Lim Lee Hean

In this chapter, we discuss the comics package we have developed to teach lower secondary school statistics of the mathematics curriculum. Most people would think that comics for classroom instruction can at most stop at arousing students’ interest in the subject, especially among the low-attaining students. However, we assert that using comics in teaching lower secondary statistics can introduce the students to much of the statistical processes within contexts that are meaningful to students, invite them to engage in higher order thinking tasks in order to develop their critical thinking ability. We also discuss snapshots of how one teacher enacted the statistics lessons based on our comics teaching package, and two teachers’ response to the comics package.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine distinctive features that have surfaced in school leadership development programmes for more than two decades in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on information gathered from existing literature and the author's involvement in the programmes. Findings The Diploma in Educational Adminstration (DEA) programme and the Leaders in Education Programme (LEP), offered by the National Institute of Education of the Nanyang Technological University, primarily adopted the mentoring model and innovation model respectively. Irrespective of the models, evidence is provided to illuminate the co‐creation approach as well as synergy with the schools and Ministry of Education that permeate both programmes. Practical implications Instead of discarding the past as obsolete, it is suggested that programme developers take cognizance of local distinctive features in leadership preparatory programmes and capitalize their strengths, in their attempts to generate the next wave of seascape change. Originality/value Provides pertinent aspects of experience over a period of more than two decades of school leadership preparation in Singapore that could be of useful reference to practitioners and researchers in the field.

In Singapore, mentoring was the key feature of a development strategy for aspiring principals for one and a half decades. Many of the former participant proteges are currently practising principals in schools. This paper reports an exploratory study that sought to identify and examine the main learning source of these principals beyond mentoring. It is suggested that there is active networking for learning relationships at work among fellow principals. The principals create, seize and promote opportunities to improve their on-the-job practice through learning from the unstructured learning relationships at work. The formal principalship preparation programme that they attended emerges as a breeding ground for the initiation of informal learning relationships at work. Beyond formal mentoring, the principals appear to lead their own learning in collaboration with their peers in education.

The purpose of this study is to explore the practice of school management learned, as perceived by secondary school principals who had the opportunity to learn through mentoring. There is international interest in the use of mentoring as a learning strategy for the preparation of school principals. A random sample of 70 percent of the available population was invited to participate in this study. This constraint on sample size was imposed by the Ministry of Education at that point in time. Altogether a high 85 percent (or 41 participants) of sample responded. The participants were interviewed by the researcher after they had completed a self-administered questionnaire. The interview data were transcribed for content analysis. The findings are given below.

The aspects of school management that they learned through mentoring and which they put into practice are : leading, monitoring, training and developing staff, planning and organising administrative tasks, and relating to the external environment. The aspects of school management that they learned through mentoring but which they did not put into practice are: abusing authority, organising for meeting specific needs and leading by the use of religion to provide direction. The other sources of learning ( and the respective aspects of school management that are put into practice) are : fellow principals (seeking information or advice, and planning); past experiences ) leading, planning and organising administrative tasks, relating to external environment and monitoring); on-the-job experiences (leading, monitoring, developing staff and appraising performance); courses (networking, planning, managing change, developing continually); professional literature (developing continually) and supervisors (solving exceptional problems. The aspects of school management that they learned outside mentoring but which they did not put into practice are ; (from fellow principals) organising context-specific administrative procedure and implementing extra programme; (from past experiences) abusing authority and imposing religion on others; (from courses) adopting overseas models, developing staff through classroom research, adopting novel pupil disciplinary procedure, and changing vision and mission statements; (from professional literature) setting low expectations and recruiting staff. These principals exercised discretion in practising what they had learned. The findings highlighted that the practice of leading can be learned through mentoring by most principals and can be used by them at work. Further research could examine the principals' perception of practice in the context of what they do and could also explore cross-cultural comparisons of management practice learned through mentoring.

In this study, pupils' perspectives on qualities which they valued in their mathematics teachers were gathered through focused group interviews involving high achieving, medium-achieving and low-achieving pupils. The qualities of Caring, Skilful and Humorous emerged among the top three qualities of all the groups interviewed.

In this paper we present the views that the roles of comics for mathematics instruction extend beyond the role of addressing the affective needs of students, in particular the lower achieving students. We argue that within the broader framework of contextualization, comics have the potential to reach out to the entire spectrum of students to develop their higher order thinking skills and even raise their cognizance to environmental issues. Two exemplars based on the research carried out by us are presented.