Towards School Improvement

Professor Peter Taylor will present his observations and study on the Singapore school improvement initiatives. In the discussion that follows, he will explore a small set of challenges facing the policy initiatives, the C2015 agenda and related pedagogical and assessment issues. This exploration will serve as a stimulus for sharing some of Prof Taylor’s thinking about appropriate responses for Singapore schools working towards improvement. The meta-theme of his thinking relates to challenges associated with the achievement of teacher learning—a key element in any improvement effort.

Prof Taylor’s thinking draws on the depth and breadth of his personal professional experience as well as the broader literature on learning by both individuals and organisations, and findings from emergent understandings of neural functioning. Prof Taylor’s presentation and discussion intend to be both informative and provocative. This session will invite participants’ active engagement with the ideas presented so that there can be a concerted effort at improving educational practice in Singapore schools.

Peter G Taylor,

CTeach; DipEd; BEd; MCurrStud; PhD.

Visiting Professor, CRPP/NIE

Peter Taylor’s professional life began as a secondary science teacher, teaching for 20 years in Australian schools, mainly in Queensland, with the last 10 years as Head of Department (Science). During his secondary career he completed a master’s degree in curriculum studies, and a doctoral degree on constructivist approaches to learning and teaching. His academic career began in 1992. Since then he has undertaken a number of roles, including lecturer in learning theory and academic staff developer. In 2002, he was appointed as Professor and Foundation Director of the Institute for Learning Communities at BondUniversity, and in 2005 joined the Queensland University of Technology as Professor and Assistant Dean (Learning) in Australia’s largest Faculty of Education. In that role he oversaw all course-work degree programmes.

He has extensive experience in leading and researching organisational change and innovation in teaching and learning, particularly in relation to the introduction of innovations in teaching and learning at both secondary and tertiary levels. The meta-themes of his scholarship involve learning, innovation and change as areas of theoretical interest and as areas of applied research and development. He has also made significant contributions to understandings of the impact on both students and staff of the introduction of ICT into learning environments at tertiary level.

NIE Involvement: Member of Secretariat for NIE’s 2008-09 Program Review and Evaluation; member of NIE Curriculum Development Team – Master of Teaching Programme; Program Leader, Teacher Learning – OER research programs; PI and Co-PI for 3 funded research projects and 3 current applications; consultancy work with 4 schools.

Current SingaporeResearch Projects

A Study of the Raffles Program at Raffles Girls’ School

This project examines the planning, implementation and enactment processes of a whole school curriculum reform effort. The unique school setting of RafflesGirlsSchool – an active teacher researcher community, a coherent educational programme, no high stakes examinations, and a whole school curriculum reform effort – makes this work important and timely.

The first objective of the project is to critically examine the impact of planning, implementation and enacting the Raffles Programme in a whole school reform effort. Specific areas of focus of the project include:

• changes in teachers’ professional beliefs,
• changes in teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge,
• teacher capacity for innovative practices,
• department and school support for innovation, and
• the impact of the Raffles Programme on student learning and achievement.

The second objective of the project is to identify key factors that contribute to, or impede, organisational and pedagogical innovation in this site. Given the unique make up of the subject school, its school culture, teaching practices and leadership may shed light on implementation variables important for “scaling in” subsequent whole school improvement and/or reform initiatives.The third objective is to document the achievements of the reform process at the level of classroom practice. This is to understand the translation of the reform process from various organisational levels down to the classroom, and how teachers change their instructional practices accordingly.

Developing a Model of a Cycle of Fast Learning (CFL).

The overarching rationale for this project reflects the view that schools in Singapore are increasingly required to develop the capacity to generate solutions to their problems internally. Singapore’s schools are becoming more diverse as a result of government policies such as ‘thinking school, learning nation’, ‘teach less, learn more’, and ‘top down support for bottom up initiatives’. This project is a response to these challenges, leveraging current OER research in Raffles Girls’ School (RGS) to develop an indigenous resource for generating ‘home grown’ improvements in educational practices, and related thinking.

The research will document the evolving nature and use of a ‘cycle of fast learning’ (CFL) which serves to improve school-based staff development and organisational learning. It will also evaluate the effectiveness of CFL in terms of both the capacity development of those involved, and the improvements they achieve. The sites for this initial work will be RGS and NIE.

The CFL cycle has five activities: reconnaissance; design; implement; evaluate; strategise and learn. The CFL will itself be improved through its repetitive use—the CFL will be both an object for research, and a means for its improvement. Evaluation will also focus on elaborating the optimal conditions for its use.

Evidence-base for ITP in NIE: A Formative Project.

The core aim of the project is to initiate a program of research activities that contribute to the systematic, Institute-level development of a rich and contextualised understanding of the nature, substance and professional impact of student teachers’ learning within NIE’s ITP programmes in the service of the urgent need to both improve and rethink the core assumptions and processes of ITP.

This project is five part study, with each of the first five objectives listed below one of those parts. The sixth activity is a necessary application of what is learned through the five parts. The major objectives of this formative project are:

a)to support the design of one or more longitudinal research projects that inform the ongoing work of improving and rethinking core assumptions and processes through tracking the developing of the Graduate Teacher Capacities agreed for NIE’s ITP programmes through NIE’s 2009 PRE processes;

b)to develop baseline data on classroom pedagogical practices in NIE, through use of an adapted version of the Singapore Pedagogy Coding Scheme (2004) in a purposive sample of NIE courses;

c)to develop an understanding of the extent to which NIE students value and engage with digital technologies in support of the ITP learning, through use of the ‘Digital Use and Perceived Usefulness Survey’;

d)to support the design and implementation of ‘design interventions’ aimed at embedding responses to some of the specific recommendations of NIE’s 2009 PRE Report; and,

e)to contribute to the integration of knowledge developed in the full range of NIE research activities, as well as the wider international literature;

f)to assist in sharing of the findings of these activities with a range of stakeholders, but particularly the officers of the Foundations Programs Office, through briefing papers, and contributions to NIE forums and publications.