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How student voice is viewed is complex. Increasingly, effort has been made to include student voice in teaching and learning, with student voice positioned in different ways, from the instrumental to the transformative. The success and sustainability of student voice efforts require a more critical understanding of the participatory efforts of both teachers and students, as well as the interplay between teachers' and students' voices. Using a case-study approach, within an interpretive paradigm, this study explores teachers' and students' discourses on student voice at the beginning of a larger study situated within five English Language classrooms in Singapore. The findings highlight the discursive framings of both teachers and students and foreground spaces of convergence and divergence. Both teachers and students share similar views on the possibilities and promises of student voice in teaching and learning, which centred largely around pedagogic and performative reasons. The data also revealed a shared sense of vulnerability and fear, surfacing real, yet tacit and lesser known boundaries and issues which both teachers and students see as affecting student voice efforts. The findings suggest that student voice work needs to be situated in an environment of trust and authentic listening to harness its potential.

Singapore has prospered since independence by developing its human resources under a distinctly Singaporean meritocratic system. Recent developments in public discourse, and findings from interviews with leading Singaporean personalities, however, point towards the system's increasing undesirability. Among other problems, our study participants blame the system for worsening class divisions in society; for damaging the mental well-being of students; and for leading to a narrowing of society's definitions of success while leaving Singaporean workers unprepared for challenges of the future economy. Our paper shows that for Singaporeans to be ready for these challenges and to find purpose and meaning in the future economy, the current meritocratic systems require reform. We argue for a new kind of political decision-making to allow Singaporean society to reorder its basic values and priorities towards a more democratic, inclusive and compassionate meritocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions about purpose, life meaning, and life satisfaction drive central debates about what good education should look like in schools. This study compares adolescent purposes, life meaning, social support and life satisfaction in Singapore and Israel. Meaning in life refers to finding one's significance; purpose uses this significance in ways beyond self. Key findings showed four purpose clusters for Singapore: no orientation, self-focused, other-focused, and both self- and other-focused. Israeli adolescents were in three purpose clusters without the no orientation group. Israeli adolescents had significantly higher life satisfaction, with no purpose orientation for 18% of Singapore's students having significant negative impact on life satisfaction. Presence of meaning, parents' support followed by teachers' support were positive predictors of life satisfaction. Notably, Israeli students had more life meaning and parental support; Singapore's adolescents had more teacher support but were searching for meaning. Implications for a more human experience of schooling are discussed.

International education achievement indicators potentially obscure students' localised experiences of school. This paper examines adolescent purpose to understand what drives students' learning experiences in high-performance schooling in Singapore. Purpose is a long-term intention to engage with the world in ways meaningful to oneself and to others. Using clinical interviews, the authors analysed students' perspectives of the purpose of schooling and learning against the tensions of preparing students for performance-focused outcomes in schools. Findings indicated purpose clusters with prevalent self-oriented academic achievement goals. About one-third of the students with forms of support had nascent beyond-the-self life goals. To think about teaching and learning in a more integrated manner, this study shows it is important to look closely into students' learning experiences, as these provide critical insights into how policies are implemented in schools, and how curricula can be made significant and meaningful in a more humanising vision of what schools might become.

This cross-cultural study, utilizing a structured instructional behavior rating form, examined distinguishing and comparable teaching practices in secondary gifted classrooms in Singapore and the United States. Teachers from Singapore (n = 67) and teachers from the United States (n = 33) in 5 subject domains including math, science, English, social studies, and second language were observed. The study showed that Singapore teachers demonstrated a higher level of effectiveness than American teachers in both general teacher behaviors and differentiation strategies. The level of instructional effectiveness appeared to be positively related to the number of years of teaching experience and training in differentiation practices for the gifted. (Contains 1 figure, 5 tables and 2 end notes.)

Singapore, like industrialized Western nations, faces similar challenges in the public school system in that increasingly, more students at risk, as well as those with special needs attend general education programs. This paper presents the concerns of primary school teachers working with students with disabilities in general education classrooms in Singapore. Based on the teachers' concerns, recommendations for the design of inclusive teacher education programs that would include special needs education in general teacher education programs are made. (Contains 1 table.)

We used a multiple baseline across students design to evaluate the effects of an intervention program consisting of vocabulary instruction, error correction, and fluency building on oral reading rate and comprehension of five English-language learners who were struggling readers in a primary school. During the first intervention condition (new passage each session), the first author (a) explained the meanings of new vocabulary words from the session's passage, used each vocabulary word in a sentence, and asked the learner to use each word in a sentence; (b) corrected oral reading errors during the learner's initial oral reading of the passage; (c) asked the learner to read the passage as fast as she or he could for three consecutive trials; and (d) asked five literal comprehension questions about the passage. The same procedures were used during the second intervention condition (same passage to criterion), except the same passage was used across sessions until the learner reached a predetermined number of words read correctly per minute. During the "new passage each session" condition, the oral reading rate of all five learners showed marked improvements over their performance during baseline. During the "same passage to criterion" condition, four of five learners reached the predetermined fluency criterion of 100 correct words per minute. The mean number of comprehension questions answered correctly per session was notably higher during both intervention conditions than during baseline.

Purpose is an intention over the long-term to have an effect on the world that is both meaningful to oneself and to others. What are schools doing to help students use the knowledge and skills they learn in school in their own lives and aspirations? This is the first study that compares adolescent purposes and life satisfaction in Singaporean and Israeli schools. Findings showed four purpose clusters for Singaporean adolescents: No Orientation, Self-focused, Other-focused, and both Self- and Other-focused. Israeli adolescents were in three purpose clusters: Self-focused, Other-focused, and Self- and Other-focused. The purpose groups differed on average life satisfaction in both countries: Self- and Other-focused were highest, followed by Self-focused and Other-focused. The No Orientation group in Singapore was lowest. Notably, beyond these differences between the groups, Israeli adolescents reported significantly higher life satisfaction in each purpose group. We discuss implications for schools and education policymakers.

Teachers' attitudes and beliefs about students in a particular grouping hierarchy are shaped by their ideological views. Within education systems that have high international profiles, such as Singapore, what has been less explored is how teachers think about and interact with students who are seemingly positioned as being "low-ability" or "low achieving" within disadvantaged education contexts. This paper accordingly examines teachers' perceptions of "Normal Technical" students in Singapore. The findings underscore the need to understand teachers' interpretations and thinking about teaching and learning processes that influence classroom practice. This is a necessary starting point for pedagogical innovation and change in schools.

This paper examines the perceptions and understandings of ten grades 1 and 2 Singapore mathematics teachers as they learned to use clinical interviews (Ginsburg, "Human Development" 52:109-128, 2009) to understand students' mathematical thinking. This study challenged teachers' pedagogical assumptions about what it means to teach for student understanding. Clinical task-based interviews opened a window into students' knowledge, problem-solving and reasoning, and helped teachers reflect on their teaching and assessment of student learning. Teachers also learnt about what it means to establish a culture of thoughtful questioning in the classroom and developed an emerging awareness that this requires a readiness to hear students' ideas and connect informal or invented strategies with classroom mathematics.

What is the nature of middle leadership in primary schools? What are middle leaders' understanding and experiences in leading learning and teaching? Set against the policy context of decentralised centralism in Singapore and an emerging worldwide trend of decentralisation as a means to encourage school-based development and innovation, this study seeks to understand how a distributed perspective of leadership may be operationalised in schools. Middle leaders from 12 primary schools in Singapore who attended a full-time programme for middle-level leaders noted the importance of: (1) learning by developing personal capacity in knowledge, skills and values; and (2) learning by understanding people, context and change. They were less comfortable with the notion of learning by participating in shared decision-making. The new mindset change required for all educators to be effective change agents signals the enormous complexity of the change process in fundamentally conservative educational systems.

Students have traditionally been viewed as passive recipients of knowledge and their contributions to understanding good teaching have been largely ignored. This study presents first-person account of university students of their professors' teaching. A total of 210 undergraduate students from China wrote about their best and worst professors. Favorite teachers were described as knowledgeable about curriculum and instruction, making connections to student learning beyond textbooks and examinations, and as employing more student-centered teaching approaches to engage and inspire students. Teachers were viewed as role models who showed qualities of care and of having heart. Least favorite teachers focused more on research than teaching and did not see the importance of developing teaching competence. They were indifferent, difficult to talk to, and employed didactic delivery modes that taught content for examinations. Implications for a re-examination of the culture of teaching and learning in higher education systems in China are discussed.

The motto of the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) is to "Support Rehabilitative Offenders for a More Inclusive Society." The Hong Kong CSD has developed a correctional system which has placed increasing emphasis on correction and rehabilitation of offenders over the years. This paper describes the efforts of the Hong Kong CSD in the rehabilitation of young offenders through its Rehabilitation Division that comprises five units: (1) Rehabilitation Units (Assessment and Program), (2) Education Unit, (3) Vocational Training Unit, (4) Psychological Services Section, and (5) Rehabilitation Unit (Supervision). Successful stories in the rehabilitation of young offenders as a result of efforts of the CSD are presented. Finally, several areas of focus of the Hong Kong CSD are highlighted, which may serve as focus areas for other correctional institutions worldwide. (Contains 2 tables and 8 endnotes.)

This preliminary needs assessment study conducted at the Kaki Bukit Centre (KBC) Prison School in Singapore provides a systematic examination of what stakeholders perceive as needs to be addressed. Two needs assessment surveys were administered to correctional educators and prison inmates at KBC, respectively. Based on the responses of the stakeholders, challenges faced by both correctional educators and inmates were presented and recommendations for the planning and implementation of effective educational programs and services in prison settings were made. (Contains 2 tables and 2 endnotes.)

In this article, the authors address correctional education and juvenile delinquency. The authors examined the case files of 54 juvenile offenders incarcerated in the Kaki Bukit Center Prison School in Singapore to analyze the antecedents that provoked these young offenders to commit the offenses. The juveniles reported that peer influence and peer pressure, provocation and anger, boredom and thrill, alcohol and drugs, and money were the principal reasons they committed the offenses.

In Singapore, special education has traditionally been perceived as distinct from general education. Students with learning and behavioral difficulties in general education classrooms are often neglected. Typically, this is due to the fact that many general education teachers lack the competencies required to work with students with diverse learning needs. The purpose of this paper is to discuss three misguided notions about teacher education in Singapore and the impact of these widely held beliefs, ultimately to encourage teacher educators in Singapore and elsewhere to re-examine how they prepare teachers to serve students with diverse learning needs. An in-service training program designed to help general education teachers work with students with disabilities in Singapore is also briefly described. (Contains 1 table.)

Kaki Bukit Centre Prison School (KBC) in Singapore is a bold and innovative initiative which brings together in a centralized location in one institution, different categories of inmates from both penal and drug institutions who attend academic and vocational classes. The creation of a learning environment within a prison setting is derived from the five disciplines of Peter Senge's learning organization philosophy: shared vision, personal mastery, mental models, team learning, and systems thinking. This paper discusses the philosophy of the learning organization (Senge, 1990) that underlies the thinking and development of the learning environment and educational programmes at KBC, and highlights the core and special programs of the school. A section entitled Special Progammes at Kaki Bukit Centre Prison School, is appended.

Parents are rarely included in school-based prereferral intervention, although research has widely reported the importance of parental involvement in children's education. This article documents how a school involved a single parent from a culturally and linguistically diverse background in a prereferral intervention partnership, describes the conceptualization and implementation of parent involvement procedures, and delineates considerations for parental involvement in prereferral intervention. When other people's children become our children, and educators invest time and commitment to working with parents, we may come to the powerful realization that all children have the potential to learn, regardless of poverty, culture, and language.

Results from questionnaires administered to 296 gifted and mainstream eighth-graders from Singapore and clinical interviews found that regardless of academic ability, children "high" in practical intelligence displayed a heightened sense of self and a keener awareness of the hidden curriculum and larger goals of the school. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

The motto of the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) is to "Support Rehabilitative Offenders for a More Inclusive Society". The Hong Kong CSD has developed a correctional system which has placed increasing emphasis on correction and rehabilitation of offenders over the years. This paper describes the efforts of the. Hong Kong CSD in the rehabilitation of young offenders through its Rehabilitation Division that comprises five units: (1) Rehabilitation Units (Assessment and Program), (2) Education Unit, (3) Vocational Training Unit, (4) Psychological Services Section, and (5) Rehabilitation Unit (Supervision). Successful stories in the rehabilitation of young offenders as a result of efforts of the CSD are presented. Finally, several areas of focus of the Hong Kong CSD are highlighted, which may serve as focus areas for other correctional institutions worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors address correctional education and juvenile delinquency. The authors examined the case files of 54 juvenile offenders incarcerated in the Kaki Bukit Center Prison School in Singapore to analyze the antecedents that provoked these young offenders to commit the offenses. The juveniles reported that peer influence and peer pressure, provocation and anger, boredom and thrill, alcohol and drugs, and money were the principal reasons they committed the offenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Singapore, like industrialized Western nations, faces similar challenges in the public school system in that increasingly, more students at risk, as well as those with special needs attend general education programs. This paper presents the concerns of primary school teachers working with students with disabilities in general education classrooms in Singapore. Based on the teachers' concerns, recommendations for the design of inclusive teacher education programs that would include special needs education in general teacher education programs are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents are rarely included in school-based prereferral intervention, although research has widely reported the importance of parental involvement in children's education. This article documents how a school involved a single parent from a culturally and linguistically diverse background in a prereferral intervention partnership, describes the conceptualization and implementation of parent involvement procedures, and delineates considerations for parental involvement in prereferral intervention. When other people's children become our children, and educators invest time and commitment to working with parents, we may come to the powerful realization that all children have the potential to learn, regardless of poverty, culture, and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]