Rita Silver

Educational reforms, cultural clashes and classroom practices

This article presents an ongoing study of educational policy enactment in Singapore lower primary English classrooms. It explores how teachers react to and interpret educational reforms in their classroom practices against a backdrop of traditional cultural values. Using a prescribed coding scheme, the article presents the instructional organisational patterns and participation structures of the lessons. Through a systematic analysis of the enacted curricula, the paper examines classroom practices as well as teaching and learning activities in Primary 1 (7–8 years) and Primary 2 (8–9 years) English lessons in Singapore. The results suggest that there are cultural clashes between major educational reforms which emphasise independent/critical thinking and ‘Asian values’ which promote respect for authority and conformity.

New wine into old skins: the enactment of literacy policy in Singapore

To better comprehend how educational reforms and classroom practice interconnect, we need to understand the epistemic environments created for learning, as well as the pedagogical activities and the modes of classroom discourse related to these activities. This article examines how a particular innovation in English literacy, Strategies for English Language Learning and Reading (STELLAR), has been implemented in Singapore. Outlining the broader curriculum initiatives, current literacy policy landscape and pedagogical effect of classroom discourse, we look at how English language teachers in grades 1 and 2 interpret the STELLAR curriculum. Situated within the larger international zeal of educational reform, Singapore presents a rich case for the study of policy–pedagogy initiatives, literacy instruction and cultural values. Adding to the existing policy enactment research, this investigation provides an opportunity to probe both the prospects and limitations of policy implementation associated with centralised educational structures, examination-oriented systems and societal cultural frameworks.

Provoking Reflective Thinking in Post Observation Conversations

We present a micro-analysis of post observation conversations between classroom teachers and mentors. Using the approach of conversation analysis, we show how the sequential organization of an episode (i.e., who initiates the interaction, question format used by mentors) could potentially serve to provoke or hinder teacher reflection. Our analysis reveals the different stances adopted by mentor and teacher during potentially discomfiting episodes, the relationship between the structure of initial questions, and the impact of question types on elicited teacher responses/reflections. Implications for handling this type of interaction for more effective professional development collaborations are discussed.

Working Through the Layers: Curriculum Implementation in Language Education

This chapter presents findings on English Language instruction at the lower primary level in the context of policies for curricular innovation at national, school and classroom levels. The focus is on policies which connect national and school levels, and on how they might be interpreted when implemented in multiple schools within Singapore’s educational system. Referring to case studies in two schools and to individual lesson observations in 10 schools, we found much agreement with national policies in terms of curriculum (i.e. lesson content and activity selection), leading to great uniformity in the lessons taught by different teachers in different schools. In addition, we found that schools had an important mediating influence on implementation of national policies. However, adoptions and adaptations of policy innovations at the classroom level were somewhat superficial as they were more related to changes in educational facilities and procedures than in philosophies.

Overarching Themes, Bilingual Dreams and Multilingual Landscapes: Quadrilingual Education in Singapore

In this chapter, we provide background for understanding the empirical studies reported in this volume. We offer information on language in education in the Singapore context by first explaining why we refer to ‘quadrilingual education’ in Singapore. We then highlight four themes that overarch the educational system as a whole and within which language education is framed. Subsequently, we discuss dreams and idealisations of individual bilingualism, societal multilingualism and education. This leads to a description of the language-in-education system which serves as background to the studies presented in this volume. The chapter closes with a brief introduction to the six parts of the book and the chapters within each part.

Attending to science language demands in multilingual classrooms: a case study

ABSTRACT This case study examines how three science teachers in a secondary school attended to the language demands of science through oral interactions in classes of multilingual students with diverse English proficiencies. It specifically unpacks the intricate role of language in science education, where teachers must address disciplinary-specific language demands as well as build academic language, within a policy environment that stresses English as medium-of-instruction for science education. Thirty-nine video recordings, comprising three full sets of lessons on the topic Human Circulatory System, were analysed. Instances of whole-class discussion during which an aspect of language (e.g. form, meaning or type) was addressed were the focus of analysis. The analysis shows some common features of language support across teachers, especially in terms of teaching scientific terminology, as well as features that provided additional support from one teacher. These features included unpacking the language demands of science beyond discrete terminology and use of students’ language. The article highlights interactions which can contribute to student opportunities for meaning-making in science.

Learning to lead reading comprehension discussion

In this article, we describe and reflect on a collaborative, school-based professional development project (an ‘intervention’) intended to encourage innovation in classroom teaching. Specifically, the intervention included a collaboration between university-based researchers/mentors and primary school teachers in Singapore who were interested in discovering new strategies for reading comprehension instruction. The results show that by working together, over time, teachers were able to innovate by adopting new strategies for leading reading comprehension discussions and adapting the new strategies to fit the local teaching context. Crucially, the innovation found that ‘learning’ the new strategies was insufficient; teachers needed professional support from the teacher trainers and their collaborating colleagues as well as time—over three years—to develop their expertise and their confidence in the implementation of the new strategies.

Final Words: A Reflective Synthesis

When we began to conceptualise this book, we had a number of core questions in mind, largely emerging from what we see as a contrast between dramatically shifting sociolinguistic practices due to changing demographics and spawned by generational shifts and immigration policy on the one hand yet largely staid language ideology on the other. Language-in-education policy has attempted to manage this tension with periodic revised syllabi, outcomes and pedagogical approaches. At times, the result is linguistic inconsistency and paradox, perhaps most starkly seen in the persistent siloed approach to the teaching and learning of language (which spills even into research) which tends to regard each language in Singapore’s quadrilingual education individually rather than considering bilingualism/biliteracy and translanguaging (Garcia, 2009) practices and pedagogy within quadrilingual education. In this final chapter, we synthesise the ideas and issues in the chapters with reference to four core questions: How does language pedagogy respond to current policies and to social changes in language use? What does language education at the primary level in Singapore currently look like, and how similar or different is the pedagogy used in teaching the four languages? What are current pedagogical innovations in Singapore’s language education landscape? What can other educators, policymakers and researchers learn from Singapore’s challenges and successes at multilingual education?

Distinctiveness and Uniformity: Teaching Language in Singapore Primary Grades 1 and 2

This chapter presents data from a study of primary grade 1 and grade 2 (P1 and P2) lessons for Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. There are few, if any, comparative studies which examine pedagogy in all four official languages in Singapore; therefore, our primary purpose is to investigate how classroom teaching is similar or different for the four languages. For this investigation, data are drawn from 62 lessons observed in 2009 after new language syllabi were introduced. Despite a continuing policy of maintaining separate teaching teams, materials, syllabi/curricula and teacher training for each language, many of the policies for language and education apply across all four languages. These include recent emphases on oral skill development, recommendations that schools develop more engaging pedagogies for young learners and common policies on assessment. Our data show that teaching across the four languages is remarkably similar, which we take to be evidence of the impact of the common policies and cultural beliefs about language education in Singapore primary schools.