Low, Ee Ling

This chapter provides perceptual and acoustic analyses of English speech data produced by educated Filipinos to describe current phonetic features of Philippine English (PhE) and validates descriptions of the phonology of this variety of English with respect to vowels, consonants, lexical stress and rhythm. It also seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion on PhE in Schneider’s dynamic model. One salient feature of PhE vowels is that reduced vowels of unstressed syllables are realized as full vowels among mesolectal and basilectal speakers, due to lack of reduction of unstressed vowels. The occurrence of full vowels in function words of and that is low as expected. Variation occurs for the LOT and THOUGHT vowels. For purposes of clarity, the Standard Lexical Sets developed by Wells is used alongside the International Phonetic Association symbols in the present study for the description of PhE vowels.

As the sole teacher education institute in Singapore, the National Institute of Education (NIE) prepares all new teachers for teaching in Singapore’s Education System. In the last decade, NIE’s enrolment for initial teacher preparation programmes has grown significantly with peaks in the recession years. There is also some evidence of attrition taking place when beginning teachers complete their bond with the Ministry of Education. It is thus important to determine empirically the reasons why student teachers join the teaching profession. As part of a longitudinal study on beginning teachers’ attitudes towards teaching and professional development, a research survey, the first of three data collections, was administered to whole cohorts of student teachers entering the three main teacher preparation programmes at NIE in July 2004. This paper presents the survey findings on student teachers’ range of reasons for choosing teaching as a career and discusses those differences between cohorts of different programmes.

This study examined the pedagogical practice of an initial teacher education course from the diploma programme in the National Institute of Education and how it contributed to student teachers’ professional growth in terms of pedagogical knowledge and skills, and professional identity as a teacher. This study made use of videographic data of 11 lessons of the course over an entire semester, and end-of-course focus group interviews with the student teachers and the lecturer who conducted the course. The findings have important implications for pedagogical practice in teacher education.

Initial teacher education programmes are seen as the first step in the professional development of teachers. The overall goal is the improvement of teachers' practice. This goal can be achieved through enhancing the motivation, competence, and confidence of (student) teachers in teacher education programmes. Research has shown that the extent to how well prepared teachers feel (motivated, competent and confident) is correlated with the sense of teaching efficacy and responsibility for student learning. This study examines the changes in perceptions (if any) of graduating student teachers' motivation level to be a teacher, teaching competencies, and confidence as a teacher at the exit point of the initial teacher preparation programme.

“This report identifies and synthesises findings from a total of 42 unique studies that are relevant to at least one of the SFEd Areas of Practice, as well as to teacher learning and PD (see Annex A for the full project list).”--Overview of the Synthesis.

"In 2009, a project-OER 13/09 LEL Building an Evidence-base for ITP in NIE: A Formative Project-was funded to initiate a program of research activities that seeks to achieve a rich and contextualised understanding of the nature, substance and professional impact of student teachers' learning within NIE's ITE programmes." -- p. 3.

The core purpose of this project was to characterise the development of student teachers’ professional competence and identity in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Specifically, the project studied the impact of initial teacher education (ITE) programmes within National Institute of Education (NIE) on student teachers’ development of professional competencies and teacher identity. This, and the earlier related OER 13/09 LEL and OER 4/10 LEL work, was the first systematic attempt in Singapore to provide empirical evidence that could ultimately help to inform policy on, and practice of, teacher education programmes.