Towards Research-based Innovation and Reform: Singapore schooling in transition

The challenges facing the Singapore education system in the new millennium are unique and unprecedented in Asia. Demands for new skills, knowledges, and flexible competencies for globalised economies and cosmopolitan cultures will require system-wide innovation and reform. But there is a dearth of international benchmarks and prototypes for such reforms. This paper describes the current Core Research Program underway at the National Institute of Education in Singapore, a multilevel analysis of Singaporean schooling, pedagogy, youth and educational outcomes. It describes student background, performance, classroom practices, student artefacts and outcomes, and student longitudinal life pathways. The case is made that a systematic focus on teachers' and students' work in everyday classroom contexts is the necessary starting point for pedagogical innovation and change. This, it is argued, can constitute a rich multidisciplinary evidence base for educational policy.     

Investing in the renewal of urban science teaching

This article provides a conceptual framework for understanding what is involved in improving urban science teaching and what might be implied by conducting research on its improvement. It is argued in this article that three sets of forces and conditions have a direct impact on urban science classrooms: first, the array of interdependent policies at school, district, and state levels about science teaching in particular and about education improvement more broadly construed; next, the investment and use of instructionally relevant resources at each of the three levels and their differing impacts on the renewal of urban science teaching; and finally, the broader context in which urban science teaching occurs mediating how these resources are—or can be—used. Mediating factors include the professional peer community, subject‐specific instructional leadership, the professional development infrastructure, the supply of available science teachers, and the broader community context. The article concludes with suggestions for how this framework informs directions for future research on the promise and limits of efforts to renew science teaching in urban settings. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 1089–1100, 2001     

Learning Is Moving in New Ways: The Ecological Dynamics of Mathematics Education

Whereas emerging technologies, such as touchscreen tablets, are bringing sensorimotor interaction back into mathematics learning activities, existing educational theory is not geared to inform or analyze passages from action to concept. We present case studies of tutor–student behaviors in an embodied-interaction learning environment, the Mathematical Imagery Trainer. Drawing on ecological dynamics—a blend of dynamical-systems theory and ecological psychology—we explain and demonstrate that: (a) students develop sensorimotor schemes as solutions to interaction problems; (b) each scheme is oriented on an attentional anchor—a real or imagined object, area, or other aspect or behavior of the perceptual manifold that emerges to facilitate motor-action coordination; and (c) when symbolic artifacts are introduced into the arena, they may both mediate new affordances for students’ motor-action control and shift their discourse into explicit mathematical re-visualization of the environment. Symbolic artifacts are ontological hybrids evolving from things with which you act to things with which you think. Students engaged in embodied-interaction learning activities are first attracted to symbolic artifacts as prehensible environmental features optimizing their grip on the world, yet in the course of enacting the improved control routines, the artifacts become frames of reference for establishing and articulating quantitative systems known as mathematical reasoning.     

Principal Recruitment: An Empirical Evaluation of a School District’s Internal Pool of Principal Certified Personnel

Applicant pools for principal vacancies are shrinking nationwide. This shortage of job applicants requires school districts to evaluate their internal pools of principal certified personnel. In this study, 194 certified individuals from a large school district responded to a survey measuring attraction to the job of principal, current job satisfaction versus expected satisfaction in the job of principal, barriers to pursuing the job, and recommended changes in the job. Few participants intended to apply for principal vacancies due to age (median=51), lack of self-reported capability to do the job, and satisfaction with the current job. Participants perceived their job satisfaction would decrease on assuming the job of principal relative to factors such as time with family and job security, and increase relative to factors such as salary and opportunity to experience varied activities. Implications for principal recruitment and recommendations for restructuring the job are discussed.     

Role of recognition of prior learning for emerging economies: learning from a four sector pilot project in India

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) has increasingly been recognised as a useful way to certify experience and competencies gained in the workplace informally. Particularly pertinent is RPL in the context of international migration or in economies, where system reforms seek to overcome challenges related to access to formal training and qualifications. India has the goal to skill 300 million of its growing workforce and provide them access at various levels to certification and further learning opportunities. As a part of the overall system reforms, the Government of India, jointly with the ILO, pilot tested RPL in four sectors in collaboration with the industry and built the foundation for wider replication for another 26 growth sectors by undertaking a tracer study and evaluation. This paper can empirically establish that RPL has had a positive effect on income opportunities, occupational safety, social status and openness to further learning. The paper further discusses the challenges encountered during the implementation of the RPL projects before concluding with recommendations, highlighting the aspects required for quality RPL in an emerging economy. It closes by emphasising the importance of conducting tracer studies to determine impact and the need to provide complementary training during the RPL process.     

Promoting access, accommodations, and independence for college students with learning disabilities.

This article focuses on the four primary issues that directly affect service delivery to students with learning disabilities in postsecondary settings, including (a) How are high school and post-secondary settings different? (b) How are eligibility and access determined? (c) How are reasonable accommodations determined? and (d) How can the independence level of college students with learning disabilities be fostered? Each of these issues will be discussed within the context of the student's transition from high school, where Public Law 94-142 is in effect, to college, where Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 applies.     

Are Educational Psychology Courses Educationally and Psychologically Sound? What Textbooks and Teachers Say

Educational psychology courses should be the best taught courses on college campuses given that its instructors and textbook authors are resident experts in learning and teaching. More specifically, we contend that educational psychology courses should adhere to six principles. Educational psychology courses should: (a) be driven by teaching models, (b) integrate theory and practice, (c) provide opportunities to practice teaching skills, (d) present an integrated model for instructional planning, (e) prepare teachers to teach learning strategies, and (f) help students learn. We surveyed practicing teachers and analyzed current educational psychology texts and found that these principles are not upheld. We report on the principles, our findings, and how an educational psychology course that upholds these principles might be developed.     

Learning from the Professions: Examining How,Why, and When Engineers Read and Write

With the advent of the Next Generation Science Standards in engineering (NGSS, 2013), teachers of multiple subject areas are being asked to do more than ever before—not only to teach engineering content in the K-12 classroom but also to engage students in authentic disciplinary reading and writing as part of content learning. These standards sound good, but they beg several questions; namely, what do we know about how, why, and when do engineers read and write as they do their work every day? What do teachers charged with engineering education know about the daily practices of engineers, let alone the literacy practices? In short, little is known about the literacy practices of engineers in the course of their daily work. This article draws on participant observation, interviews, and document analysis of one research engineering laboratory to illustrate the literacy practices of one group of engineers and begins to draw implications from this work for teacher practice in achieving the NGSS engineering education standards.     

Children’s Memory: A Primer for Understanding Behavior

This paper provides the opportunity to understand children’s behavior from a memory viewpoint. For the last three decades, cognitive developmentalists have been asking the question, “what develops in children’s memory?” Four answers to this question are presented, complete with explanations, examples, and possible applications where appropriate. The purpose of the paper is to provide early childhood educators and other practitioners who work with children a different lens through which to view children’s behavior. The memory view is compatible with current best practices in early childhood education, and may provide practitioners an additional viewpoint from which to draw when implementing developmentally appropriate practice.