Heng, Mary Anne

This report presents the findings from a two-year innovation project, the focus of which was to improve student performance and engagement as a consequence of teachers' improved capacity to plan and teach according to the strengths and specific pedagogical needs of NT students, based on Wiggins and McTighe's (2004) framework of Understanding by Design (UbD).We worked with 18 Secondary 1 and 2 Mathematics, English and Science teachers of the Normal Technical stream from 4 neighborhood schools. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and semi-structured interviews were conducted during the baseline and post-intervention phases. After attending a module on UbD, participants were able to apply the concept of "backward design" in planning, teaching and devising assessments. This intervention had a significant impact on teachers' commitment to planning and it helped them see the benefits of collaboration. Though teachers' dependency on worksheets did not change much during the post intervention phase; change in the quality of worksheets could be observed The intervention introduced teachers to alternative modes of assessment and also how to develop appropriate rubrics. But, teachers had difficulty crafting specific rubrics for use in the curriculum units. This intervention did not bring about a significant change in teachers' beliefs about NT students. Recommendations were made for NT classrooms.

Giftedness is often equated with innate intellectual ability, ease of learning and achievement in school. The gifted, however, have the same problems and concerns as everyone else. School examinations and assessments reveal that the gifted are not gifted in all areas. Hence, gifted underachievers do exist.

The literature has many definitions of the underachieving gifted. Typical methods of identifying these students involve comparisons between achievement and intelligence scores. Since one cannot measure exactly how much one can achieve to determine underachievement, the term "low-achieving gifted" rather than "underachieving gifted" is used in the context of the study.

In order to understand the low-achieving gifted so as to help them in some way, the study looks into three psychological aspects of the low-achieving gifted, namely, perception of control, academic self-concept and learning style. Gender and academic level comparisons are also made. To study if findings are unique to the low-achieving gifted, comparisons are made between the low- and high-achieving gifted students.

A questionnaire is used for the data collection. Achievement is measured by the results of an end-of-year examination. Students are ranked according to the total marks scored for their major subjects. The low-achieving / high-achieving gifted students at each academic level are defined as constituting 5 per cent to 10 per cent of the total number of gifted students at that level who have the lowest / highest scores for their major subjects.
A total of 496 gifted students (310 males and 186 females) participated in the study. The students are from the three schools in Singapore which offer the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) at the secondary level. Forty students in the GEP (10 per cent of the males and 5 per cent of the females) are identified as low-achievers.

The study contributes the following findings in the three psychological variables studied.

"The purpose of this project was to help teachers acquire skills in the use of clinical interviewing (Ginsburg, 1997b) to better understand students' thinking in the lower primary Mathematics classroom." -- p. 1.

While Singapore has been recognised as a high-performing education system in international education benchmarking indicators, scholars argue we should ask more fundamental questions regarding what students make of school (Deng & Gopinathan, 2016). Moving beyond the means-end model of education in which the present criteria for success may not be valid for the future, education should guide adolescents to make important decisions in the future about what they consider useful, successful, and ethical (Willbergh, 2015). Asking more fundamentally what students make of school, this study investigates the relationship between youth purpose, meaning in life, social support, and life satisfaction among adolescents in Singapore. This study seeks to shed light on the tensions of preparing students for success in the globalised economy as well as educating for an uncertain future that requires reconnecting with purpose in education.
Purpose is a long-term, stable and high-level intention to influence the world in ways both meaningful to oneself and others (Damon, 2008). Adolescents with self-reported life purpose show higher levels of life satisfaction and school achievement (Bronk, Hill, Lapsley, Talib, & Finch, 2009). The other-oriented component in the purpose construct is what distinguishes it from the meaning in life construct (Damon), which is the significance one makes of one’s life (Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler, 2006). Social support relates positively to wellbeing (Ben-Zur, 2009). While educational achievement is the more common metric in education research in Singapore, self-reported life satisfaction helps educators and policymakers understand how well the school curricula are achieving policy aims as perceived and experienced by adolescents.

The internet offers many resources that can be used for educational purposes. Many teachers, however,are uncertain about how to incorporate the use of these resources into their classroom curriculum and instruction. This article describes WebQuest, a tool for inquiry-based or problem-based learning and instruction that integrates the resources of the World Wide Web with student learning. The benefits of using WebQuests as well as implications for use in schools are also discussed.

In this chapter, we explore the idea of youth purpose as the basis for a purpose-driven vision of schooling in Singapore. Beyond the performance-focused outcomes of education characteristic of high-performance schooling in Singapore and elsewhere, education reform scholars have begun to call for a more human experience of schooling. An important impetus towards a more person-focused conception of school is imperative to take a deeper look into students’ localised experiences of school to uncover what drives students’ learning. We argue that these insights provide a catalyst for teachers’ own development and growth to teach for purpose. Purpose in life is a stable and long-term intention to accomplish meaningful goals for both self and others. Our research showed that the development of youth purpose among Singapore adolescents is left to chance. Singapore students have a largely self-focused purpose orientation tied to the immediate goals of school achievement. Fewer students with support have nascent beyond-the-self life goals. We offer suggestions for what teachers can do in the classroom to give focus to the educational significance, relevance and value of learning in the school curriculum and give importance to both the academic and human purposes of schooling.

How student voice is viewed is complex. Increasingly, effort has been made to include student voice in teaching and learning, with student voice positioned in different ways, from the instrumental to the transformative. The success and sustainability of student voice efforts require a more critical understanding of the participatory efforts of both teachers and students, as well as the interplay between teachers’ and students’ voices. Using a case-study approach, within an interpretive paradigm, this study explores teachers’ and students’ discourses on student voice at the beginning of a larger study situated within five English Language classrooms in Singapore. The findings highlight the discursive framings of both teachers and students and foreground spaces of convergence and divergence. Both teachers and students share similar views on the possibilities and promises of student voice in teaching and learning, which centred largely around pedagogic and performative reasons. The data also revealed a shared sense of vulnerability and fear, surfacing real, yet tacit and lesser known boundaries and issues which both teachers and students see as affecting student voice efforts. The findings suggest that student voice work needs to be situated in an environment of trust and authentic listening to harness its potential.

Background One current challenge for nurse educators is to examine effective nursing assessment tools which integrate nursing knowledge into practice. Authentic assessment allows nursing students to apply knowledge to real-life experiences. Contextualized cases have engaged students for preparation of diverse clinical situations and develop critical thinking skills. Aim This study aimed to explore nursing students' experiences and learning outcomes with the use of an authentic assessment rubric and a case approach. Methods An exploratory qualitative approach using focus-group discussions and an open-ended survey was adopted. Sixteen nursing students participated in three focus-group discussions and 39 nursing students completed an open-ended survey. Results Nursing students noted that an authentic assessment rubric with a case approach provided clarity for their learning goals; built confidence; developed knowledge, skill competencies and critical thinking skills; increased awareness of caring attributes and communication skills; and enriched and extended learning through self-, peer- and teacher-assessments. Conclusions These findings provide rich insights for nurse educators and curriculum developers in the use of an authentic assessment rubric and a case approach in nursing education.