Lim Kam Ming

This study investigated beginning teachers’ self-perceived pedagogical knowledge and skills in engaging and managing their students. More specifically, it discussed the development of positive pedagogic teacher-student relationships across three time points: at the exit of their pre-service program, at the end of the first year of teaching, and at the end of the third year of teaching. Four factors were extracted: (a) student learning; (b) accommodating diversity; (c) classroom management; and (d) showing care and concern. A sample of 358 beginning teachers participated in the study. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results showed that there were significant increases in all four factors across the three time points. The results are useful in informing teacher education programs as well as teacher induction programs to facilitate support for beginning teachers during their beginning years of teaching.

Getting information about sex is no longer the issue. Information about sex from adult movies to zoophilia can be easily obtained at the click of a mouse. The call for more sex education comes as no surprise with the increasing rate of teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and abandoned babies. A recent Straits Times poll indicated that four of five respondents wanted schools to conduct sex education courses. As the Internet makes its presence felt in the classroom, teachers in a knowledge-based society must face the new challenge of addressing sexuality issues that their students may have. How knowledgeable and comfortable are these new teachers about such matters? How prepared are these teachers in answering biological, sexual or value-laden questions? What kind of questions would these teachers be most comfortable or uncomfortable with? This study examines the attitudes towards sex education of new PGDE Primary and Secondary teachers who have just completed their training at NIE.

In Nov 2002, a research team in the National Institute of Education, NTU, launched a cross-discipline quasi-experimental study on “Positive Social Climate for Enhancing Students’ Math Self-concept”. Its main objective was to find the attributes (variables) in the social climate which are accountable for the increase of self-concept of Secondary Two students in the Math remedial classes in Singapore neighbourhood schools. Phase I of this study ( in 2003) was Instrumentation: validating the scales used in the measurement of treatment effect. H.W. Marsh’s Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ-II, 1990), and B. Fraser’s “What Is Happening In This Class?” questionnaire (WIHIC) were validated together with the Motivational Orientation scale and Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) questionnaire. More than 700 Secondary Two students from four neighbourhood schools took part in this validating exercise. Phase II was Intervention`(in 2004): the teachers’ interactions with students, the enhancement of students’ capabilities and confidence. A training workshop for teachers in the experimental groups was conducted before the intervention. Two schools had the experimental groups and another two neighbourhood schools’ samples were held as the control groups of this study. Based on the results in Phase I, only two instruments: SDQII and WIHIC were selected to measure the effect of intervention. The total sample in this phase was close to 1000 Sec 2 students.

This study followed a cohort of student teachers from the beginning of their teacher education program to the end of the third year of teaching, looking at their perceived changes in pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in Singapore. The PKST survey comprising 37 items with six factors were used to collect data. In the cohort of over 1300 student teachers, 353 participated in all five survey data collections. The results showed that the participants’ overall pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching increased significantly. The largest increases were found in knowledge in lesson planning and skills in classroom management. The skills in showing care and concern did not show significant increases until the end of third year of teaching.