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This article examines the components of a theoretical problem-based learning framework adopted by a reform-minded tertiary institution in Singapore in order to shift away from traditional models of didactic instruction. The goals of this framework are to enhance the ways in which students think and augment knowledge building within authentic problem-solving contexts. Students' reflections of their experiences in operating within the problem-based learning environment are descriptively analysed to draw insights into the pedagogical implications of this framework. Both the underlying strengths and shortcomings of this innovative framework as perceived by students are documented to better understand the potential value of implementation of a problem-based learning paradigm.

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Information literacy is the ability to access, evaluate, and apply information from a variety of sources in appropriate contexts to construct knowledge. In the current digital age, information literacy has inevitably been influenced extensively by developments in technology with the emergence of digital information literacy. The Internet has become a prominent source of digital information and students need to be competent and critical users of the information hosted by the Internet. This paper describes the baseline findings of the digital curricular literacy research project undertaken by the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice in Singapore. Seven Secondary schools in Singapore participated in this preliminary study. Student participants were grouped together in pairs to be collaboratively engaged in Internet information seeking tasks. The student pairs were assigned History-based and Science-based tasks and their online movements were captured using a screen capture software, Snapzpro. The findings of this study have been analyzed and will be presented in this paper based upon Ellis' information seeking behaviors model. Patterns and characteristics of students' information seeking processes were investigated according to the different stages of Ellis' model. Our findings revealed that the majority of Singapore students primarily focused on the following phases of Ellis' model: starting, browsing, chaining, differentiating and extracting. We have observed two levels of starting, differentiating and extracting which we would like to term as primary and secondary in this study. No significant trends were observed in relation to the monitoring component in his model.

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