Liang See Tan

Curriculum Integration in Arts Education: Connecting Multiple Art Forms through the Idea of "Space".

Abstract Arts integration research has focused on documenting how the teaching of specific art forms can be integrated with ‘core’ academic subject matters (e.g. science, mathematics and literacy). However, the question of how the teaching of multiple art forms themselves can be integrated in schools remains to be explored by educational researchers. This paper draws on data collected at a secondary school in Singapore. The case study analyses how three art teachers, using the idea of ‘space’ as organizing theme, implemented a module of instruction that connected concepts and processes from a variety of art forms (including dance, music, drama and visual arts). We present evidence from curriculum materials, lesson plans, student–teacher classroom interactions and students’ productions. Students were able to reflect upon the importance of space within the arts, analyse the points of convergence and divergence among several art forms, experiment with space and create their own interdisciplinary performances. Our ultimate aim is to provide insights that might inspire art teachers in designing instructional units focused on ‘big ideas’. We suggest that allowing more curricular freedom and providing teachers with adequate structures for interdisciplinary collaboration are key to achieving meaningful levels of integration.

Adaptivity and Creativity in the Arts: The Nexus and Affordances

This chapter examines the changes that take place in the learning culture of a school through the adoption and implementation of an arts-anchored curriculum, in an effort to infuse creativity into the education system. The first part of the chapter illustrates the role that creativity and adaptive expertise play in the current social and economic climate where meaning-making from multiple disciplines, working with novel situations, and life-wide and lifelong learning are valued. At the same time, the central role that creativity plays in shaping expertise, and the ways that they can be incorporated into the current education system are elucidated. The case study of a specialised school which strives to develop a system that caters to creatively inclined learners and budding artists is then featured. The way that the school’s leaders, teachers, and learners have deliberately centred their educational interactions through a curriculum that features multiple links between the academic and arts disciplines is then explained. Rather than casting the learning processes in the shadow, this section elaborates on how the school strives to place the learning process at the centre of the educational process. This chapter also points out the contextual, social, and cultural leverages that allow its learners to acquire flexible and adaptive understandings of subjects.The authors then argue that while creativity is necessary, it is not a sufficient condition for schools, and that there needs to be a deeper appreciation of the emergent and unstable nature of adaptivity to ensure that this culture of learning is sustainable.

Theory, Research and Conceptions of Curriculum for High Ability Learners: Key Findings, Issues and Debates

The intense global competition for talents and the development of the knowledge economy as well as advancements in learning sciences and instructional methods have brought about tremendous changes and possibilities in using and designing innovative curriculum and pedagogies in classrooms. Thus, ensuring school curriculum meets the needs of learners living in an increasingly complex, fast-changing and interactive world which is a major concern for educators in almost all countries (in the most recent International Handbook of Curriculum Research (2014), Pinar (International handbook of curriculum research. Routledge, New York, 2014) brings together curriculum change efforts in at least 34 countries that accordingly reflect “the localised and reconstructed character” of curriculum across unique histories and culture (p.1).). In Singapore, curriculum initiatives such as the Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) and Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) attempt to strengthen teacher capacity to customise curriculum and instruction to engage the learners. Two major changes took place involving the high-ability learners (HALs). In 2004, the Ministry of Education (MOE) implemented the Integrated Programme (IP) at the secondary level to enable schools with high-ability learners to focus less on preparation for high-stakes examination and instead spend the time on opportunities that broaden their learning experience. Three years later, the MOE announced the extension of the Gifted Education Programme (GEP)-like curriculum to the next 4 % at the primary level (refer Neihart, M. F., & Tan, L. S. (2016). Critical assessment of gifted education in Singapore. In Y. D. Dai & C. C. Kuo (Eds.), A critical assessment of gifted education in Asia: Problems and prospects (pp. 77–96). New York: Information Age Publishing). These initiatives require teachers to widen the scope of curriculum for high-ability learners and provide classroom experiences that build deeper conceptual understanding and broader skills. Thus, a curriculum innovation such as the IP is arguably “a programme that is intentionally designed to engage learners in activities or events that will have educational benefits for them” (Eisner, E. W. (2001). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programmes (3rd ed.), p. 31. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.) beyond the requirements of the high-stakes examination. Even as changes are taking place in differentiating curriculum to meet the needs of learners, with the increasing speed of change and the information explosion around the world, teaching with an emphasis on thinking (Alexander R, Towards dialogic teaching, 3rd edn. Dialogos, New York, 2001; Paul R, Elder L, A miniature guide for students and faculty to scientific thinking. Foundation for Critical Thinking, Tomales, 2003) and for building conceptual understanding has been heralded as an effective approach within many curriculum frameworks (Erickson LH, Concept-based curriculum and instruction: teaching beyond the facts. Corwin Press, Inc., Thousand Oaks, 2002; Tomlinson CA et al, The parallel curriculum: a design to develop high potential and challenge high-ability learners. Corwin Press, Inc., Thousand Oaks, 2002; VanTassel-Baska J, Stambaugh T, Comprehensive curriculum for gifted learners, 3rd edn. Pearson Education, Inc. Boston, 2006). There is therefore value in analysing and documenting the efforts in creating concept-based curriculum and pedagogies for high-ability learners (HALs), both in the Singapore context and around the world. This is particularly important in the context of the continued use of standards-based and high-stakes examinations in educational systems in Asia and in other parts of the world.

Lessons Learned from Developing and Implementing the Concept-Based Curriculum

In this final chapter, we discuss lessons learnt from the complexities of crafting and practising concept-based curriculum within schools and how these practices are related to curriculum perspectives and teacher capacity in terms of knowledge, skills and dispositions. We attempt to synthesise issues and ideas that have emerged across the different accounts put forth and raise the deeper question of how researchers and practitioners can work together in conceptualising, implementing and assessing concept-based curriculum so that it is suited to the high-ability learner. Thus, in this concluding chapter, we delve deeper into the tenets of the larger political and social processes of curriculum making within the school as well as the key functions of a teacher in driving the curriculum change. As shown in accounts presented by the different authors in their chapters, there is evidence of an increasing interest and effort among educators to introduce and use concept-based curriculum in order to facilitate greater depth of learning for high-ability learners. In view of the demands of equipping learners with twenty-first century dispositions and literacies, policymakers and educators in Singapore have put in concerted efforts in reframing the purpose, process and outcomes of learning in the education system.

Reclaiming the Curriculum

In a climate of increasingly complex social and political issues, mired with competing perspectives and ideologies, and the overabundance of information, there is a growing realisation that curriculum that sees learners as mere receptacles of knowledge traditions will not equip them sufficiently to live and work in the future (Eisner J, Curric Stud 32(2):343–357, 2000). Brown (New learning environments for the 21st century. In: Paper presented at the Forum for the Future of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.johnseelybrown.com/newlearning.pdf. Retrieved on 16 November 2012, 2005) argues that schools need to prepare learners to be conversant with knowledge and knowing – for learners to take an epistemic frame to learning. Adopting an epistemic frame to learning engages the learners to think conceptually. Hence, there is a need to promote high-quality education, with curriculum and pedagogies that prepare today’s learners to live in and constantly adapt knowledge in an increasingly complex and changing future. There is now a mind shift amongst educators that curriculum needs to foster deeper thinking, flexibility and synthesising of thoughts and ideas.

The complexities in fostering critical thinking through school-based curriculum innovation: Research evidence from Singapore

Abstract Singapore’s strong performance in international benchmarking studies – Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) – poses a conundrum to researchers who view Singapore’s pedagogy as characterized by the teaching of facts and procedures, and lacking in constructivist learning principles. In this paper, we examine the impact of different curriculum innovations on critical thinking as measured by the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Assessment – UK (WGCTA-UK). This includes two innovations that are subject-specific and short-term, one that strongly infuses the arts into the curriculum throughout the whole course of study, and the innovation of the Integrated Programme (IP) which allows academically stronger students to skip the GCE “O” Levels and enter directly into the next level of education, with the time previously allocated to exam preparation now spent on greater breadth in the academic and non-academic curriculum. This paper takes the sociocultural approach to investigate the contexts, process, and outcomes, reports the state of critical thinking, and sheds light on how critical thinking is being promoted. Through our analysis, we find support for the claim that only curriculum that is rigorously designed to foster critical thinking competencies will reap the intended student outcome.