Master of Arts (Educational Management)

Administrators in pre-schools face challenging tasks as educational leaders and accountability agents. As administrators, they are accountable to the various stakeholders for the teachers and children's performance. Hence, it is necessary for them to be equipped with effective and developmentally-appropriate assessment tools.

In this study, developmentally appropriate assessment tools were developed and administered to nine Kindergarten Two children. The study used a time-series quasi-experimental one group pretest-posttest design to measure the children's writing performance and processing skills over a five-month period.

Using multiple assessments, the tools included a developmental checklist to assess children's writing samples, observation checklists to document behaviour during writing activities, summary records to interpret data collected and interviews to gather feedback on the tools administered. The tools were selected because they embrace an holistic approach in assessing children's development.

Results from the study showed that the assessment tools enabled administrators to measure children's learning, to group children by abilities and to assess individual children's strength and weakness. The tools also revealed curriculum strengths and weaknesses and provided evidence that children practised thinking skills during their writing activities. More importantly, the tools helped administrators to keep tab of teachers' performance in the classroom as well as to provide feedback to parents.

Implications for future use and research on the assessment tools were discussed.

Over the past few years in Singapore, children with different disabilities have been integrated within regular schools. Since 1996 specific programmes have been set up which seek to integrate children with physical disabilities and autism. These programmes have received from the Government. However, a number of regular education teachers are still students with mild to moderate learning and intellectual disabilities to special schools. This segregation is an opposing trend tot he integration movement. Pre-service teachers are one of the principal stakeholders in the move towards non-segregation/integration of children with mild/moderate disabilities.

In promoting integration of children with disabilities in the regular classes much emphasis has been placed on the preparation of teachers to develop skills and attitudes conducive to integrating these children. Pre-service education can play a crucial part in success of future integration efforts. Equipping prospective teachers with skills and competencies necessary to teach children with disabilities will in fact help all children. If the needs of children are met in regular classrooms, there will be fewer or no referrals of children to special schools. This will promote future non-segregation of children with mild to moderate learning disabilities from regular education. Looking into the possible ways of making the non-segregation/integration feasible will help both regular and special educators manage their pupils in general better. Very little research has been done in the local context to assess the attributes and beliefs of pre-service teachers towards teaching children with disabilities within regular classrooms.

This study evaluated the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers towards teaching children with disabilities within regular classrooms. Sixty-eight (N = 68) undergraduate pre-service teachers enrolled in the 4th year teacher training programme at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore were surveyed. The pre-service teachers completed a survey of attitudes toward different assumptions of inclusion, perceptions of self-efficacy and competence.

The pre-service teachers expressed some mixed, contradictory feelings. Gender, previous contact with children with disabilities in their classroom during teaching practicum and knowledge gained through related topics studied under Educational Studies course work did not have statistically significant effect on the pre-service teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards teaching children with disabilities. The pre-service teachers surveyed reported a moderately higher sense of Personal Teaching Efficacy than the General Teaching Efficacy. There was no statistically significant relationship between their self-efficacy and personal competence. However, the pre-service teachers perceived themselves to be significantly less competent than the special education teachers of teaching/managing behaviour of children with disabilities and working with parents of children with disabilities. The results that they saw integration of these children as 'desirable' but not 'feasible'. The pre-service teachers indicated they needed more help in behavior management, teaching strategies, classroom planning and adaptation of curriculum among other areas of teaching, if they were to teach children with disabilities in regular classrooms. Implications of the findings for teacher training are discussed.

Job satisfaction, a construct that is both abstract and subjective, is hard to define. Nevertheless, it wields considerable influence in teachers' sense of fulfillment in their work and overall well-being . Studying an issue like this can be problematic.

In this small scale investigation, Q-methodology was employed in an attempt to unfold some of the teachers' perspectives by looking into the ways sixty-six teachers view job satisfaction in the context of a government-aided mission school in Singapore. The study revealed that there were three clearly distinct points of view. Central to the three viewpoints were issues pertaining to professionalism, autonomy and recognition.

As these points of view clearly exist in the minds of teachers, these findings will have useful implications for senior managers in the educational enterprise. Surely, a good understanding of these points of view will help senior managers in their daily practices. A wise manager will treat teachers differently, as unique individuals.

The objectives of this research are (1) to describe the quality indicators and staffing characteristics of preschool centres in Singapore and (2) to investigate the relationship between these two variables. A total of 88 staff comprising principals/supervisors, senior teachers, teachers and assistant teachers from 5 kindergarten and 5 childcare centres participated in this study.

Quality of preschools was measured using the revised version of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) on data on staff characteristics were collected through structured questionnaires.

The findings showed a mediocre level of global quality in the average Singapore preschool centre (total mean ECERS score = 3.97). Greatest variations in quality were found in areas of personal care and routine, language and reasoning, activities and program structure.

Significant differences were found in the qualifications, training and income of staff by quality of centres. The staff turnover rate was found to be associated with wages though not related to quality of centres.

Regardless of quality of centres, most preschool staff enjoy several work benefits and financial incentives. However, higher quality centres were found to provide staff with more opportunities to participate in professional development activities.

According to the Masterplan for Information Technology (IT) in Education, all 356 schools in Singapore will conduct 30 per cent of the lessons using IT by the year 2002. There will be a 2:1 pupil to computer ratio in schools. By the year 2000, about 24,000 teachers will have undergone 30-50 hours of training in the use of IT for teaching and learning in three phases. Towards this end, the Ministry of Education will spend $2 billion dollars to implement the IT Masterplan. Although there has been an economic downturn this year, the education budget has not been cut.

In 1997 the Ministry of Education selected 22 demonstration (henceforth Demo) schools to spearhead the use of IT in the classroom. In April 1998, the Demo Schools showcased how computers help students develop creative thinking, broaden perspectives, nurture lifelong learning and inculcate social responsibility. IT initiatives and collaborative projects between local schools and schools abroad in Japan and Birmingham were encouraged.

Many factors contribute to a school's implementation of its IT plan. This study focuses on how leadership is an important factor in the implementation of IT in the 13 primary schools studied. A total principals and 13 IT Heads of Department (henceforth HODS) were interviewed and 473 teachers completed a 20-item Likert scale questionnaire. In addition, 41 Senior IT instructors' perceptions of the principles' leadership styles were solicited through an on line survey.

The results show that there is a relationship between leadership styles and the implementation of the IT Masterplan. The principals' characteristics and their leadership styles help to nurture the IT culture in the schools. These principals are role models. They are usually IT savvy and people-oriented. As task-oriented leaders, they play a significant role in monitoring their schools' IT programmes. They also encourage teachers at different levels of IT competency to highlight good practices to be shared at the school level and with other schools. Qualitative data from interviews further illustrate various strategies and ways that principles use to implement IT in schools.

Since the implementation of computer Applications to the Normal Technical Stream students' in secondary schools by the Ministry of Education in 1994, Yio Chu Kang has introduced computer Education to the Express and Normal Academic students as Enrichment Programmes. Furthermore, the school is in the Second Phase of the Ministry of Education Masterplan for IT in Education. No study was conducted to find out students' attitudes toward computers. At the organisational level, knowledge of how students respond to computers in relation to their importance as tools for learning, life, entertainment and communication, and students' confidence in their ability to use computers would therefore be useful information for planning and organising future computer education programmes.Thus the general purpose of this research was to investigate how students cope with the computer courses offered by the school, and measure their attitudes and confidence toward computers.

The research design developed for this study was a modified version of the casual model proposed by Levine and Donitsa-Schmidt (1997). The investigation explored the relationship of computer experience (independent variable) with computer confidence and computer attitudes (dependent variables). First it examined how factors affecting students' computer experience, such as computer ownership, exposure to computers in school, at home, and overall computer usage, and students' academic background influence students' computer attitudes. Second, the study examined how students' perceptions of computers as tools for learning, life, entertainment and communication influence their attitudes toward computers. Finally the study explored students' computer anxiety as an independent variable affecting students computer confidence. The subjects were a random sample of 238 students selected from all classes in the four levels (Secondary one to Secondary Four), of the three streams (Express, Normal Academic and Normal Technical) in the school. The questionnaire used comprised two sections. Section was designed to gather students' demographic data and Section B investigated students attitudes toward computers.

Result showed that the computer experience of students correlated with computer attitudes and computer confidence, the effect being greatest for the variable overall computer usage of students. This was consistent with research findings done in the past. although there was no significant different between computer attitudes of students who had home computers and those who did not, there was a significant difference in computer anxiety of these two groups. Students with home computers had a lower level of computer anxiety, indicating their confidence in using computers. The same was reflected when students from different academic background were compared. There was no significant difference in computer attitudes of students in the three streams, but students from the express stream had greatest confidence in using computers. Surprisingly, there was no significant gender difference in computer attitudes of students. However females registered a higher computer anxiety level. These findings have important implications for the school administrators and teachers as students' overall computer usage, attitudes and confidence depend in the training courses, programmes and opportunities students have in school.

Professional development for teachers has taken on a new sense of importance and urgency in the light of rapid and wide-scale educational reforms in Singapore. The need to continually upgrade teachers' knowledge, skills and abilities has been more pressing. Given the impact of teachers' quality on the outcome of student learning and hence the success of the entire educational enterprise, professional development as the key to enhancing the quality of teachers and teaching must only deserve greater attention from all interested parties, including policy-makers, administrators, educators and researchers. Some concrete measures have been recently implemented to address the critical issue of growing professional development needs among Singapore teachers. However, there is a lack of study and literature on this area in the local context, especially with regard to teachers' perceptions of their professional development. Therefore, this research was initiated to explore how teachers perceive various aspects of professional development and to gain a better understanding of the condition of teacher professional development in the Singapore educational context.

The study first examined teachers' perceptions of professional development by considering how they perceive its importance and ownership of their individual professional development process. Secondly, it considered how teachers perceive the organizational elements of professional development in terms of planning, needs assessment and support. Thirdly, it sought teachers' views on the major barriers to professional development. Finally, the study investigated the relationship of several demographic characteristics of teachers, including gender, age, years of teaching experience, and school type, with their perceptions of professional development. The subjects were 180 teachers from 15 secondary schools in Singapore. A questionnaire developed for the purpose of this research was used to measure teachers' perceptions of professional development.

Findings showed that teachers generally perceive professional development to be important and acknowledge that they own their individual professional development process. Teachers more senior in age and teachers from schools that had implemented the Training Roadmap reported a stronger sense of importance for professional development. However, the majority of teachers perceived needs assessment for professional development in their schools poorly. Specifically, the lack of systematic needs identification process, neglected of teachers' personal needs and lack of guidance for teachers' self-assessment were reported as major weaknesses. Furthermore, most teachers felt that there was inadequate teacher participation in the planning of professional development and that priority was not clearly communicated to them. Generally, teachers perceived that resources in terms of time, relief manpower and funding to support professional development were insufficient. Teachers also reported that the lack of time, poor timing of professional development programs and lack of relevant programs were the significant barriers to their professional development.

These findings provided a better understanding on the problems teachers face in their professional development and have important implications for policy-makers and school leaders in the management of professional development. In addition, the findings provided useful directions for follow-up studies on the issues identified here as well as future researches on the expansive and challenging field of professional development.

The study used the action research design to examine the knowledge and skills, and attitudes and emotions of Loyang Secondary School staff towards learning. It also explored staff perceptions of the working situations in school and recommended actions that school leaders could take to promote a healthy learning culture in the school. Based on the research findings, the study suggested a learning model for the school that aims to facilitate the thinking process by promoting single and double loop learning through teams.

Data was collected to include both the staff's reflections of their individual self and their teams in school. The reflections were collected through two survey questionnaires and two dialogue sessions carried out separately with two different teams with perceptions of the school learning culture that were significantly different from that of the norms of the school.

The study showed that the school was highly involved in staff training and development. However, much of the knowledge acquired by individuals were not disseminated, shared or utilised within the context of the schools as the staff did not have a good structure that promote learning among the staff members. Despite the staff's positive attitude, learning was also very much inhibited by the lack of knowledge and skills to learn from experimentation and from the experience of others. The study indicated that there was a close relationship between those teams that failed to perform, or learn, and the knowledge and skills that the team possessed. Those that had low perceptions of the school learning culture also had relatively low knowledge and skills about learning.

Management practices had strong impact on the development of knowledge and skills about learning for both individuals and teams. Teams that perceived management practices as being not supportive generally have problems learning from their work environment.

The acquisition of knowledge was intense for most teams, but knowledge often remained untapped as there were little effective mechanisms to draw from the experience of its members. The process of knowledge dissemination and knowledge utilization was a weak link in learning for the school staff. The staff perceived team learning as an important development as it enhances generative learning through constructive dialogue and thought processes. They also advocates peer coaching/mentoring and 'budding' to be practised within teams.

The implication is that school leaders can act to harness the creative energy of people through team learning and enhance the learning process by creating a supportive social climate. School leaders can look into building structures to enhance staff capacity for reflective thinking, staff capacity to transfer and disseminate learnings throughout the whole school, and staff capacity to utilise and leverage new learnings. By adopting the model suggested in this study, which largely promotes both adaptive and generative learning, the school can look forward to a more systematic continuous progression in learning and move a step closer to the concept of a learning organisation.

This action research study is an investigation of teachers' perception of Ghim Moh Secondary School as a Learning Organisation. The study focuses on team learning and explores how school leaders can facilitate a culture of thinking by fostering the learning capacity of teams in the school. It examines the knowledge, skills, attitudes and emotions of teachers towards team learning, the work situations they are in which either promote or impede team learning. It attempts to identify the influences and constraints that affect team learning and explores what school leaders can do to facilitate a team learning culture.

Data was gathered through administration of the Learning Diagnostic Questionnaire to examine individual learning, and the Learning Organisation Assessment Questionnaire to study the school team learning culture. A dialogue session was also conducted with a high performing team to clarify the findings and explore for enabling factors that facilitate team learning. Questionnaire data were statistically analysed, and data collected during the dialogue session were content analysed.

The staff perceived that the school provided a supportive learning environment with many opportunities for growth. However, despite their positive attitude and commitment to continual learning, their ability to learn from experience was impeded by their inadequate knowledge and skills about the learning process.

Teachers identified the five enabling routines and practices to be (1) management's commitment to matching training with developmental needs, (2) the belief that there are alternative and better ways to do something, (3) recognition for innovative solutions to problems, (4) acceptance of different viewpoints, and (5) the opportunities to learn from one another. On the other hand, teachers find (1) their heavy workload, (2) the lack of time to step back and reflect on practice, and (3) the high stress level as the three main blocks to learning.

The report suggests that there is scope activities to further enhance team learning skills to increase the school's learning capacity. Leaders could ask action oriented questions to identify strengths and weaknesses in promoting a learning culture and use the PDCA cycle to explore creative ways to address the identified learning blocks. Training in the Five Disciplines would equip leaders with the tools to build learning communities in their own work groups. To enhance the individual's personal mastery and increase the learning capability of the team, teachers could be matched as learning buddies. It is crucial for the collective organisational memory to be preserved and "lessons learned" made readily accessible. Failure to learn from past experiences will hinder the school's capacity to learn. It is also essential to put in place spiral feedback mechanisms to provide a true picture of current reality and systematic processes to facilitate cross-functional learning. Setting Laboratory Environment in the school will encourage a spirit of reflective inquiry and experimentation in self-emerging collaborative teams.

The Mission Statement of CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent states that the school will nurture all students to become God-fearing women of integrity, in whom are instilled the values of Love, Truth, Justice and Freedom. The ministry of education has also explicitly stated that one of the eight Desired Outcomes of Education in Singapore is to produce students who, at the end of the secondary school, will have moral integrity.

Whilst the academic development of SJC students can be charted by performance of students in national exams, the moral development of the students has no tangible yardstick of measurement. Although many factors impact on the moral development of students, this action research was a perception study to assess the impact of only the teachers on the development of moral integrity in the graduating students of the convent.

All 173 students in the graduating classes and all 39 permanent member of the teaching staff answered a 34-item questionnaire, against a 4-point Likert Scale. The 3 sub-scales in the instrument measured Teacher Commitment to the Mission Statement, Role-Modeling by the Teachers and Overt Strategies employed by the teachers to develop moral integrity in their students.

Although the findings report positive perceptions from both the teachers and the students, the student's perceptions of their teachers' impact on the development of moral integrity in them is significantly less positive (p<05) than the teachers' own perceptions. Comparisons between teacher perceptions also yielded in a significant difference between teachers who have taught in other schools and those who have taught only in the convent. Teachers who have taught in other schools were more positive (p<01) of their impact on students. Significant differences in perception were also reported amongst from different classes (p<01).

The results were consistent with similar past research. The results confirmed that interpersonal relationships, namely rapport with the teacher, respect accorded by teacher to students and role modeling of good behavior by teachers, enhanced the impact of teachers to develop integrity in their students.

This study attempts to explore the conceptions of professionalism among teachers in AGAS School and identify their needs and concerns with regard to their professional development for increased student achievement. Two perspectives were used as conceptual framework. One perspective is John Elliot 's reflective practitioner model of professionalism which is grounded on the discontinuous and unpredictable nature of change and human situations. The other perspective is the teacher Career Cycle model by Fessler and Christensen. The model places the career cycle concept into the context of influences from personal and organisational needs.

This open-ended questionnaire on Conceptions of Teacher Professionalism was devised to gather the perceptions, thoughts , opinions and feelings from 50 teachers in AGAS School about themselves as teachers as well as their jobs. A total of 42 responses were received. Among the respondents were 15 newly qualified teachers, 15 experienced classroom teachers and 12 long-experienced teachers. The data collected was collated into different areas of the content under study. All the responses were organised into various tables for interpretations and analysis.

Analysis of the data showed that the conceptions of professionalism among the teachers reveal an image formed by the newly qualified teachers changing into one that is more focused by the experienced teachers. They all captured the dimensions of professional knowledge , professional competence and the nature of professional role in their conceptions. Many of the teachers in this school perceived themselves as professionals because they met certain conditions like having a specialised knowledge base and strong service ethics to meet the needs of their clients. The teachers in this school perceived their role in today's educational system as one that is changing. They expressed their inadequacy in managing emotional and behavioural problems of pupils and when working with demanding parents. The limitation of time, lack of self motivation and support from the superior had been identified by many as barriers to their professional development.

As this study is limited tot he teachers in one school, the findings cannot be generalised to other schools in Singapore. It is recommended that to increase the level of professionalism awareness among teachers, it is necessary for school leaders and managers to consider setting aside time for teachers to consolidate and improve on their practice, to give more scope for teachers to exercise their professional judgement, to facilitate teachers in carrying out meaningful interchange with colleagues to agree on shared set of values and professional knowledge and to reorganise the organisational structure so as to reduce administrative demands on the teachers.

This dissertation attempted to find out how Heads of Department (HOD) could facilitate in the successful implementation of the Ministry of Education (MOE) initiatives such as Information Technology (IT), National Education (NE) and Thinking Skills (TS) in a primary school. In this dissertation, the perception, attitudes, abilities and confidence level the teachers possessed with regard to the three initiatives were investigated. Based on the findings gleaned from the analysis of the data from the research, recommendation for future were put forward.

The research designed employed a questionnaire survey of 46 teachers in a primary school. This quantitative methodology was supported by interviews of 5 HODs from the same school.

The findings revealed that most of the teachers in the school possessed positive perceptions and attitudes about the introduction and implementation of the initiatives. Most of the teachers lacked the knowledge and skills to cope with new initiatives individually. The research also revealed that the teachers had low confidence level with regard to the three initiatives. The teachers believed that facilitation by the HODs could help to increase their ability and confidence levels. For IT, they preferred the HODs to pair up the less confident teachers with the more confident ones so that the latter could act as a mentor. However for NE and TS, the teachers would prefer having more sharing sessions among colleagues. The largest number of teachers in the school was under the response of "the willing but the unable".

The study showed that there was a need for the HODs to continue providing effective facilitation. Communication was recommended, not so much as to change the negative perceptions of the teachers but to get the teachers more excited and motivated about the three initiatives. In this way, it is focusing on teachers as units of change.

Concentrating on the school as a change unit required cultivating a positive culture towards change. HODs should promote positive team spirit by tapping on the teacher's willingness to learn and share, and their preference of working in teams and get them to be involved in planning and action research. These were also changes into the school's workflow that would facilitate change implementation as well. HODs should also delegate the able teachers to help in the training and mentoring of the less able and less confident counterparts. Since most of the teachers were not proficient in the initiatives, training and hand-holding sessions should be on-going. As the teachers were willing but unable to carry out the new initiatives, HODs as facilitative leaders need to be risk takers and allow the teachers to learn from mistakes., i.e. to view taking risks as a positive learning event.

By focusing change on the individuals, school and workflow, it would be possibel to obtain and maintain the commitment of the teachers through the whole change process.

The purpose of this study was to instil the critical Learning Circle management factors which lead to effective action research amongst teachers. The study entailed a detailed look at what skills and attributes the Learning Circle facilitator needs to bring to the research situation to help teacher-researchers engage and persist in the inquiry into their practice.

Participants in the study included ten teachers who had been involved in Learning Circles and one expert who has functioned as resource person to the Learning Circles. Data was collected from the teachers through two focus groups interviews.

The facilitator competencies essential to the effectiveness of Learning Circles are more easily identified than effected. Successful action research facilitators not only assist with academic and pedagogical expertise, they manage the process, people and content with agility, maintaining a balance between many conflicting roles. At the end of the day, it is also not only professional and technical expertise alone which will engage, it is the affable, emotionally intelligent leader who can secure the commitment of teachers who will persist in the research and themselves become agents of change.

The Singapore Masterplan for IT in Education was launched in 1997 by the Minister for Education, Radm Teo Chee Hean. This was to mark a new emphasis of brining Information Technology (IT) to classroom. All schools were to be brought online in stages. Ten primary, ten secondary and two junior colleges were the first to experience the new initiative. Known as Demo (Demonstration) schools, teachers from these schools were made to undergo thirty hours of IT-based training. Computer hardware and the related peripherals were lavished onto these schools. Since then about one hundred schools formed the second phase and the remaining schools were put in phase three.

This study is a look at the perceived IT competencies of teachers in twenty secondary school in relation to their commitment to learning with the computer. It is based on studies by Levine et al. (1997) where they found, contrary to expectation, computer confidence was found to have a negative effect on commitment to learning.

A survey was conducted of teachers from twenty secondary schools in various phases of the IT Masterplan for Education in Singapore (MPITE); seven phase one schools, seven phase two schools and six phase schools. This survey found evidence similar to the study by Levine et al. (1997) on the relation between commitment to computer learning and teacher's perceived sense of self-confidence. It also found some possible variables that appear to be parameters relating to the above relationship.

In addition, the study also attempted to determine if there was any indication of the impact of the MPITE in terms of teacher's perceptions of IT across the three implementation phases. The study found evidence that in the different IT phases these teachers were in had no significant impact on their sense of confidence, commitment to learning with the computer.

The research study looks at teachers' perceptions of their professionalism in terms of their commitment and interest in professional development. The study is also concerned with how to enable teachers to grow in their professional career. To Fullan and Hargreaves, (1992:5) developing the teacher means developing the whole person - his or her life experiences, past reflections, beliefs and culture, which affect his or her interest in and response to change and motivation to seek improvement.

In looking at teacher development, we need to look at the individual teacher and the whole school community and allow teachers the opportunity to examine and confront teacher's practitioner knowledge which is practical, experiential and shaped by teacher's purposes and values (Clandinin, 1986:4). There is a limit to what one can learn individually. Within a collaborative school setting, where peer coaching partnerships exits, the opportunities for teachers to learn from one another are increased.

Collaborative cultures put emphasis on the collective expertise and endeavours of the whole teaching community. Collaborative provides moral support in a caring school community where risk-taking is encouraged and mistakes are forgiven in the search for continuous improvement. True of all human relationships, collaborative cultures are slow to develop and difficult to predict. The research study, in providing opportunities for teachers to develop themselves through peer coaching also examines the possibility of setting up a collaborative culture in the school.

The research study additionally provides a window into the teacher's role as a "reflective practitioner" (Schon, 1983), of reflection about action (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991: 67-69) and how teachers best represent and explain their practices reflectively to one another, in support of one another. Through peer coaching, teachers reflect upon practice and discourse about teaching and learning, providing the structured contexts of practice, feedback and support. This ultimately leads to successful curriculum implementation, a sustained change and teacher leadership in the school.

Findings from the research study have shown that it is possible to facilitate a collaborative culture through the implementation of peer coaching in the school. Peer coaching fosters focused professional dialogue among collaborative partners, who view themselves as more than just mere colleagues. Partners share skills and expertise, which results in greater diversity and more interesting teaching methods and a boosting of teacher self-confidence.

For the experienced teacher, the coaching partner helps him or her to loosen the hold of routine or habit, especially when reflection in action is built into the peer coaching process. The partner provides a new perspective to bring freshness of vision to the classroom, a new excitement to teaching and an alternative way of giving meaning to what is happening. For the beginning teacher, peer coaching allows for the socialisation of the teacher into the unique context of the educational environment of the school, drawing upon the knowledge and wide repertoire of available teaching knowledge and skills in the school.

This is study of team building in St. Thomas Secondary School. The study identifies conditions at work that promote or hinder team learning. It is also seeks to understand how leaders can encourage team learning in the school to move closer to becoming an effective learning organisation and hence achieving the Ministry of education's vision of "Thinking School, Learning Nation".

Data were gathered by the Multiple Intelligence Checklist to determine the dominant learning style of teachers in this school. The Learning Organization Assessment Questionnaire provided data on the school's team learning culture.

This study revealed that one-third of the teachers possessed Interpersonal Intelligence and another one-third Intrapersonal Intelligence. Hence, any form of learning to be conducted for this group of teachers should incorporate time for them to teach each other, collaborate with each other, as well as time for reflection on what they have learned.

The study suggest that the school is on her way to be coming a learning organisation. The factors that promoted team learning were Assessing the learning Culture, Help People Become Resources for Each Other and Get The Show on the Road. It is also suggested that teachers were genuinely eager to learn and improve although the factors identified as hindrances to team learning were Promote the Positive, Safe Thinking in the Workplace, Reward Risk Taking and Systems Thinking. More efforts are thus needed to encourage teachers to communicate better and seek clarification when necessary, among their colleagues. Opportunities should also be given to teachers to share among themselves what they are doing and in process, build confidence and trust to create synergy that will drive them towards achieving a common vision that they share. This study training programs for staff in the immediate future. They area planned with the aim of giving staff members a better and clearer understanding of the five disciplines of a learning organisation, knowledge of seven habits of highly effective people and communication and listening skills.

The objective of this study is to manage the professional development of teachers in implementing Information Technology into the curriculum. This started with the administration of a computer attitude scale and a questionnaire to find out the computer background of the teachers.

The problems faced by the teachers were mainly computer anxiety and a feeling of inadequacy due to a lack of training in the use of IT for curriculum lessons. The solutions to the problems were approached by sending the teachers for the scheduled training conducted by the ETD/MOE, and conducting one-to-one interview with a few of the teachers to find what are the problems faced by them and to give them the required confidence and motivation. A qualitative study was conducted because of the number of teachers in the sample and the nature of the background data and results obtained.

The pre and post study results of the computer attitude scale showed an improvement in the attitude and perceptions of the teachers. This confirms the results from other studies that promote teacher training as the key method to teacher development. This study is appropriate and timely with the IT initiative currently being implemented in all schools by the MOE.

This study examines the organisational factors are related to commitment and sense of efficacy of those teachers who have taught for at least six years in a school. It examines the relationship between principal leadership and teacher commitment and a sense of efficacy as well. The main purpose is to provide recommendations for the school to restructure its procedures to increase the commitment and sense of efficacy of all teachers in the school.

The sample consists of all 68 teachers in the school. Two instruments are used in this study. The first part of the teachers' attitudes survey consist of 68 Likert-Scale items and one open-ended item that are largely adapted from overseas studies on teacher commitment and sense of efficacy. The items attempt to measure the orderly disciplinary climate, manager responsiveness, teachers' influence in decision making, principal venturesomeness, collegial work, principal leadership, buffers, goal congruence, feedback on performance , teacher commitment and sense of efficacy. The second part of the survey consists of seven items where respondents provide information on gender, martial status, academic qualification, years of trained teaching experience, years of service in the school, subjects taught, and teaching load. A pilot study was conducted with two similar schools to validate the survey. The other instrument is a structured interview used with teachers and a principal of a school. The study is a descriptive research that is correctional because it examines the relationships between teacher commitment and a sense of efficacy (dependent variables ) and organisational factors in the school (independent variables). There were three parts in the data collection, namely, the survey that is administered to the 68 teachers , the focused interviews with six groups of teachers each, and a personal interview with the principal. A ten-minute presentation to explain the rationale and conceptual framework of the study was conducted before administrating the survey.

The findings lend considerable support to the proposition that teacher commitment is related to a sense of efficacy, there is a significant difference between those teachers who have taught for at least six years and those who have taught for less than six years in the school. For teachers who have taught in the school for least six years, teacher commitment is related to manager responsiveness, and sense of efficacy is related to orderly disciplinary climate. For those who have taught for less than six years, teacher commitment and sense of efficacy are related to goal congruence and manage responsiveness. The study also reveals that there is a significant difference in teacher commitment between the non-graduate and the graduate teachers and between the male and female teachers. The study suggests that teaching experience, teachers' workload and their length of service in the school are not likely to be related to their commitment and sense of efficacy in the school.

The study also highlights some management practices that can be restructured for the school being investigated. For school leadership, a top-down and bottom-up approach is preferred instead of just empowering the teachers. A participatory decision-making system where younger teachers are involved in planning and implementation of school policies and where older teachers are involved in the formulation of policy is recommended. For staff development, the school may wan to consider the performance appraisal system and to extend the mentoring system instead for the 360-degree system and entails evaluation from all levels including students and parents. For the development of the school culture, it is recommended that the discipline and pupil welfare committee work together to streamline the discipline policies to support teaching and learning.

This is an exploratory study using the questionnaire survey research approach to collect data for the exploration of partnership between the Board of Governors and the teachers of St Andrew's Junior School. The study consist of three different parts. The first part, seeks to fathom the alignment of common values shared by the board and the school with respect to School Philosophy, School Mission, School Policy and the desired Characteristics of a St Andrew's Junior School Pupil. The second explores area of decision-making in the operation of the school that Board members and teachers will like to be involved. This exploration includes the study of the personal stake and the expertise of the two groups of respondents. The third examines the perception of Board members on the communication flow between the school and the Board.

Data were collected on the agreement or disagreement of both groups of respondents on the different aspects of the common values shared by the school community. Data were also collected on the level of personal stake and expertise of both Board members and the teachers. Board members were also asked on their perceptions of communication flow between the Board and the school.

The study showed that there is a significant alignment between Board members and teaches on the common values of the school as expressed through the School Philosophy, School Mission, School Policy and the desired Characteristics of a St Andrew' Junior School pupil. It has shown agreement or strong agreement from both respondents on the different aspects of the school cultural and operational values. The study reveals that Board members and teachers have high personal stake or interest in the participation of decision making process in the operation of the school. As expected, Board members perceived themselves as having less expertise to make effective decisions compared with teachers. The study also shows that the board is very interested in the operation of the school and desires better communication flow through the provision of information by the school. The Board would like more opportunities to meet with the staff so as to understand staff better. The survey shows that Board members like to have more information so that it can care more for the welfare and development of staff. The implication of the study is that the school should enhance the partnership between the Board and the School through building a good communication network between both groups of respondents. This will enable the School to understand the external environment better and thus better able to cater to the needs of her clients. The School will then be better to tap resources available through the Board and the community. The study also calls for a probative approach in providing information to the Board and the community so that there is a higher level of interaction, which will elicit commitment on all parties towards the School goals. This commitment includes the commitment of professional reflection on the part of all improve the standards of the School and thereby improving the results of pupils in the School. This will then enable the School to better prepare itself for future world of interdependence and change.

The purpose of this study was to explore how strategic marketing management concepts might be introduced to kindergartens and childcare centres. Fifty respondents that included parents, teachers, supervisors and experts (lecturers, preschool franchise managers, childcare officers, and school inspectors) participated in a survey that examined three key areas, namely, the product mix, the strategic educational management mix, and the ethics of using business/marketing concepts in educational management. Causal comparative studies were carried out, using SPSS (Version 9) for data analyses. From amongst a list of 15 preschool activities in the product mix, thinking skills, reading moral education and outdoor play were the top four most important activities in the product mix rate and ranked by the respondents. Similarly, homework and computer lessons were rated and ranked as the least important. The concept of a strategic educational management mix comprising 14 strategies/objectives was proposed. Significant differences were found between how deeply respondents valued the strategies/objectives and the extent of their beliefs that pre-schools in Singapore have actually achieved in each. When faced with dichotomous decision making situations with respect to the ethical adoption of business/marketing concepts in educational management, the respondents' positions were found to be consistently in favour of not adopting business marketing concepts.