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Tan, Oon Seng
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87 - PublicationMetadata onlyReflections on the teacher education model for the twenty-first century (TE21) and V3SK: Legacy and lessonsThis article will reflect on the first author’s deanship journey from 2008 to 2014, which saw the mobilization of the NIE Teacher Education Model for the 21st Century (TE21) and conceptualization of the V3SK framework for teacher education curriculum. Taking a big picture approach, the model and framework were architecturally derived through our building block and improvement systems approach where strong foundations were critical. The period of the late 2000s through the next decade saw an increased interest in education reforms worldwide. Two major trends saw a confluence in interest in Singapore. Firstly, there was increased research pointing to the importance of the teacher factor. Secondly, enhanced interest in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and international comparisons placed Singapore under global spotlight owing to her remarkable performance. Singapore drew much attention from education ministries around the world, which were visiting Singapore to learn how we invest in education and more importantly what we do to bring ideas to fruition. It became clear that the teacher factor was a significant reason for Singapore’s success. This article will share on how TE21 was a scholarly and pragmatic endeavour resulting from research-informed and motivated teacher educators working with partners and stakeholders in practice whilst taking a globalized perspective. The pinnacle of the TE21 model was the V3SK framework which continues to permeate theory and practice. The framework has gone beyond a professional guidepost to capturing the importance of the teacher symbol. In essence, we were building on roots, culture, values, and wisdom as we tapped on science and evidence.
28 - PublicationMetadata onlySingapore’s endemic approach to education: Re-envisioning schools and learning
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact lives worldwide, long beyond its initial wave of infection and emergency responses. Alongside health concerns are impacts to education pertaining not just to learning loss but also to paradigm shifts and other social and psychological effects. These include long-term shifts to curriculum and pedagogy, disproportionate effects on vulnerable populations, and ripple effects on mental health and wellness. Policymakers are prompted to rethink perspectives in education to accommodate the aftermath of the pandemic. This chapter will address Singapore’s endemic approach to public health and education, a couple of years after the start of the pandemic. The nature of our chapter is to share the Singaporean experience, which represents an Asian perspective that is someone unique in its context. Singapore continues to draw from the principles of science and social responsibility, which were the bedrock of its effective response efforts in early pandemic times. This resulted in high vaccination rates and strong research and development efforts to cushion the impact of growing infection rates, allowing citizens to continue with their daily routines with as much normalcy as possible. In education, Singapore experienced two rounds of home-based learning for students in April 2020 (lasting 28 days) and May 2021 (lasting 9 days), in tandem with national lockdowns. In-person lessons resumed after each round of home-based learning, alongside growth in digital innovation in a ground-up manner, due to the autonomy afforded to schools by ministry leadership. This helped optimize learning in the increasingly digital environment where blended learning models became commonplace. On the other hand, prominent issues related to inequity and mental health became forefront concerns and areas of development. Our chapter will discuss how educational policy will benefit from shifting priorities moving forward. We propose that an ecological perspective will be advantageous for the education sector, helping us to understand education and learning beyond school walls. We conclude the chapter by discussing future challenges and insecurities that Singapore will have to overcome.
7 - PublicationMetadata onlyThe honeycomb of Early Childhood Development (ECD): A big picture approach for supporting development and education for early yearsThe power of education is far-reaching and universal, impacting people’s capacity for adaptation in our world today. Singapore’s dearth of natural resources necessitates a strong reliance on its skilled labor force, making education an especially important investment for this nation. Singapore’s education system has been lauded for its successful outcomes, but the same success cannot be said for its early childhood system. Greater awareness toward the extensive importance of early childhood care and education (ECCE) has called for heightened efforts to holistically develop the sector in order to adequately prepare our children for the future. At this juncture, it is beneficial to understand early childhood development (ECD) with systematic thinking and connectivity to truly bring about transformation. In this chapter, we propose the honeycomb of early childhood development (ECD) to drive research, practice, and policies in ECD. It comprises six important factors: 1) economics, where we talk about ECD as an investment that is practical for our economy and beneficial for children when done early and strategically; 2) equity, where the importance of enabling access to ECCE for every child is highlighted; 3) essence, where we consider ECCE as a crucial phase of life that every child is entitled to; 4) education, where we discuss the types of curriculum and pedagogies that need to be incorporated together; 5) educators, where the role of preschool teachers, teacher education, and teacher policies are discussed; and 6) ecology, where the relevance of various stakeholders and parties in ECD is brought to attention.
279 - PublicationMetadata onlyIntroduction to early childhood development and research in SingaporeEducation and well-being care are important throughout life, but especially so during early childhood, a time characterized by profound neural change. Importantly, early life experiences and neurodevelopment, in turn, lay the foundation for the subsequent ways in which neurodevelopment unfolds. As neurodevelopment is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, it is not surprising that the quality of early childhood experiences has been found to have short- and long-term impacts upon individuals and society. For example, early environments characterized by relative responsiveness from caregivers (Fraley et al., 2013; Raby et al., 2015) may lead to academic and/or social competence even into adulthood. On the other hand, early childhood experiences with poverty and/or low socioeconomic status, exposure to parental mental health difficulties, forms of insecure attachment, and abuse or trauma have been linked to outcomes such as lower levels of school readiness, attentional problems, and/or difficulties in socioemotional development (e.g., Psychogiou et al., 2020; Fearon & Belsky, 2004; Dearing et al., 2001; Enlow et al., 2012).
350 - PublicationMetadata onlySingapore math and science education innovationThis edited volume explores key areas of interests in Singapore math and science education including issues on teacher education, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, teaching practices, applied learning, ecology of learning, talent grooming, culture of science and math, vocational education and STEM. It presents to policymakers and educators a clear picture of the education scene in Singapore and insights into the role of math and science education in helping the country excel beyond international studies such as PISA, the pedagogical and curricula advancements in math and science learning, and the research and practices that give Singaporean students the competitive edge in facing the uncertain and challenging landscape of the future.
40 - PublicationMetadata onlyProblem-based learning and technology: Impact on preservice teachers' motivational orientationsProblem-based learning (PBL) is an inquiry-based approach to learning that requires students to be engaged with a real-world problem. PBL is underpinned by constructivist learning principles whereby learners will be intrinsically motivated as they are challenged and given autonomy to direct their own learning. In the COVID-19 pandemic teaching and learning landscape, there is an increasing need to harness the affordances of technology to engage students in their learning. In this chapter, preservice teachers are immersed in either a traditional PBL environment (tPBL) or an technology-enhanced PBL environment (ePBL). The focus of this study is to examine the effects of PBL (tPBL and ePBL) on preservice teachers’ motivational orientations. The understanding of the changes in preservice teachers’ motivational orientations after PBL (tPBL and ePBL) will inform teacher educators on how to improve on its implementation to enhance preservice teachers’ motivation to learn. An understanding of how a constructivist pedagogical approach impact on preservice teachers’ motivation to learn is pivotal as teachers role model and design learning environment to inculcate in their learners the motivation and passion to learn and become lifelong learners.
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113 - PublicationMetadata onlyDigital portfolios for problem-based learning: Impact on preservice teachers’ learning strategies
The digital portfolio is often used to assess both student learning process and outcomes. It provides a space where students assume agency over their learning and assessment. However, beyond assessment, the digital portfolio in initial teacher preparation programme can be a student-centric scaffold to facilitate preservice teachers’ acquisition of learning strategies. This is increasingly relevant in a post-covid teaching and learning environment where technology is used to minimise disruption to learning. In this chapter, ePBL is a pedagogical approach whereby the digital portfolio is used as a mediating space for preservice teachers to learn within a Problem-based Learning (PBL) environment. The digital portfolio allows preservice teachers to make their thinking visible to themselves, peers and tutors, reflect on their thoughts and acquire learning strategies for self-directed ad collaborative learning. The focus of this study is to examine the effects of ePBL on preservice teachers’ learning strategies. The understanding of the changes in preservice teachers’ learning strategies after PBL (face-to-face PBL and ePBL) will inform teacher educators on how to improve on its implementation to develop preservice teachers’ learning strategies. Specifically, it informs the design and use of the digital portfolio within a PBL environment to facilitate the development of preservice teachers’ learning strategies. In addition, limitations of the study and future research will also be discussed in the chapter.
30 - PublicationMetadata onlyScience, social responsibility, and education: The experience of Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemicIn this chapter we first outline how the pandemic unfolded United Kingdom before highlighting the key thinking and strategies Singapore adopted in policy responses towards the crisis. The two key principles of Singapore’s approach, science, and social responsibility, contributed greatly to its success in handling the public health crisis. This chapter will elaborate on these principles and examine how these policies were carried out in the educational realm. We look at how Singapore relied on its strengths of proactive rational planning and execution to facilitate the transition to home-based learning (HBL) and the subsequent re-opening of schools. Concomitant with policies to address health and well-being for all students were strategies to ensure continuity of learning, student engagement, and innovation in the new learning environment. The use of online learning portals such as the Student Learning Space enabled all students from primary to pre-university levels to have equal access to quality curriculum resources. Professional development and preparation of teachers pertaining to facilitating new modes of learning were as important as implementation measures. Given the unexpected impact of the pandemic and the need for scalability there were also many challenges to ensure equitable access and holistic well-being for vulnerable groups of students. Looking forward, we discuss the implications of the pandemic on Singapore’s education scene, such as how it elevated core issues related to curriculum, pedagogy, and design of learning environments. We talk about opportunities for some of these issues to be addressed in policy and research, and how doing so can better build an adaptable education system for the twenty-first century.
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