JURNAL PENDIDIKAN SAINS & MATEMATIK MALAYSIA

VOL.3 NO.2 ISSN 2232-0393

CREATING A BEST PRACTICE OF

THOUGHTFUL CHEMISTRY CLASSROOM

Ng Soo Boon
Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia

Abstract

The search for best practice is a major concern of all education service
providers. The general belief is these best practices can be emulated by
other teachers. An earlier case study had been conducted on four Malaysian
master teachers teaching the Revised Secondary Science Curriculum (RSSC),
specifically the Physics, Biology and Chemistry subjects. RSSC advocated
for thoughtful teaching and learning in the classroom. Subsequently the same
study was repeated with three other Master Chemistry Teachers. Master
teachers are experts instituted by the Ministry of Education Malaysia in
the respective subject areas. It can be logically deduced that their teachings
could qualify as best practice. The study is of the qualitative paradigm and
exploratory in nature. Long term observations and interviews were the two
main methods of data collection engaged in this study. The outcome of this
study revealed that although the Chemistry master teachers demonstrated
some similarities in their personal characteristics, played some similar roles
in the classroom, used some similar instructional events in their classroom,
each of them is still unique and each developed his/her own conception of
thoughtful teaching. Idiosyncrasies existed in the implementation of a similar
curriculum in the quest of developing a thoughtful classroom. Findings
suggested that opportunities of communication between the curriculum
planners and practicing teachers need to be provided. There is a need to
establish relationship between teachers original ideas and the new ideas
suggested by the intended curriculum. This also means that best practice
cannot be emulated wholesale but served only as exemplars where ideas can
be adopted and adapted.

Keywords Thoughtful learning, curriculum implementation, best

practice, science education

Abstrak

Mengenal pasti amalan terbaik dalam pengajaran merupakan satu usaha yang
amat diambil perhatian oleh tenaga pengajar. Amalan terbaik dan menjadi
kepercayaan boleh diperluaskan penggunaanya dan turut dicontohi oleh
guru lain. Satu kajian kes terkini berkenaan dengan amalan pengajaran telah
dijalankan terhadap empat orang guru pakar Fizik, Kimia dan Biologi yang
mengajar Kurikulum Sains Sekolah yang mencadangkan konsep pembelajaran
berfikrah. Satu kajian yang penggunakan kerangka teori dan metodologi yang
sama telah diulangi ke atas tiga orang guru pakar Kimia. Guru pakar untuk
setiap mata pelajaran merupakan pakar yang diiktirafkan oleh Kementerian
Pendidikan Malaysia dalam bidang pengajaran mereka. Secara logiknya
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pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang dilaksanakan oleh mereka boleh dikenali

sebagai amalan terbaik. Kajian secara kualitatif dan bersifat penerokaan ini
menggunakan pendekatan pemerhatian jangkamasa panjang dan temubual
untuk mendapatkan data. Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa walaupun
guru-guru pakar Kimia yang menjadi sampel dalam kajian ini memaparkan
kesamaan daripada segi ciri keperibadian mereka, peranan yang dimainkan
dalam bilik darjah, kaedah pengajaran yang diamalkan dalam bilik darjah,
setiap orang guru pakar ini masih bersifat unik dalam pengajaran dan
pembelajaran yang dilaksanakan dan mempunyai konsepsi kendiri tentang
pembelajaran berfikrah. hubungan wujud dalam pelaksanaan satu kurikulum
yang sama dalam usaha pembentukan satu bilik darjah berfikrah. Dapatan
kajian mencadangkan kepentingan menjalinkan komunikasi antara perancang
kurikulum dan guru pelaksana. Perhubungan antara idea asli guru dengan idea
baru yang dicadangkan oleh kurikulum yang dihasratkan perlu dikenalpasti
dan dibina. Kesimpulannya, amalan terbaik pengajaran dan pembelajaran
tidak boleh ditiru secara menyeluruh tetapi idea amalan terbaik boleh menjadi
contoh untuk digunakan atau diadaptasikan dalam bilik darjah.

Kata kunci Pembelajaran berfikrah, pelaksanaan kurikulum, amalan

terbaik, pendidikan sains

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Schools are the home of the mind where power of thought, habits of mind as well as
skillful thinking are being developed; in these homes of the mind, process of thinking
is the main content of curriculum and instruction (Costa, 1991;Costa &Kallick, 2008,
2009; Swartz, Costa, Beyer, Reagan &Kallick, 2008). Developing this intellectual
power is in fact the chief function of school (Taba&Elzey, 1964). Perkins (1992)
described schools fulfilling this function as smart schools- schools where the teaching
and learning processes as well as the decision-making processes are thinking centred.
Chemistry as a subject which needs critical and creative mind is a thinking subject
that is rightfully offered in all Malaysian Upper secondary schools. A qualitative study
was conducted in the year 2002 focusing on how four Upper secondary expert science
teachers (Lim, Zakiah, Rajendran and Haryati) created thoughtful classroom (Ng, 2004).
Among these teachers is a Chemistry teacher named as Lim. The study succeeded in
drawing out the thoughts of the science teachers including Lim into formulating their
conceptual framework of thoughtful teaching, their preferred strategies and most of
all their personality traits which were found to provide impetus for their thoughtful
teaching. Finding from the study especially on Lim was subsequently being used in
a follow-up study to develop instruments to be used onto other Chemistry teachers.
The purpose is to see if the findings of the study on Lim (hereafter referred to as the
initial study) could be extrapolated to other Chemistry teachers. This paper contained
findings of this later effort (hereafter referred to as the current study).

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Research Questions

The purpose of this current study is to inquire into master Chemistry teachers
understanding of the concept of thoughtful learning and to investigate his or her
application of the concept in the teaching. Accordingly, this current study is designed
to answer the following research questions:
i). What influence the master Chemistry teachers in creating a thoughtful classroom?
ii). What is the master Chemistry teachers conception of teaching towards creating a
thoughtful classroom?
iii). How do the master Chemistry teachers create thoughtful classroom?

Thoughtful Classroom

Thoughtful learning is defined as learning which involves active mental processes.

Udall and Daniels (1991) defined thoughtful classroom as a community engrossed
in disciplined inquiry where both students and teacher value complex thinking and
regularly engage in thoughtful discourse. Complex thinking here means the mental
techniques or abilities that enable human beings to formulate thoughts, to reason
about, or to judge (Udall & Daniels, 1991). Browns (1991) idea of a thinking school
is where vivid and interesting conversations take place up and down the hierarchy
of the school system, making it a symbolically rich place. Thoughtful classroom
can thus be operationally defined as the gathering of the learning community, the
ambience, the environment, the communication and the activities that happen within
the lesson in the confine of the classroom. Classroom here takes a wider meaning
to include any location of the learning, for example laboratory, science centre or an
out of class location such as by a river. A number of experts in the area of thinking
and teaching have devoted considerable attention to identify a thoughtful classroom
and to determine the characteristics of a thoughtful teacher. They analysed thoughtful
classroom through the features or characteristics of the main players in the classroom
(i.e. teachers and students). Through their empirical data, they have discovered that a
thoughtful classroom is inquiry based, has a caring ambience, with students involved
actively and teacher acting as a model to students and providing autonomy (Beyer,
1997; Brophy, 1992; Brown, 1991; Lipman, 1991; Newmann, 1990a, 1990b; Onosko,
1992; Perkins, 1992; Udall & Daniels, 1991). Concept of thoughtful learning was
forwarded to the Malaysian Chemistry teachers through the implementation of the
Revised Chemistry Curriculum implemented in all Malaysian Upper Secondary Schools
since 2002. Thoughtful learning was defined in Revised Chemistry Curriculum as a
process of acquisition of knowledge and skills which can expand the students mind
to its optimumStudents would be involved actively in the teaching and learning
which integrate acquisition of knowledge, mastery of skills and inculcation of moral
values and scientific attitude (Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum [PPK], 2000a, 2000b,
2000c).

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Theoretical Framework of Study

Macdonald (1965) propounded that there are four systems working in a classroom:
curriculum, teaching, instruction and learning. Curriculum is the course of study;
instruction is the actual interaction in the classroom; teaching is the unique patterns of
experiences, values, attitudes, etc., of a given teacher (Macdonald, 1965, p.5) which
affects teaching behaviour; learning on the other hand is the unique experiences,
values, attitudes, etc., of each individual learner (Macdonald, 1965, p.5) which affects
learning. Tracing the thought processes of teachers and examining their interactions
with the curriculum documents to produce classroom instruction is a study of the
interfaces between these systems. Through day-to-day instruction, these teachers are
the most important instrument for the success of any curriculum innovation (Swartz
& Parks, 1994). Although the objectives and activities of any curriculum innovation
are targeted at students, in actual fact, teacher always acts as a mediator. How the
students experience the new curriculum is mediated by the variety of decisions made by
teachers (Remillard, 1999). These decisions are governed by teachers understanding
of the curriculum and consideration of other factors. Classroom happenings needs to
be understood and explored in its actual perspective based on the interaction of the four
systems (Macdonald,1965). In this study, the theoretical underpinning of Macdonald
was adopted in the planning, collection and analysis of data in the quest of obtaining
a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of the participants creation of
thoughtful classroom.

METHODOLOGY

This study adopted a qualitative case study paradigm which was exploratory in nature.
Case study methodology was chosen because the aim was to examine a contemporary
phenomenon from the perspective of teacher, where an in-depth understanding of what
the teacher thinks and does is necessary. Methods of data collection included individual
interviews with the participants, group interviews with participants students, and
observation of participants teaching. An initial unstructured interview was conducted
with each participant to obtain understanding of his or her experience in teaching,
beliefs or philosophy in teaching, perspective on thoughtful learning, his or her thoughts
on the relation between the existing curriculum and thoughtful learning. Unstructured
interview were againconducted immediately after each observation of participants
teaching. Issues brought up during these interviews were related to instructional events
or behaviour of teachers or students during the lessons observed. Interviews conducted
is equivalent to Pattons (1980) informal conversational interview which relies
entirely on the spontaneous generation of questions in the natural flow of an interaction
(Patton, 1980, p.198) where the persons being talked to may not even realised that they
were being interviewed.
From Macdonalds perspective, students beliefs, values and experience affect
instruction thus group interviews with participants students were conducted to seek
their opinion of the thoughtfulness of participants teaching as well as their opinion of
characteristic of thoughtful teachers. During these interviews, reference was made to
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the lessons observed by the researcher. Students interview is good for triangulation
and provided insight into other perspectives of the participants teaching. Collection
of data for a qualitative study ended only when saturation of data was observed, this
took approximately 10 months for Lim (initial study). Within this duration, he was
observed six times. Each observation was conducted on a double-period lesson lasted
80 minutes. Each lesson was video-taped and audio-taped recorded by researcher using
a handy video-camcorder and two audio-tape recorders. All the tapes were subsequently
transcribed verbatim. This process however was not repeated for the participants in the
currentstudy. The participants in the current study were each observed two times only.
Observation was made using observation instruments which were developed based
on the finding from the initial study on four master science teachers (Lim, Zakiah,
Rejendran, Haryati).These are the observation instrumentson instructional events,
instructional strategies, and personal characteristics. Items in these instruments were
developed based on the categories and themes emerged from the initial study. These
instruments have been validated by an expert in Chemistry Education. Initially, the
researcher intended to only use findings from Lim but it was discovered that participants
in this current study did exhibit instructional strategies and personal characteristics
of Zakiah, Rajendran and Haryati as well. The researcher also recorded events not
exhibited by Lim, Zakiah, Rajendran and Haryati.
In a case study, the boundary of the unit of study (Merriam, 2001, 2009) has
to be delineated and its occupant identified. In this current study, the occupants in the
bounded system are expert teachers on Chemistry, namely Tajudin, Wong and Faridah.
Being master teachers (guru pakar), the participants have exhibited exemplary
performance in teaching of Chemistry. They were selected and appointed by the
Ministry of Education through stringent procedures of evaluation. Master teachers are
given a higher salary scale compared to the rest of the teachers. Choice of master
teachers was made for this study since literature had indicated that outstanding or expert
teachers are frequently related to teacher who can affect students to think (Newmann,
1990a, 1990 b; Onosko, 1992). Validity and reliability of study were ensured through
triangulation, long term observation, members check, peer examination and keeping
an audit trail. Analysis of data and synthesis of findings were conducted through three
stages; these were open coding, axial coding and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin,
1990). Constant comparative method was used as the analytical technique throughout
the three stages of data analysis. Through selective coding, the central theme of the
participants conception of thoughtful teaching was identified and developed based on
findings from interviews and observation. Interview with participants students were
used for triangulation purpose.

FINDINGS

Findings emerged from the study were categorised into teachers role, personal characteristics
and conception of thoughtful teaching.Findings from each individual participant were
expounded before comparison within case and between cases were made. Discussion on
teachers role and personal characteristics was also made by comparing between the case of
Lim from initial study to Tajudin, Wong and Faridah from this current study.
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Teachers Role

In the initial study about Lim, it was discovered that the major factors influencing Lims
creation of a thoughtful classroom were his personal characteristic, his beliefs about
teaching and learning, as well as his interpretation and manifestation of teachers role.
The roles that he played were that of a leader-director, facilitator-prober, motivator and
autonomy provider (Ng, 2004, 2012). Classification of these roles was made based on
the sub-categories of instructional events observed in the initial study. Similar findings
were also discovered in the other science expert teachers (Biology and Physics teachers)
in the same study (Ng, 2004).

Teacher as leader director providing direction and modelling

A leader-director orchestrates happenings, leads and guides the group to achieve the
predetermined objectives. Instructional events emerged from the initial study related to
participants playing the role of leader-director were categorised as providing direction
and modelling. Providing direction was participants action which indicated that he/
she led, set the direction and showed the way. The main feature here was participant
spoke with little verbal response from students. Three themes emerged under this
category, depicting the purposes of provide direction, which are: guiding students
on what to do and how to do,facilitating learning and demonstrating thinking by
carrying out thinking tasks. Modelling was where participants as the expert showing
students his/her thoughts, it was like this is how I do it, follow me, providing the
mean for students to emulate his/her behaviour/working. Modelling was seen from
three behaviours which were: revealing line of thoughts, justifying teachers action or
decision and using template to teach.
It has been observed that Tajudin and Wong played the role of leader director
much like Lim. They fulfilled most of the subcategories of behaviours leading to the
role of leader director emerged from observation of Lim. They too guided students on
what to do and how to do, facilitated learning and demonstrated thinking by carrying
out thinking tasks as well as revealed line of thoughts as they taught in the classroom.
However it was not the case with Faridah. Faridah gave instruction on what to do but
did not facilitate learning or demonstrate thinking and no modelling was observed.

Teacher as autonomy provider

As an autonomy provider, teacher facilitated learning by giving autonomy to students.
Students were provided the freedom to give opinion, make decision and learn from
their peers. Autonomy provider was a role played by Lim. He sought students decision,
letting students make their own choice. He also often asked students to learn from one
another, compared answers/findings with their friends, asked peers to identify mistake
of their friends, and evaluated their friends work. Tajudin, Wong and Faridah did not
play this role in their teaching.

Teacher as facilitator prober

A major role that Lim played which had emerged from the data was the role of
facilitator-prober. As a facilitator-prober, Lim facilitated learning by probing students,
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asking them many questions. More specifically, probing was where Lim asked students
a series of continuous, related questions (two or more questions) to find out how they
think, to lead them into understanding concepts or to solve problem. Analysis of these
questions asked yielded categorises such as analyse, attribute, classify, compare, control
variable, deduce, and define operationally which are basically critical thinking skills.
Other than critical thinking related questions, Lim also asked a lot of creative thinking
related questions such as design, generalise, hypothesise, infer, justify besides problem
solving questions. Tajudin and Wong played the role of facilitator-prober much as Lim
did. Faridah did not probe in the same way as Lim, Tajudin and Wong. She did not ask
many probing questions.

Teacher as motivator verbal motivation and caring attitude

As a motivator, Lim provided motivation through caring and verbal motivation. Verbal
motivating is motivating using words uttered by the participants who acknowledge
students effort, giving praises and saying thank you. Lim exhibited some level of verbal
motivation but much higher level of caring. Lim cared about students by regularly
approaching them asking after their progress in their learning. He maintained a caring
attitude inside and outside the classroom. Tajudin and Wong motivated their students
through verbal motivation but this was not observed much in Faridahs teaching.

Personal Characteristics

One of the distinctive features observed of the participants was their personal
characteristics. Personal characteristics referred to the disposition, temperament and
regular behavioursof the participants which were distinctly observable during the
interaction of researcher with the participants and the observation of the participants
classroom teaching. Among these personal characteristics are confident, diligent,
enthusiastic, expressive, flexible, holistic, reflective, sincere, strict, systematic, warm
and willing to learn. Each participant has his or her own assortment of personal
characteristics.Lim is prominently confident, reflective, systematic, warm, holistic and
willing to learn. His personal characteristic influenced his thoughtful teaching. His
students appraised him as warm, confident and systematic. Tajudin and Wong shared
much of Lims characteristics; Faridah did not demonstrate much of the personal
characteristics as Lim, Tajudin and Wong.

Instructional Strategies

For comparison purposes, participants teaching in the current study was also analysed
based on categories and subcategories of instructional strategies emerged from the
initial study (Appendix 1). In many instances, Tajudin and Wong demonstrated some
similar instructional strategies as Lim, however, Faridah did not demonstrate much of
the instructional strategies as the others.

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Conceptions of Thoughtful Teaching

Using Strauss and Corbins (1990) method of axial coding and selective coding,
transcripts of participants teachings were analysed. Central themes and its relationships
were established through repeated interviews with teachers and students. Members
check was conducted where the conceptions of thoughtful teaching by each of the
participant were referred back to them for feedback and further improvement. Each of
the conceptions of thoughtful teaching is described in the following sub-sections.

Lims creation of thoughtful classroom

Lim is a Chinese man in his early fifties, clean shaven and of medium built. He walks
briskly, talks fast and is always on the move attending to meetings in the school and
out of school. Lim has taught Chemistry for 24 years in a school with a mixed racial
combination and mixed ability. Lim talked with authority and knew his subject well.
He spoke without reservation that he enjoys being with students, seeing them turn
around, this gives him great satisfaction. Lims focus was very much on learning.
Based on his constant reference to issues of learning such as evidence of learning,
learning output, learning attitudes, time effectiveness, researcher deduced that to Lim,
in teaching towards creating a thoughtful classroom, a teacher needs to concern himself
or herself primarily with imparting skills of management of learning among students
as shown in Figure 1. His belief in the importance of expressing ones understanding
in own words has resulted in him not giving notes to students but insisting that they
made their own notes, taking responsibility in managing own learning. He believes
that it is through this exercise of expressing oneself that one can truly understand
the concept learnt. Lims scope of management of learning covers also cultivating
learning attitudes such as reflecting upon what has been learnt before embarking on
something new, making it a habit to document own learning through making summary
of what have been learnt.
Another facet of management of learning is time management. Lim advised
students to manage their time well. Besides constantly giving advice, he also showed
his allegiance and practice of time management in all the lessons observed. For all
activities he gave to students, he would give a time frame, ranging between 5 to 10
minutes. Lim gave time frame to get students started on the activity and to set an
estimated range of time for the activity. Time effectiveness in Lims perspectives was
not only about students finishing the work, but teacher achieving the task he has in
mind and a training ground for students to manage their time. This was Lims strategy,
to save time; he was fully aware that students might not be able to complete the task
within the time frame he gave. Shrewdly, Lim managed to let this time frame helped
him to complete the lesson in time. That explains why he was always looking at his
watch during lesson. According to him, decision of how long is the time frame is
often mentally calculated on the spot and not pre-planned. This definitely needs an
experienced mind.
Lim thought that clarity is the most important element in teaching. He prided
himself in being told by many, students and teachers that his teaching or lecture was
clear and well structured. Clear and well-structured lessons facilitated students to
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manage their learning. In another word, Lim was modelling himself in management of
learning. One way where Lim made his lesson systematic and structured was through
the use of templates. He created template to facilitate learning. Besides using templates,
to ensure clarity Lim always repeated the same point in many different forms using
different approaches. Does it mean that Lim will always repeat concept a fixed number
of time? To this, Lim answered:

The number of repetition is not fixed, no. when you begin to notice students
are not getting it, for example, you ask questions, they didnt answer, you have
to put in another way, you cannot repeat exactly the same thing that you say,
it will be boring.

Another important prerequisite or condition for inculcating the habitual

management of ones learning is preparing the path to engage students, setting the
ambience ready for internalisation. Lim believed that the way to engage students is by
way of questioning. In the lessons observed, Lim asked a lot of questions and he made
an effort to direct the questions to as many students as possible. In coaxing students to
take charge of their own learning, motivation is very important. In the lessons observed,
Lim only occasionally gave encouraging words to students and acknowledges their
efforts. However, students in the class seemed to be highly motivated, they answered
questions promptly, they asked teacher questions when they were in a small group
or individually, they were very active in class. During students group interview,
researcher too found them enthusiastic and motivated. When researcher brought out
the issue of motivation during members check, Lim provided researcher with other
insights of what he thinks of motivation should be:

Basically my students are motivated not by expression or words, what they

see actually are sincerity, I monitor their progress. My students are very close
to me, partly because of my interaction with them outside, I often asked them
if their marks have gone up significantly, that they must be studying, those
are things that actually motivate them, rather than in the classroom. In the
classroom are mainly questions and answers. Maybe the bulk of motivation
actually is found outside the classroom and they could actually relate to me
very well, they actually come to me and say, well, this is something you have
done for me, from what they said, I deduce that it is outside the classroom.
They relate to me outside the classroom, even borderline students who are
written off by other teachers.

It does seem logical that motivation could be outside the classroom; something
which is not within the researchers scope to record the data. By putting management
of learning, clarity and structured in teaching in the central stage, Lim systematically
design lessons around these concepts. He described his teaching strategy as starting
with the big picture, followed by transition and finally reviews. He placed great
emphasis on big picture because he wants them to see the whole picture, the preview,
the overview. Big picture would reflect the final objective that teacher wanted to
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achieve through the lesson. Transition is the process to achieve the whole thing,
a process before you actually come to the conclusion, it could be by experiment,
discussion questioning technique.
In summary, being a pragmatic man, Lim places management of learning as
the focus of teaching towards creating a thoughtful classroom. In preparing students
to manage their learning, he ensured clarity and structure in his own teaching through
a strategy of big picture process review. To assist management of learning he
engaged students fully in the learning and he motivated students through his constant
care and concern for them. Figure 1 depicts his conception of thoughtful teaching.

Figure 1: Lims Conception of Thoughtful Teaching

Tajudins Creation of Thoughtful Classroom

Tajudin is medium built and in his early 40s. He looked confident and went about
teaching in a systematicmanner. He showed great concern about his students
achievement in Chemistry. He admitted that his emphasis was on examination which
he said all residential schools do anyway. He has taught Chemistry since 1994, five
years in a non-residential school and 9 years in a residential school (students in
residential schools are selected and normally perform better than non-residential
schools). Tajudin is a result oriented person; he created his unique method of asking
students to do laboratory reports before doing experiment. His argument was that by
doing so students were more prepared for laboratory work and would learn more. He
repeatedly stated that his studentswould then know what to expect and what findings
is anticipated, they then can compare the actual result with the intended result. When
he was asked if by doing so, he has taken away the fun and the purpose out of doing
experiment, he said at the end of the experiment when students found discrepancy
between the actual result and the theoretical result from the book, they would need to
think why, they learn more this way. During group interview with students, Tajudins
students actually contradicted this suggestion by saying that they like to do experiment
and doing experiments help them to think better than to read from book. Tajudins
students were accustomed to this way of teaching. When they were asked to comment
on this activity of pre prepared laboratory report they seemed to be at ease with it.
Their thoughts are as below:

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When we do pre-report, we know what we want to do

We know the steps, it is easier to understand.
Sometimes result contradicts, it gets interesting, we need to reason out why was
it like this
Pre-report is best
Pre-report is easier, we dont feel so blur

Tajudin probed a lot in the classroom. In both of the lessons observed by the
researcher, he walked around in the classroom when his students conducted experiments
and he asked them questions. His questions ranged from the what to the how and
why questions. He said he wanted his students to think, he has analysed examination
questions and discovered that most questions required students to infer and to conclude
which his students are not good at. According to him:

Since I have been observing the exam questions, they have the observation
and the inferences, actually when you are learning science, I observe that
they are lacking on this part, ah. I do this O I C, Observation, Inference,
Conclusion, so it is in three columns and I will ask them. OK this group, your
litmus paper turns red, what is your inference, there is H ions, so what is the
conclusionwater.

During students interview, Tajudins students attested to his habit of constantly asking
verbal questions and wouldnt just provide them with answers which some students
protested and wished that he would write on the board more because they felt that
by just hearing we dont get much, we need to see it written on the board for us to
remember better.

Tajudin provided opportunity for students to make conclusion. What he did is described
as below:

Thats why I will give them a big sheet of paper (kertasmahjung) and I will ask
them to reflect, to sum up, to wrap up the day. Giving the mahjung paper, asking
them to reflect, I want them to be able to communicate in English actually.
They will just have there; they will not have the effort to put in their note. The
mahjung paper is for them to do the presentation, not only the result.

Tajudin analysed his students and found that they were not good in consolidating their
understandings in words, to train them he came up with this idea of note taking which
he is very proud of. He said that this is good for processing information.

But as for me I think, as you see afterwards, I will use the guided learning
approach. Dealing with such students, the selected one, so I give them in
advance the curriculum specification. I print out and I give them this print
out. I ask them to do note making. I ask my student to do notemaking which is
considered very different, they have to write on their own.
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Tajudin thinks that by asking students to make their own note and prepare reports
before experiment he is doing thoughtful teaching. This is deduced from the below:

I give them in advance the curriculum specification. I print out and I give
them this print out. I ask them to do note making. ..Note Making I intend
to train them to process the information. They have the information from the
book, but they have to write on their own and as for the experiment, I ask
them to do the report in advance before coming in, so when they come in, they
will have the report before they do the experiment. I will ask them to compare
between the actual result and the intended result they should get. In this way,
um.. .. If we understand this is berfikrah (thoughtful) way of teaching and
learning.

By prompting and motivating students to do their own note, Tajudin has probably used
some strong words; his students have this to say:

I dont agree when he said that what is written in the book is rubbish, how
can knowledge be rubbish.
The message is alright, but I do not agree when he said that if you do not
understand what is written in the book then the book has written rubbish.
The idea is alright, but I disagree with the word rubbish.

When Tajudin was asked what he thinks of teaching Chemistry in a thoughtful way as
recommended in the curriculum, he was hesitant and has this to say:

I think it (the thoughtful/thinking part) is not so well defined in the book

itself (curriculum document) but it has to be . They keep on reminding the
teachers that they should not be exam orientated. But..

When his students were interviewed, they think that he is a thinking teacher.
Referred to the lessons observed they identified the thinking that is going on as
reasoning, they explained that they had to reason why observation was as such, why
was there a change and why comparison need to be made. They reasoned during
discussion and exchanging of ideas with teacher and friends. They reasoned when
Tajudin asked those questions. Tajudin has from the beginning of the year told them
that he would not provide them with answers, they need to search for it themselves,
they need to do their own note and they need to be independent. He did not use the
white board much. Tajudin motivated the students by constantly reminding his students
that they are selected students and should strive hard. His students protested in their
conversation with the researcher that Tajudin adding pressure to them and that they
are not so clever actually. Tajudin also prompted them to talk more and asked more
questions in the classroom. Comments from his students included:

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We dont know what to ask.

Sometimes we dont ask because the answers and notes are already in the
book, we felt that there is no need to ask.
Teacher should give tips on examination questions and provide us with
examination format.

Consolidating Tajudins idea of creation of thoughtful classroom, it is obvious

that Tajudins focused on getting it right, he wants his students to get it right either
in terms of chemistry knowledge, chemistry skills, thinking skills or skills in solving
chemistry problem. His obsession in getting it right has resulted in his action of training
students to do note taking, to do pre-experiment report. He scaffold the getting it right
through lots of questioning.

Figure 2: Tajudins Conception of Thoughtful Teaching

Wongs Conception of Thoughtful Teaching

Wong is thin, small size, looks serious and slightly nervous when the researcher first
interviewed her. She was anxious about researchers possible comment at the end of
the lesson and told her that she wanted the comment to improve herself. She has ten
years of experience in teaching chemistry. She majored in Mathematics and minored
in Chemistry in the university and do not think that highly of Chemistry. She said that
her passion is on students, not on Chemistry. She probably has set high standard on her
own teaching, her motto is I must deliver well that my students understand and enjoy
in my lesson. She motivated her students with the same vigour challenging them to
do their utmost best and putting in maximum effort, telling them if students who are
sick can do it, you in this comfortable setting must do even better. Her seriousness in
her task is also reflected when her students talked about the daily routine Wong set for
them teacher wants us to before going to bed do 5 minutes revision on chemistry that
has just been learned. Wong thinks that the Chemistry curriculum is knowledge laden
and she does not see science process skills or thinking skills across the curriculum,
she said that these skills are concentrated in certain topics, example in the calculation
or application of concept. Her understanding of scientific skills is that of practical
manipulative skills, mainly in laboratory work.
Wong is exam-oriented, she thinks teaching chemistry is for examination. She
mentioned repeatedly being in a residential school, one is forced to be exam oriented.
In the lessons that were observed, she has grouped students into small study groups
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prior to the lesson, assigning each group to a specific topic to study, the task was that
they should become expert in that particular topic and can teach their friends, they were
given a set of questions to be answered. In the lesson observed, groups of students put
up a mahjung paper with answer to particular question and presented the answer to the
whole class. Other students were encouraged to comment and to identify their mistake.
Wong facilitated the discussion by asking the following questions and comments:

- Do you think your answer would score full mark?

- What do you think is wrong here?
- Do you have any more things to tell your friends here? (directed to the class)
- How many marks here? So how many points you need to have?
- What comes to your mind when you see this question?
- How do you do it?
- Can someone tell me this one (pointed to a mistake)?
- Can we rephrase your answer you have got all the points here?

Wong explained her teaching methodology as that of lecture and questions, she
said she generally spent 50% of her time lecturing and 50% questioning. Her questions
were the why questions and she felt asking questions are important in teaching
Chemistry, students need to think. During students group interview, Wongs students
too revealed that Wong always asked them questions and made them discuss because
she wants us to think. They rationalised Wongs action by saying that if teacher
gives us answer, we dont think. However her students admitted that sometimes we
dont feel like thinking, we just want the answer. Wongs students were accustomed
to questioning, this was reflected when they talked about responsibility of a thinking
student as follow:

As a thinking students, need to try to solve problem, apply what has been
learned, answer teachers questions, give responses, attempt to do the exercise,
respect teachers, active, ask questions, alert, active.

Upon self-reflectionWong felt that she is only 50% successful in creating the
thinking ambience in the classroom. She put the blame on the push by the school
administration for them to finish syllabus by end of July because end of year examination
is on August. Wongs understanding of inquiry discovery is that students doing on their
own, teacher only acts as facilitator, theory does not come first. She admitted that
she does not practice inquiry discovery all the time, it is only sometimes that she let
students conduct experiment, or demonstrate experiment (by students). She attributted
this to time constraint and the need to finish syllabus at a stipulated time.Wong thinks
that drilling and doing are both important. In her opinion drilling is teacher-
centered which is whatever that comes from the teacher including questions, teacher
giving information, student listen, doing means student-centered where students are
doing work. Wong emphasized on method of answering questions, she wanted to instil
in the girls the strife for excellence. Her measure of excellence was in performance in
examination. She practiced cooperative learning and gave autonomy to her students
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to teach others. In the lessons observed, her students were able to present in front
of the class, not perfectly but confidently signifying that they have done this often.
In fact Wong revealed that she made her students studied on certain topic, prepared
PowerPoint and took over her place to teach their fellow classmates.
Consolidating Wongs idea of thoughtful teaching revealed that Wong
emphasised on excellence in examination, she is so focus that her teaching is mainly
guiding students to answer examination questions, she drilled students on techniques
of answering, and she asked probing questions with the intention that students discover
the correct technique to obtain high score. In the process the thinking ambience is
created but perhaps it is more a by-product than the actual intention.

Diagram 3: Wongs Conception of Thoughtful Teaching

Faridahs Conception of Thougtful Teaching

Faridah is a middle aged lady who has taught Chemistry since 1980s, she has been in
the present school since 1982. Faridah looked worried when talked about her Chemistry
students, she felt that most of her students are not so bright (her students are from
middle to low social economic status family) and her not so bright students could not
visualise the chemistry concept she is teaching. She felt that her students need a lot of
guidance and discovery learning cannot be carried out without guidance.

Actually I use constructivism, discovery as proposed in the curriculum when

teaching. When he (student) can explain why the mass reduce, he (student)
is constructing meaning. When he conducts experiment, inquiry takes place.
However, from my experience, my experience when exam, he could not answer,
he does not obtain anything (knowledge). He becomes confuse, he could not
answer thinking questions, he cannot write. What was taught could not come
out from him, he did not construct his understanding.

Faridahs main criticism of the current Chemistry Curriculum and text book is that it
emphasised too much on experiment and not so much on Chemistry knowledge. It is
a disadvantage to students as they could not get much information from the text book.
According to her, Books of the past are better, there are plenty of notes which are
important to students. Faridah thinks that experiments should not supercede theory in
terms of importance. She reinterated that:
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Through experiment only, sometimes students could not get the knowledge
that we are trying to pass on, he is still confused ... when I ask them to do
experiment, they are still blur, they do not understand. What is more important
is theory, experiments are only to strengthen understanding, just like in Form
6, experiment is only as reinforcement

According to her, it is because of this emphasis on experiment and not theory that
new teachers and students have problem understanding Chemistry. Since textbookdoes
not provide the kind of information that Faridah wanted his students to have, Faridah
resorted to using modules. She developed teaching modules and also used modules
produced by other Chemistry teachers from other schools. She claimed that many
teachers developed their own modules to facilitate their own teaching. Her modules
consists of important facts, notes, questions, examination formatas well as excercises
to help students focus, learn easier and to make teaching faster. Students were
required to sometimes refer to textbook to find answers for questions given in these
modules.
Faridah did not seem to have heard of the word thoughtul learning, but
she agreed that Chemistry is a medium for thinking. She claimed that Chemistry
students are more analytical and critical. They are more careful in observation too. To
her, thoughtful learning is about solving numerical problem and writing of equation.
However she then elaborated that there are two ways to make Chemistry students
think, one is through experiment, the next is through questioning. Faridah was evasive
when talked about the experiments that her students conducted in Chemistry lesson.
She started by saying that they have carried out many experiments then she murmured
about the minimum number of experiments required by the Ministry of Education.
In group interview with her students, they were hesitant to answer when asked about
experiments that they have conducted, this indicated that perhaps there was not much
experiments conducted.

Faridahs lack of faith in the effectiveness of conducting experiment was apparent as

she signed that there are experiments that would not yield result, she said that:

Chemistry. Often experiment does not work, like just now, experiment with
electricity did not yield the result we want, sometime ok, sometime not ok.
Experiment on Electrolysis, took a long time and does not work. Acid base and
salt experiments are easy.

The following researchers notes taken during her lesson provided some glimpses of
reasons that might explained the ineffectiveness of her experiments.

Faridah moved around to various groups but she seemed to be paying more
attention to students who ask her questions. She did not discuss with Group
3 who had some problem initially as according to the group,electric current
does not seem to be flowing in their electrolytic cell.

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Faridah didnt seem to be very good in classroom control. While she was
discussing results of the second set of data of Cu electrode and conclusion, she
seemed to be talking to only half of the class while the other half still fiddling
with their apparatus.

Group interview with her students revealed that her students did not think that her
teaching is effective. Consolidating from views expressed by Faridah, triangulated by
her students interview, it is apparent that Faridahs emphasises on factual knowledge
and preferred a more structured mechanisme in teaching. She found her solution in
modules or programmed learning as provided in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Faridahs Conception of Thoughtful Teaching

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Lim, Tajudin and Wong shared almost similar personal characteristics, played almost
similar roles in creating thoughtful classroom. The only big difference is Lim exhibited
characteristic of an autonomy provider in his lessons which Tajudin and Wong did
not. Lim, Tajudin and Wong were regarded by their students as thoughtful teachers
who managed to make their students think in Chemistry lesson. Thus it would seem
that perhaps expert teachers can be regarded as thoughtful teacher who exhibit similar
characteristic of thoughtful teachers. However since Faridah who shares the same
expert teacher status as Lim, Tajudin and Wong did not exhibit similar characteristic
thus that conclusion cannot be made. More studies need to be conducted to ascertain if
majority expert teachers do share similar thoughtfulness in their teaching.
The participants were very different in their manifestation of thoughtful teaching in
their classrooms. Lim believed in management of learning which Tajudin shared too,
however the method they used were different. Tajudin wanted accurate answer and
did not want to waste time, what he practiced might not be agreeable to the science
educationists or scientists. Lim was more open minded and allowed for exploration.
Wong wanted her students to think but she focused mainly on scoring in examination,
the thinking ambience was thus a by-product and not the main aim of her methodology
of teaching. Faridahs concern was imparting Chemistry knowledge and not so much on
thoughtful teaching. Lim is more conceptual in his thinking and understands Chemistry
in a broader sense; he is also less examination oriented compared to Tajudin, Wong and
Faridah.

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Each of the participants of this study tried to inculcate thinking among students,
however they made up their own mind about what is a thoughtful classroom and
implemented the curriculum according to this conception. This finding is similar to the
initial study involving Lim and three other master teachers (Lim the male Chemistry
teacher, Zakiah the female Biology teacher, Rajendran the male Biology teacher and
Haryati the female Physics teacher), each of these master teachers displayed their own
dimensions of thoughtful learning which were not provided in the curriculum. Each of
the participants had directed their attention to different elements of thoughtful teaching
guided by their preference and prominently displayed personal characteristics. Zakiah
strived to prepare the best possible environment and ambiance for thoughtful teaching,
she is a very motherly person. Rajendran designed his teaching around building up
students character, the other perspective of thoughtfulness, he talked philosophically
and believed that education is not only about Biology. Haryati actively seek ideas to
improve her teaching, her focus in on strategies of teaching, she strived for excellence.
In the present study, Tajudin and Wong seek excellence in performance in examination,
perhaps due to this constraint, their thoughts and implementation of thoughtful
teaching were not as rich and as conceptual as Zakiah, Lim, Rajendran and Haryati who
showed more intellectual depth and breadth in their discourse with the researcher.
Finding from this study further supports the worthiness of developing cases
of teaching. Each participant is unique and has a story to tell. With enough cases
developed it could well be a great reservoir of knowledge on practice of teaching.
Teacher trainers, curriculum developers or other relevant parties could definitely
benefit from this practice of developing cases. By making these personal practical
knowledge explicit, teachers are also taking control of their own self-development
(Day, 1999). However care would need to be taken as to if the cases are worthy to be
emulated or good as non-examples. The main conclusion that can be made from this
study is that there are variations in the interpretation and implementation of the concept
of thoughtful teaching. Each participant of this study created his/her own conception
of thoughtful teaching influenced by his/her personal characteristic as well as his/her
prior beliefs about teaching and learning. It can be postulated that if further studies of
similar nature are conducted on other teachers, other elements of thoughtful teaching
might appear. This study has also indicated that the case study methodology adopted is
a useful tool to help teachers conceptualize on their teaching models.

IMPLICATION OF FINDINGS

Findings from this study indicated that variation in understanding and interpretation
of curriculum among teachers exists. Curriculum developers and education planers
need to be aware of this and understand that standardisation in term of teaching and
learning is not something that can happen uniformly. It is better to introduce big idea
and let teachers ponder upon it and develop their own ways, provide chances for them
to discuss, discover their strength and weakness. Teachers conceptions of the idea
could be built up slowly through probing and discussion. Through this way, curriculum
planners could subtly introduce new ideas too. The main idea is to let teachers feel that
the conception come from them, it is theirs and their ideas are worthwhile. At the end
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of the sessions, various conceptions or strategies might emerged; if all of these lead to
achieving the same objectives, it should all be accepted and used as samples.

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Appendix 1: Observation Instrument Instructional Strategies

Subcategory/Description Observation
Category
of Category Lim Tajudin Wong Faridah
Management of Provide advice on methods / /
Learning of learning
Impacting the idea that / /
responsibility of learning
lies with oneself
Cultivate learning attitude / / /
- learn with thinking
Cultivate learning attitude / /
persevere in seeking
excellence
Cultivate learning attitude / /
making reflection
Answering examination / /
questions
Time Management Give advice on the / /
importance of managing
time
Modelling allegiance / /
and practice of time
management
Imparting the attitude of / / /
do not waste time
Clarity and Provide organised and / / /
structured teaching structured lesson
Designing template to /
teach
Reinforcement Repetition of teaching in / / /
different forms
Asking Questions /
Providing homework /
Engaging students Constant questioning / / /
Get from students, Involving students in / / / /
dont give activities
Motivation Giving encouraging words / / / /
Shows care / / / /
Learn from hands- Demonstrate hands-on /
on experiences experiment

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Subcategory/Description Observation
Category
of Category Lim Tajudin Wong Faridah
Learning from Allowing students to make / / / /
mistake mistake
Correcting students / / / /
mistakes
Giving autonomy to Accept students idea /
students Let students choose /
alternative steps in
experiment
Creating a learning Allow students to explore / / /
community Demonstrate teachers / /
interest in the subject area
Learning together with /
students
Learning from Encourage students to ask / / /
fiddling and asking questions
questions Encourage students to /
explore
Rapport with Move around to every / / / /
students group
Physically tapping
students shoulder
Building up of Talk about more
character philosophical issues of
living
Relate subject matters to /
issues in life
Summing up Letting students to make / / /
conclusion

Note: Items in italics are items that emerged from observation of Tajudin, Wong and
Faridah.

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