Use of ICT as a Cognitive Apprenticeship Model to Enhance the Teaching of Biology

Ms Lum Wai Mei, Maris Stella High School (Secondary) shared with us all on the use of Cognitive Apprenticeship Model to teach the abstract concept of osmosis. Students tend to find the understanding of osmosis concept difficult to visualise and comprehend. Ms Lum shared that instead of the common use of powerpoint slides to explain the meaning of osmosis followed by the common experimental investigations carried out in practical lessons, she started teaching students on the concept of osmosis using modelling. She used online resources from MOE's Edumall to demonstrate the movement of water molecules across a semi-permeable membrane and the effect of the water molecules movement after solute like salt is added to the water. She posted a couple of questions to scaffold students' thinking on how water molecules movement is affected by the solute and what is free water potential. She continued with the scaffolding of the lesson with practical sessions there after to encourage students to explore more on osmosis.

Really, the cognitive apprenticeship model is a model of learning based on the situated cognition theory. There are six stages of cognitive apprenticeship. Modelling, Coaching, Scaffolding, Articulation, Reflection and Exploration.

She shared her students' feedback showed positive response to the approach she used in her lessons.