Leslie Sharpe

After effectiveness: new directions in the Singapore school system?

The educational reforms being enacted in Singapore can be considered exceptional in that they are being undertaken within a highly effective system. We explore these reforms using Brown and Lauders ideal-typical analysis of ‘neo-Fordist’ and ‘post-Fordist’ models of national economic development. Singapores reforms have been extensive, ranging from changes to early childhood education through to tertiary education. We examine the nature of state-market relations in education within the context of Singapores ‘soft authoritarian’ political culture and assess the chances of success of the reforms.

Enhancing multipoint desktop video conferencing (MDVC) with lesson video clips: recent developments in pre-service teaching practice in Singapore

Abstract Rapid technological development in computer video conferencing and digital video photography over the last decade makes it easier than ever for teacher educators to use the technology in facilitating reflective practice. This paper reports recent developments in the use of multipoint desktop videoconferencing (MDVC) in preservice teaching practice in Singapore. In addition to regular video conferencing, preservice teachers now have opportunities to view their own teaching video clips and receive feedback from their peers and university supervisors. The experience helped enhance professional development of preservice teachers by allowing them to share ideas, experiences and teaching resources in real time with an audience wider than the schools where they taught.

New Bearings for Citizenship Education in Singapore

Being French, British, or another nationality has until recently been taken as a given, as unproblematic. This, and perhaps the fear that state sponsored values education could become indoctrination, explains the ambivalence in these long-established nation-states towards civic and moral education. However, the emergence of extreme nationalism in France, race riots in Bradford and other cities in the United Kingdom, and the fracturing of Yugoslavia in the Balkans indicate that citizenship in these states is not as unproblematic as was once thought. As the nation-state as a sovereign body comes under pressure both from within and from broader outside pressures associated with globalisation (Sassen, 1996; Turner, 1994), so more and more, governments are beginning to recognise that there must be a role for the state in fashioning the citizen. The United Kingdom, for example, now has a formal curriculum for citizenship education. In contrast, much of the decolonised world has not had the luxury of a given national identity. Nationhood has been a conscious creation, a struggle, successful in some parts and less successful in others.

Using lesson video clips via multipoint desktop video conferencing to facilitate reflective practice

Rapid technological development in computer video conferencing over the last decade makes it easier than ever for teacher educators to use the technology in facilitating reflective practice. As a computer-supported collaborative learning tool, computer video conferencing provides increasing opportunities for student teachers to share experiences across time and space. This article describes a Singapore experience in which lesson video clips were streamed via multipoint desktop video conferencing for pre-service teacher education. The experience provided opportunities for the professional development of the student teachers by allowing them to share ideas, experiences and teaching resources in real time with an audience wider than the schools where they taught.

Leadership in High Achieving Schools in Singapore: The Influence of Societal Culture

Abstract ‘Societal culture’ in Singapore can be understood as an evolving mix of ‘traditional’ and ‘modernizing’ cultural strands, complexly related to dominant political and economic processes and aligned in the pursuit of a wider national vision. Following the mid-80s economic slowdown, there was a major realignment in these cultural strands that resulted in a process of decentralization of the education system, and a rethinking of the principals role. Though the immediate effect of this was the creation of independent and autonomous schools, a space for autonomous action was opened up generally for school principals who were willing and able to seize the opportunity. We draw on two case studies of improving Singapore secondary schools to explore the links between societal culture, school leadership and school improvement. We argue that although both of the case study principals appropriated aspects of societal culture as part of their improvement strategies, it was the nature of the appropriation that made the schools and leadership styles distinctive.

Building a learning community via videoconferencing

Rapid technological development in the last decade makes it easier than ever to use technologies as collaborative learning tools. Computer video conferencing as a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) technology provides increasing opportunities for learners to share experiences across time and space. The following describes how multipoint desktop video conferencing (MDVC) is used in preservice teacher education programs in Singapore to enhance the professional development of preservice teachers by allowing them to share ideas, experiences and teaching resources in real time with an audience wider than the schools where they teach.

Multipoint Desktop Video Conferencing in Teacher Education: Preliminaries, problems and progress

Members of this research team are investigating the use of multipoint desktop video conferencing (MDVC) technology in Singapore to enhance the National Institute of Educations schools practicum partnership model. The project builds on the Singapore ONE ATM island-wide network and the high-speed ADSL line access provided by Singtel Magix. This infrastructure provides state-of-the-art support for the White Pine CU-SeeMe Meeting Point server and client software that enables students on teaching practice to conference with each other and their university-based supervisors. A typical conference involves four of five students at different schools and one staff member at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. These conferences provide opportunities for professional sharing between staff and students without the limits of time and space which are traditional constraints on conventional teaching practice.

Application of multipoint desktop video conferencing system (MDVC) for enhancement of trainee-supervisor discourse in teacher education

Video conferencing technology has been in use for teaching, training and communication purposes over the past several years. Recent advances in digital streaming technology, increasing bandwidth and software engineering allow the use of video conferencing in the most efficient and cost effective ways. In the teacher training environment, the use of video conferencing has the potential to improve the discourse between the trainee and supervisor and thus increase the overall effectiveness of the training process. The paper describes a research project which utilizes multipoint desktop video conferencing at the National Institute of Education in Singapore to investigate the feasibility and pedagogic values of the technology in teacher training programs. Some preliminary findings are reported.

Feeding NIE: A Funnelling Effect In Recruitment

Attracting the “right kind of people” into teaching in sufficient numbers is clearly crucial to the issue of teacher quality. This is never easy, however, particularly so when educational systems are being expanded in a tight labour market.