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Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present a review of empirical studies on principal leadership in Singapore. It seeks to provide a general picture of Singapore principals’ leadership qualities, styles, and roles.Design/methodology/approach– This is a systematic review of empirical studies, using a “bounded” approach with a focus on the main findings of the reviewed studies. In all, 36 studies were selected for the interview. The findings of these studies were open coded, synthesized, and clustered into different themes.Findings– The review revealed several qualities, characteristics, styles, and enacted roles of Singapore principals. While there are similarities between Singapore principals and principals elsewhere in the world, the review brought out some features unique to Singapore principals.Originality/value– This review contributes to the growing literature in comparative research on principals’ leadership and their enacted roles, and concurrently functions as a guide for further research on school leadership in Singapore.

This paper presents a review of the literature on principal instructional leadership in Singapore. The authors investigated the dimensions of instructional leadership in the practices of Singapore principals and highlighted the strategies these leaders adopt to enact their instructional roles. Singapore principals were found to play an active role in defining the school vision and promoting the school climate. However, in the areas of curriculum implementation and classroom instruction, the middle management team in the school played more active roles as compared to principals. Five broad conclusions were discussed to provide perspectives on instructional leadership practices in Singapore. This paper also highlighted limitations on current instructional leadership research in Singapore and pointed to areas of future research.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for international managers to rethink current managerial practices, especially the application of a universalistic approach in an international business context. A differentiated managerial approach is recommended to meet the challenges of a dynamic environment.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review based on secondary data provides the analysis of the bilateral trade relationship between China and ASEAN. This paper cites the case of the China‐Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park project to illustrate the difficulties in international partnerships.FindingsThe findings highlight differences in business philosophies; differences in state bureaucracies and political viewpoints concerning business arrangements; socio‐cultural differences in values, and expectations of political and business leaders, and their people.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper highlights the need for further research in Chinese managerial styles and knowledge.Practical implicationsThe recommended differentiated management approach will allow international managers an alternative option in managing international teams and workforce diversity in cross border business partnerships.Originality/valueThe literature gap in this particular area of study presents an opportunity to explore new managerial approaches in international management practices.

This paper discusses the functionalist perspective of stratification and institutional processes of values inculcation in schools and organizations. It is assumed that students’ school-to-work transition entail certain differences in life and work expectations as the education system forms the basis of cultural reproduction and values formation. A quantitative study was conducted to investigate the variations in value priorities between managers, professionals and executives in a MNC in Singapore. The questionnaire survey involved 252 participants. The findings highlight that the notion that differences in the relative value preferences between the three hierarchical groups may be a result of their previous respective educational socialization and achievements in schools.

During the education reform movement starting in the mid-1990s, many educational initiatives from the Western countries have been introduced to the East Asian region. Media literacy education is one of the travelling policy discourses that is getting more significant in some Asian countries such as Taiwan and Singapore. This chapter aims to explore how media literacy is defined and articulated in the education policies in Singapore and Taiwan and seeks to discuss if the construction of policy discourses is similar or different from their origin in the Western countries, especially in the UK. This study is an ‘analysis of policy’ (Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing education policy. Routledge, London, 2010), which focuses on critically reviewing the existing policies on media literacy. Data are collected from policy-related documents and government websites. This chapter will offer a comparative study of media literacy in formal education and explains how the Western discourse is localised in Asian context.

A total of 315 students (age 17–19 years old) of a vocational college in Singapore participated in a study to find out the effectiveness of multiple source representations of emotions in analogical problem solving. Four experiments were designed with multiple source representations: In experiment 1, the participants read a story (source analogue) and solved a social interaction problem; in experiment 2, a video; in experiment 3, a video with scaffold annotations and in experiment 4, a script and a video. In each experiment, two conditions were used: with cue to the source analogue and without cue to it. In each condition, there were 35 participants. A group of participants (n = 35) who did not expose to the source analogue served as the control group. The performance of analogical problem solving of the participants was measured in three ways: selection of appropriate solutions, identifying reasons for the selected solutions and articulating surface similar vocabulary. The participants scored significantly higher in the cue condition than in the without cue or control condition. When emotions were represented using video with annotations, there was significant improvement in scores of performance in all aspects. The findings suggest the essentiality to choose and use creative and effective designs of multimodal source analogue presentations in analogical problem solving.

An enantioselective total synthesis of epiisopodophyllotoxin in which an asymmetric Diels- Alder reaction between a chiral butenolide and an alpha oxy ortho xylylene as the key step is described.

α- and β-Panasinsene have been synthesized by a route which employs intramolecular cuprous triflate catalyzed photocyclization of an olefin with an allylic alcohol.

This account examines double asymmetric induction from theoretical and practical viewpoints. In the context of four major organic reactions-the aldol, Diels-Alder, catalytic hydrogenation, and epoxidation-it is shown that a double asymmetric induction can be analyzed in terms of the single asymmetric reactions of each of the two chiral reactants. A rule which qualitatively relates the results of these single asymmetric reactions with the outcome of the double asymmetric reaction is proposed. A powerful new strategy based on this rule for the predictable creation of new chiral centers is discussed and the use of this strategy for the synthesis of sugars and macrolides is presented.

Bei der doppelten Stereodifferenzierung (doppelt asymmetrischen Synthese) wird ein chirales Substrat mit einem chiralen Reagens umgesetzt. Dieser Aufsatz befast sich mit der doppelten Stereodifferenzierung unter theoretischen und praktischen Gesichtspunkten. An vier bedeutenden organisch-chemischen Reaktionen – der Aldol- und der Diels-alder-Reaktion, der katalytischen Hydrierung und der Epoxidation – wird gezeigt, das dieses Phanomen als Funktion der einfach asymmetrischen Reaktionen eines jeden der beiden chiralen Reaktanten mit einem achiralen Partner analysiert werden kann. Es wird eine Regel vorgeschlagen, die das Ergebnis dieser einfach asymmetrischen Reaktionen und den stereochemischen Verlauf der doppelten Stereodifferenzierung qualitativ verknupft. Mit einer leistungsfahigen neuen Strategie, die auf dieser Regel aufbaut, konnen Chiralitatszentren in vorhersagbarer Weise eingefuhrt werden; die Strategie hat sich bereits bei der Synthese von Zuckern und Macroliden bewahrt.

In Abhangigkeit von der Grose der Substituenten R1 und (insbesondere) R2 verlauft die Enolat-Bildung der Ketone (I) bis zu 100% stereoselektiv zugunsten des Z-Enolats ((II) und (III) werden als Trimethylsilylether bestimmt).

In Abhangigkeit von der Grose der Substituenten R1 und (insbesondere) R2 verlauft die Enolat-Bildung der Ketone (I) bis zu 100% stereoselektiv zugunsten des Z-Enolats ((II) und (III) werden als Trimethylsilylether bestimmt).

The aldol reaction of formaldehyde with the dicyclopentylborinyl enolate derived from S -(or R -) 1-tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy-l-cyclohexylbutan-2-one, followed by desilylation and sodium meta-periodate oxidation, provides R -(or S -) β-hydroxyisobutyric acid.