Unpacking high and low efficacy teachers’ task analysis and competence assessment in teaching low-achieving students in secondary schools

This study adopted a pragmatic qualitative research design to unpack high and low efficacy teachers’ task analysis and competence assessment in the context of teaching low-achieving students. Nine secondary school English and Science teachers were recruited and interviewed. Results of thematic analysis show that helping students perform well in exams was identified by both the high efficacy teachers (HETs) and the low efficacy teachers (LETs) as the sacred task, but the HETs perceived more contextual support from school culture, school leaderships and collegiality than the LETs did. Although the HETs showed more confidence than the LETs in instructional strategies, classroom management and student engagement, both the HETs and LETs experienced struggles when their personality traits and beliefs were in conflict with required strategies or imposed regulations. Despite the LETs having a lower level of perceived competence, their hunger for learning reveals that their sense of efficacy could be enhanced if provided with courses that focus on coaching and mentoring experiences.     

The Environment for Values Learning

This study examines the impact of the environment on pupils' learning of values. The sample selected for the study was 14 secondary schools, 3 Mission and 11 government schools. In all, 3102 Secondary 1 and 2 pupils were involved in the study. The study adopted an 80% cut-off point as a decision rule for interpreting the data. Among the dimensions considered were teacher helpfulness, affiliation, peer relationship and cooperativeness, class learning environment, values of respect, trust and attitude towards school rules. The study found that sharing and caring, mutual respect between teachers and pupils and courtesy were not strongly represented. It also found a bias towards friendship over obligation to public morality. On the positive side, there was strong achievement orientation and a belief among pupils that teachers were helpful and interested in pupils.     

Home and Parental Influences on the Achievement of Lower Primary School Children in Singapore

This study investigated the effects of home environment and parental involvement in the achievement of pupils in the lower primary classes in nine schools found in four zones in Singapore. In total, 3,759 pupils and their parents participated in the study. The study was designed to answer four main questions relating to the effects of the home environment (SES, time engaged in television viewing, reading, school work and ethnicity of parents) and parental involvement in the children's school work and in other school matters. The findings indicated that significant differences in achievement were found for all combinations of SES categories and between most ethnic groups. A higher percentage of high-achieving pupils spent more time on television viewing, reading and school work. Parents of high-achieving children were more anxious about maximising every opportunity for their children including those not directly related to school work.     

Microfluidic size separation of cells and particles using a swinging bucket centrifuge

Biomolecular separation is crucial for downstream analysis. Separation technique mainly relies on centrifugal sedimentation. However, minuscule sample volume separation and extraction is difficult with conventional centrifuge. Furthermore, conventional centrifuge requires density gradient centrifugation which is laborious and time-consuming. To overcome this challenge, we present a novel size-selective bioparticles separation microfluidic chip on a swinging bucket minifuge. Size separation is achieved using passive pressure driven centrifugal fluid flows coupled with centrifugal force acting on the particles within the microfluidic chip. By adopting centrifugal microfluidics on a swinging bucket rotor, we achieved over 95% efficiency in separating mixed 20 μm and 2 μm colloidal dispersions from its liquid medium. Furthermore, by manipulating the hydrodynamic resistance, we performed size separation of mixed microbeads, achieving size efficiency of up to 90%. To further validate our device utility, we loaded spiked whole blood with MCF-7 cells into our microfluidic device and subjected it to centrifugal force for a mere duration of 10 s, thereby achieving a separation efficiency of over 75%. Overall, our centrifugal microfluidic device enables extremely rapid and label-free enrichment of different sized cells and particles with high efficiency.     

Ideology,class and rationality: a critique of Cambridge International Examinations’ Thinking Skills curriculum

This article undertakes a critique of the aims and objectives of Thinking Skills, one of the most widely and internationally used curricula in the teaching of thinking, offered by the University of Cambridge International Examinations. By engaging in a critical discourse analysis of how political and class biases are (re-)produced in the forms of thinking that are valued in the classroom, issues of power and ideology latent in curricular discourses of rationality are foregrounded. Specifically, it will be demonstrated that the text engages in the ideological project of shaping our commonsense understandings of what thinking and rationality is and should be, not only in instrumental forms that both connect to neoliberal commitments and privilege a particular fraction of the middle class, but also in ways that evacuate substantive notions of morality, social justice, and the common good from individuals’ deliberations. The article concludes by pointing to alternative conceptualizations of thinking curricula.     

Singaporean Parents’ Curriculum Priorities for Their Children with Disabilities

This study examined Singaporean parents’ perspectives on how much they valued major curriculum skill areas for their children with disabilities. Parents were also asked to indicate whether they expected priority skill items within the curriculum areas to be performed with assistance or independently. The results showed that the parents of children with moderate and severe disabilities indicated the highest priority for self-help functional life skills, followed by community-based functional life skills, social relationship skills, and functional academics. Parents of children with mild disabilities indicated the highest priority for self-help functional life skills, followed by community-based functional skills, functional academics, and social relationship skills. The results also showed that parents’ relative ratings of the other skill areas besides self-help skills were influenced by the level of disability of their children. The milder the disability, the higher the relative parental ratings and expectations for independent performance of social relationship skills, functional academics, and community-based life skills. Conversely, the more severe the disability, the lower the relative ratings of these skills and expectations for independent performance compared with self-help functional life skills.