Scaling educational innovations in Singapore: The roles of policymakers, practitioners, and researchers

Abstract

In many countries and regions, education authorities have shown interests in promoting new education initiatives or innovations. With the hefty investments, they are keen to see that their initiatives are well received by the various stakeholders, namely, national leaders, district-level leaders, school leaders, teachers, students and their parents, and can be successfully scaled and improve learning. However, are the perspectives and expectations of policymakers and practitioners with regard to education innovations and their scaling necessarily the same as those of the researchers? Some of these stakeholders may expect a linear model of scaling, i.e. innovations can be translated into ready intervention packages which can be replicated mechanically by all the practitioners and consequently uplifting learning outcomes within the nation. Others may expect extensive adaptation to be allowed for any education innovations accepted for scaling. This chapter describes an eco-logical model for scaling that allows for a productive tension due to the differences in stakeholder perspectives. Based on scaling practices and considerations that operate in Singapore, the lessons about how scaling can be advanced at the systems level, which may be relevant for school districts, regions or countries similar in size to Singapore, are drawn. The paper also attempts to distil underlying scaling principles that can provide some directions to help analyse or shape scaling strategies across a hierarchy of much larger scale levels.