Chia, Alexius Ti Yong

This study is an explorative and descriptive investigation of how three teachers account for their pedagogical practices when enacting the Lower Secondary Science (LSS) Syllabus and the extent to which these accounts are made visible in their classrooms. Taking a socio-cultural perspective, this study is underpinned by two theoretical concepts – ‘pedagogical practice’ (Baker & Johnson, 1998; Freiberg & Freebody, 1995) and ‘layers of mediation’ (Luke, 2005a). The specific questions driving my study are as follows:

In the light of the recent changes in the Singapore science curriculum,
1. how do teachers account for their pedagogical practices in the lower secondary science classroom? and
2. to what extent are their accounts made visible in their classroom instruction?

These questions have been answered by interviewing, and observing the lessons of, three lower secondary science teachers in a government school. The accounts provided in the interviews and the interactions observed in the lessons are subjected to fine-grained qualitative analyses. For the investigation of the science teachers’ accounts, this study employed the analytical approach of Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) – a branch of Ethnomethodology (Freebody, 2003; Freiberg and Freebody, 1995; Gunn, Forrest and Freebody, 1995). In line with Freiberg and Freebody’s (1995) framework, the teachers’ accounts were used as an essential backdrop for reading and analyzing the transcripts of their science lessons. The latter were examined for their production of what counts as scientific knowledge and practices in the teachers’ classroom. Hence, features of the lesson talk like exchange structure and nature of teacher questions were analyzed. The detailed analyses of the interview talk and classroom interaction transcripts surfaced a number of issues of broader relevance surrounding the challenges of curricular reform. Many of these issues confirm the findings from past research studies, others have expanded and deepened current understandings of the issues.

The findings have been organized into the broad themes derived from the bringing together of common and related categories and their accompanying attributes evoked in the teachers’ accounts of their pedagogical practice. The themes which have been assembled are ‘The Neighbourhood School Student’, ‘Institutional and Systemic Factors’ and ‘Teacher Habitus’. The findings suggest that a divide exists between ‘neighbourhood schools’ and ‘top schools’ – heard largely through the teachers’ attributions accorded to the students which attend them. The ‘neighbourhood school student’ is constructed as unmotivated and lacking in skills necessary to cope with 21st Century schooling; the ‘top school’ student is described as motivated, independent, self-directed and possessing the relevant skills to deal with the demands of school. These contrastive attributions were then employed by the teachers to justify the employment of different ways of instructing these sets of students. These claims were visible in the interaction patterns they employed in their classroom lessons.

Another recurring theme, which emerged from the interviews, is that of institutional and systemic factors – high‐stakes examinations, time constraints, curricular factors – which come to bear on the teachers’ enactment of the LSS Syllabus. These perceived pressures are seen to pull the teachers in different directions. The influence of these pressures was evident again in the teachers’ choice of pedagogical actions in their classroom lessons. They continued to perpetuate rather traditional ways of teaching (e.g. whole class monologic lecture, closed IRE questioning), which run contrary to the LSS Syllabus aims of promoting an inquiry-based curriculum.

The assembly of individual histories of the science teachers – from home, to school and university, through teacher training – was organized under the theme of ‘Teacher Habitus’. The findings from the analysis of their accounts reveal how their past experiences with science are able to shed light on their current beliefs and assumptions about science teaching, and these are seen to impact upon the current activity structures and interaction patterns in their classrooms.

The study concludes that teachers cannot successfully enact an inquiry-based curriculum if they do not change the discourse patterns in their classrooms. However, even if they are willing to do so, it is likely that they will adapt them to their familiar patterns of interacting, given the entrenched nature of these patterns, and the knowledge and values embedded within them.

This paper reports on an action research study that focused on reconceptualizing grammar within English Language classrooms in Singapore as a dynamic and contextually situated resource for meaningful literacy development. Departing from conventional perceptions of grammar as a rigid set of rules, the study endeavors to position it as a flexible and empowering tool that enables learners to effectively construct and convey meaning. Additionally, the study placed deliberate emphasis on grammar as a meaning-making resource in authentic Asian texts, acknowledging the significance of context in language learning. The aim was to underscore the contextualized nature of language practices, viewing the learning of meaning-making resources of grammar as essential in language skill development, particularly in text interpretation, in the hope of enhancing literacy among learners. Existing research served as the foundation of the study, highlighting the pivotal role of grammar in literacy development and text interpretation. The study employed an action research methodology characterized by a cyclical process of planning, acting, observing, reflecting, and revising. The data comprised teacher-designed materials, teacher-written reflections, and interviews involving 10 teacher-collaborators from four primary and secondary schools in Singapore. Key findings underscored the intrinsic link between grammatical choices and the nuanced meanings they convey, and in so doing reveal the crucial role of grammar in comprehending language intricacies.

English education has played a key role in the modernization and globalization of Singapore. Following the institution of the Bilingual policy in the year following the nation’s independence in 1965, the English Language attained a privileged status among other languages taught in Singapore schools. To this day, it is viewed as a vital catalyst to securing Singapore’s continued economic growth and to maintaining its image as a cosmopolitan hub conducive to foreign businesses and investments. In this chapter, we chart developments in English education in Singapore from the country’s independence in 1965 to the present. We focus on key changes to English Language syllabuses across Singapore’s history which we contextualize alongside four major phases of education in Singapore: Survival-driven education (1950s to 1960s), Efficiency-driven education (1970s to 1980s), Ability-driven education (1990s to 2000s), and Student-centric, Values-driven education (2010 to the present). The chapter concludes with observations about future developments of English education in Singapore.

We report on the Phase 2 research activities and findings of the NIE/OER Educational Research Funding Programme and MOE CORE 3 project titled 'Integrating Multiliteracies into the English Language Classroom'. The project has two Phases: Phase 1 from March 2019 to December 2019 and Phase 2 from January 2020 to December 2021.

The purpose of this project is first to understand how multiliteracies, specifically multimodal literacy, are currently taught in the English Language subject classroom in Singapore schools and then second, to develop an instructional approach, informed by Systemic Functional Theory, multiliteracies, and multimodality studies, to teach multimodal literacy for upper primary and lower secondary students.

The study adopts a design-based research approach which involved the team of researchers working closely with the teacher-participants in the co-design of lesson packages. The goal of design-based research is to develop contextually-sensitive pedagogical practices and instructional strategies with a focus on the teacherparticipants’ professional learning and growth in the process.

The “Student-centred, Values-driven” vision, articulated in 2011, marked a significant shift in the Singapore education system to a heightened emphasis on values, social emotional competencies, character development at the center of students’ educational experiences, and whole-child development. This vision embraces a “broad and inclusive” approach to education and a desire to support all students to succeed and achieve their fullest potential. This chapter describes key developments which accompanied the Student-centred, Values-driven vision with a particular emphasis on how teacher professional learning needed to be re-positioned in order to complement the vision. The chapter describes how Morgan School—one of four publicly-funded specialized independent schools set up to cater to students’ different aspirations—designed conditions for a school-based learning approach. Narratives from Morgan School describe the complexity and nuances between the school’s and teachers’ understandings of conditions that support professional learning. Based on lessons learned from Morgan School, the chapter postulates that the Student-centred, Values-driven vision has created a social-cultural environment in schools that drives professional learning by nurturing community building, strengthening teacher leaders, and promoting teacher agency and partnerships toward the goal of whole-child development.

“The aim of our various teacher education programmes is to develop future teacher leaders with a sense of professionalism, having a broad perspective of education and being well-grounded in content and pedagogy. In order to achieve this, we continue to challenge our student teachers to step out of their comfort zones because it is in these challenging places where authentic learning often takes place. International Practicum (IP) is one such initiative in our Bachelor of Arts (Education) and Bachelor of Science (Education) programmes. IP seeks to broaden and deepen our undergraduates’ learning experiences, not least to help them develop a global mindset.”—Foreword.

Recent research on literacy and schooling has focused on the need for further inquiry into the role gender plays in shaping children's attitudes and their participation in literacy practices at school. While there exists a body of research that asserts that boys and girls acquire literacy differently and hence become differently literate, much of the work has been done in countries like Australia, Britain, Canada and the US. Little is known about the Singapore school context. this research study attempts to fill this gap by investigating and analyzing the reading and writing preferences of a group of Singapore school children for gender differences.

The research was carried out with two classes of Secondary Three Express Stream pupils from a local secondary school; and the methodology to uncover gender differences involved a survey on the pupils' reading preferences, group interviews and analyses of examination documents and stories written by the pupils.

The findings indicated that the boys and girls had markedly different reading preferences and produced significantly different stories. For example, the girls who were seen to read much more than the boys were found to have very different tastes in the kinds of subject areas that they chose to read. Many of the narratives that were written by the girls were perceived to be superior to the boys' because they often contained single Complications and the building up of characters and their psychological make-up - i.e. features found to be highly valued by teachers and UCLES examiners. Very few of the boys' narratives displayed these features. In its conclusion, this dissertation also examined claims of the possible links between reading and writing. These links, together with the gendered differences uncovered, were found to have significant bearing on school literacy and performance, especially in subject English.