Letchmi Devi d/o Ponnusamy

Singapore`s limited resources and need for extensive international engagement have privileged human capital development and thus made education a high policy priority to ensure its responsiveness and relevance. In three decades Singapore unified a fragmented teaching force, set high benchmarks for recruitment, preparation, deployment, and career development. Singapore`s present well-deserved reputation for educational quality, as represented in various international assessments of student achievement, can fairly be attributed to the quality of its teachers. Recognising the opportunities and challenges presented by globalisation, Singapore is seeking to transform its education system from an efficient, industrial era model into one more appropriate for the knowledge-economy. Major reforms are seeking to create more responsiveness to a variety of student needs, abilities and aspirations. There is now much more choice and multiple pathways, curriculum has been broadened, and assessment reforms are being considered. Recognising that such changes can only be successively implemented if teachers have both capacity and confidence, the Ministry has increased opportunities for professional upgrading while the National Institute of Education has redesigned the initial teacher preparation curriculum and introduced a new Masters in Teaching. A huge investment has also been made in education research to aid evidence informed policy and pedagogic change. In this paper we examine these changes in detail and assess prospects for successful and sustained change.

This study investigated the nature of the interactions among curricula, pedagogies and practices at the School of the Arts (SOTA) and their effects on student learning experiences, motivation, engagement, accomplishments and outcomes. It is important for Singapore—and Asia—to examine how the next generation of artists, arts educators and arts leadership can be nurtured. This is a compelling opportunity to propel and lend energy to the vision of Singapore as a Global Arts City and contribute to the 21st century arts renaissance in Southeast Asia.

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?

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.

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.

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.