Core Research Programme: Baseline investigation of Social Studies and Character and Citizenship Education pedagogies in Singapore classrooms

Abstract

Since the launch of the Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (1997) and Teach Less, Learn More (2004) initiatives, the CORE Research Programme has aimed to provide a systemic description and measurement of curriculum and reform initiatives. CORE 1 (2004-2007) focused on lesson observations and surveys in English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Mother Tongue classrooms at the Primary 5 and Secondary 3 levels. The study however, was unable to examine specific classroom pedagogical and assessment practices centred on epistemic, cognitive, metacognitive, disciplinary and domain-specific intellectual work. CORE 2 (2009-2014) focused on pedagogical beliefs, classroom practices and assessment practices (Hogan, Towndrow, Kwek, & Chan, 2013). Currently, CORE 3 is centrally focused on the questions: “How do teachers teach?” and “Why do they teach the way they do?” The project in focus is a baseline investigation of Social Studies (SS) and Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) pedagogy (2016-17).