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This chapter locates the research project that is the focus of this book in the context of international, national and local education trends and reforms. The first section of the chapter outlines the challenges and impact of globalization on education and explores educational reforms in the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia. The second section describes recent trends and issues in contemporary educational change in countries in Asia. The third section addresses the historical development of education reforms in Singapore. The final section describes key features of the Integrated Programme and Project Work delivered at Hwa Chong Institution, the case study school.

This book reports research aimed at developing understandings of the impact of a research-based project work learning curriculum on independent learning. A case study examined the views and experiences of students at Singapore’s Hwa Chong Instution, who were engaged in a rigourous secondary school curriculum developed to offer an independent, customized and experiential learning experience for academically-able students.

The previous chapter presented the empirical findings according to the guiding questions, from the perspectives of students who were engaged in research-based project work in one of five courses of study at one school. Drawing on the emergent themes, this chapter develops seven theoretical propositions about the ways in which students a engaged with research-based project work curriculum deal with independent learning. The propositions are discussed below