School Leadership and Educational Change in Singapore by Benjamin Wong & Salleh Hairon & Pak Tee Ng

Author:Benjamin Wong & Salleh Hairon & Pak Tee Ng
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783319747460
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

2.How will we know when they have learned?

3.How will we respond when they do not learn?

4.How will we respond when they already know it?

In addition, the model incorporated Fullan’s ‘Triangle of Success’ (Fullan 1993), which includes ‘School Leadership’, ‘System-ness’ and ‘Deep Pedagogy’. Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) comprising groups of teachers were created to engage in collective learning to improve teaching and learning so as to deepen their theories and practices of teaching—representing ‘Deep Pedagogy’ (TDD 2010). Coalition teams consisting of a group of senior leaders (e.g. principal, vice-principal and/or middle managers)—representing ‘School Leadership’, were also created to provide conducive school structures and culture to support PLTs—representing ‘System-ness’.

The ‘Three Big Ideas’, ‘Four Critical Questions’ and ‘Triangle of Success’ form the key elements of the model. In this model, PLC is conceptualized as a ‘whole school’, whereby groups of teachers collectively learn within small groups called PLTs. Each PLT can have the option of choosing a range of collaborative learning tools, such as Learning Circles, Action Research and Lesson Study. Learning Circles, which was introduced by TN in 2000, was subsequently subsumed under the new PLC framework and is considered as one of the learning tools to be used by teachers, along with Lesson Study and Action Research. Nevertheless, Learning Circles ostensibly bear much of the features of PLCs—broadly defined as ‘professionals coming together in a group—a community—to learn’ (Hord 2008, p. 10), and can therefore be considered a PLC, even though it was not referenced as such. A Learning Circle comprises a group of teachers engaging in action research to solve problems that have been collectively identified in relation to classroom teaching. This platform for collaboration, reflection and inquiry sought to help teachers enhance their teaching competency and initiate school-based curricular development and innovation with the support of school leaders.

A consistent theme that has emerged in the formation and development of TN and AST is the importance of teachers in supporting curricular and instructional development and innovation in Singapore schools. While policymakers have focused on a new set of student learning outcomes such as the twenty-first-century competencies, they continue to expect the maintenance of high academic standards in student outcomes. Attaining high standards in both academic and non-academic student outcomes is essential to maintain the country’s economic competitiveness in the global market. Schools are therefore expected to provide appropriate curricula that meet a more diverse set of student outcomes. Furthermore, these student outcomes may vary from one school to another because the MOE encourages every school to establish its own unique curriculum in order to satisfy students’ learning needs, and to create greater diversity in student learning experiences across the education system. Underlying these policy shifts is policymakers’ awareness that the pre-occupation with preparing students to do well in the national high stakes examinations is no longer sufficient to meet the demands of Singapore’s rapidly emerging twenty-first-century knowledge-based economy (Dimmock and Goh 2011). In order to achieve this, schoolteachers are obliged to invest in curricular and instructional development and innovation with the support of school leaders.

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