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Index

Tharuka Prematillake Thibbotuwawa

History and History Education

Shifting Scales of Time and Space: Establishing Connections Across the Humanities

Author/s:

Tharuka Prematillake Thibbotuwawa (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Keywords History Social Studies Junior College Secondary School Historical thinking Introduction Meaningful understanding of history and geography involves being able to identify and establish connections across time and space scales (An et al., 2015; Bain, 2005; Baker, 2003; Foskett, 1999). Nonetheless, one key problem in the history and […]

Tharuka Prematillake Thibbotuwawa (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
History
Social Studies
Junior College
Secondary School
Historical thinking

Introduction
Meaningful understanding of history and geography involves being able to identify and establish connections across time and space scales (An et al., 2015; Bain, 2005; Baker, 2003; Foskett, 1999). Nonetheless, one key problem in the history and geography curricula of schools today is this lack of connectivity and sense of scale.[i] Thus, it is appropriate to find out how to help teachers and students expand their disciplinary thinking towards a more holistic (or interdisciplinary) approach that encourages them to shift scales and make connections across time and space. To answer this question, this article proposes a potential conceptual framework in which History and Geography, as interdisciplinary subjects, can conduct meaningful dialogues with each other so that students and teachers can extend their thinking to deepen their understanding of both disciplines and to identify connections across scales of time and place. This framework will be introduced through two initiatives, The Historian’s Lab (HL) and The Sustainability Learning Lab (SLL), funded by an EduLab grant, and currently being developed by the staff in the Humanities and Social Studies Education Academic Group (HSSE AG) in the National Institute of Education (NIE), (Singapore). However, it is important to note that this framework is a work-in-progress and will be further modified and developed as the project moves forward.

Background
Historians and geographers have long argued the necessity of viewing both History and Geography (as subjects) from wider perspectives – beyond isolated events of the past or physical geographic features – to identify connections across time and space (Baker, 2003). For instance, historian Geoffrey Barraclough has emphasised the need to look beyond national histories to a whole world system of history, arguing that it is not only possible but also necessary to view the past “by attuning it to the world in which we live in today” (as cited in Baker, 2003, p.194), so as to gain a more sophisticated understanding of historical events. Hence, instead of the traditional narrow focus on Asian history as the history of a region, it could be understood in relation to Asia’s place in the world and through making connections to the past, present and future across both time and space. In a keynote address at the recent Humanities Colloquium organised by NIE (2016), historian Bob Bain, in channelling French historian Emmaunuel Le Roy Ladurie, conveyed a similar idea. Using Ladurie’s famous observation of historians being either parachutists or truffle-hunters, Bain expanded the metaphors to state his case that it is a necessity for historians to be both truffle-hunters and parachutists.[ii]

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Developing Historical and Metahistorical Thinking in History Classrooms: Some Reflections on Research and Practice

Author/s:

Arthur Chapman

Arthur Chapman (UCL Institute of Education) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School Approaches to teaching history Teachers’ Practice Abstract The history of history education, past and present, often resembles a history of contestation, in which rival and polarized understandings of the meanings of ‘history’ and ‘history education’ vie for dominance (Nakou and Barca, 2010). A common […]

Arthur Chapman (UCL Institute of Education)

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
Approaches to teaching history
Teachers’ Practice

Abstract
The history of history education, past and present, often resembles a history of contestation, in which rival and polarized understandings of the meanings of ‘history’ and ‘history education’ vie for dominance (Nakou and Barca, 2010). A common polarity in debates on history curricula is the opposition between ‘knowledge’ and ‘skill’, an opposition that has had considerable currency in recent curriculum reform processes in England which have emphasized ‘core knowledge’ (DfE, 2013).

Drawing on examples of classroom practice (Chapman, 2003; Woodcock, 2005; Buxton, 2010) and on systematic research and theorizing (Shemilt, 1983; Lee and Shemilt, 2009) this paper aims to destabilize such binary talk and to explore the ways in which ‘first order’ knowledge and understanding about the past and ‘second order’ or metahistorical knowledge and understanding of how the discipline of history works are both logically inter-related and inseparable in practical terms. The notion of historical ‘enquiry’ (Counsell, 2011) is explored as a pedagogic tool for the simultaneous development of these inter-related dimensions of historical thinking.

Introduction
As has often been the case around the world (Carretero, 2011; Nakou and Barca, eds., 2010; Taylor and Guyver, eds., 2011), recent public discussions of history curriculum and pedagogy in England have tended to be structured through overdrawn dichotomies – between ‘content’ and ‘skills’, between ‘traditional’ and ‘progressive’ and between ‘child-centred’ and ‘subject-centred’ pedagogies (Lee, 2011, pp.132-134). This paper aims to demonstrate the emptiness of these oppositions through discussion of a key aspect of historical understanding – historical explanation. It will argue that these oppositions present us with fallacious choices that restrict options to ‘either / or’ where, in reality, more complex choices, including ‘both / and’, are possible and desirable and, very probably, inevitable.

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Serious Fun: Game Design to Support Learning about the Surrender of Singapore

Author/s:

Suny Matt Gaydos

Suny Matt Gaydos (South Korea) Tharuka Prematillake Thibbotuwawa (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Neo Wei Leng (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Connie Tan Keni (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Suhaimi Afandi (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School Surrender of Singapore Game Design Serious Fun: Game Design to Support Learning […]

Suny Matt Gaydos (South Korea)
Tharuka Prematillake Thibbotuwawa (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Neo Wei Leng (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Connie Tan Keni (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Suhaimi Afandi (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
Surrender of Singapore
Game Design

Serious Fun: Game Design to Support Learning about the Surrender of Singapore
Chronology, or putting past events in temporal order, is a starting point for making sense of the past (Seixas & Morton, 2013). However, sequencing the past into chronological order requires more than the memorization of events and their dates. Chronological thinking is central to historical reasoning because it enables us to organize our thinking about the past, consider relationships between events, determine cause and effect, and identify the structure or “plotline” of stories told about the past (i.e., those contained in accounts or historical narratives). It entails more than simply filling out a timeline, although timelines are essential tools for helping students understand chronological order and cause and effect relationships, and other patterns in history.

In this article, we highlight the development of a game, Singapore Surrenders!, collaboratively designed by a group of historians, history education specialists, and game designers to help students develop their chronological reasoning skills and to learn about events leading to Singapore’s surrender during World War II. We outline our conceptualization of the game, the process of designing the game, and its implementation in an undergraduate course on Singapore history.

The Thinking behind the Design
The Singapore Surrenders! game was conceptualized as a part of The Historian’s Lab, an effort initiated by the Humanities and Social Studies Education (HSSE) Academic Group at the National Institute of Education. The theoretical framework which defines The Historian’s Lab has been generally influenced by the work of Vygotsky (1978) and Bruner (1977), especially with regard to their views on the child as an active problem-solver, having his or her own ways of making sense of the world, and whose level of psychological development can be potentially improved under proper adult guidance or collaboration with more capable peers. In these classrooms, the teacher designs and facilitates dynamic learning experiences and supports the child’s construction of knowledge by encouraging active participation and collaboration (Mercer, 1991). Notions of constructivism, situated learning (Lave, 1988; Lave & Wenger, 1991) and cognitive social learning (Rogoff & Lave, 1984; Rogoff, Matusov, & White, 1996) have guided the Lab’s design of curriculum materials and rich tasks to support student learning. These ideas may be summarized by the four principles that undergird the project’s approach to learning and knowledge construction, namely: a) that learning is interactional and collaborative in nature; b) that learning occurs through participation in a community; c) that knowledge is socially constructed within specific contexts and social engagements; and d) that learner competency can be progressively developed through the co-sharing of knowledge and the design of appropriate scaffolding and guidance.

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Towards an Effective Professional Development Model to Deepen History Teachers’ Understanding of Historical Concepts

Author/s:

Andrew Anthony

Andrew Anthony (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore)) Lloyd Yeo (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore)) Suhaimi Afandi (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School Approaches to teaching history Abstract This small-scale study explores professional development (PD) designs for history teachers in Singapore and proposes a PD model that uses a job-embedded collaborative approach. Drawing from […]

Andrew Anthony (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore))
Lloyd Yeo (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore))
Suhaimi Afandi (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
Approaches to teaching history

Abstract
This small-scale study explores professional development (PD) designs for history teachers in Singapore and proposes a PD model that uses a job-embedded collaborative approach. Drawing from research on effective PD and data gathered from questionnaires and interviews conducted with participants involved in a PD workshop, this paper considers the value of collaborative PD approaches aimed at promoting and encouraging historical thinking. The authors conclude that PD history workshops that are carefully designed to support the development of teachers’ professional knowledge bases, and ones that offer opportunities for teachers to actively translate conceptual ideas into concrete teaching strategies, are critical in transforming beliefs and practices that can work towards more robust historical thinking and discourse in the classroom.

Introduction
The teaching and learning of History as a disciplinary field of study in schools is a complex and sophisticated endeavor. The assumption that acquiring historical knowledge may be achieved simply by committing historical narratives (including factual details such as events, names and dates) to memory no longer holds. Preparing students for education in the 21^st century involves expanding their knowledge base beyond content mastery or information accumulation, to include deeper understanding about the nature of a specific discipline and the development of relevant thinking and reasoning skills that can allow students to engage with the subject matter. Over the past few decades, research on history education has shown that learning history, for the purpose of deeper understanding, involves not only the study of historical narratives but also the acquisition of discipline-specific cognitive strategies that students can use to better learn and understand the past. To be able to better understand the nature of history, students must be equipped not only with the relevant historical content but also with the necessary tools that can enable them to think historically about the past.

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Why Singapore Succeeded: Applying the Acemoglu and Robinson-Sachs Debate

Author/s:

Goh Chor Boon

Goh Chor Boon (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School History of Singapore’s growth Why are some nations rich and some poor? Who are the winners and losers of colonialism and why? These questions have recently gained much attention, not only amongst historians but also economists who are now looking into global […]

Goh Chor Boon (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
History of Singapore’s growth

Why are some nations rich and some poor? Who are the winners and losers of colonialism and why? These questions have recently gained much attention, not only amongst historians but also economists who are now looking into global history to provide a fuller understanding of why and how had nations developed. One of the most recent works was Why Nations Fail by economist Daron Acemoglu and political economist James Robinson. They hypothesise that the nature of political institutions are the causes of why some countries are rich and some are poor today. Their works raised lively debate and comments, including those made by Jeffrey Sachs who argues that such mono-causal explanation is too simplistic. Both works made references to Singapore as one of the many case examples to illustrate their arguments. How is Singapore’s economic transformation explained in the light of this debate? The small city-state had a history of 145 years of colonial rule under the British and for about three years it was known as Syonan-to or the “Light of the South”, under the Japanese Imperial Empire. Acemoglu and Robinson are pessimistic that former colonies of European empires are ever able to become rich nations. The economic transformation of Singapore, a colony of the British Empire, has proven otherwise.

By the end of the Second World War, the British Empire was effectively gone. At its apogee, it was one of the largest territorial empires the world has ever witnessed and it profoundly shaped the lives of people both in Britain and overseas. The debate as to whether former colonies of Britain – and the other European empires – came out as “winners” or “losers” is still popularly debated. Undoubtedly, some imperial nations were better rulers than others and their colonies performed better after gaining full sovereignty and independence. For the Spaniards, the conquest of the Americas was accomplished with much cruelty and treachery, and all in the name of seeking and controlling the treasures of the lands. For the Portuguese in Asia, fortresses and defensible strongholds such as Goa had to be built in order to control trade, the local merchants and the population at large. As for the Dutch, their rule of the Indonesian archipelago was largely exploitative. Economic historians have also debated much on the impact of “developmental colonialism” in former colonies in the East and Southeast Asia. It is well documented (Myers & Beattie, 1984; Fuess, 1988; Haggard, Kang & Moon, 1997; Kohli, 2004) that the two former Japanese colonies of South Korea and Taiwan have achieved remarkable economic growth post-1945. In her comparative study of the economic performance of colonies in East Asia and Southeast Asia, Anne Booth concludes that those who argue that “it was post-colonial policies which were crucial in transforming both states [Korea and Taiwan] and in holding back South East Asian countries would still seem to be on stronger ground” (Booth, 2005).

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Review Essay Of “Jacques de Coutre’s And Matelieff’s Singapore and Johor”: Exploring Sources On Pre-Modern History of Singapore

Author/s:

Teddy Sim Y.H.

Teddy Sim Y.H. (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School History of Singapore before Raffles’ coming Brief survey of the field The education and awareness of the pre-Rafflesian Singapore history has seen much progress since the turn of the millennium. First, there is the publication of Early Singapore 1300-1819: evidence in maps, text […]

Teddy Sim Y.H. (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
History of Singapore before Raffles’ coming

Brief survey of the field
The education and awareness of the pre-Rafflesian Singapore history has seen much progress since the turn of the millennium. First, there is the publication of Early Singapore 1300-1819: evidence in maps, text and artefacts and Iberians in the Singapore-Melaka area and adjacent regions: 16th to 18th century in 2004. In 2009, the publication of Singapore: a 700-year history, Sino-Malay trade and diplomacy from the tenth through the fourteenth century and Singapore and Melaka Straits: violence, security and diplomacy in the 17th century provide the general public and the specialists alike a chance to explore the subject comprehensively or delve into the China-Malay Archipelago relations in the post Classical period as well as the relations between European empires and native powers in the Western Malay Archipelago in the early modern period. In between, there is the appearance of the Maritime heritage of Singapore which adds on to the list that the general readers can delve into. In 2013, the publication of Singapore and the Silk Road of the sea summarizes years of painstaking archaeological work done by J. Miksic in Singapore. The appearance of the Memoirs and memorials of Jacques de Coutre and Journal, memorials and letters of Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge as well as their abridged versions in quick succession enrich the narrative of the European empire-Malay native power interaction across a spectrum of audience immeasurably. To top it off, the CPDD-produced textbook for Singapore in 2014 has incorporated the pre-1819 developments of the island substantially compared to previous versions of the text.

Works by J. Miksic (2013) and Derek Heng (2010) have been urging for the pre-1819 history of Singapore to be seen from the large perspective of the trade passing through the region as well as from the intimate angle of activities occurring on the island. The broad phases of pre-1819 Singapore developments can be seen in the context of the chronology of Southeast Asian history: 1. post-Classical kingdom period (600-1400 C.E.), 2. early modern period (1450-1750 C.E.). Focusing on the latter half of the early modern period (17th and 18th centuries), this essay is written with three objectives: 1. as a brief review to the abridged version of P. Borschberg’s Jacques de Coutre’s Singapore and Johor and Matelieff’s Singapore and Johor; 2. to connect the coverage of Borschberg’s works to other primary sources and archaeological findings so as to delve into certain aspects of the subject and period in question; 3. as an in-service orientation of Borschberg’s 2015 works for Ministry of Education (MOE) teachers.

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Anxieties Over Singapore Students’ Conceptions About History and The Past

Author/s:

Suhaimi Afandi

Suhaimi Afandi (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords History Junior College Secondary School Approaches to teaching history Understanding history can be an intellectually challenging task for many students in schools. It requires students to contemplate issues, events and people who had lived in the distant past and who are often […]

Suhaimi Afandi (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Mark Baildon (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
History
Junior College
Secondary School
Approaches to teaching history

Understanding history can be an intellectually challenging task for many students in schools. It requires students to contemplate issues, events and people who had lived in the distant past and who are often far removed (from them) in time and familiarity. Such challenges, however, have seldom been satisfactorily addressed in many history classrooms in Singapore. Where historical instruction in schools takes on a heavily content-transmission approach, students are more likely to conceive history learning as the uncritical absorption and memorisation of knowledge that has little bearing to their everyday lives. This is especially so when the existence of a prescribed textbook and a pre-selected content is viewed as sufficient learning materials for direct historical instruction. Additionally, the attention spent on developing methods to train and prepare students to answer examination questions has reduced historical thinking and reasoning to sets of somewhat rigid, algorithmically-devised skills-related procedures (Afandi & Baildon, 2010). While these may help build students’ capacity to deal with the requisite assessment objectives tested in the examinations, they do little to build student’s knowledge of history. Amidst a schooling context that places emphasis on rigid procedures to produce “the right answers” and driven by a strong purpose to meet assessment requirements and accountability in the examination, it is unsurprising if many believe that history teaching need not go beyond simply the transfer of (historical) knowledge or content. This, however, should not be confused with learning history. As Lee (1991: pp. 48-49) maintained, [it is] absurd … to say that schoolchildren know any history if they have no understanding of how historical knowledge is attained, its relationship to evidence, and the way in which historians arbitrate between competing or contradictory claims. The ability to recall accounts without any understanding of the problems involved in constructing them or the criteria involved in evaluating them has nothing historical about it. Without an understanding of what makes an account historical, there is nothing to distinguish such an ability from the ability to recite sagas, legends, myths or poems.

Implicit in Lee’s assertion is the suggestion that acquiring the kind of knowledge that is deemed historical goes beyond information acquisition and rote memorisation of facts; it must equip students with “more powerful” ways of understanding history and the historical past (Lee & Ashby, 2000, p. 216). Among other things, this would involve getting students to come to grips with the disciplinary basis of the subject and having them understand how knowledge about the past is constructed, adjudicated and arbitrated.

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The Phasing-Out Of Venice In The Social Studies Curriculum: No More Lessons To Be Learnt?

Author/s:

Teddy Sim Y.H.

Teddy Sim Y.H. (National Institute of Education (Singapore)) Keywords Social Studies Secondary School Survival Of Venice Learning Lessons In History The Problem The notion of linking Venice to Singapore is not new. As Singapore reaches 50 years old, books have appeared to question the city-state’s survival or its next phase. In the social studies textbook of […]

Teddy Sim Y.H. (National Institute of Education (Singapore))

Keywords
Social Studies
Secondary School
Survival Of Venice
Learning Lessons In History

The Problem
The notion of linking Venice to Singapore is not new. As Singapore reaches 50 years old, books have appeared to question the city-state’s survival or its next phase. In the social studies textbook of Singapore, the chapter of Venice in which students have been studying for more than a decade is about to be phased out from 2016. Has the chapter achieve its aim of making students learn some lessons of survival from Venice? Are there alternative ways to help the students discuss the developments of Venice? This paper will venture to make an attempt of last voyage to see what can be gleaned from a city which has survived a thousand years.

The first question and issue to deal with must be: can lessons of history be learnt? And then, can lessons be learnt from Venice by Singapore? “Learning lessons from history” has almost become a cliché. Some thought the derivation of these was the only utility of history. Figuratively speaking, “those who were doomed to repeat history failed to learn from it” (rendition from Winston Churchill). From the different perspectives (realist, Dawinian, biologist), peoples or civilisations which do not learn their lessons very well became extinct in history. In truth, practitioners of military history know that lessons from battle were only learnt after simulating the various alternative scenarios or having pondered deeply. If no two situations were ever alike in history, it is not surprising that the key to diffusing a new situation is sometimes linked with being able to anticipate or predict it. At the other end of the extreme, Michael Howard in his inaugural Regius Professor Chair lecture in 1981 at Oxford University (entitled “Lessons of history”) questioned the potentiality of learning lessons from history. While he accedes there might be a need for history to be more ‘relevant’ and ‘civic conscious’, one needs to be very careful and more open (or ignorant). Being ‘ignorant’, according to Howard, means not to be constrained by any type of parochialism. Howard also cautions against judging the ‘usefulness’ of histories and events in terms of their contemporary-ness; ‘lessons’ can come from all periods and geographical areas in history. In this direction, the topic of Venice in the Singapore social studies textbook can offer insightful lessons if issues in both societies and their overlap (or lack of) is discussed in a more open and in-depth manner (Howard, 1992).

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Economic Pragmatism and the ‘Schooling’ of Girls in Singapore

Author/s:

Kho Ee Moi

Kho Ee Moi (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Keywords Social Studies History Junior College Secondary School History of Education Introduction Women in Singapore today are considered by many to be modern, liberated and progressive. They have been accorded many opportunities for education and employment since the 1960s and appear to have made great strides in many […]

Kho Ee Moi (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
Social Studies
History
Junior College
Secondary School
History of Education

Introduction
Women in Singapore today are considered by many to be modern, liberated and progressive. They have been accorded many opportunities for education and employment since the 1960s and appear to have made great strides in many areas of economic and social life in Singapore. An official survey outlined women’s socio-economic and educational achievements in Singapore between 1987 and 1997 thus (Department of Statistics, 1998, p.1):

Along with Singapore’s economic progress, women in Singapore have achieved significant improvements in various aspects of their life. Their educational level is almost on par with men, they participate actively in economic and social activities, and they have access to good health care and live longer lives. Concomitant with these changes is the marked improvement in the status of women in Singapore society.

Indeed, since the People’s Action Party (PAP) was elected into power, Singapore women have made great strides in the socio-economic arena as a result of the ruling party’s policy of equal opportunities. Between the years 1959 and 2010, the educational profile of the female population has improved markedly. Women’s literacy rate rose significantly from a mere 34% in 1957 to 93.8% by the year 2010 (Singapore, 1964 & Department of Statistics, 2012). The mean years of schooling for girls more than doubled from 4.6 in 1980 to 9.7 in 2010 (Department of Statistics, 2012). The increase in the number of years of schooling means that most girls were going on to secondary and even tertiary education. By the year 2010, approximately 93.6% of females aged 15–24 years and 93% aged 25–34 years had received at least a secondary education.[i] Women’s economic position has improved significantly as a result of education and their greater participation in the workforce. The female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) rose to 58.6% in 2014 from a mere 21.6% in 1957 (Singapore, 1964, p. 80; Ministry of Social & Family Development Research Room, 2015). The financial position of women has also been enhanced over the years as a result of a significant increase in the income of females. The median monthly income of women rose from $2,863 in 2010 to $3,518 in 2014 (Ministry of Social and Family Development Research Room, 2015). Based on these statistics, it looks like access to modern education and job opportunities has empowered many Singapore women. For many in Singapore, gender issues are not significant areas of concern because the ruling party’s declared policy of equal opportunities has allowed women to achieve much in society.

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Teaching Venice in Schools

Author/s:

Jackie

HSSE Online

Index

Tharuka Prematillake Thibbotuwawa

Authors List

Authors List

Shifting Scales of Time and Space: Establishing Connections Across the Humanities

Developing Historical and Metahistorical Thinking in History Classrooms: Some Reflections on Research and Practice

Serious Fun: Game Design to Support Learning about the Surrender of Singapore

Towards an Effective Professional Development Model to Deepen History Teachers’ Understanding of Historical Concepts

Why Singapore Succeeded: Applying the Acemoglu and Robinson-Sachs Debate

Review Essay Of “Jacques de Coutre’s And Matelieff’s Singapore and Johor”: Exploring Sources On Pre-Modern History of Singapore

Anxieties Over Singapore Students’ Conceptions About History and The Past

The Phasing-Out Of Venice In The Social Studies Curriculum: No More Lessons To Be Learnt?

Economic Pragmatism and the ‘Schooling’ of Girls in Singapore

Teaching Venice in Schools

HSSE Online

HSSE Online