Tan, Oon Seng

2022, Tan, Oon Seng, Poon, Kenneth K., O'Brien, Beth A., Rifkin-Graboi, Anne

Education 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).

2022, Tan, Oon Seng, Chua, Jallene Jia En

The 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.

2022, Chua, Bee Leng, Tan, Oon Seng, Liu, Woon Chia

Problem-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.

2016, Tan, Oon Seng

2021, Tan, Oon Seng, Chua, Jallene Jia En

In 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.

2023, Chua, Bee Leng, Tan, Oon Seng, Liu, Woon Chia

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.

2021, Tan, Oon Seng

Changes in the industrial world and society today far outpace the cycles of education reform in the curriculum. The digital age and social media have changed the nature of knowledge acquisition in mathematics and science. Complexity of problems, technological innovations, multi-disciplinary interfaces and the availability of big data analytics call for new ways of learning in mathematics and science education. PISA achievements in Singapore is a corollary of continuous incremental improvements plus quantum leap changes in the Singapore Math and Science curricula ecology. This chapter aims to provide the big picture of how mathematics education and science education in Singapore ride on waves of change to equip learners with the kinds of thinking needed for the future world of work. Beyond the rigor of well-planned and resourced syllabuses rich in fundamentals and heuristics are the pedagogical approaches of process thinking and applied learning. The aligning of learning with applications in an ecology of inquiry and authentic experiences at every level has been catalytic for the success of Singapore learners. In the light of all these is the teacher policy factor that brings about the Math and Science teachers who can bring about student engagement and agency in their pursuit of STEM aspirations.

2020, Chua, Bee Leng, Tan, Oon Seng