Lim, Kam Ming

Singapore is noted for its low teacher attrition rate, while teacher retention continues to be a pressing issue for many countries. Drawing on the experiences of student teachers in the sole institute for pre-service teacher education in Singapore, this paper argues for the importance of exposing teacher candidates to a lengthy period of school experience as part of the teacher selection process. Before they are officially enrolled into pre-service teacher education, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore requires all teacher candidates for the Postgraduate Diploma of Education programmes to go through compulsory school experiences. Our analysis shows that this lengthy exposure to the realities and complexities of teaching could be an important contributor to teacher retention in terms of testing and promoting teacher candidates’ ‘resilient qualities’ such as passion for teaching, self-efficacy beliefs, and positive emotion. In other words, the school experience can help teacher candidates develop their understanding of themselves as teachers and assess their suitability for teaching. This study sheds new light on the current practices of teacher retention and teacher recruitment strategies.

In Nov 2002, a research team in the National Institute of Education, NTU, launched a cross-discipline quasi-experimental study on “Positive Social Climate for Enhancing Students’ Math Self-concept”. Its main objective was to find the attributes (variables) in the social climate which are accountable for the increase of self-concept of Secondary Two students in the Math remedial classes in Singapore neighbourhood schools. Phase I of this study ( in 2003) was Instrumentation: validating the scales used in the measurement of treatment effect. H.W. Marsh’s Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ-II, 1990), and B. Fraser’s “What Is Happening In This Class?” questionnaire (WIHIC) were validated together with the Motivational Orientation scale and Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) questionnaire. More than 700 Secondary Two students from four neighbourhood schools took part in this validating exercise. Phase II was Intervention`(in 2004): the teachers’ interactions with students, the enhancement of students’ capabilities and confidence. A training workshop for teachers in the experimental groups was conducted before the intervention. Two schools had the experimental groups and another two neighbourhood schools’ samples were held as the control groups of this study. Based on the results in Phase I, only two instruments: SDQII and WIHIC were selected to measure the effect of intervention. The total sample in this phase was close to 1000 Sec 2 students.

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become widely used in many areas including commerce, entertainment, news media, communication, and education. Education has been transformed with the use of the World Wide Web. An ever expanding range and increasing variety of information is now easily accessible at the click of a mouse. Students need not travel to classes and to libraries where information in its printed form is rather slow in being updated. The roles of students and teachers in educational settings involving the use of the World Wide Web have also changed to one in which students take on a more active role in learning (Collins, 1991). This project investigated the effectiveness of using student created website as a mode of assessment in an elective module (Fundamentals of Group Guidance) in the Bachelor of Arts/ Bachelor of Science with Diploma in Education programme at the National Institute of Education. Students' prior attitudes and usage of computers & WWW were assessed at the beginning of the course. Students' attitudes toward the website creation assignment were assessed. The problems and implications of the website creation assignment are discussed.

Teachers today are expected to be able to apply a wide range of digital technologies in the classroom. Initial teacher education programs should prepare teachers to apply them with confidence. Pre-service teachers in Singapore responded to a survey on use of technologies in their personal lives and in their teaching, and how confident they were in using them. Among 17 applications, the most frequently used were those related to computer technology such as checking an online dictionary, web browsing and searching, emailing, and using computer software. Participants’ use of computer software was frequent; however it was more so in their personal lives than in their teaching. The least used items included audio recording, video recording and global positioning system (GPS). Usage was found to be positively correlated with confidence, and while participants often had confidence in using the applications, their confidence was relatively low for items such as video and audio recording which they used the least. While teachers’ use of computers is important, their ability and confidence to use other modern technologies for effective teaching should not be neglected.

This paper discusses the use of comics in teaching mathematics in the secondary mathematics classroom. We explicate how the use of comics in teaching mathematics can prepare students for the twenty-first century competencies. We developed an alternative teaching package using comics for two lower secondary mathematics topics. This alternative teaching package consists of (i) several sets of comic strips expounding all related mathematical concepts in a lively way; (ii) tiered practice questions for learning reinforcement; and (iii) a set of proposed lesson outlines with suggestions on how to use the comics for mathematics teaching. We also report how one of the teachers in our study used this teaching package in her mathematics lessons. Her lessons were video-recorded and eleven students were interviewed to help us understand how the mathematics comics lessons were enacted and the students’ perception of comics as instruction. We identified instances in which the teacher tweaked the provided resource to further enhance student learning and incorporated elements of the twenty-first century competencies during her lessons. Through selected student interviews, we also identified instances in which students commented on their gain from the new approach from the perspective of the twenty-first century competencies.

This is the fourth in a suite of four projects which aim to establish an evidence-base for the continual review and enhancement of initial teacher education (ITE) and early career teacher professional learning and development (TPL&D) within Singapore. Therefore, this project is the continuation and expansion of our three previously funded research projects (OER 13/09 LEL, OER 04/10 LEL, and OER 15/11 LEL). Specifically, this project investigates how ITE programmes and the first two years of teaching experiences impact the development of professional competencies and identities of student teachers and beginning teachers (BTs) in Singapore.

This book examines connections between policy contexts, school experiences and everyday activities of children growing up in the global city of Singapore. In particular, it explores how Singapore children’s everyday experiences inside and outside of school shape their orientations towards educational success. Alongside an analysis of school life and educational policies, it also considers children’s out-of-school activities, including leisure, homework, and enrichment activities, and connections between these and their school-based activities. The book draws on empirical data from Primary 4 classes in two Singapore schools in the form of student-completed surveys, classroom ethnographies, student responses to a learning dialogues activity, and a re-enactment of one child's out-of-school life, as well as curriculum and policy analysis. It provides readers with an in-depth understanding of Singapore Primary 4 children’s experiences inside and outside of school, including the structure of timetables and pedagogical approaches encountered in school lessons, children’s enjoyment of activities inside and outside of school, children’s engagement and wellbeing at school, and the impact of Singapore’s educational policies on children’s learning experiences. Moving beyond a simplistic focus on Singapore children’s academic performance in international high-stakes testing, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of their lives inside and outside of school. This holistic approach is unique in the Singapore context and contributes to a greater understanding of children’s everyday lives in the city.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the beginning teachers’ perceptions of pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in Singapore. Data was collected from the beginning teachers at three time points: the exit point of the teacher education programme, the end of their first year and third year of teaching. In this three year study, the focus is to examine the beginning teachers’ perceptions of their development in the following teaching related factors: lesson planning, classroom management and instructional strategies. The results showed that beginning teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills increased significantly, but at different rates, in all three factors at the end of their third year of teaching. It suggested that learning to teach is an on-going process that begins from the pre-service teacher education programme and continues into the initial three years of teaching.