Letchmi Devi Ponnusamy

Singapore’s strong performance in international benchmarking studies - Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) - poses a conundrum to researchers who view Singapore’s pedagogy as characterized by the teaching of facts and procedures, and lacking in constructivist learning principles. In this paper, we examine the impact of different curriculum innovations on critical thinking as measured by the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Assessment - UK (WGCTA-UK). This includes two innovations that are subject-specific and short-term, one that strongly infuses the arts into the curriculum throughout the whole course of study, and the innovation of the Integrated Programme (IP) which allows academically stronger students to skip the GCE ‘O’ Levels and enter directly into the next level of education, with the time previously allocated to exam preparation now spent on greater breadth in the academic and non-academic curriculum. This paper takes the sociocultural approach to investigate the contexts, process and outcomes, reports the state of critical thinking, and sheds light on how critical thinking is being promoted. Through our analysis, we find support for the claim that only curriculum that is rigorously designed to foster critical thinking competencies will reap the intended student outcome.

With the ever-pressing twenty-first century demands, such as the need for new knowledge generation and application, schools today are aware of the necessity to change their structures, processes and practices to be relevant. In Singapore’s centralized education system, the Ministry has introduced several decentralization initiatives in the hope of promoting flexibility and innovation within schools. One such initiative is the Integrated Programme (IP). IP schools are expected to redefine existing educational structures, redesign teaching and learning processes and reshape classroom practices to generate diverse learning experiences. This paper describes the case of one school that has embarked on the IP to shed light on the processes involved in curriculum innovation. Our findings reveal three significant processes: negotiating the programme with the school’s vision, finding common ground for buy-in and investing in preparation time. These are instrumental in the development and enactment of IP by teachers and school leaders. These findings and their implications are deliberated on, providing ways that schools can shape and sustain curricular innovations.

This paper describes an instrumental case study that examined interactions amongst school teachers and curriculum leaders in the midst of developing integrated curriculum. Using the dual framework of curriculum as a socio-cultural entity and of curriculum as praxis, the study found that the school-wide curriculum vision that anchored the curriculum integration process catalyzed teachers’ negotiations and collaborations. This intensified attention to learners’ thinking and creative production during lessons. Teachers began to question their personal connections to other disciplines which prompted them to re-consider their routine instructional practices. Analysis of teacher exchanges and interviews pointed to metalanguages, an assemblage of abstract ideas and symbols that supported and sustained the process of curriculum integration. We argue that understanding the ways that metalanguages tie together subject matter considerations, teachers’ perspective of teaching the subject and their desire to meet learners’ needs inspires greater meaning and commitment for all stakeholders during curriculum integration.

A common pedagogical approach to foster creativity and develop talents among gifted students is after-school enrichment programs. However, in practice, there are several issues concerning the conceptualization and implementation of such programs. Since these enrichment programs are typically not part of the core curriculum and scheduled outside curriculum time, these programs are relatively low stakes. As an after-school add-on program, such programs tend to be fragmented and ad hoc in nature. Instead of a systematic program designed to stretch gifted and talented students, with the goal of developing their knowledge and competencies in breadth and depth, the programs that are implemented tend to be pitched at exposure level. To effectively meet the needs of the gifted and talented students, it is imperative to examine the intricacies of these programs. The fidelity has significant implications on the quality of the students’ learning experiences. This article shares the issues and challenges they faced.

Researchers have argued for the importance of the classroom context in developing students' creative potential. However, the emphasis on a performative learning culture in the classroom does not favour creativity. Thus, how creative potential can be realised as one of the educational goals in the classrooms remains a key question. This study measured creativity across three secondary schools using the Wallach-Kogan Creative Thinking Test (WKCT). A total of 283 students enrolled in the Express programme and 290 students enrolled in the Integrated Programme (IP) volunteered in the study. The same cohort of students took the 38-item WKCT twice; once at the beginning of Secondary One and then at the end of Secondary Three. Four aspects of creativity, namely fluency, flexibility, unusualness, and uniqueness, were investigated. Our analyses showed that (i) IP students showed a greater increase in scores over time when compared to Express students; (ii) when Programme and PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) were used to predict creativity scores in a multiple regression, the predictive power of Programme increased from Secondary 1 to Secondary 3 while that of PSLE decreased; and (iii) flexibility scores were more resistant to change than fluency scores. These findings suggest that the classroom context matters and that the removal of high-stakes examination can provide room for the development of creative potential.

In 2011, the Ministry of Education (MOE) embarked on a study of five Integrated Programme (IP) schools, and sought to find out how the IP had enabled students to achieve the intended outcomes as well as the unique characteristics of IP students. Since the study was done seven years after the IP was incepted and there was no comparison group of students in the same school that had gone through an O level programme (OP), it was difficult to attribute the outcomes to the IP. It is possible that the outcomes could be due to the quality of that IP intake or it might be that the outcomes had already been achieved in those schools prior to the IP. Since 2013, more schools have started to offer IP. This study involved four of the new schools, namely: Pawai School (PS), Istana School (IS), Marina School (MS), and Sentosa School (SS). Besides the IP, these schools also offer the O level Programme, and OP students were included as a comparison group. A fifth school, Ujong Junior College (UJC), also participated in the study as it receives students from three of the schools after Year 4.

The implementation of Integrated Programme (IP) to allow students to skip a high-stakes examination at the end of Year 4 is an unprecedented step in the history of Singapore’s education. This study was timely in collecting baseline data at the beginning of the IP within the same school that offers the express (“O” level) track and thus allows the comparison of pre- and post- IP data between the Express and IP students. Such a research design was not possible in an earlier Ministry of Education (MOE) IP study as the schools involved then only had students in the IP path. However, this NIE-study provides more in-depth knowledge about the IP intervention and how it affects learning with greater confidence. Specifically, the data from this study provides multiple forms of comparisons that is, IP versus Express programme outcomes; General Certificate of Education (GCE) “A” levels versus International Baccalaureate learning pathways by which 21st century competencies (that is, critical thinking, creative thinking and readiness for self-directed learning) have been achieved. Finally, this study includes an additional measure of creative thinking, which was absent in the MOE IP study. The study also provides insights into how different school types that is, autonomous versus independent schools, respond to curriculum innovation in the context of IP. The question therefore is will the removal of the high stakes examination in fact provide a conducive space to build teachers’ adaptive expertise (Hatano & Inagaki, 1984) in curricular innovations?

It is known that concept-based instruction allows learners to acquire a deeper understanding of subject matter and that this is done by using inductive instructional strategies that activate learners to inquire deeply into topics and think deeply. The thinking skills and dispositions activated by inductive learning experiences builds up life-long learning competencies such as being analytical and thinking critically, and creatively when pursuing new ideas in the discipline. Thus, a concept-focused teaching has the capacity to instil passion and perseverance in the learner as they encounter more complex, sophisticated ideas in the discipline.