NIE Working Paper Series

With the prevalence of online communication in recent years, many teacher professional development (TPD) activities occur in blended learning environments which combine face-to-face (FTF) co-located experiences with online experiences. However, many scholars point out that blended learning environments need to be thoughtfully designed in order to integrate FTF learning with online learning experiences, and that there seems to be a lack of designs that pertain specifically to in-service teachers. Professional development is crucial for inservice teachers who are at the forefront of learning and teaching in the classroom. To impact student learning, deepening content knowledge and upgrading pedagogical skills are pivotal to teachers’ professionalism. Building professional development communities through blended learning environments is a core strategy for teachers to grow their professionalism, considering the multitude of demands faced by teachers, especially in Singapore. With the aim of designing more supportive and sustained TPD communities through blended learning environments, we undertook a review of the literature. This review has resulted in a five R conceptual framework. We synthesised from the literature the observation that the design and development of sustained blended TPD communities involve multifaceted and complex issues. Such communities would need to hold strong relevance for their members, encourage close relations between members, enable rich reifications of artefacts, be well recognised by important stakeholders, and lastly, be equipped with structural, digital, and human resources.

With an increasingly diverse Singapore population, there is a need to consider if Singapore teachers are sufficiently equipped with the relevant skills and knowledge to cater to the needs of a more diverse student population. A literature review was conducted to examine and learn from the experiences of other countries and education systems. The literature review identified three major approaches to teaching culturally diverse students through culturally relevant education: multicultural education (ME), culturally responsive teaching (CRT), and culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). This paper provides a summary of each approach, and its implications for teachers, their practice, as well as for teacher education. Finally, the paper will look at the implications for Singapore’s multicultural society.

Singapore aims to build a flexible and diverse education system to help students discover their talents, realise their full potential and develop a lifelong passion for learning. This national aspiration is grounded in the Singapore education system’s recognition of individual differences in learning and implementing a strategy in which we seek to lift the bottom while not capping the top. Just as all learners need a supportive learning environment with adequate challenge, so do gifted learners. This paper synthesises and critiques research evidence on understanding and educating gifted learners to inform policy and practice in Singapore. The paper includes elaboration on the differentiation of learning environments to develop gifted learners.