Singaporean Pre-service Teachers Research Articles

Professionalism and everyday practices in early childhood education and care: Singaporean pre-service teachers’ perspectives

ABSTRACT Notions of professionalism are central to how EC teachers enact practice. We explore how a group of Singaporean early childhood education and care (ECEC) pre-service teachers (PSTs) understand the notion of professionalism in this paper, drawing on their identity text work. The analysis is grounded by de Certeau’s thinking on the practice of everyday life, examining ideas about space, strategies and tactics. Findings show that PSTs’ notions of professionalism involve creative tactical use of resources and space in ECEC settings. We argue that this reflexive identity work challenges ways of knowing, foregrounding alternative spaces for understanding professionalism.

Singaporean Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions Of STEM Epistemic Practices And Education

Singaporean Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions Of STEM Epistemic Practices And Education

Measuring pre-service music teachers’ creative identities: a cross-cultural comparison of the United States and Singapore

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine and compare the creative musical identities of pre-service music education students in the United States and Singapore. The Creative Identity in Music (CIM) measure was utilized with both US and Singapore pre-service music teacher populations (n = 274). Items of the CIM relate to music-making activities often associated with creativity in music education in the literature, including composition, improvisation and popular music performance. Results suggest, similar to findings of previous research, that while both populations are similar in their degree of creative music-making self-efficacy and are similarly willing to allow for creativity in the classroom, Singaporean pre-service music teachers value the areas of creative identity and the use of popular music listening/performing within the learning environment to a significantly greater extent (p < 0.0001) than their US counterparts.

Singaporean pre-service music teachers’ identities, motivations and career intentions

This article explores pre-service music teachers’ professional identities during pre-service training. Its focus is a student cohort whose studies are funded by the Singaporean Ministry of Education in return for a commitment—a teaching bond or contract—to work as teachers in schools. An overview of pre-service teacher education and the challenges of attraction and retention in Singapore is followed by discussion of the literature relating to identity formation, with a focus on music teacher and musician identities. Next, analysis and discussion of the findings highlight that participants’ teacher identities did not align with their level of performance proficiency. Teacher identity did, however, align with participants’ intentions to remain in teaching; participants who defined themselves first and foremost as music teachers were more likely than their peers to plan long-term teaching careers. The article considers the influence of teaching bonds, or contracts, signed by students in advance of their post-secondary studies. It concludes by considering the implications for recruitment and for developing professional identity among pre-service music teachers.

Celebrating musical diversity: Training culturally responsive music educators in multiracial Singapore

This article explores outcomes of research into the role and place of cultural diversity in primary music classes at five government schools in Singapore. The study highlights the ways in which a variety of factors such as specialist music training, government policy, curriculum documents, and professional development influence teacher practice. In particular, the data presented provides insights into the level of support pre-service teachers receive in order to develop programmes based on cultural diversity, and to allow such programmes to flourish and remain successful. There is strong evidence that a foundation has been laid and a commitment made to providing Singaporean pre-service teachers with a comprehensive experience based on the exploration of diverse musics, particularly in the Asian context. This is apparent in the types of musics presented in primary music classrooms and resulting learning outcomes.

Teacher variables as predictors of Singaporean pre-service teachers attitudes toward inclusive education

This study investigated whether the attitudes of pre-service teachers in Singapore towards inclusive education were influenced by their background variables (i.e., gender, age, educational qualifications, programme of study, prior training in special needs and contact with people with disabilities) through the use of the Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale (Wilczenski, 1992). Analyses of the responses of 1538 mainstream pre-service teachers indicated that the best predictor variables of the pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education were their prior training in special needs and contact with people with disabilities. Pre-service teachers who had training in special needs and those with the most contact with people with disabilities displayed significantly more positive attitudes towards inclusive education. The variables of gender, educational qualifications and programme of study exerted no significant influence on their attitudes. While the variable of age had a statistically significant effect on the pre-service teachers’ attitude toward inclusive education, this was judged to be of little practical significance because of the small difference in the mean scores between groups. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to promoting more inclusive attitudes in Singaporean teachers.

A rubric for assessing teachers' lesson activities with respect to TPACK for meaningful learning with ICT

<p class="AJETNormal">Teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) for meaningful learning with ICT describes their knowledge for designing ICT lesson activities with respect to five dimensions: active, constructive, authentic, intentional, and cooperative. The ICT lesson activities designed by teachers can be assessed to determine the strengths and weaknesses of their TPACK for meaningful learning with ICT in practice. This study describes the conception, validation, and implementation of a rubric for assessing ICT lesson activities with respect to the dimensions of meaningful learning with ICT. It was conducted with 55 Singaporean pre-service teachers trained to teach Chinese as a second language. The 217 lesson activities they designed during a compulsory ICT module were rated using the rubric. High ratings were obtained for the active dimension because the activities involved students using and manipulating ICT tools. However, the ratings for the other dimensions were lower because opportunities for students' personal meaning-making, exploration of real-world phenomena, collaboration through divergent knowledge construction, as well as self-diagnosis and management of learning gaps were not as well supported in these activities. The uses of this rubric for enhancing TPACK assessment, ICT course design and the development of TPACK activity types will be discussed in the paper.</p><p class="AJETNormal"> </p>

Turkish and Singaporean Pre-service Physics Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching and Use of Technology

Beliefs about pedagogy and the use of technol- ogy affect the integration ICT in classrooms. This compar- ative study explores the pedagogical beliefs of pre-service physics teachers from two different cultures and examines the relationship between teachers' beliefs about construc- tivist and traditional teaching and their related beliefs about the use of technology. This study was conducted with 115 Turkish and 90 Singaporean pre-service physics teachers. The results indicate that both Turkish and Singaporean pre- service physics teachers tend to believe in constructivist teaching which are aligned with their respective countries reform efforts. However, there is a significant difference between Turkish and Singaporean pre-service physics teachers in terms of constructivist use of technology beliefs. According to the results of this study more efforts are needed to insure that ICT is used more productively to support the teaching of physics in a constructivist manner and to create more effective physics classes.

Examining preservice teachers' perceived knowledge of TPACK and cyberwellness through structural equation modeling

<span>This study examined outcomes from an information and communication technology (ICT) course designed on the basis of the meaningful learning framework and general cyberwellness issues. It also examined the relationships among Singaporean preservice teachers' perceptions of the constructs pertaining to technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), and their perceived ability to integrate cyberwellness knowledge when designing web-related learning. Two questionnaires were administered to 668 and 628 preservice teachers before and after the ICT course to elicit the relationships. Five TPACK knowledge constructs (PK, CK, Web 2.0-related TK, TPK, TPACK) and the teachers' cyberwellness knowledge were identified from factor analysis results. The pre-post course surveys indicate that the preservice teachers perceived strong gain in 5 out 6 constructs measured. Additionally, the structural equation model analysis revealed that cyberwellness knowledge contributes significantly to TPK and TPACK, based on the preservice teachers' perception. As such, the study argues that the preservice teachers' confidence to integrate their cyberwellness knowledge into their teaching may play an important role in influencing how they plan and design web-based learning. Cyberwellness knowledge may be an important knowledge component to foster when considering the future development of teachers' TPACK for web-based learning.</span>

Cultural–historical activity theory perspectives on constructing ICT-mediated metaphors of teaching and learning

The identification of personal teaching metaphors is a potentially effective means of assisting pre-service teachers to become reflective teachers. However, although metaphors are often viewed as a way to facilitate self-reflection, teacher education programmes have shed little light on effective communication and collaboration that are essential to enhancing and mediating the construction of metaphors by pre-service teachers. Drawing on cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), this study explores ways of using information and communication technology (ICT) tools in pre-service teacher education to enhance and mediate the construction of metaphors of teaching and learning. Data included Singaporean pre-service teachers’ ICT-mediated teaching metaphors and online messages. Qualitative analysis revealed that ICT-mediated metaphors provided a unique opportunity for pre-service teachers to interact with teacher educators and peers and it empowered them to reflect on the teaching and learning process critically.

Singaporean pre-service teachers’ beliefs about epistemology, teaching and learning, and technology

This paper reports a qualitative study on the epistemological beliefs of seven pre-service teachers, their beliefs about learning and teaching, and their perceptions about the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Findings suggest that the teachers’ beliefs about learning seem to align with their epistemological beliefs, while their beliefs about teaching are inconsistent with their epistemological beliefs. On the other hand, although the pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the use of ICT are more aligned with their beliefs about teaching rather than their beliefs about learning, their perceived affordances of ICT suggest a shift towards more constructivist-oriented pedagogical practices.

The relationships among Singaporean preservice teachers' ICT competencies, pedagogical beliefs and their beliefs on the espoused use of ICT

Integration of ICT into classroom teaching and learning has been a challenging task in many countries. There are many barriers that teachers have to negotiate before ICT can be employed meaningfully in the classroom. This paper investigates the relationships among Singaporean preservice teachers' ICT competencies, pedagogical beliefs, and their beliefs on the espoused use of ICT. These variables are important predictors for the preservice teacher's future use of ICT. The findings affirm that the preservice teachers' ICT competencies and their pedagogical beliefs are significantly related to their espoused use of ICT. Keywords: preservice teachers; information and communication technology (ICT); pedagogical beliefs DOI: 10.3860/taper.v19i3.1849 The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher 19:3 (2010), pp. 387-400

Learning as students to become better teachers: Pre-service teachers' IWB learning experience

<span>The study presented in this paper involved 124 Singaporean pre-service teachers who were attending a core information and communications technology (ICT) module, which is a component of their teacher education program. During this module, the pre-service teachers were introduced to the interactive whiteboard (IWB) through an instructional approach that consisted of tutor modeling, self-paced exploration, peer sharing, and team-based design projects. The pre-service teachers experienced the IWB first as 'students' and then explored it as teachers planning for implementation in their lessons. Qualitative data of pre-service teachers' reflections was collected to analyse their perceptions of the IWB use in their lessons and to examine how they learnt to use the board. The findings illustrated that pre-service teachers predominantly felt that the IWB was useful for engaging students in the learning process and for generating active participation vis-à-vis the interactive affordances of the board. The findings also revealed that learning about technology in teams was most useful for the successful assimilation of a technology tool that was new and unfamiliar to pre-service teachers. This paper examines how the existing IWB instructional approach can be modified to help pre-service teachers learn pedagogical uses of the IWB more effectively.</span>

Modelling the Relationships among Beliefs about Learning, Knowledge, and Teaching of Pre-Service Teachers in Singapore

This paper aims to investigate the beliefs about knowledge, learning and teaching of 718 Singaporean pre-service teachers. The results show that three out of eight hypotheses were supported by the data. These hypotheses are 1) Innate ability will significantly influence traditionalist teaching positively, 2) Learning effort/process will significantly influence constructivist teaching positively, and 3) Learning effort/process will significantly influence traditionalist teaching negatively. The results also indicate that the participants may not hold relativistic outlooks and that they may be inclined towards constructivist teaching rather than traditional teaching. In addition, the participants may not be epistemologically ready for constructivist teaching. This paper contributes to the research on teachers' beliefs by applying structural equation modelling to examine the strengths and inter-relationships between different types of beliefs.

The change in epistemological beliefs and beliefs about teaching and learning: a study among pre-service teachers

This study investigated the change in Singaporean pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs and beliefs about learning and teaching over the course of a teacher preparation program. An online survey was administered during the first week of a nine-month program and the same survey was administered after the 413 participants had completed all their course work and teaching practice. Participants exhibited significant changes in epistemological beliefs and beliefs about learning and teaching – participants indicated more relativistic epistemological outlooks and less constructivism in beliefs about teaching. At the end of the teacher preparation program, they seemed to less value effort in learning and believed more in innate ability.

Using Evidence-based Research to Enhance Authentic Learning in Singaporean Pre-service Teachers

Using Evidence-based Research to Enhance Authentic Learning in Singaporean Pre-service Teachers

Psychology in teacher education: A perspective from singapore’s pre-service teachers

This paper reports on Singaporean pre-service teachers’ views of psychology and knowledge and the skills of psychology which are important for them. A total of 353 teachers taking the core module of educational psychology participated in the study. They rated the degree of appropriateness of items that described the discipline of psychology and responded to statements that described the sub-disciplines of psychology. They also rated the degree of importance of the items related to knowledge and skills for teachers. In general, the pre-service teachers of our study did not rate highly items related to knowledge. They rated moderately low general descriptions of the discipline of psychology. Three quarters to two thirds of them answered correctly descriptions related to counseling and general psychology, but possessed limited knowledge of the founders of psychology. The implications of the findings of our study for teaching of psychology and integrating psychology to teacher education are discussed.

Assessing the Nature of Science Views of Singaporean Pre-Service Teachers

Despite the many developments in the teaching of science, an aspect that continues to be neglected appears to be the character and nature of science (NOS). This is becoming especially important in the light of recent developments in pedagogy, as, for example, more teachers adopt constructivist methodologies and computing technology enables simulations that may blur the lines between models and reality. From the literature, it is known that teachers’ modern NOS conceptions, though not a sufficient condition for transmission of modern NOS views, is necessary. In this study, pre-service teachers’ NOS conceptions are assessed with an adapted Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) instrument, originally designed by Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, and Schwartz (2002). The modified instrument is an eightitem, open ended questionnaire designed to elicit descriptive responses to common NOS misconceptions. Responses were analysed into coded categories of informed, ill-informed, and ambiguous. It was found that a significant proportion of teachers possessed ill-informed views. Some implications for teaching and teacher education are presented in this paper for discussion.