Loh, Chin Ee

In this study, we seek to understand how the presence of a trained or professional librarian (PL)1 contributes to the learning within Singapore school libraries by examining principals, library coordinators and teachers' perspectives of their school libraries.
The research questions for the study are: 1. What are the perspectives of school leaders and teachers about their school library?
2. What differences are there in perspectives between the perspectives of school leaders and teachers in schools with trained librarians and without trained librarians?

Reading habits and preferences are invaluable in fostering literacy instruction. Although there is considerable research on the importance of leisure reading for students, there remains room to explore its relevance among teachers and its application to the classroom context. This paper seeks to explore the attitudes, beliefs and habits of leisure reading among preservice teachers, and how their perceptions of leisure reading influence their teaching strategies and prioritization of leisure reading within the classroom. 8 semistructured qualitative interviews were administered to pre-service teachers, alongside 102 quantitative questionnaires and Author Recognition Tests to measure the extent of their print exposure. Findings identified most as prolific readers, unanimously agreeing on the importance of leisure reading. However, only a handful of pre-service teachers were familiar with book series popular among students, and some remarked on negative reading experiences. Implications from the study include developing professional knowledge of extensive reading, reconsidering current reading programmes for greater effectiveness and placing more emphasis on young adult literature titles.

Drawing on data from a mobile ethnography study of 12 adolescents from one secondary school, this article proposes to examine the everyday digital reading resources and practices of Singapore adolescent youths to better understand the print and new media (fiction) leisure reading habits of adolescents. Mobile ethnography, with its capacity to capture adolescents’ actual reading through images, texts, and video recordings, provides a new way to document and understand the changing reading habits of adolescents. Participants documented their print and digital reading on a smartphone app over four days, followed by a photo-elicitation interview. Findings showed that these adolescents read for pleasure and were self-directed readers who invested time in reading various new media fiction texts such as ebooks, Japanese manga and fanfiction. Practices of new media reading include cross-media consumption, engagement in fandom behaviours, and interest-driven searching for diverse reading materials. Adolescents are motivated to read when the reading experience promises immersive entertainment. A good story, ease of access to interesting content and potential for multiple media engagements encourage adolescents’ volitional reading. Implications for curriculum and future research on adolescent volitional reading are discussed.

To date, several computerized diagnostic systems have been developed. These systems are limited in their feedback delivery and assessment scopes as well as in the delivery of remedial programs. For example, the Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment (DELNA) developed by the University of Auckland and the Diagnostic English Language Assessment (DELA) designed by the University of Melbourne function primarily like placement tests where feedback is delivered to the learners but the tests aim to place students in different language learning programs (of course, one could argue that this is the treatment that follows the diagnosis, albeit not highly differentiated at the individual level.). Similarly, the Diagnostic English Language Tracking Assessment (DELTA) designed by Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Diagnostic Language Assessment (DIALANG) produced by Lancaster University provide feedback to learners but without specifying skill mastery profiles, differentiated remedial programs, or actionable plans (Harding, Alderson, & Brunfaut, 2015). These systems are also limited by their inability to provide fine-grained information on learners’ growth over time.

Libraries have been traditionally viewed as places to support the community development of literacy skills, but their importance in a networked and global world is constantly being contested by alternative visions of their social and technological relevance. Whether public and school libraries thrive in particular contexts depends on more than the presence of a space labelled “library”. This article uses Actor Network Theory (ANT) as the primary framework for analysing the relations between libraries, literacies and change in two contexts, one in Singapore and the other in Australia. Using a trans-local dialogic approach, the two authors engaged in place-centred, immersive and sustained conversations about their research cases, tracing how people, objects and ideas are received and travel across contexts to effect change. The ANT analysis of the process of innovation and change in both libraries through the minute tracing of the network relations and effects between objects, spaces, emotions revealed the interconnectedness of human and non-human objects in moving people and ideas, highlighting the distributed effect of the social and material. Through tracings of things, people and ideas using ANT, the assemblages that make the transformation possible are made visible enabling greater clarity.

Students need to prepare for 21st century literacies and skills of collaboration, research and lifelong learning to be ready for future life and work, and the school library is often overlooked as a potential space for facilitation of future-ready learning. This case study examines through how Design Thinking can be used to understand the reading and learning needs of adolescent students in one secondary school in order to provide insights to improve their school library. Through the use of observational data, interviews and journey maps, the researchers track the reading and learning habits of two secondary school students. Specifically, the journey mapping process allowed the researchers to better understand the students’ reading and learning needs in terms of physical and technological requirements. The findings demonstrate the vital role technology plays in meeting the students’ learning needs through providing avenues for research and online collaboration. School libraries, supported with technology can position its relevance in the 21st century school such as setting up an online library system, positioning itself as a research library and by expanding its resources to meet the needs of the school.