A holistic model of competence: Curriculum reforms for pre-school education in Singapore

URI
Thumbnail Image
Type
Book chapter
Citation
Wu, S., & Tan, C. (2021). A holistic model of competence: Curriculum reforms for pre-school education in Singapore. In W. Zhao & D. Tröhler (Eds.), Euro-Asian encounters on 21st-century competency-based curriculum reforms (pp. 211-227). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3009-5_12
Author
Wu, Sandra Pinhui 
•
Tan, Charlene
Abstract
A prominent international trend is competency-based curriculum reforms across education jurisdictions that are based on or inspired by global frameworks such as OECD’s core competency definitions. The educational changes are generally oriented towards a behaviourist conception of competence that is task-based and focuses on direct observation of performance. This chapter discusses the curriculum reforms for pre-school education in Singapore by drawing upon Gonczi’s (Competency Based Assessment in the Professions in Australia, Assess. Educ., 1994) and Jones and Moore’s (Appropriating Competence: The competency movement, the New Right and the ‘culture change’ project, Br. J. Educ. & Work., 1995) holistic model of competence. This model contains three main features. First, it contains a strong communal dimension by emphasising the relationship between the inner (the person) and the outer (the social). Secondly, the model emphasises social practices where competence takes place within informal, routinised and contextually located activities. Finally, the model underlines personal mastery by interpreting competent performance as spontaneous, natural and non-reflexive. We further extend this model by offering a Confucian interpretation where holism revolves around person-making. Next, we examine how and the extent to which recent changes for pre-school curriculum in Singapore transcend the definition of competencies as discrete skills to promote a set of complex and integrated attributes (knowledge, attitudes, values and skills) in young children so that they could thrive as confident individuals and active members of the community. The chapter also explores how the interaction of top-down and ground-up forces and social actors work together to improve pre-school education in Singapore.
Date Issued
2021
ISBN
9789811630088 (print)
9789811630095 (online)
Publisher
Springer
DOI
10.1007/978-981-16-3009-5_12