model has changed the role teachers play.

"We have to facilitate (learning) a lot more during face-to-face lessons rather than teach content, so we are no longer 'the sages on the stage', where we just lecture," said Mr Koh.

Students are also encouraged to learn more independently when engaging in home-based learning, he said.

For instance, they are given short quizzes at the end of each segment during e-lessons, and can replay them if they get the answers wrong or to clear up misunderstandings. Their teacher's feedback also appears on screen when wrong answers are selected.

These methods have enhanced students' motivation and allowed them to master subjects better, said Mr Koh, based on feedback and test scores collated by the school and the quality of students' questions.

Ultimately, the teachers hope blended learning, which Education Minister Lawrence Wong said yesterday will be implemented at secondary schools and junior colleges from next year, will allow students to pick up skills for use beyond school, such as a curiosity for the world or a sense of accountability and ownership over learning.

Mr Koh said freeing up more time to focus on skills like critical thinking "by not placing content on too high a pedestal" allows students time to develop more analytical abilities that will benefit them in the working world. "The content in a certain subject area might change drastically down the road, but it's unlikely that the skills will."