Index

Aloysius Foo

Authors List

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Secondary School

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Aloysius Foo (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords Social Studies Junior College Secondary School Social Studies social studies education Singapore teacher professional learning   While the term “neighbourhood school” is popularly used in Singaporean parlance as well as by academics to describe a typical, government-run school, it has not been subjected to close scrutiny. Using Pierre […]

Aloysius Foo (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
Social Studies
Junior College
Secondary School
Social Studies
social studies education
Singapore
teacher professional learning

 

While the term “neighbourhood school” is popularly used in Singaporean parlance as well as by academics to describe a typical, government-run school, it has not been subjected to close scrutiny. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of different forms of capital and capital conversion, this article situates neighbourhood schools within Singapore’s stratified educational landscape.

Although these schools lack the privileges and recognition of elite schools, their students possess and mobilise their own forms of cultural, symbolic and emotional capital which empower them. This article is relevant for socially-conscious educators, Social Studies teachers and curriculum specialists who are keen to explore the notion of “diversity” through education and social class.

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Pang Wei Han(Raffles Institution (Singapore)) Keywords Social Studies Secondary School Social Studies social studies education Singapore teacher professional learning According to the Upper Secondary (Express/Normal Academic) Social Studies Teaching and Learning Guide, dynamic content “refers to knowledge needed for students to amplify and deepen their understanding of the core content” and “can take the form […]

Pang Wei Han(Raffles Institution (Singapore))
Keywords
Social Studies
Secondary School
Social Studies
social studies education
Singapore
teacher professional learning

According to the Upper Secondary (Express/Normal Academic) Social Studies Teaching and Learning Guide, dynamic content “refers to knowledge needed for students to amplify and deepen their understanding of the core content” and “can take the form of examples found in the Coursebook, or can be examples derived from discussions and explorations students undertake in school and outside of school” (Ministry of Education, 2015, p. 12). This review article was conceptualised with the intention of supporting Social Studies educators by supplementing their toolkit of dynamic content and sources. In addition to presenting an overview of three recently-published texts in the field of Singapore Studies, I will draw linkages with key concepts in the SS curriculum and suggest potential pedagogical approaches to leveraging these texts in the classroom. In keeping with the renewed emphasis on Character and Citizenship Education (CCE), I also remark on how the texts can tie in with various CCE strands, including Values-in-Action, Education and Career Guidance, and discussion of contemporary issues.

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Fatema Anis Hussain (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords Social Studies Secondary School An inquiry-based approach in the classroom equips students with discipline-based skills, thus facilitating knowledge construction (Kidman & Casinader, 2017). In view of the curricular focus in Singapore on developing students’ critical and reflective thinking skills via inquiry (MOE, 2016a), this article illustrates […]

Fatema Anis Hussain (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
Social Studies
Secondary School

An inquiry-based approach in the classroom equips students with discipline-based skills, thus facilitating knowledge construction (Kidman & Casinader, 2017). In view of the curricular focus in Singapore on developing students’ critical and reflective thinking skills via inquiry (MOE, 2016a), this article illustrates teachers’ enactment of inquiry processes in secondary Social Studies lessons, drawing on data from a baseline study. Analysis of teacher interviews and student focus group discussions yields insights into the possibilities and challenges of employing inquiry-based learning. The article spotlights teacher-student interactions in one particular lesson as students ascertain the reliability of the given sources. The analysis reveals teachers’ pragmatic, fit-for-purpose approach to selecting key aspects of inquiry-based learning, which is largely driven by time constraints and concerns about syllabus coverage and students’ assessment outcomes. These findings suggest the need for greater student agency in the inquiry process as well as more opportunities for students’ critical and reflective thinking, and domain-specific understandings.

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 Appendix A 154 KB
 Appendix B 132 KB

Peidong Yang (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Jun Yan Chua (Dunearn Secondary School (Singapore)) Keywords Social Studies Secondary School Social Studies social studies education Singapore teacher professional learning Inquiry-based learning has gained prominence in secondary-school humanities education in Singapore in recent years. In Social Studies (SS), the loci of inquiry learning are “Issue Investigation” as […]

Peidong Yang (National Institute of Education (Singapore))
Jun Yan Chua (Dunearn Secondary School (Singapore))
Keywords
Social Studies
Secondary School
Social Studies
social studies education
Singapore
teacher professional learning

Inquiry-based learning has gained prominence in secondary-school humanities education in Singapore in recent years. In Social Studies (SS), the loci of inquiry learning are “Issue Investigation” as found in the 2016 Express and Normal (Academic) syllabus and “Performance Task” in the 2014/15 Normal (Technical) syllabus, respectively. Due to the relatively short time inquiry has been given explicit emphasis, to date research into this new aspect of SS education remains very limited. This paper focuses on an important yet often neglected step of the SS inquiry process—the development of inquiry questions. To explore how different ways of crafting the SS inquiry question may lead to distinct inquiry approaches and processes, a taxonomy of SS inquiry questions is proposed based on empirical observations. The taxonomy comprises three categories of questions: the “politician’s question”, the “social worker’s question”, and the “social scientist’s question”. The implications and applications of this taxonomy for SS instruction are also discussed with reference to the multi-faceted aims of SS education in Singapore.

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Keith C. Barton (Indiana University) Keywords History Social Studies Secondary School Literacy Writing can be a powerful tool for learning in the Humanities. When used well, it helps students clarify their thoughts in a quick, simple way, and it provides teachers with ready insight into how students are making sense of content.  Writing is also a […]

Keith C. Barton (Indiana University)

Keywords
History
Social Studies
Secondary School
Literacy

Writing can be a powerful tool for learning in the Humanities. When used well, it helps students clarify their thoughts in a quick, simple way, and it provides teachers with ready insight into how students are making sense of content.  Writing is also a natural way to engage students who have a wide range of achievement levels, for it allows different students to participate in the same activity in different ways. Perhaps most importantly, it places control of learning in the hands of students themselves, so that they have a chance to construct their own ideas instead of simply reproducing what they encounter from teachers, texts, or other sources. When used this way, most students write easily and naturally.

That may not sound like a very familiar description of writing. Both students and teachers are more likely to think of writing as a difficult and time-consuming process, one that sometimes seems to require impossibly high standards. Many may associate it with drudgery, boredom, and the regurgitation of content that they barely understand. But it does not have to be that way. Developing a more positive and productive attitude toward writing requires thinking more carefully about its role in the learning process.

The Role of Writing in Learning
Writing is one of the most common tasks required of students at school, but it rarely lives up to its potential as a tool for learning. Most often, we ask students to write for one of two reasons: (1) As a summative assessment. We often ask students to write examinations, essays, or other somewhat lengthy compositions as a way of finding out how well they have learned what we intended. Here, writing is a product of learning. (2) As a skill to be learned. In language classes, we teach students the mechanics of composition, and in content courses, we teach them to apply that to particular subjects—by writing a historical essay, for example. Here, writing is the object of learning.

Both of these are important reasons for having students write, but neither of them is centrally concerned with helping students learn content; they are more like by-products or auxiliaries of Humanities content. By placing writing closer to the center of the learning, though, we can make it both more natural and more effective. Rather than only being the product or the object of learning, writing should also be part of the process of learning.

This means giving students the chance to write quickly and informally as they are learning, or immediately after a lesson. It does not involve lengthy compositions, nor does it focus on correct spelling and punctuation. (Think of it as more like email—correct spelling and punctuation are nice, but we do not tell people we will not read their emails if they are not perfect.) If students get too bogged down in the mechanics of writing, the activity will cease to serve its purpose. The purpose of this kind of writing is for students to think about the information they have encountered, and to make it their own through the activity of writing (Britton, 1970; Langer & Applebee, 1987; Smith & Wilhelm, 2010). This is what constructivism is all about—students constructing knowledge by doing something with content. When students react to information through an activity, they construct their own understanding of it. Otherwise they are just memorizing … or forgetting.

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Yi Ling Elissa Goh (New Town Secondary School, Singapore) Keywords Geography Secondary School Fieldwork The impetus for action research on experiential learning of geography stems from a desire to introduce a more “engaged” form of geography, whereby students move beyond the academic study of geography in the classroom to making sense of geography in relation to […]

Yi Ling Elissa Goh (New Town Secondary School, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Secondary School
Fieldwork

The impetus for action research on experiential learning of geography stems from a desire to introduce a more “engaged” form of geography, whereby students move beyond the academic study of geography in the classroom to making sense of geography in relation to their reality (Morgan, 2012). Through an environmental scan of the inclusion of fieldwork into the new Geography syllabus commencing 2013, we sought to find out how fieldwork is integral to the study of geography in Singapore schools. The choice of coastal geography as a topic for inquiry was strategically aligned to its inclusion in the new syllabus and its relevance to Singapore’s geography as an island. The feedback obtained from teachers participating in Professional Learning Circles (PLCs) also suggested that students found it challenging to understand abstract geography concepts, in particular, physical geography processes and how they take place in real world contexts. As such, a “disconnect” or a learning gap has been created between geography presented to the students in the textbook to that of their real world contexts. The decision to explore how to bridge students’ learning gaps through fieldwork as a pedagogical practice was also guided by our Humanities Department action plan to effectively engage our students through Outdoor Classroom Experiences (OCE). We chose Labrador Park as a research site due to various factors, such as its geographical proximity to the school, evidence of human management of coasts, preservation of historical features, and availability of resource materials.

Methods
The research was conducted from April to October 2011 and consisted of three key phases: planning, data collection and data analysis (see Table 1).

Phase Focus Time frame
1 Planning

  • Environmental and subject scanning
  • Brainstorming of research ideas
  • Formulation of thesis question and sub-questions
  • Defining research scope
  • Recce of field sites
  • Development of fieldwork booklet
April to June
2 Data Collection

  • Administration for fieldwork (e.g., information to students and parents)
  • Selection of students
  • Fieldwork activity on 20th July
  • Class reflection
July to August
3 Data Analysis

  • Transcription of interviews
  • Categorization of student responses
  • Evaluation of student responses
  • Consolidation of findings
September to October

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 Activity 1 22.49 KB
 Activity 2 20.41 KB
 Activity 3 20.5 KB
 Reflections- Why protect the coast at Labrador Park 1.48 MB
 Appendix 2-4 20.96 KB

Chew Hung Chang (National Institute of Education, Singapore ) Keywords Geography Secondary School Curriculum Cities like Singapore have implemented numerous planning norms and policies that are aimed at addressing rapid urbanization. These efforts, however, have largely been state-driven and state-led. In other words, important behavioral norms such as the reduction of consumption of materials and energy […]

Chew Hung Chang (National Institute of Education, Singapore )

Keywords
Geography
Secondary School
Curriculum

Cities like Singapore have implemented numerous planning norms and policies that are aimed at addressing rapid urbanization. These efforts, however, have largely been state-driven and state-led. In other words, important behavioral norms such as the reduction of consumption of materials and energy have not necessarily been inculcated or accepted (Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Singapore, 2008). For instance, while there have been many public events and campaigns through mass media aimed at raising awareness, such campaigns only galvanize a small portion of the population to change their behavior in order to mitigate climate change. Schools, however, provide a favorable environment whereby environmental measures such as recycling activities can be put in place to promote positive attitudes and behaviors toward climate change. Formal lessons, in addition, can help to reinforce the concept of climate change and this in turn may influence students’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior towards climate change.

While climate change education (CCE) exists in pockets within the formal curriculum in Singapore (Goh, Tan, Chang, & Ooi, 2009), how this is implemented and enacted depends largely on the key stakeholder – the teacher. When teachers consider teaching about climate change, they commonly focus on changing human behavior to mitigate the effects of human-induced climate change. This, however, may not be effectively carried out because relatively few educators and students are able to articulate the importance of climate change or the best ways to understand the topic of climate change.

There is, in fact, no explicit pedagogical content knowledge articulated for climate change education.  In this paper, I argue that in order to inspire active learning, it is necessary to first foster critical thinking. Before we can develop a robust approach to teaching about climate change, educators must first have a good conceptual understanding of what and how a topic should be taught. To this end, a workshop was developed to allow geography teachers to build capacity through concept mapping and to understand the conceptual lens through which climate change education can be framed.

Prior to the workshop, an expectations-building exercise was conducted through email correspondence. Key areas of concern for the participants included learning how to be able to introduce climate change as a topic, learning how to engage students, and educating students to realize the large scale impact and consequences of climate change.

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Peidong Yang (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords Social Studies Junior College Secondary School Social Studies social studies education Singapore teacher professional learning Introduction The upper-secondary Social Studies (SS) syllabus (Express/Normal-Academic) released in Singapore in 2016 introduced a component called “Issue Investigation” (II). Speaking to the target learners, the SS textbook defines and explains II as […]

Peidong Yang (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
Social Studies
Junior College
Secondary School
Social Studies
social studies education
Singapore
teacher professional learning

Introduction
The upper-secondary Social Studies (SS) syllabus (Express/Normal-Academic) released in Singapore in 2016 introduced a component called “Issue Investigation” (II). Speaking to the target learners, the SS textbook defines and explains II as follows:

An Issue Investigation encourages you to identify a societal issue to develop a response to. A societal issue is one that is of concern to society and people have points of view about. An Issue Investigation allows you to analyse factors and perspectives that shape the development of societal issues. Through the course of the investigation, your group will also understand the impact the selected societal issue has on society and develop possible responses and recommendations to address the issue. (Ministry of Education, 2016a, p. 367)

In terms of carrying out II, the textbook prescribes a four-stage cycle: (1) sparking curiosity; (2) gathering data; (3) exercising reasoning; (4) reflective thinking. It thus seems that II is positioned as an inquiry-driven learning activity that helps students gain analytical insights into pertinent societal issues, which in turn serve the broader objective of Social Studies to develop learners into “informed, concerned and participative citizens” (Ministry of Education, 2016a, p. iii).

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Yee Jie Ying (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Environmental education Introduction Curricula Goals of Environmental Education Environmental education (EE) was first developed at a time when environmental degradation became widely prominent (UNESCO, 1976). EE becomes even more relevant today as we are ever pressured by pressing environmental issues such as […]

Yee Jie Ying (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Environmental education

Introduction
Curricula Goals of Environmental Education
Environmental education (EE) was first developed at a time when environmental degradation became widely prominent (UNESCO, 1976). EE becomes even more relevant today as we are ever pressured by pressing environmental issues such as those arising from pollution, waste management, and climate change, both locally and globally. The 1975 Belgrade Charter was the first milestone of EE, providing an international framework for EE to rapidly proliferate in many cities. Essentially, EE aims to:

“develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations and commitment to work individually and collectively towards solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones” (UNESCO, 1976, p. 2).

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Ysabel Julia M. Ortiz (National Institute of Education (Singapore) Keywords Junior College Secondary School Jose Rizal curriculum as political text critical pedagogy curriculum as autobiographical/biographical text Introduction Since 1956, Republic Act 1425, otherwise known as the Rizal Law, has mandated the teaching of the life and works of Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, in all public […]

Ysabel Julia M. Ortiz (National Institute of Education (Singapore)

Keywords
Junior College
Secondary School
Jose Rizal
curriculum as political text
critical pedagogy
curriculum as autobiographical/biographical text

Introduction
Since 1956, Republic Act 1425, otherwise known as the Rizal Law, has mandated the teaching of the life and works of Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, in all public and private schools, colleges and universities. Why decree Rizal’s ideas of nationhood and citizenship in the Philippine social studies curriculum? Dumol & Camposano’s (2018) textbook The Nation as Project: A New Reading of Jose Rizal’s Life and Works begins with a pithy statement that perhaps expresses the rationale best: “When Jose Rizal was born in 1861, there was no Filipino nation to speak of . . . When Jose Rizal died in 1896, there was still no nation to speak of, but [through his writings, political campaigns, and the reason for his execution] there was a nation to dream of” (p. 3). To examine Rizal’s life and works, therefore, is “to discover who we are and where we might go as a nation” (Dumol & Camposano, 2018, p. 3).

But the Rizal Law’s lofty directive that his works be an “inspiring source of patriotism” to the youth today is thwarted by curricula widely comprised of a reverential reading of Rizal’s life and works (Dumol & Camposano, 2018). As such, his ideas are left decontextualized and are resultantly barren. Without explanation for how Rizal’s ideas emerged amidst the social conditions of his time, a central truth—that the individual’s thoughts and actions bear weight on the ongoing project of the nation—remains veiled from students.

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