The social practice of learning: a craft for the 21st century

This article argues that the social practice of learning (SPL), involving life-long learning, meta-learning, deep reflection, and dialogue in a community, should be the distinguishing knowledge base of schools in the twenty-first century. This article also analyses the strategies and challenges of the recent education reforms in Singapore through the lens of an SPL education paradigm. Although the Singapore government has done much to train teachers, trim syllabi and introduce new ways of teaching and learning, such as project work, the real challenge is to go beyond the provision of structural changes to the substance of the epistemological reform.     

多语环境下汉语作为第二语言教学：新加坡经验与模式

本文以新加坡华语教学经验与模式为基础,探索在多语环境下汉语作为第二语言教学的挑战与机遇。从种族结构与官方语言政策、“英语为主、华语为辅”的双语教育体制、变动中的华族社会,综述新加坡语言景观;从华族华语学习者类型、中小学华语教学的中国情结,分析新加坡华语教学界面对的问题;从职前与在职课程设计,阐述新加坡汉语作为第二语言师资培训的课程设置;描述新加坡汉语作为第二语言教学的研究现状;从国际汉语教研重镇与国际汉语语言服务业中心,探讨如何打造新加坡为国际汉语中转站。     

Quality assurance in the Singapore education system in an era of diversity and innovation

This paper describes how Singapore attempts to balance the need for quality assurance and the need for educational diversity and innovation. The Singapore experience shows that this is a delicate balance. On the one hand, to promote diversity and innovation, the government attempts to decentralise its power to the schools. On the other hand, for quality assurance, the government sets up quality structures that reassert the centrality of government control. This paper examines the implications of such a strategy and the challenges that schools face in navigating a new paradigm of diversity and innovation while satisfying the requirements of quality assurance.     

Away with all teachers: The cultural politics of home schooling

In the United States and a number of nations, one of the most powerful dynamics of educational 'reform' involves the movement toward home schooling. The national media have spoken glowingly about it and the number of children being schooled at home is growing rapidly. In large part, this is stimulated by the circulation of anti-statist discourses and by the continuation and expansion of claims about school failure. In these accounts, the sources of educational problems are multiple: teacher education institutions produce teachers who are unprepared academically and unskilled in teaching the 'basics'; state funded (public, in the US sense of the word) schools have been taken over by 'progressive' models of teaching that are unworkable; these same schools do not teach 'traditional' cultural and religious knowledge, beliefs, and values; and public schools do not listen to conservative parents and are much too bureaucratic. Supporters of home schooling are usually religious fundamentalists who have increasing power in the USA and elsewhere. They have formed a national coalition and have joined in a tense rightist hegemonic alliance with neo-liberals and neo-conservatives, an alliance that seeks to reconstruct our common-sense about education and about all things social. The article shows how the movement toward home schooling has become more extensive and more dangerous than has usually been thought. In the process, home schooling is situated within the larger conservative and authoritarian populist ideological, religious, and social movements that provide much of its impetus. Connections are suggested with other protectionist impulses and connections are made to the history of and concerns about the growth of activist government. Finally, the article points to how it may actually hurt many other students who are not home schooled.     

Instituting Change in Early Childhood Education: Recent Developments in Singapore

In an effort to improve preschool education, the Singapore government has embraced the need for change by identifying needed policies related to preschool education. These changes require teachers to rethink their approach to learning and teaching. A proposed tool suggested in this paper that may help facilitate curriculum change is the use of pedagogical documentation. This paper examines some impact, implications and challenges for adopting such a tool with the stakeholders in Singapore.     

探究性教学法应用于小学科学教学的比较研究

探究性教学法是小学科学课堂中所采取的主要教学方式之一,但如何真正把探究性教学法应用到小学科学的教学实际尚需在理论与实践层面进行研究.为了完善探究式教学法,通过对新加坡、美国及中国的小学科学探究性教学法的应用现状的比较研究,试图找出探究性教学法在我国应用中存在的不足,并给出相关的建议.     

The marketization of education in Singapore: prospects for inclusive education

The marketization of education in Singapore has produced features within the regular education system that emphasize school autonomy and competition among schools. While the intention of these initiatives is to foster educational excellence, there is evidence that schools are under increasing pressure to attract students who are assets in terms of contributing to higher rankings in school league tables. At the same time, current government rhetoric claims to emphasize a valuing of difference, the ability to relate to diversity and social cohesion. This paper discusses key features of the marketization of education in Singapore and the associated prospects for inclusive education. It concludes by suggesting several policy changes that are needed before any progress can be made towards a more inclusive education system.     

英语交际教学法的应用

交际教学法被越来越多的英语教师所了解和接受 ,并用于教学中。教学实践证明交际教学法是一种行之有效的方法 ,它在使学生获得英语基础知识和培养学生听、说、读、写能力方面很有帮助。交际教学法的起源、教学原则及应用。     

新加坡华文师资培养中的“文言语法”教学

新加坡中小学华文教学具有强制性,政府投入大量精力,在大部分学生无较好的汉语口语的基础上培养其语言能力,并灌输优秀的传统华族文化以增强学生的民族认同感、提高其人文素养;不注重培养学生的文言文阅读能力,但注重成语教学。其师资培养课程中有关古代汉语知识的教学,未设置"古代汉语"而专门设置了"文言语法"。这些特点决定了其华文师资培养中的"文言语法"课程应注重古今语法对比以增强学生的现代汉语能力、增加学生的文化知识、利用文言语法知识加深对成语的理解,并培养初步的文言文阅读能力。     

Education for future-oriented citizenship: implications for the education of twenty-first century competencies

Globalization and the knowledge economy have opened up worldwide agendas for national development. Following this is the emphasis on the social dimension, otherwise known as social capital. Much of social capital includes “soft skills” and “twenty-first century skills”, which broadly cover critical, creative and inventive thinking; information, interactive and communication skills; civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills. Proactively, the Singapore government is preparing for Curriculum 2015, a new curriculum that would develop student attributes, embedded in the “confident person”, “self-directed learner”, “active contributor”, and “concerned citizen”. Significantly, a new curricular initiative, Character and Citizenship Education, emphasizes the integrative nature of citizenship and twenty-first century competencies and has been implemented in all schools in Singapore from 2011. This future-oriented approach to citizenship education emphasizes the significance of individual initiatives and the intellectual capital of citizens. This paper analyses features of this particular approach to citizenship education, and its strengths and significance, which may be viewed as an integrative “total curriculum approach” with a “whole-society” perspective. In addition, the challenges of teaching twenty-first century skills will also be highlighted. This departs from the conventional paradigm of socialization, but to help students develop attributes for a future society to come.     

Creating thinking schools through authentic assessment: the case in Singapore

Using Singapore as an example, we argue that schools need to equip and encourage teachers to adopt authentic assessment in teaching and learning so as to develop the students’ higher-order thinking. The importance of teaching and assessing higher-order thinking in Singapore classrooms is encapsulated in the vision of ‘Thinking Schools’ launched by the Ministry of Education in 1997. Underpinning this vision is a shift from conventional assessment to authentic assessment. Unlike conventional paper-and-pencil tests that focus on knowledge reproduction and low-level cognitive processing skills in artificial, contrived contexts, authentic assessment tasks underscore knowledge construction, complex thinking, elaborated communication, collaboration and problem solving in authentic contexts. However, the creation of thinking schools in Singapore remains a constant challenge as many teachers tend to rely on conventional assessment and are often ill-prepared to implement authentic assessment. By presenting the findings from a recent empirical study, we propose that schools build teacher capacity by providing ongoing and sustained professional development on authentic assessment for teachers.     

The Effectiveness of an Initial Teacher Training Partnership in Preparing Students to Teach Art in the Primary School

Recent government reform of initial teacher education has increased teachers’ responsibility for training students in schools, bringing about some fundamental changes in the professional relationship between the schools, higher education institutions (HEIs), teachers and students. This paper reports on primary undergraduate student teachers’ and their class teachers’ perceptions of school-based training to teach art. Class teachers were interviewed about their preparedness to train students and questionnaires and interviews were used to gauge students’ views of the effectiveness of university-based courses and the support given to them by teachers. The findings indicate that teachers were able to support students in matters of classroom management and resources but that they were mostly unable to assist them in developing subject knowledge and understanding of art teaching and learning. This raises concerns about teachers’ subject knowledge and their confidence in training students. Our findings suggest that there is significant room for improvement in the partnership arrangements between schools and HEIs in order to better support students’ teaching of art.     

Religious education in the context of sub‐Saharan Africa: the Malawian example

The argument in this paper is that in spite of the acknowledgement of plurality, many countries in sub‐Saharan Africa seem reluctant to introduce multi‐faith approaches preferring to maintain Christian confessionalism in religious education. Even in those countries where new approaches are being tried, there is some unwillingness to make wholesale changes throughout the school system. In some instances this state of affairs is precipitated not by educational policy but by the socio‐religious situation, which mirrors Christian ideals. This is better illustrated in the Malawian context where largely due in part to the historical Christian influence and for the fact Christianity is the major religion in the country, multi‐faith religious education introduced in schools was opposed. As a compromise to a difficult situation, government resolved to offer both multi‐faith religious education and the historical Bible knowledge on the school curriculum. Results of a school survey seem to indicate that Bible knowledge as opposed to multi‐faith religious education is still a favoured syllabus in schools, possible reasons of which are suggested. The conclusion is that efforts should be made to interest those still wary about multi‐faith religious education considering the benefits it can bring in a world today where heterogeneity rather than homogeneity is the acceptable reality.     

CONSULTATION: A Final Report

In 2008 Quebec introduced a new ethics and religious culture course. This marks a significant development in Canadian education as the mandated curriculum is intended for use in publically funded secular schools. In the past such courses have been in the domain of denominational schools. This new approach is examined in the context of the profound changes in Quebec society in recent years, typified by the sudden decline in the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. An overview of the curriculum is given, noting its basis as a particular type of phenomenological approach to the study of ethics and religion. The curriculum is analyzed against the theoretical perspectives developed by Moore and Wright. A number of issues on the scope of the study, the significant demands it places on students and teachers, and how it critically engages with religious truth claims are examined.     

改进外语教学方法之我见

普及外语和培养外语人才,改进外语教学方法和提高外语教学水平已经不是一般的教学问题,而是影响我国经济和社会发展的重大问题。从目前各级各类学校的外语教学的现状看,创建一套符合中国国情的外语教学方法尚未系统化,在学校外语教学方法上,还普遍存在着亟待解决的问题,如缺乏对外语教学方法的正确认识,教师讲得多,学生练得少,调动不起学生学习的积极性等。从几个结合中寻找改进外语教学方法的出路。如句型法和情景法的结合,传统教学方法与现代电教手段的结合,正规的课程学习和非正规的潜课程学习的结合。     

The Christian Family as Mediator

The publication in 2011 of This is Our Faith (TIOF), the Catholic Church in Scotland's syllabus for religious education in Catholic schools, is a significant contribution to wider debates on the appropriate conceptual framework for religious education. Recent teaching of the Holy See has suggested that religious education in Catholic schools should adopt a scholastic shape and serve as a complement to catechesis. In TIOF, pedagogy, assessment issues and the relationship between cognitive and affective approaches to learning are merged in the context of a distinct faith tradition. TIOF's adoption of a catechetical vision of religious education shows how local churches can adapt Catholic teaching to their own circumstances.     

Reflections on Allen and West’s paper: ‘Religious schools in London: school admissions,religious composition and selectivity’

This paper is a reflection upon the research findings of Rebecca Allen and Anne West in relation to religious schools in London. While welcoming this contribution to the systematic study of faith schools (a neglected area of empirical inquiry), the paper argues that the use of ‘religious schools’ as a unitary category is problematic for the analysis. It also suggests that certain historical and cultural contextual knowledge is required when analysing the characteristics of different categories of religious schools. This response is intended to be helpful for future researchers into the different types of faith school.     

Two views of education: Promoting civic and moral values in Cambodia schools

This paper discusses the Cambodian government's attempt to promote civic and moral values in Cambodia schools through the subject “Civics and Morals”. The paper argues that the tensions and challenges associated with civic and moral education are linked to a fundamental difference between the traditional view of education in Cambodia, and the modern view of education promoted by the Cambodian government and external donor agencies. It is further argued that policymakers need to promote the effective teaching and learning of civic and moral values with the support of the local community and religious institutions in Cambodia.     

职校语文教学中普通话强化和内部语言训练研究

职业学校培养的是技术型人才,其作为传播知识的地方,应当重点抓好我国普通话的推广工作,为社会主义建设贡献力量。文章分析职业学校推广普通话教学的意义,探讨职业学校普通话教学存在的问题,指出职业学校普通话教学问题的解决策略:明确教学目标,推进教师队伍建设,重视内部语言的训练。