Singapore Classroom Research Articles

Developing Critical Thinking in Grades 3-4

This study aims to analyze the impact of high-stakes testing practices in Asian countries, particularly Singapore, on students' learning outcomes and overall intellectual development. While the education system that focuses on standardized testing has garnered international recognition, it also raises concerns about the dominance of rote memorization over the development of critical thinking skills. This research proposes integrating Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory and Critical Theory in Education as a framework for curriculum design to create a more balanced educational approach. The research method employed was observational and participatory, conducted over one academic year in a 3rd and 4th-grade classroom in Singapore. Data were collected through classroom observations, student writing samples, and parental involvement in the writing program. Parental involvement included weekly writing facilitation sessions and providing insights into the influence of parents on student development. The results of the study indicate that high-stakes testing practices contribute to improved academic performance but tend to limit students' critical thinking abilities. The use of a holistic approach in the curriculum, emphasizing student engagement and environmental support, proved effective in fostering analytical thinking. The implications of this study highlight the need to balance test preparation with the development of critical thinking skills in the education system, ensuring that students not only excel academically but are also equipped to think critically and adapt to global contexts.

Students’ thermal comfort and cognitive performance in fan-assisted naturally ventilated classrooms in tropical Singapore

Fan-assisted cooling strategies are widely employed in tropical climates due to their energy-saving benefits while ensuring thermal comfort through increased air temperature and air velocity. This study conducted experiments involving secondary school students in fan-assisted naturally ventilated classrooms in tropical Singapore. A total of thirty-six students from two secondary schools participated in this study. The classroom thermal environment was measured, students' thermal comfort was surveyed, physiological responses were monitored, and students' cognitive performance was assessed in different classrooms with various fan configurations. Thermal comfort survey results indicated that students' thermal comfort can be maintained at neutral with elevated air velocity, when classroom temperature remained at or below 30 °C. Students’ wrist skin temperature, arm skin temperature, and heart rate showed significant differences under various thermal conditions and thermal sensations, suggesting the potential use of physiological parameters to predict students' thermal comfort in fan-assisted naturally ventilated classrooms. This study also observed a significant impact of classroom thermal condition on students' cognitive performance. It was found in both schools that students' cognitive performance scores decreased significantly with increased temperature and decreased air velocity. Additionally, students' cognitive performance decreased by 9.2 % and 18.1 % in slightly warm and warm sensations, respectively, compared to the neutral sensation. These findings underscore the significance of air velocity as a crucial factor in the design of classroom environments, particularly in tropical climates, to enhance students' thermal comfort and optimize their cognitive performance.

Voices on “voice”: A juxtaposition of teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the possibilities and challenges of student voice in teaching and learning

ABSTRACT How student voice is viewed is complex. Increasingly, effort has been made to include student voice in teaching and learning, with student voice positioned in different ways, from the instrumental to the transformative. The success and sustainability of student voice efforts require a more critical understanding of the participatory efforts of both teachers and students, as well as the interplay between teachers’ and students’ voices. Using a case-study approach, within an interpretive paradigm, this study explores teachers’ and students’ discourses on student voice at the beginning of a larger study situated within five English Language classrooms in Singapore. The findings highlight the discursive framings of both teachers and students and foreground spaces of convergence and divergence. Both teachers and students share similar views on the possibilities and promises of student voice in teaching and learning, which centred largely around pedagogic and performative reasons. The data also revealed a shared sense of vulnerability and fear, surfacing real, yet tacit and lesser known boundaries and issues which both teachers and students see as affecting student voice efforts. The findings suggest that student voice work needs to be situated in an environment of trust and authentic listening to harness its potential.

"In the shoes of another": immersive technology for social and emotional learning.

There has been increasing use of interactive technologies in the classroom today and a rising popularity of employing virtual environments as a means to engage students in sensorially rich contexts for more embodied forms of experiential learning. In particular, virtual reality (VR) or immersive virtual environments (IVEs) facilitated by head-mounted displays (HMDs) have been used in the teaching of subject content such as history, geography and science. This article presents the findings of an exploratory study of immersive technology, specifically immersive virtual environments (IVES), for the purpose of social and emotional learning (SEL), in the context of Character and Citizenship lessons in the Singapore classroom. The social and emotional competencies (SECs) examined in this project were specifically empathy and perspective-taking, and responsible decision-making. The study involved a sample of n = 75 students from a cohort of students in a Singapore school, averaged at 15 years of age. Students were randomly divided into three treatment conditions: IVEs, pen-and-paper mental simulation and video-viewing. Each treatment contained a problem scenario, told from a first-person perspective, involving a social and ethical dilemma young people today face. A quasi-experimental, pre-test post-test, non-equivalent group design was employed, and the study adopted a mixed-method approach to data collection. The findings reveal that IVEs are not necessarily more effective than the “pen-and-paper” and video viewing approaches to teaching SECs but they can better facilitate perspective-taking and empathy for a higher percentage of students.

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Moral Reasoning Questionnaire for Secondary School Students

Moral reasoning is a key element of the Singapore Ministry of Education’s Character and Citizenship Education curriculum, and educators in Singapore are currently encouraged to facilitate growth in students’ moral reasoning based on the Stages of Moral Development established by Lawrence Kohlberg. To monitor students’ progress in this area, however, a validated test of moral reasoning is needed. A review of existing moral reasoning assessments indicated that none provide a practical means by which large numbers of students in Singapore classrooms can be assessed in this area. In this study, the Moral Reasoning Questionnaire (MRQ) was developed and validated to assess moral reasoning development in Singapore secondary classrooms. The MRQ presents moral dilemmas that integrate prosocial, anti-social, and social pressure elements within situations that would be familiar to Singapore secondary (grades 7–12, aged between 12 and 18) students. Evidence supported the reliability and validity of the MRQ. The MRQ could be applicable as a practical means to assess moral reasoning on a broad-scale basis.

Analysis on the implementation of authentic assessment in Singapore classrooms

In order to promote students' ability to accomplish real-world tasks, Singapore education adopts authentic assessment to develop students high-order thinking. Unlike traditional assessment, authentic assessment verifies students learning by looking at how they apply knowledge. The educational context in Singapore that is undergoing a transformation toward promoting students competency is supportive of authentic assessments development. The implementation model of the portfolio and the representative authentic assessment method are discussed to give a more detailed introduction of how authentic assessment runs in real talk. The encounter of chances and challenges in Singapores experience of embracing authentic assessment offers an instructive example for the worldwide prospect of the wider use of authentic assessment in the future.

English language teachers’ appropriation of tools in the Singapore classrooms: a socio-cultural analysis

ABSTRACT Teacher education research continues to show a gulf between teaching practices advocated in teacher preparation and practices adopted by beginning teachers in schools. Informed by the sociocultural perspective on teacher learning that foregrounds the social origin of human cognition, this article reports a qualitative study to investigate the sociocultural influences on the teaching of three beginning teachers in Singapore secondary schools. The findings demonstrate the need to take into account the role of larger structures in the talk and actions of teachers in order to understand their classroom practices. The article concludes with a consideration of some implications for teacher education.

A Bifactor Model of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System in Preschool and Early Intervention Classrooms in Singapore

A Bifactor Model of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System in Preschool and Early Intervention Classrooms in Singapore

Instantaneous lighting quality within higher educational classrooms in Singapore

This paper presents a field study that explores lighting qualities within higher educational classrooms in Singapore. Eight classrooms of three types—computer labs, collaborative learning spaces and lecture halls—are studied. Lighting simulation models are calibrated and validated by measurements taken onsite and utilized to generate both instantaneous and annual physical lighting data. A questionnaire survey is distributed to 333 participants to gather subjective responses to current lighting perception. The results show that electrically lit lecture halls present more uniform distributions of lighting environments, while daylit computer labs and daylit collaborative learning spaces present relatively lower daylighting conditions. For daylit computer labs, horizontal illuminance is an effective predictor in terms of controlling lighting levels; For electrically lit lecture halls, the mean luminance of the horizontal 40° band is an effective predictor in terms of subjective lighting comfort.

Navigating diversities: experiences of youths in one Singapore school

ABSTRACT Singapore has established a reputation as a country with social harmony. But in recent times, increasing reports on issues of social cohesion have begun to emerge in the media about tensions among its citizenry and between foreigners and migrants. Yet, little is known about youths’ lived experiences of everyday multiculturalism amidst this changing demographic landscape. The discourses on diversities in Singapore classrooms have remained largely within the State’s narrative of race-based harmonious multiculturalism based on inherited colonial racialised categories. This paper investigates the understanding and lived experiences of multiculturalism of students in one secondary school, situating the analysis of everyday multiculturalism within the complexities of local diversities and the structure of schooling in a postcolonial multilingual society.

Unpacking the Teachers’ Multimodal Pedagogies in the Primary English Language Classroom in Singapore

The ‘multimodal turn’ has led many education systems around the world to incorporate aspects of multimodality into their language curriculum as a response to the contemporary communication environment and new literacy practices of students. In this article, we present and examine findings from a study of the enactment of multimodal pedagogies by two primary level English language teachers in Singapore. Classroom data were collected, transcribed, and analysed in this case study research. We observed eight lessons by two teachers where viewing and representing skills were taught and interviewed the teachers for their reflections on their experience. The lessons were coded in terms of the classroom practices, the knowledge focus, the types of knowledge representations present (conventional or constructed), as well as the source of the knowledge representation (i.e. whether the knowledge was teacher-constructed, student-constructed or jointly constructed by both). Our findings indicate that there was a good balance between teacher and student construction of knowledge. However, most of the knowledge represented in the lessons was factual and procedural rather than conceptual. This suggests that students had few opportunities to critically explore and challenge the knowledge taught and were not guided sufficiently to interrogate the knowledge represented. Representing skills also received less emphasis than viewing skills in the lessons. We discuss the implications of our observations on teachers’ professional learning and advance the argument on the need to pay more attention to multimodal pedagogies in literacy instruction given the incorporation of multimodality in the curricula.

Teaching Shakespeare: Star-Crossed Profiles: Romeo and Juliet in a Singapore Classroom

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A national vision for information and communication technologies in education: reflections on Singapore's ICT technologies Masterplans

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the reform initiatives that began with a focus towards change in the teaching and learning in Singapore classrooms with technology integration.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used in this study is review and descriptive narrative of educational technology polices, initiatives and projects.FindingsThe Ministry of Education, Singapore, has ensured that schools had infrastructure, leadership and necessary teacher training to successfully implement the initiatives.Originality/valueThe descriptions of the implementations are valuable lessons for other national systems in the region and beyond, seeking to integrate information and communications technology (ICT) in their education systems.

Co-designing Educational Games for Classrooms

Over the past 15 years, various government agencies in Singapore have supported educational game development and research, producing multiple digital games (e.g., Legends of Alkhemia, Statecraft X), and non-digital games (e.g., Green City Blues, Money Matters). Although these games had been successful as research tools used to investigate gamebased learning, their impact in schools has been limited by contextual factors including the school environment and culture (Chee et al., 2014). Further, little is documented regarding the details of designing educational games for these contexts. This paper describes the challenges I faced as a new researcher in Singapore tasked with designing new educational games that could simultaneously be used as research tools while also serving as effective, sustainable learning experiences in classrooms in Singapore. Although research-based educational games in Singapore and around the world have been created to instantiate and test theories of learning, these games have often been created without much attention given to classroom practicality and longer-term sustainability. This paper recounts this process and describes the constraints that were faced. By describing the conditions and constraints from the development process, the author hopes to inform and improve the design of future research/educational games that can have lasting and significant impact on Singapore student learning.

Constructivist Learning Design for Advanced-Level Mathematics in Singapore classrooms

Whilst Productive Failure (Kapur, Cognition and Instruction, 26:379–424, 2008, Instructional Science, 38:523–550, 2010; Kapur & Bielaczyc, Journal of the Learning Sciences 21:45–83, 2012) has been shown to be efficacious in deepening students’ learning of mathematics in Singapore classrooms, an action research has been undertaken to adapt such constructivist learning design for it to be useful to teachers in the context of the Advanced-Level mathematics instructional goals. Findings revealed the adapted learning design to be more effective in learning the targeted concept of finding volume of solid of revolution than the Lecture and Practice mode of instruction. Insights were also gleaned to inform further adjustments to the learning design.

Mapping Out Unequal Englishes in English-medium Classrooms

ABSTRACT The link between globalization and the spread of English is well established in the literature, resulting in the emergence and burgeoning of studies on the pluralization and localization of English. However, Englishes are also valued unequally and, thus, impact the lives and identities of their speakers differently as well. This paper aims to discuss the politics of Unequal Englishes by mapping out the specific ways inequalities of Englishes are realized in classrooms in Singapore. This requires mapping out accurately both the dynamics of locally produced but globally shaped teaching of English, as well as concrete instantiations of culturally responsive pedagogies which aim to make learning and teaching more nondiscriminatory and equitable.

A pedagogical framework for digital multimodal composing in the English Language classroom

ABSTRACT With the increasing recognition in the importance of multiliteracies, this study argues for the need to develop a pedagogical framework to teach and support students’ digital multimodal composing practices, such as video production, in the classroom. The framework, informed by Systemic Functional Theory and Design Thinking, organises the knowledge and skills of digital multimodal practices into the critical, creative, and technical domains. Based on the framework, we develop a lesson package, comprising four lessons, which was implemented in a secondary school English Language classroom in Singapore. These findings suggest that rather than assuming students are intuitively capable of digital multimodal composing skills, a pedagogical framework that guides their development and demonstration of these skills can be useful.

Strengthening the science-D&T interaction through simple maker-centred projects in a Singapore classroom

Many schools are gaining interest in maker-centred teaching and learning practices aimed at promoting students’ interest in STEM. Design and Technology (D&T) is a subject that promotes a variety of thinking skills such as design thinking, inquiry, creativity, as well as values through design-and-make projects. Despite earlier calls to highlight the interaction between science and D&T in classroom practices, very few studies describe how students can be guided to showcase their understanding and creative use of physics through simple D&T projects. This article highlights a way such interaction can be achieved through a common lower secondary technical project—the pencil holder project, carried out during regular lower secondary D&T lessons with a class of 18 students in Singapore. Students in this study, who come from an academically low achieving group, were able to showcase their understanding and creative use of physics related to ‘forces and simple machines’ through their design sheets and prototypes. They were commended for their work by their peers and teachers, leading them to feel a sense of self-worth for their success in a STEM domain. A discussion by science and D&T teachers on the work produced by the students at the end of the project highlight how the science-D&T nexus can be further strengthened in a feasible manner in school pedagogical practices.

Towards a functional literacy approach to teach the language of science in the Singapore classroom

Abstract This paper describes a pilot study exploring how an approach drawing on systemic functional linguistics can inform science teaching. This study is an exploratory effort between researchers from a linguistics background and secondary school science teachers in the Singapore science classroom. The teachers designed activities in the joint construction of texts to support students’ negotiation of meanings and clarification of conceptual understandings. With this, the teachers applied strategies to draw attention to the language of science in their lessons. The study points to the value of the functional literacy approach in science teaching and presents implications on teacher professional learning as well as the role of linguistics in developing disciplinary literacy in students.

Talking to learn science: examining the role of teacher talk moves around visual representations to learn science

ABSTRACT This paper was part of a larger study to examine one primary and one secondary teacher’s classroom. The study analysed the classroom discourse to describe the types of interaction and illustrate how the teachers used talk moves to mediate talk for learning science around visual representations (VRs). The study employed ethnographic approaches to collect and analyse classroom data as “snapshots of practice” in two Singapore classrooms. The findings identified that both teachers featured interactive/authoritative discourse, with the primary teacher using talk moves to unpack science terms through eliciting student observations of diagrams followed by talk moves for students to make connections to the meanings represented in the associated graph. The secondary teacher featured an interactive/dialogic approach, using talk moves around student-generated VRs for students to predict, reason and revise their representations. The findings highlighted the value of examining talk from dialogic and authoritative approaches to better understand how teachers provide opportunities for students to learn science through talk around VRs.