Teacher Professional Learning The Singapore Perspective

This book provides an insider’s perspective of the Singapore education system that views teacher capacity building as a key lever for quality educational experiences. It describes experiences from policy conceptualisation to practice implementations of teacher learning. This book includes international perspectives in the form of expert commentaries and critique where comparisons are made between Singapore’s experiences and those of other education systems. It also describes the complexities of teacher professional learning within and across three levels: policies, partnerships, and schools, that shape policy to practice implementations of teacher professional learning from pre-service to in-service teachers.

Together with the international scholars, this book shares the lessons learnt in Singapore to encourage policy makers, scholars, and schools to continue thinking about how teacher professional learning can be enhanced, caution against the direct transfer of practices, and describe how teacher capacity building lays the foundation for the education system to stay relevant, address challenges, and meet students’ needs.

Introduction to teacher professional learning: the Singapore perspective.- Part 1: Historical, political and contextual influence on professional learning.- The historical evolution and context of teacher learning and professional development in Singapore.- Centralized decentralization and its influences on teacher professional learning.- Early childhood teacher education: Learning from teacher policies and the science of human development.- Policies and initiatives for teacher agency and professional learning.- How context shapes Singapore teachers’ experiences of educational change and borrowing.- Teacher professional learning: Reflections on a Singapore perspective.- Part 2: Partnerships with communities and its influences on teacher learning.- Developing multiple perspectival mindsets for future ready teachers.- Practicum: A model of shared responsibility and co-learning in developing 21st century teachers.- Digital portfolio and partnerships: Enablers for the development of reflective practitioners and empowerment of teacher learning.- A responsive teacher leader programme: Galvanizing the theory-practice nexus in the design of professional development for teacher leaders.- Leveraging on co-constructive partnership and teachers’ experiences for a meaning-oriented professional learning and innovation.- Partnerships with communities and its influences on teacher learning: Reflections on a Singapore perspective.- Part 3: School-based influences and efforts on teacher learning and professionalism.- A model of situated professional learning in Singapore: Lessons learnt.- Teacher talk and learning in a networked learning community at the forming stage.- Rethinking the facilitation of teacher professional learning through complexity theory – From the perceptions of the school staff developers in Singapore.- Digital storytelling as a reflective-reflexive practice for teachers’ professional learning.- Reconstructing diversity in lesson study: shaping teachers’ beliefs about teaching diverse students in Singapore.- Teacher resilience, professional learning and professionalism in Singapore.- School-based influences and efforts on teacher learning and professionalism: Reflections on a Singapore perspective.- Final words.

Dr Shu-Shing Lee is Education Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education, Singapore. Her research interests are in teacher learning, particularly on aspects related to the structure, process, and contextual factors for sustaining teacher learning, growth, and reflexivity. Shu-Shing has published book chapters, journal papers, and served as a reviewer for Social Sciences Citation Indexed journals. She is co-editor of two books: Adaptivity as a Transformative Disposition for Learning in the 21st century, and Innovations in Educational Change: Cultivating Ecologies for Schools.

Dr Bee Leng Chua is the Chief Learning and Innovations Officer at Director’s Office at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. She is also an Associate Professor (Teaching) with the Psychology and Child & Human Development Department at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. She has conducted research in the areas of mediated learning, problem-based learning (PBL), e-PBL, and motivation and cognition. In addition to her work at the National Institute of Education, she also shares her expertise in subject disciplines such as educational studies and instructional pedagogies with schools and educators from other organizations and countries regularly.

Dr Alexius Chia is currently a Senior Lecturer of English Language and Literature at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. He holds a concurrent appointment as Associate Dean and General Manager at NIE International. Alexius’s research interests include curriculum implementation, school reform, multiliteracies, multimodality, and teacher professional learning. He has articles published in peer-reviewed journals and is the co-author of two books – Reading in the 21st Century: Understanding Multimodal Texts & Developing Multiliteracy Skills and Teaching English Grammar in Asian Contexts: Making Meaning with Grammar. Alexius serves on the editorial board of several journals.

Ms Monica Ong was a Teaching Fellow in the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education, Singapore. She was also a secondary school history and geography teacher, and a Head of Department with the Ministry of Education. Her research interests include teacher learning, learning communities and pedagogy. She has conducted research in the areas of teacher learning and inquiry, networked learning communities, professional learning communities, research utilisation and research translation.