CRPP - Research Reports

Since the 1980s, Extensive Reading (ER), sometimes called The Extensive Reading and Information Literacy Programme (ERIL), has been a common feature of reading pedagogy in Singapore schools. However, while such programmes have proliferated, few have been evaluated. At the request of the school’s principal, we conducted a responsive formative evaluation of a Secondary 1 Extensive Reading programme in one government-aided secondary school. This final report presents the framework, findings and three case studies involved in this year long evaluation. It also discusses our experiences with conducting a responsive formative evaluation during the 2005 school year, both in terms of process and outcomes.

The present paper reports several findings on the cognitive underpinnings of narrative development in Singaporean context. We were primarily interested in the interplay between narrative abilities and development in working memory and executive functioning. The data also provided useful information on the narrative proficiency of English- and Chinese-speaking Singaporean preschool and primary school students. It was found that one of the executive functions, updating, is strongly related to both narrative fluency and narrative content measures. Another executive function, switching, predicted the variance in those narrative measures that tap plot construction and encoding of the protagonist’s intentions. These findings are important for understanding of the role of domain-general cognitive mechanisms in language development.

"This progress report relates to the third study in the DCL suite - the analysis of student artefacts collected during the unit of school work being observed. It is focused on three key issues relating to CRPP's research mission in general and to the DCL project's overall aim: 1. The need for a more systematic attention to epistemological issues in pedagogical research, a concern with nature of knowledge as it is enacted, conveyed and built in school work and through curriculum and assessment materials. 2. The need expressed by both researchers and professionals for more systematic attention to the ways in which new communication and representational technologies are implying more sophisticated and diverse forms of multimodal representation. 3. The need for the teachers to take an open-textured task design perspective towards the planning and execution of the lesson activities and setting and marking of student work."-- [p. 1-2].

"A literature search of Singapore materials reveals that there has been very little research done on the quality of children's literature written in Malay. This raises an important pedagogical issue as it suggests that Malay children's literature may not be widely read or used in and outside of the classroom. Compared to the vast number of children's books available in English, very little is available in Malay and very little is known about the quality of children's books written in Malay. ... This study was designed to produce research that could lead to the development of an annotated bibliography of children's books written in Malay that could serve as a resource for both teachers and parents alike."-- [p. 1-2].

"The Ministry of Education in Singapore commissioned a study of classroom assessment practices in P1 and P2 in 2009 in order to establish a "baseline of practice" to compare future efforts to improve classroom formative assessment. ... The study establishes a 2009 baseline of assessment practices in P1 and P2 classrooms that can be used in future comparisons of the implementation of new methods that emphasize assessment for learning (AfL) in classrooms. "-- [p. 2].

"In 2009, a project-OER 13/09 LEL Building an Evidence-base for ITP in NIE: A Formative Project-was funded to initiate a program of research activities that seeks to achieve a rich and contextualised understanding of the nature, substance and professional impact of student teachers' learning within NIE's ITE programmes." -- p. 3.

"This project is a baseline study of Singapore's Learning Program (LSP) which is an intervention program in primary schools with the main objective of helping students who do not have adequate competencies in English language and literacy to cope with the mainstream curriculum. The LSP is comparable to the other compensatory programs in the USA such as Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE), two way bilingual educations (TWBE), pull out ESL programs and the funds of knowledge intervention program in the UK. All these compensatory programs have a leveling up a goal in which they try to bring underachievers to the same level of their mainstream peers. The broad objectives of the project are to document what goes on in the LSP, how the Learning Support Co-ordinator teaches, who is sent in, who is sent out and what Learning Support Co-ordinators believe about bilingualism."--executive summary.

This study provides a general profile of what motivates Singaporean secondary students to do well in school. In particular, we investigate six constructs extensively discussed in motivation research: achievement goals, basic values, academic self-concept, future goals, learning strategies, and the utility values of schooling. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study indicates the relationships among the different constructs, the kinds of goals that students value, as well as the perceived role of school in achieving their aspirations for the future. Through this, we hope to provide educators in Singapore with a clearer picture of the factors that drive their students to achieve in school.

"In this paper, we describe Chinese language instruction in Singapore primary school classrooms and discuss its relationship with the government policy of language in education. We use a classroom coding approach to examine whether there are similarities and differences between EM1 and EM2 classroom instructional practices and to explore whether the goals and priorities of the policy are achieved at the level of implementation. Specifically, we examine how Chinese classrooms of the two different streams are socially organized, what pedagogical activities are carried out, what knowledge or capabilities are emphasized and how they are classified. Based on the findings, we discuss the major features of Chinese language instructional practices in the two streams in relation to the policy goals and priorities, and highlights some implications for policy implementation and pedagogic reform in Singapore and internationally."-- [p. 1].

This report provides preliminary findings of research work in progress, drawing on the initial set of Chinese classroom data from the Core Project by the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice (CRPP). It describes Chinese Language pedagogic practice observed using the CRPP's Pedagogy Coding Scheme and Mother Tongue coding menu. The report pays special attention to identifying how the classroom is socially organised, what pedagogical activities are carried out, what knowledge is emphasised, and how it is classified. The report concludes with a brief discussion of the major features in relation to the current research literature, and highlights some implications for future Chinese pedagogical research and classroom practice in Singapore.

"The aim of the research is to examine whether there are similarities and differences among the different modules of the newly developed Chinese curriculum experimented in primary schools, and between the experimental and control classes in terms of pedagogical practices. These findings have great implications for further implementation of the new curriculum in the classroom and curriculum development in the future."-- [p. 1] of executive summary.

"The purpose of this study was to (a) develop an analytical framework that represents classroom talk and questioning in science, (b) find out how teachers use questioning to engage their students in thinking about conceptual content that enables the construction of knowledge, and (c) identify the various forms of feedback provided by teachers in the follow-up move of the IRF (initiation-response-follow-up) format of teaching-exchange, and (d) find out how teachers use questions in classroom discourse to scaffold student thinking and help students construct scientific knowledge."-- [p. 1] of executive summary.

"This project is a case study of building communities of practice (CoPs) among Heads of Departments of Information Technology ((HOD(IT)s) in Singapore schools. As part of the second MasterPlan for Information Technologies in Schools initiated in 2002, there has been a stated goal to employ the CoP approach as a key strategic initiative to develop a more integrated "IT across the curriculum" approach in schools. As part of the same plan it was hoped that there would be a slowing changing pedagogical model that the learning environment might become more learner-centred through the effective integration of the technology. "-- [p. 1].

"The general aim of this project was to undertake an in-depth investigation into how teachers are responding to diverse learners in mainstream classrooms so as to inform the development of pedagogies and practices that are inclusive of these students, and to use these findings to inform the development of a new educational model for teacher training."-- [p. 1].

"Our purpose in this manual is to establish and document useful procedures for maximizing research data, especially from classroom studies, using corpus software for data analysis and management. In non-technical language, we provide an overview of the purposes for corpus-based research and necessary procedures for corpus-based analyses with specific reference to tools used and developed at CRPP. Our goal is to help readers understand some of the distinctive features of corpus-based research and make informed decisions about whether this approach would be fruitful for their own work. " -- p. 6.

"This project was designed to complement the Singapore Corpus of Research in Education (SCoRE), by creating a vertical portal (vortal) for educators and practitioners engaged in empirical research and teacher development to benefit from services designed to facilitate collaborative investigation of classroom practices and thus support the development of a professional learning community."-- [p. 1] of executive summary.

"In this report, we review critically the research that has been done on Chinese Language education in Singapore context since the early 1990s. We divide the report into three sections. Firstly, we provide a synthesis of the research literature on Chinese language education where relevant studies are classified into three broad areas: language policy studies, sociolinguistic surveys, and pedagogical studies. In each of these areas, important findings/arguments/positions are identified and discussed with a general critique. Secondly, we comment on this body of research literature, pointing out salient problems and deficit in relation to the current official pedagogic discourse. In conclusion, we provide recommendations for future research. We argue for an alternative research, from the survey-based and literary oriented research to empirical research on Chinese language curriculum and pedagogical practices."-- [p. 1].

"In this report, we analyze critically the newly revised Chinese syllabus for Singapore primary school students. In this report, we divide the discussion into four parts. In the first part, we have a brief overview of the current pedagogic discourses in the Singapore context. In the overview, we outline the theoretical motivation that has driven the current pedagogic discourses in comparison with the traditional Chinese pedagogic principles. In the second part we discuss the research method where we identify the major parameters (e.g., curricular goals, objectives, linguistic/cultural emphases, theory/beliefs of Chinese language learning) common to any syllabus design and highlight our analytical foci in the syllabus examination. In the third part, we describe and analyze the contents of the syllabus within the theoretical framework with the main parameters/categories identified in the overview for capturing specific emphases/features stipulated in the syllabus and discuss their (in)coherence. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of the findings for possible changes in Chinese curriculum development."-- [p. 1].

In this report, we analyze critically the newly revised Chinese textbooks for Singapore primary school students. We divide the discussion into four parts. In the first part, we have a brief introduction of the context where the Chinese language textbooks were revised. In the introduction, we also discuss the rationale why the study of the textbooks are important and outline our research questions. In the second part we discuss the research method where we identify the major parameters and highlight our analytical foci in the textbook examination. In the third part, we describe and analyze how lessons are organized and what pedagogic activities are planned. In the fourth part, we examine what linguistic knowledges are prioritized. In the fifth part, we identify what cultural knowledges are selected and emphasized. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of the findings for possible changes in Chinese textbook development.