Hairon Salleh

Since 2015, the MLS Course Facilitation component of the programme, which has to do with help participants develop reflective practice knowledge and skills so as to use it to deepen their learning in the MLS has been of interest to both the Programme Leader and the Associate Dean, Leadership and Learning, GPL. The initial interest was borne of out two main events or thinking. First, the strength of the MLS programme has always been its self-directed and self-organization in learning, which is consistent with principles of adult learning theory, and more so with principles of social theory of learning. Second, the demands on manpower and man hours have the tendency to be high due to the number of reflections per participant. This study was motivated by these two ideas or thinking.

Community-based teacher learning in Singapore education started in 2000 with the introduction of Learning Circles, followed by other forms of community-based teacher learning platforms such as Action Research and Lesson Study. By 2010, the Ministry of Education embarked on a school- and system-wide approach to community-based teacher learning in the form of Professional Learning Communities (PLC). However, studies looking at its impact on student learning outcomes are non-existent locally. Internationally, research studies investigating the effects of PLCs specifically on student learning are not aplenty. In their literature review, Vescio et al. (2011) found that although 11 studies reporting impact of PLCs, only eight out of the 11 investigated the impact of PLCs on student learning with modest evidence (Louis & Marks, 1998; Suppovitz, 2002; Suppovitz & Christman, 2003; Phillips, 2003; Strahan, 2003; Hollins et al., 2004; Berry et al., 2005; Bolam et al., 2005). Since the publication of the literature by Vescio et al. (2011), three other studies investigating impact of PLCs on student learning outcomes have also been reported (Sigurðardóttir, 2010; Lomos et al., 2011; Williams, 2013).

A review of the literature reveals broadness in the conceptual and operational definition of the construct, Distributed Leadership (DL) (refer to discussions by Spillane, Gronn, Harris, Bennett, and Leithwood), making it elusive. The elusive nature of DL is due in part to the term 'leadership' which is contested among educational theorists; while the other, is due to the lack of attempts at trying to unpack and measure this construct. The purpose of this study is to unpack and discuss key dimensions of the construct of DL based on a nation-wide survey of school leadership in Singapore. Special care was taken in critically determining these dimensions and not areas or aspects where DL may be applied. In other words, we are more interested in the essence of DL rather than categories of distributed leadership practices, which most leadership researchers employ. This study is especially timely in view of the rising trend in school- based curriculum development and innovation towards growing expansion of student learning outcomes beyond the academic subjects such as the 21st century skills. The growing importance of school-based development and innovation calls for leadership practices that not only improve classroom teaching and learning, but also greater devolvement of decision- making power at the school and classroom levels. In the process of better understanding the DL construct, it is an imperative aim of much multivariate analysis is to reduce the dimensionality of the data collected. This is essentially desirable in the investigative stages of a research to provide a lucid interpretation of the data and theoretical measurement model building. This requires the use of a proper metric. As such, Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed on the Rasch (linearized) standardized residuals (see Linacre, 1998, 2006; Wright, 1994, 1996). The DL instrument consists of 25 items, and the sample involved schools leaders from Singapore (i.e., 224 Principals, 322 Vice-Principals and 686 middle-level school managers). The findings provided evidence that the Rasch residual-based factor analysis yielded 4 possible factors of DL. The discussion on these factors will be presented.

The advent of the Knowledge Age has brought many challenges to countries around the world in every aspect of life, including learning in teacher education. With regards to this, there is widespread agreement on the promotion of educational themes such as higher order skills, teaching for understanding, constructivism, authentic problem solving, and lifelong learning. In the same vein, there is increasing recognition for teachers to teach in ways that are appropriate to prepare students for the Knowledge Age, and thus the need to re-evaluate the learning structures for pre-service teachers. This paper summarises an inductive research study of four final-year pre-service teachers (Diploma in Education) to look at how engagement in an action research project during the teaching practicum influences their pedagogical practice and beliefs towards professional learning.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the concept of distributed leadership situated within the context of school improvement has risen in importance. This is due to the growing demands on schools from a wide range of stakeholders within education contexts that are increasingly becoming more complex. Educational contexts are increasingly getting complex insofar as the changes accompanying educational reforms are characterized by intensity, rapidity, fluidity and uncertainty. Policymakers and the public are demanding greater public school accountability in the hope of improving academic and non-academic school outcomes, as well as decreasing the achievement gaps (Heck & Moriyama, 2010) through improvements in teaching and learning. It is therefore understandable that contemporary school leaders use up more time and energy in managing increasingly complex relationships, and resort to distributed leadership where leadership decisions are delegated and shared to other staff members beyond the purview of school principals.
In the Singapore context, delegation or sharing of leadership decisions to middle managers such as department heads (HODs) or subject heads (SHs) has been a common place for more than two decades, especially that pertaining to instruction. In this sense, distributed leadership is closely tied to instructional leadership insofar as the former allows instructional leadership practices to be delegated or shared to other staff members beyond school principals or vice-principals. The link between instructional leadership and distributed leadership has been observed (Lieberman & Miller, 2011; Spillane & Louis, 2002; Timperley, 2005). Hence, instructional leadership practices become more dispersed across the school organization, making it more effective to bring about enhancements in teaching and learning. However, over the last decade, leadership decisions pertaining to instruction have been delegated and shared to teacher leaders. This is a result of the growing demands placed on schools so much so that administrative decisions have to be passed on from senior to middle leaders, which result to middle leaders delegating or sharing their decisions on instructional matters to teacher leaders. These teacher leaders include Senior or Lead Teachers (STs and LTs), Subject and Level Reps, and Professional Learning Community Team Leaders – all of which are involved in making leadership decisions on instruction.

Since the introduction of Learning Circles (a particular model of action research) by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2000, action research has grown to become fairly ubiquitous in Singapore education both school- and system-wide in terms of its terminological usage and practice. However, despite its progressive developments over a period of about 15 years, challenges still abound for teachers who seek to enact action research, which range from teachers’ heavy workload to the hierarchical work culture. This paper seeks to elucidate not only the historical developments of action research, but also the challenges that are still faced by those who enact it. The analysis of both the historical development and potential challenges serve to highlight the political, social and cultural nuances influencing the implementation of a system-wide approach to action research in Singapore.

The task of school leadership has never been less challenging than before especially taking into consideration current education reforms that demand extensive, comprehensive and in-depth changes. At the ground level, schools as organizations are now engulfed in this sea of change characterized by increasing rapidity, intensity, fluidity, complexity and uncertainty. School leaders, being the sole authoritative figure, are faced with increasing demands from a range of stakeholders inside and outside schools including policymakers, district authorities, business partners, parents, teachers and students. A main upshot of which is school leaders’ responsibility and prerogative to provide diverse curricula that satisfy diverse needs of stakeholders. This chapter describes findings from a qualitative study of one government primary school in Singapore which had undertaken a school-based and school-wide curriculum innovation involving ICT. The study brings to the fore the indispensable role of leadership across all levels of the organization encompassing a diverse set of leadership models to support curriculum development and innovation.