Hung, David

2024, Seow, Peter Sen Kee, Xue, Haoran, Hung, David, Ker, Chin-Lee

Program design is crucial in youth development, mentoring, after-school, and community-based programs. However, current approaches to youth program design are often limited by: 1) lack of clarity in intended program outcomes; 2) difficulties in adjusting programs to different contexts; and 3) long-term program sustainability. This paper addresses these challenges by exploring the application of Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) and conjecture mapping in designing a youth program in Singapore. By emphasizing targeted outcomes, contextual considerations, and stakeholder experiences, the DBIR approach offers a promising solution to enhance youth program design. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of DBIR and conjecture mapping in improving program design, while also acknowledging and discussing the contextual limitations and considerations of this approach.

2021, Hung, David, Lim, Monica, Tan, Chloe, How, Meng Leong, Johannis Auri Abdul Aziz, Koh, Thiam Seng, Koh, Elizabeth

ICT-based learning innovations have augmented learning in many ways; however, scaling innovations are complex. Scaling in education is not a linear replication of products but an iterative process with an emphasis on the capacity of people. To provide further insights, a case study of the spread of a learning initiative in Singapore is elaborated on. The resultant findings build on a translational and scaling framework, developed by researchers at the Office of Education Research (OER), NIE. The framework, Scaling Change through Apprenticing and Ecological Leadership (SCAEL), is a context-sensitive model demonstrating the approaches that learning innovations can diffuse and spread through the multiple leadership roles of stakeholders in the ecological system.

2022, Hung, David, Lim, Monica

Educational innovations enacted into any system is challenging especially if the interventions are to be sustained by the stakeholders themselves.. This chapter documents a study on a network of schools over the course of three years of their journey involving learning technologies in two subject disciplines. School-to-school networks over and above teacher-to-teacher networks were formed and teacher leaders emerged in the course of the implementations. The concept of leadership from the middle (LftM) is proposed at three levels of the school cluster system. The chapter argues that LftM and teacher leadership involving systemic thinking, ecological leadership, and apprenticing among teachers are central tenets for sustainable change. School leadership is juxtaposed with teacher leadership with the trust relationships between the two. The chapter also discusses policy-to-practice translational implementation issues, including the supply of shared expertise and resources, as schools transform toward inquiry-based learning practices for twenty-first century learning.

2023, Hung, David, Goh, Sao-Ee, Azilawati Jamaludin

Significant attention has been paid to the impact of education research around the world in recent years. Researchers, policymakers and practitioners have collectively argued for a closer nexus between research and policy/practice so as to bridge the research-policy/practice gap. This includes the Science of Learning research which shows promise in informing and improving teaching and learning. So how can research institutions or centers be designed to tighten this nexus? The National Institute of Education (NIE) Singapore recently established the Science of Learning in Education Centre (SoLEC). SoLEC adopts a bi-directional, multidisciplinary approach in a bid to make research more relevant and useful. We argue that through this approach, Science of Learning and Education can be brought together in meaningful and fruitful research endeavors.

2022, Hung, David, Lee, Ngan Hoe, Lee, June, Lee, Shu-Shing, Wong, Zi Yang, Liu, Mei, Koh, Thiam Seng

Singapore students have consistently demonstrated outstanding levels of performance in mathematics and problem solving captured in international assessments. However, these stellar results stand in contrast to Singapore's real-world problem-solving capacities, evidenced by her diffident innovation levels and a limited talent pool with problem-solving skills that are high in the value chain. This chapter seeks to address this "skills gap" between what schools develop in students and the high-value workforce skills needed for innovation and enterprise. Focusing on mathematics problem solving, we first examined the historical and socio-cultural development of Singapore mathematics education to identify the system's affordances in cultivating the performance in international assessments, and its trade-offs in developing students' skills in dealing with authentic, non-routine and complex real-world problems. We then examined the trajectories and the impact of pedagogical innovations that were designed for the Singapore mathematics classrooms and that sought to address the trade-offs. From a postulation of factors behind the challenges of implementing and sustaining these innovations in the classrooms, implications for policy, practice, and research are put forth to propose how the Singapore mathematics education can be enhanced to mould the value-creating talent that Singapore needs to stay competitive.

2022, Seow, Peter Sen Kee, Hung, David, Ho, Chin Fen

This article examines how a partnership between schools and external organisation provide learning opportunities for teachers and other partners to develop new competencies and practices. The partnership was formed between a school, science centre, community social service agency and education research institute to design programmes to improve lower-track students science learning and well-being. Using a design-based implementation research methodology, the partnership sought to design, implement, and evaluate innovative tinkering-based science lessons iteratively while learning about the profile of the lower-track students. Over the span of three and a half years of the partnership, we documented the partnership process, meetings, lesson design and enactments, and interviews with students and partners. We found that the learning outcomes of the partnership included the development of skills for design, new practices and changed mindsets about failure which was facilitated by collectively building capacity in the partnership and developing the understanding of students. Through a social cultural lens of collaboration, context, and tools, we found that participating in partnerships can move members towards the development of knowledge, practices, and experience that they contribute to the growth of other members in culture of sharing, openness, and power balance.

2022, Hung, David, Kwek, Dennis Beng Kiat, Wu, Longkai

Discusses the strategies that the Singapore Education System has embarked to encourage school change and innovations Documents the change journey of Specialized Schools and Future Schools in Singapore with a view to understand key tenets Shows how Singapore enables diversity in a structured environment through innovations in Specialized and Future Schools

2023, Hung, David

Examines the future economy and its impact on education on a policy level

Highlights how the 4Life holistic education framework reflects possible changes in Singapore education

Provides solutions to the overemphasis on grade competition and formal credentialing in education

2022, Wu, Longkai, Hung, David, Lau, Sin Yee, He, Sujin

Singapore’s education system is internationally acclaimed; however, the driving force behind the success might not always be focused on the intrinsic purpose of learning vis-à-vis academic performance in schools. Students are required to sit for examinations that would determine their prospective development pathways even at a young age, and this may not always work well for all kinds of student needs and profiles. Multiple initiatives were announced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to address these issues with increasing customization of learner needs. Yet, true change remains elusive as Singaporeans’ excessive fixation on grades is deeply rooted and hence would require more time to change cultures. In this concluding chapter, we will be using the SCAEL model (Chap. 3) to examine how the discussed education innovations, system reform and case studies meet the diverse needs of Singapore’s ever-changing education system. The intents for change and reform are built on substantial and sustainable school innovations, with the view towards more diverse measures of merit that is more adaptable to change and globalization.

2022, Hung, David, Seow, Peter Sen Kee, Ho, Chin Fen, Tan, Chloe

The Learning Initiatives for the Future of Education (LIFE) are outlined in this chapter with an introduction to the historical developments of education research at NIE. LIFE’s aims and goals are to support NIE’s vision as a future-ready institution up to 2025 underpinned by cultivating and being the custodian of enduring values even in a challenging milieu of change. Foregrounded by the 4 lives framework, this chapter explicates the ‘It takes a Village’ project, funded by the Temasek Foundation, and delves into how the project paves the way into enabling research-practice nexus (RPP). We discuss the potentials in the science of learning, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and similar trends in the light of the foundations of values, content knowledge and twenty-first-century learning. The NIE aims to be ‘Inspiring Learning, Transforming Teaching, Advancing Research’ (NIE (2020). 2020 NIE strategic vision. https://www-nie-edu-sg.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/docs/default-source/spaq/nie-2022_6pp_softcopy-final-editsp2020.pdf?sfvrsn=cbb06543_2). The above constructs are illustrated through a project referred to as ‘It Takes a Village.’ While this project is only at its first phase, we discuss how its next steps can be incorporating the concepts advocated by LIFE.