[PSLE MT] PSLE less weightage in Chinese / Mother Tongue
-
ok, my bad then. but anyway, this is what most providers/schools claim in the pamphlets, briefings etc. real talents the society needs excel not only academically but also in other areas. character-wise too.
let me go editttt my post :love:
oh yes, i do have friends and myself who got invited to consider taking up their scholarships so on so on.. -
Apr 23, 2010
Poor teachers do damage
WASHINGTON - AN UNUSUAL genetic study supports the argument that good teachers make a difference and shows that poor teachers may do damage, even to gifted students, researchers said on Thursday.
The study, published in the journal Science, showed that effective teachers help kids with the best genes read better, while poor teachers brought down all the children in a classroom to the same mediocre level.
The findings by behavioural geneticist Jeanette Taylor at Florida State University and colleagues could influence the debate in Congress, the White House and school districts across the United States about measuring the quality in schools. 'In circumstances where the teachers are all excellent, the variability in student reading achievement may appear to be largely due to genetics. However, poor teaching impedes the ability of children to reach their potential,' Dr. Taylor and colleagues concluded.
To tease out the effects of genes and environment, the researchers turned to the time-tested model of twins. Identical twins share all their DNA, while fraternal twins share about half, or as much as any brother or sister. Their theory: if one identical twin does better than his or her sibling in a different classroom, much of the difference must be due to the teacher.
They studied 280 identical twin pairs and and 526 fraternal twin pairs in the first and second grades from a diverse selection of Florida schools. To determine teacher quality, they used Oral Reading Fluency test scored for the entire classroom of each twin. '(It's) a timed measure of how many words children can read in a passage,' Dr. Taylor said in a Science podcast. They checked to see how many more words children could read at the end of the year compared to the beginning. 'We felt that was a reasonable estimate of teacher effectiveness,' Dr. Taylor said.
When teachers were good, the genes really mattered. If one identical twin excelled with a good teacher, the other did too. But if one twin had a strong teacher and the other twin had a weak teacher, twins with strong genetic potential did just so-so in the poor teacher's class. --REUTERS
so, may be MOE did not get the right teachers for the MT - which I highly suggest is the root problem of the present MT issues
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/TechandScience/Story/STIStory_518134.html -
To be fair, it is an issue of parents, teachers and the quality of Chinese we have around us, look at our local TV programmes. I just cannot bear listening to their Mandarin. Once upon a time, I found Taiwan’s mandarin quite bad because of their Hokkien influence but they have improved alot in their younger generation and are able to dub the K-dramas much better than the China dubbing.
-
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1051943/1/.html
Admissions criteria to top secondary schools may be adjusted
By Hoe Yeen Nie | Posted: 22 April 2010 2259 hrs
Photos 1 of 1
Primary school students (file picture)
SINGAPORE: The Minister for Education, Ng Eng Hen said admissions criteria to top secondary schools may be adjusted, following Monday's announcement of possible changes to the mother tongue language exams at PSLE.
Earlier this week, Dr Ng said the weightage of the PSLE mother tongue language papers may be reduced, as part of his ministry's review of mother tongue education in schools.
On Thursday, he said the aim is to achieve a basic language competency for all students.
But the ministry will retain incentives for those strong in their Chinese, Malay or Tamil, to continue taking these subjects at a higher level.
For example, students are currently required to take the Higher Chinese language paper to be eligible for Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools.
\"Even among the top schools like RI, you should continue to preserve a significant proportion of places in the top schools for students with higher mother tongue. As for the others, if they don't reach these high (levels) in their higher mother tongue, they can also enter because they are good in the other subjects,\" said Dr Ng. - CNA /ls -
Will students in P5 now come under this new adjustment ?
-
VitoRelax:
Will students in P5 now come under this new adjustment ?
don't think they are able to make the changes so fast, if at all -
Though my dd struggled in Chinese (along with panicked parents)…I will still vote "NO" here for the sake of our future generation & competition landscape. After all we are proud to be Chinese, so why lessen the importance of learning the language?
-
with this news, I just wonder what about those school that offered BICEP program to the students, that is those that are studying more than hmt in chinese, will be affected.
-
I wonder if these people should call themselves elite. Elite should be people who are intelligent. But what I see now is just the opposite, they are not even able to take the challenge from Chinese language, they find it difficult, which means they admit themselves not as intelligent as those who can master the Chinese Language.
Poor Singaporean, we are ruled by this group of inadequate \"Elite\" -
supermama:
can't agree with more...I wonder if these people should call themselves elite. Elite should be people who are intelligent. But what I see now is just the opposite, they are not even able to take the challenge from Chinese language, they find it difficult, which means they admit themselves not as intelligent as those who can master the Chinese Language.
Poor Singaporean, we are ruled by this group of inadequate \"Elite\"
Elite in Chinese is 精英. But here it means 精通英文 only.....
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login