Inquiry-based learning is becoming a widely recognized and used pedagogical approach. However, existing research has largely focused on inquiry learning in science education, neglecting fields such as social studies (SS). In Singapore, inquiry learning in SS received an impetus when a component called "Issue Investigation" (II) was…

Diagrams are succinct, visual representations of real-world or mathematical objects that serve to communicate properties of the objects and facilitate problem solving. This study explored perceptions of mathematics teachers in Singapore, who are heads of mathematics departments in their respective schools, related to diagrams and their use in the…

As teachers begin to construct an understanding of 'inquiry', and incorporate IBL into their classroom practice, they are challenged to be sensitive to the 'constructivist' nature of the CLD. This paper presents a reflection model structured to trigger thinking about beliefs in teaching and learning in order for teachers to re-examine their…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine five Secondary English Language teachers' perceptions and practices of multiliteracies teaching in the context of a decade after multiliteracies was introduced into the English Language syllabus in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a case study approach, the authors observed 12…

The study of variables related to the use of ICT in the classroom is a topic of interest that has been frequently researched. In this paper, after examining the importance of teacher training in explaining the use of ICT in the classroom, we focused on analysing the weight of variables related to teaching practices and the organisational context…

Internationally, there is a clear turn towards inquiry as a core approach to learning secondary school geography. This research critically compares how inquiry learning is expressed and justified in six jurisdictions (Australia, China, England, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA). Through content analysis of national curriculum documents, we found that…

Teacher education research continues to show a gulf between teaching practices advocated in teacher preparation and practices adopted by beginning teachers in schools. Informed by the sociocultural perspective on teacher learning that foregrounds the social origin of human cognition, this article reports a qualitative study to investigate the…

A model of instruction is a set of strategies that guide teachers in their instructional practice. The purpose of this paper is to dispel the myth that mathematics teaching in Singapore schools is all about drill and practice, as perceived of many Asian systems. This paper draws on data of a large project that examined the enactment of school…

Performativity is a dominant mode of regulation in many education systems that has caused a significant shift in teaching and teacher professionalism, yet minimal attention has been paid to understanding it in non-Western contexts. This study explores Singaporean teachers' perceptions of teaching within its unique and normalised performative…

This paper was part of a larger study to examine one primary and one secondary teacher's classroom. The study analysed the classroom discourse to describe the types of interaction and illustrate how the teachers used talk moves to mediate talk for learning science around visual representations (VRs). The study employed ethnographic approaches to…

For school geography in Singapore, geographical inquiry is identified as a "signature pedagogy" (Shulman 2005a) that can socialize students into the distinctive practices, concepts, and values of the discipline of geography. This article explores how field-based inquiry is applied across four secondary schools in Singapore to develop an…

This paper reports how 30 experienced and competent Singapore secondary mathematics teachers attempted to imbue desired attitudes in their students and some possible factors that might have influenced the teachers' choice of instructional approaches. It was found from the analysis of lesson observations of these teachers that most of those…

This is a common experience among education researchers: we notice a surprising instructional move enacted by a teacher. After deeper reflection, we ask, "How many other teachers in Singapore do this?" In this paper, we describe an instrument we designed that is part of the resource needed to answer such questions. [This paper is the…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to education around the world. There is much to learn from this period, to better understand what happened, to provide support to those affected, and to inform future responses to disruption. This research aimed to contribute to this field by recording teachers' experiences of teaching in the…

"The Enactment Project" seeks to find out in more detail what is happening in Singapore mathematics classrooms. In particular, the video data of 30 teachers suggests that there is a distinctive Singapore secondary mathematics pedagogy, almost like its DNA, which is characterized by cycles of Development, Seatwork and Review (DSR). This…