Preparing students for the twenty-first century: A snapshot of Singapore’s approach

Abstract

The teaching and learning of twenty-first century competencies in Singapore schools began with a vision in 1997. The Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) vision initiated a series of educational reforms to strengthen thinking and inquiry among students, preparing them for learning and working in the twenty-first century. The momentum generated from the TSLN vision led to the development of the Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes which articulates the twenty-first century competencies that will be nurtured in schools - civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills, critical and inventive thinking, and communication, collaboration and information skills. This chapter narrates the policies and approaches that were central to TSLN, specifically on the structural and curricular changes, the re-perception of teaching and learning and a redefinition of the role of teachers. TSLN, which captures the central ideas of preparing students for the twenty-first century, was never conceived as a programmatic change in that it did not contain an explicit set of intervention strategies and targets. TSLN was an entire systemic effort encompassing the policy, cultural, curricular, assessment and professional learning arenas. TSLN recognised that Singapore can no longer depend on large structural fixes to transform the education system. Instead, any refinement has to be at the nexus of teaching and learning, be reflexive and responsive to students’ needs and interests, and create new opportunities and learning experiences dynamically in and out of the classroom. Bringing about transformational change in teaching and learning requires honest recognition of issues of implementation in the classroom. Significant reductions of the national curricular content took place to make time and space for student inquiry approaches. The role of teachers was examined and rebalanced - while recognising the importance of the teachers’ role to tell, instruct and demonstrate, there was also an imperative for teachers to teach less, so that students learn more. Teacher-preparation and in-service professional learning programmes were re-designed to build teachers’ capacity to develop students’ twenty-first century competencies and give a greater emphasis to teacher-initiated learning.