SESSION 8 - Summary & Wrap-up on 21st Century Learning and Teaching - TSLN

1. SESSION 8 - Summary & Wrap-up on 21st Century Learning and Teaching - TSLN Workshop on Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Koh Boon Long, M. Ed., PPA. National Institute of Education, Singapore blkoh2014@gmail.com ORGANISED BY DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Directorate for Development of Secondary School Teachers & Education Personnel(Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Indonesia)

2. Thinking Schools, Learning Nation

3. Scope of Presentation • Education in Singapore’s nation-building history • Emerging trends, future challenges - the changing role of the teacher • MOE’s response - our mission, vision, goals, capacity and strategic paradigm • The education buffet

4. Survival-Driven Education (1959 - 1978) • Self-government - merger with Malaysia - independence • National survival a concern • Fragile social situation • Widespread poverty, high birth rate, insufficient housing, high unemployment • Fertile ground for communist activism

5. Survival-Driven Education (1959 - 1978) • Mass education for all • accelerated school building programme • recruitment of teachers en masse • A technical bias in education • technical secondary schools • establishing what would become today’s ITE and polytechnics

6. Survival-Driven Education (1959 - 1978) • Parity of treatment for all streams • common curricula • common training for teachers • common examinations • education structures aligned with English system • Pledge-taking, flag-raising introduced • Bilingualism

7. Efficiency-Driven Education (1979 - 1996) • Singapore achieved full employment • Economic restructuring to higher value-added activities • focus on productivity and efficiency • widespread automation and mechanisation • expansion of technical manpower training • wage correction • selective investment promotion

8. Efficiency-Driven Education (1979 - 1996) • Problems in education • high educational wastage • lower literacy and numeracy • pre-mature school leaving • unemployability of school leavers • Ability-based streaming introduced • Curricula changes • User-proof materials produced

9. Efficiency-Driven Education (1979 - 1996) • Severe economic recession in 1985 • Singapore subject to factors beyond our control • Economic Committee report (1986) • upgrade workforce, continually retrain • cultivate a flexible, innovative mindset in our people

10. Efficiency-Driven Education (1979 - 1996) • A need to raise the minimum educational levels of the workforce • Provide broad-based education to develop adaptability • Expansion of post-secondary and tertiary education • Excellence in education • independent/autonomous schools • cluster schools

11. A Sound and Robust System Today

12. A Sound and Robust System Today

13. GCE O-levels GCE N-levels Polytechnics 39% ITE 21% JC/CI 25% University 21% WORK A Sound and Robust System Today

14. 1st 1st Maths Science Secondary level 1st Primary level Maths A Sound and Robust System Today

15. A Sound and Robust System Today “We have no failing schools, an assertion few countries in the world can make. We only have good schools, and very good schools. We have not only provided education to our young, we have succeeded in providing quality education to all of them” RAdm Teo Chee Hean Minister for Education

16. Why Change? • Change is discomfiting • The best time to change is before change becomes critical • But things are still relatively comfortable, and the need for change is not pressing • Here lies the challenge for change

17. Why Change? • Three fatal errors • failure to learn from the past • failure to adapt to the present • failure to anticipate the future • A failure to change in good time is a result of a failure to change in good times

18. The Challenge of Change • Charting change • building from past successes and failures • forging a shared vision • appreciate broader national visions • Communicating change • re-orientate mindsets • Effecting change • harnessing the creativity of everyone to implement change

19. Emerging Trends and Future Challenges Competing in the First League of Nations • Globalisation • the death of distance • increased mobility of talent across borders • intense competition • Intellectual Capital • Knowledge will be the key strategic asset • Technology, innovation critical • Technology

20. Emerging Trends and Future Challenges Life in the 21st Century • Over Information • vast amount of information available • knowledge is expanding rapidly • Shifting Moral Values • Easy access to foreign media • Our young better educated than elders • dual-income families, latchkey kids, rising juvenile delinquency and divorce rates

21. Emerging Trends and Future Challenges Life in the 21st Century • Demographics • ageing population • baby boom • Evolving Social Patterns • Families more cloistered • Technology encouraging more individualism • Less concern for others in society

22. Emerging Trends and Future Challenges Hotel Singapore • Great Expectations • rising material expectations without regard for Singapore’s constraints • unthinking vocal dissent • Fight or Flight? • Emigration to perceived greener pastures in good times • In bad times, will Singaporeans quit Singapore?

23. Emerging Trends and Future Challenges National Cohesion • Ethnic Divides • a migrant, plural society • natural divides along lines of race, language and religion • Socio-Economic Stratification • Income gap likely to grow • A growing underclass? • Citizenship and Permanent Residence

24. The Changing Role of Teachers • Teachers no longer perceived as people in society holding the key to knowledge • need to go beyond dispensing knowledge to imparting thinking and learning skills • particular expertise of teachers lies in the ability to catalyse learning in a class of very different individuals • emphasis must shift from eliciting right answers to asking good questions • a more constructional, less instructional approach

25. The Changing Role of Teachers • Learner-Centeredness • not what is most convenient for the teacher, but what is most effective for the learner • need to be mindful of whole-person factors influencing learning - aptitude, ability, learning modality, learning style • mass customisation of education

26. The Changing Role of Teachers • Teachers must be conversant with IT as an educational tool • The teaching profession as a whole needs to collaborate more - tapping good ideas within and across schools • Teachers should be encouraged to network widely, even with teachers in other countries

27. The Changing Role of Teachers • The teacher must be the moral guardians of society • the health of a nation lies ultimately in the values of its people • the building of stout character must be through personal example • Teachers are cornerstones of social defence, advocates of our principles of governance

28. But some things do not change …

29. Let’s take a short break ...

30. An Overall Framework Our Mission Moulding the Future of Our Nation Our Vision Our Capacity Thinking Schools, Learning Nation Managing for Excellence with the 4/3 Approach Our Goals The Desired Outcomes of Education

31. Our Mission Moulding the Future of Our Nation • We cannot provide fixed formulae for success or dictate desired goals • We inculcate values and attitudes, develop skills and competencies • Our young must identify their own problems, find their own solutions and chart their own destiny • Continuous renewal of our people

32. Our Vision Thinking Schools, Learning Nation • Thinking Schools are true learning organisations in every sense • A Learning Nation envisages a national culture and social environment that promotes lifelong learning

33. Our Goals The Desired Outcomes of Education • A return to education fundamentals, developing the moral, cognitive, physical, social and aesthetic realms • Developing the individual, educating the citizen

34. Our Organisational Capacity MOE’s 4/3 Approach • The approach sets out • the centrality of people for all achievement • the need for systems to assure efficiency and consistency • the need to recognise the customer as the reason for all things • Purpose is to achieve excellence on a sustained basis

35. WELL-BEING Fitness Challenge Recognition ExCel Continuous Improvement Continuous Learning Teamwork Mission Vision Support Example LEAD PEOPLE QUALITY SERVICE Courtesy Accessibility Responsiveness Effectiveness SUPERVISORS DELIGHT CUSTOMERS Standards Innovation Economy MANAGE SYSTEMS ORGANISATIONAL REVIEW Step Improvement IT Harvest No Red Tape Qualitivity = Quality + Productivity MOE’s 4/3 Approach

36. Our Strategic Paradigm Ability-Driven Education • Maximal development of talents and abilities • of students • of staff • Maximal harnessing of talents and abilities • of students • of staff

37. Ability-Driven Education • Every child has talents and abilities • Every child is different • Ability refers to ability at all levels, ability of all types • Everyone should excel according to his own ability • To excel is to be the best one can be, to do the best one can do.

38. Ability-Driven Education • Every Singaporean is able to make a unique contribution to society • By doing so, he gains a sense of self-confidence, a sense of self-worth • Every student can succeed in ability-driven education, so long as he puts his mind to it

39. Ability-Driven Education • We also develop our teachers • Efficiency paradigm for training • miserly provision of professional development opportunities • Ability paradigm for training • each teacher entitled to 100 hours of training • with his supervisor, the teacher decides how he can get the most out of training

40. Ability-Driven Education • Harnessing the creative talents of every member of staff to provide the best education for the students • School autonomy - not fewer rules, but different rules • Vision, rationale and strategic intent become vital, procedures more flexible

41. The TSLN Strategic Review • The First Wave • problem identification • about 300 people in 32 project teams • The Second Wave • problem-solving • The Third Wave • vision-sharing • continual feedback

42. The Education Buffet • Not fixed meal, not a choice of set lunches, but a la carte • A spread to choose from • what to eat, what to eat first • Two mistakes • eat everything • eat nothing • Decision based on what you need, and what you can chew

43. The Education Buffet The Masterplan for IT in Education • Education’s answer to a world of rapid technological advancement • Not to teach IT skills per se, but to make our young IT savvy • IT is an enabler, not an end; it empowers sound pedagogy, not replaces it

44. The Education Buffet National Education • Education’s efforts towards rootedness and social cohesion • To know the Singapore story • To think global, yet stay local • To safeguard social harmony

45. The Education Buffet The Syllabus Content Reduction • Education’s response to the nature of knowledge in the future • To free up time for developing thinking skills, learning skills, process skills, communication skills • Identified the core, cut down content coverage by up to 30%

46. The Education Buffet Teacher-Training • Teachers are key to education reform • Foundation training at NIE should inculcate values and attitudes • Teachers must keep up to date with educational developments and effective classroom practices • Upgrading to come through courses as well as professional sharing

47. The Education Buffet University Admissions System • Shifting students’ attitudes • The university admission system serves two purposes • sorting students • signaling effect • A-levels to be supplemented by reasoning tests, project work and ECAs

48. The Education Buffet School Excellence Model • Shifting schools’ mindsets • Quality assurance approach based on self-appraisal • 50% results • 50% enablers • Aim is to sustain excellence

49. The Education Buffet PRIME • To create a conducive physical learning environment in schools • All schools will be upgraded over the next 7 years • Thereafter, schools will be upgraded to the most recent standards every 5 years

50. The Education Buffet MOE’s 4/3 Approach • Leadership is key to organisational excellence • Management of systems and resources to get the most value out of pre-allocated resources • Delighting all customers