Journal Articles - Singapore Journal of Education

Researchers have identified assessment as a very crucial influence on the learning strategies adopted by students. The present study carried out on Secondary 2, Secondary 4, and Junior College 2/Pre-University 3 students shows that the Singapore students did not favour the Surface Approach in their learning of English and Mathematics. The nature of the discipline and the cognitive demands of the examinations carried considerable importance for students in their choice of learning strategies. Despite the heavy emphasis on excelling in examinations, students did not rely solely on surface and achieving strategies to attain their goals.

This paper analyses the practice of IE supervisiors' disclosure of formative grade to their supervisees during post lesson conferences on teaching practice. A comparison is made between students who were, and who were not, told their grade. The results suggest that in Singapore it is possible to synthesize the advantage accruing from both clinical and technical - rational modes of teacher supervision.

This paper describes the development of the Information Processing Taxonomy (IPT) Model which models children's thinking at different hierarchical levels. The main features of the Model consist of retrieving information from external memory and primary and secondary productions of Type A and B information. These features constitute the components of different levels of thinking which could be used to confirm and describe the children's cognitive processes. Examples are shown to illustrate how the Model could be used to construct test items at different levels on the basis of these features. The Guttman procedure was applied to test the consistency of the hierarchical nature of the Model. Results show that the items constructed using the Model were scalable.