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The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of feedback to students by a primary teacher teaching the science topic “Life Cycle” in a Year 5 bilingual Bruneian science classroom.

This study used a discourse analysis of one primary science teacher’s use of feedback to his students when teaching the topic “Life Cycle.” The participant was a male primary science teacher who taught a Year 5 science class in one of the government schools in the Brunei-Muara district. Direct observations and video recordings of the teacher’s three consecutive lessons on the topic “Life Cycle” were collected. The transcripts were developed from the teacher–student interactions in the three lessons. The “Questioning-based Discourse” approach (Chin, 2006) was used to analyze the different types of feedback, and the students’ cognitive processes that emerged from the lesson transcripts. The frequencies of the feedback and students’ cognitive processes were calculated using percentages.

The findings from the three lesson observations indicate that the teacher’s feedback showed a range of strategies which consisted mostly of accepting students’ answers and feedback to elicit, to focus, to probe, to clarify and to extend, respectively. The findings also reveal that the cognitive processes of the students ranged from recalling, predicting, hypothesizing, evaluating and explaining. The analysis shows that the teacher only practiced low-level questioning and the feedback given to the students was mostly for accepting the students’ answers rather than challenging students’ ideas.

The findings reported in this study provide useful insights into the importance of teacher–student interactions in the teaching and learning of science. The “Questioning-based Discourse” analytical framework is worthwhile to analyze the science teacher’s talk and consequently to improve teachers” skills in giving feedback that fosters productive students’ responses.

This paper highlights the need for science teachers to analyze their classroom talk and it recommends how to give useful feedback to students to promote higher cognitive processes amongst students. Brunei has been described as a country where there is a linguistic divide determined by the quality of the school that a student attends (Deterding and Salbrina, 2013). Improving the quality of interaction between teacher and students in such circumstances is essential.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of teacher learning through participation in sustained collaborative subject-based professional development groups supported by a facilitator, using a model of teachers’ conceptions of teaching developed from phenomenography to identify what are the critical features of teaching that must be present if teachers are to learn, and using a variation theory of learning to explain how they learn.

The groups engaged in cycles of lesson study action research to improve the learning outcomes of their students. The authors intended to engage the teachers in an exploration of their own and their students’ experiences to understand the relationship between the enactment of the research lesson(s) and the educational outcome. The authors collected over 157 hours of video recorded teachers’ meetings involving 15 groups, 47 hours of follow-up interviews and 97 hours of lessons. In this paper the authors report on the progress of one of those groups. The authors analysed the transcripts to see what, if any, dimensions of variation were opened in discussion, affording the opportunity for learning. The authors sought the simultaneous juxtaposition, the bringing together, of threads that have entered the discussion that have the potential to open dimensions of variation – to add critical features to the “what” and “how” dimensions of teaching.

The authors identified necessary conditions for teacher learning through collaborative subject-based professional development groups. Any member of the group might bring this about. The facilitator or coach might be expected to perform this role in the group, and to sustain the group’s attention on the critical features of the object of learning.

The paper provides valuable insights into strategies to change teacher perspectives from a transmission oriented to a construction oriented view of teaching in the face of new and challenging curriculum demands.

In the work reported here the authors have used variation theory to design lesson study. This is rather different from a learning study where the teachers engaged in the study use variation theory to design their research lesson(s). It is a learning study of teachers’ professional development.

This paper aims to share how it was possible to change the way business was conducted in a short period in order to continue the academic semester and seek alternatives to manage the day-to-day university affairs in the midst of a pandemic crisis at a higher education setting. As a result, the authors’ experiences have created new norms and opportunities for the university.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Brunei Darussalam is an evolving situation with extraordinary challenges for staff and students of the university. Although the campus remains open and essential services were continuously provided, the university had to implement and adapt to new norms instinctively to minimise the potential pathways for community spread of the coronavirus and at the same time minimise interruption in teaching and learning.

Firstly, structured blended learning will be the basis of teaching and learning, alongside ensuring the highest quality of online education and successful achievement of the intended learning objectives. Secondly, blended learning will open more opportunities to offer programmes in a more flexible, personalised, student-centric and lifelong learning manner, with the option of taking a study hiatus at students' convenience. Thirdly, there will be more global classrooms and the exchange of online modules with international partner universities. Fourthly, short programmes such as the Global Discovery Programmes will be modified and improvised to become an online learning experience. And finally, there will also be the opportunity to understand and consider the physical and mental well-being and durability of the university community in overcoming a national crisis situation.

This paper is intended to be a conceptual paper where the authors describe novel experiences during the pandemic. The authors’ views, interventions and experiences may result into a new model for higher education that will reposition students to the new global markets and economy.