MOe announced Learning of English to Develop 21st Century
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SAHM_TAN:
Last year, the teaching and testing of Mother Tongue was revised, affecting kids taking PSLE in 2017 and this yr slight changes were made to P1 maths and now it's the Eng syllabus. I wonder are they working on science?
:offtopic: perhaps. Many schools are already conducting Science practical exams.
Practical exam may form certain percentage for future PSLEs
The way things are developing, it seems to be less focus on pen and paper, more of oral for languages and thus may be more hands on activities eg practical exam for Science. -
Personally, I view the announced changes with mixed emotions… STELLAR seems to focus more on the oratorical competencies of pupils and seek to mould pupils to be more confident users of English, which is something many people feel Singaporean children are lacking in. However, like all things, its a balancing act. With greater focus on oratorical skills, teachers would naturally have less time to work on pupils written competencies and grammar.
Another criticism of the STELLAR is that assessment has not followed suit; the majority of assessment is still written. The recent announcements seems to suggest that moving STELLAR to the upper primary pupils and changes to PSLE will create better alignment. But I will rather reserve judgement until I see more in terms of the specific changes in the assessment. So far what we know is the following:
Writing - Instead of two questions with fixed scenarios to write a narrative. We will now have one topic which can be approached from any one of several perspectives. Visuals will be provided to help candidates think about the different perspectives. (This suggests greater variety in the kinds of writing which will be "acceptable" in exams. Are the teachers able to cope teaching these various text-types for exams? How do we come to an agreement with regards to marking, considering now we need to compare a narrative with other text-types?)
A new Visual Text Comprehension section in the form of multiple choice questions. (This is a media literacy skill. Will the paper expect pupils merely to extract information from the visual or are they expected to analyze and critic the information? Because if we are merely expecting pupils to extract information then we are not really teaching media literacy. On the other hand, if we expect them to conduct criticism, then the teaching of it is going to be a tall order for many teachers. I have not heard from my teacher friends of a structured curriculum on media literacy…)
Types of questions will now be varied for the Comprehension Open-ended section in Paper 2. For example, candidates will be asked to fill in tables using information from a passage. (This suggests that the new assessment format is focusing on pupils ability to extract information from a text and order them in point form into tables. I note that by doing so, there will be lower expectations on their ability to construct grammatical sentences. This might be aligned to STELLAR but is this truly desirable?)
The Listening Comprehension paper will have more items with graphic representation. (This suggests that it would be less text-based thus resulting in pupils relying less on grammar and reading. Again is this desirable?)
For the Oral Communication paper, candidates will respond to a visual stimulus that is thematically linked to the Reading Aloud passage. Candidates will then move on to a discussion on a relevant topic. (Will this replace the current format of picture discussion and conversation? If so what is the expectation with regards to the level detail that that discussion should be? As parents and teachers know, there is a broad "standard" with regards to what constitute a "good" conversation and picture discussion. However, with the new format we need to know how MOE/SEAB is going to decide what is the new "standard" that we expect before we can evaluate if this is going to be beneficial to our kids… -
Snow Crystal:
RE: the line in bold above.SAHM_TAN:
Last year, the teaching and testing of Mother Tongue was revised, affecting kids taking PSLE in 2017 and this yr slight changes were made to P1 maths and now it's the Eng syllabus. I wonder are they working on science?
:offtopic: perhaps. Many schools are already conducting Science practical exams.
Practical exam may form certain percentage for future PSLEs
The way things are developing, it seems to be less focus on pen and paper, more of oral for languages and thus may be more hands on activities eg practical exam for Science.
This would be so much more fun (and more coherent with how children best learn science). My DS' hardly does experiments in school. Can count the times on one hand. However, in PSLE 10 out of 14 questions in a randomly picked Paper 2 Science... tested experiments, the pen and paper way. Kids who rarely do experiments cannot translate no-experience-with-experiments into pen-and-paper experiments.
What is true is that to do well in the new PSLE syllabus across almost all subjects, assessment books ain't gonna help. This can be VERY scary for many parents because WE grew up with assessment books. As teaching and testing evolve AWAY from what we are used to... and TOWARDS how children should really learn (i.e., multi-modally)... parents will feel insecure. Forummers who have attended the Positive Teaching Seminar will be familiar with multi-modal learning. If not, just google the term.
I was upset for 2 years because the current PSLE syllabus tests stuff that SHOULD have been taught multi-modally but from P1 to P6, my DS was taught via pen and paper. If I didn't know how to teach multi-modally at home, I don't think my DS can get to 2nd in class in PSLE Prelim Science... and top in class in English.
So... if they DO stellarise all 4 subjects and make sure multi-modal learning happens in schools, I think it'll increase teaching effectiveness because...
(1) the teaching is coherent with testing requirements
(2) teachers are given materials to teach with
This said, I share the concerns of many parents on Teacher Quality and readiness to implement multi-modal learning. -
Chenonceau:
I read the article.... Great writeup.The article below appeared in the Straits Times. It was written by a PAP MP. It was originally from here - http://hri-kumar.blogspot.sg/2012/09/primary-colours-dispelling-myths-about.html?showComment=1346808723555
I'll vote Hri Kumar for Education Minister.
:salute: -
Yes, we grew up with assessment books. Even with my daughter now, I bought them to revise and reinforced certain grammar with her. But the NEW syllabus will mean that assessment books will not help any longer.
Are our teachers going to be trained to teach the NEW syllabus? Narrative skills is not easy.
Annotation is to be used by teachers to teach students comprehension but not vice versa. During SA1, my son had to do that or face punishment. As a result, he flunked comprehension OE. Bcos the precious time was spent doing annotation leaving him with no time to get questions done. -
janet_lee88:
Actually Janet... :snuggles: there is some small possibility that your kids could be underperforming because you are still using assessment books... and a lot of them. This method of teaching is inefficient and won't allow the gains in competence for even the 2012 PSLE, let alone the 2015 and 2017 PSLE. Please don't be angry. I don't mean to hurt your feelings. I just wanted to share my thought.Yes, we grew up with assessment books. Even with my daughter now, I bought them to revise and reinforced certain grammar with her. But the NEW syllabus will mean that assessment books will not help any longer.
Are our teachers going to be trained to teach the NEW syllabus? Narrative skills is not easy.
Annotation is to be used by teachers to teach students comprehension but not vice versa. During SA1, my son had to do that or face punishment. As a result, he flunked comprehension OE. Bcos the precious time was spent doing annotation leaving him with no time to get questions done.
I may not be right. It's just and opinion.
I envy your school that it taught annotation. I had to teach my DS myself because as late as March this year, his English homework still looked like this \"Write 5 sentences to reflect on the text above.\" ... and he was given an ultra simple text to write FIVE sentences on. -
Chenonceau:
:hi5: Chen I want to reach to my screen and Hi5 you :hi5:
This would be so much more fun (and more coherent with how children best learn science). My DS' hardly does experiments in school.Can count the times on one hand. However, in PSLE 10 out of 14 questions in a randomly picked Paper 2 Science... tested experiments, the pen and paper way. Kids who rarely do experiments cannot translate no-experience-with-experiments into pen-and-paper experiments.
You are so right ... They rarely do experiments and yet many of school and PSLE exam questions are about experiments :siao: I hardly hear about actual experiments and process skills during my DD's time. So few Science lessons and the poor Science teacher has to rush and could not answer many questions thrown by the kids - famous words: \"I will get back to you\" :siam: and then never re-visit their questions :rotflmao: Luckily my DS' current school emphasizes on process skills
:please:
:imsorry: :offtopic: -
Snow Crystal:
Yes... having experienced the current PSLE, I am so aware that my son is taught in a way that is coherent with my daughter's PSLE a decade ago. If MOE is moving to update teaching methods to be coherent with the way the current (and future) PSLE is constructed, then I say it is a good thing. The fact is, the current PSLE already needs multi-modal learning... and the new 2015 version requires EVEN MORE of it.
:hi5: Chen I want to reach to my screen and Hi5 you :hi5:Chenonceau:
This would be so much more fun (and more coherent with how children best learn science). My DS' hardly does experiments in school.Can count the times on one hand. However, in PSLE 10 out of 14 questions in a randomly picked Paper 2 Science... tested experiments, the pen and paper way. Kids who rarely do experiments cannot translate no-experience-with-experiments into pen-and-paper experiments.
You are so right ... They rarely do experiments and yet many of school and PSLE exam questions are about experiments :siao: I hardly hear about actual experiments and process skills during my DD's time. So few Science lessons and the poor Science teacher has to rush and could not answer many questions thrown by the kids - famous words: \"I will get back to you\" :siam: and then never re-visit their questions :rotflmao: Luckily my DS' current school emphasizes on process skills :please:
:imsorry: :offtopic:
I would even say that MOE is responding to our feedback. Too slowly perhaps... but at least the monster stirs. At least SYSTEM-WIDE, it now is giving English teachers in Upper Primary materials to teach with EVEN THOUGH it isn't textbooks. Better than nothing right?
But parents should continue to share their concerns and keep on sharing in order to keep communication lines open. This way, changes don't get locked in with elements that cause pain for the next few years. -
I spoke to a current science teacher from neighborhood school, one that still has vacancies in P2Cs, if remember correctly. She told me that science experiments are conducted during science lessons. She told me there’s a need to conduct experiment to teach.
My kids are not in P3 yet so I don’t know what will happen during science lesson when it’s their turn. I’m attending a tea session organized by my dd1’s school, I will grill them with my burning qns then. -
SAHM_TAN:
So ATAS... Got tea session with sch? :razz:I spoke to a current science teacher from neighborhood school, one that still has vacancies in P2Cs, if remember correctly. She told me that science experiments are conducted during science lessons. She told me there's a need to conduct experiment to teach.
My kids are not in P3 yet so I don't know what will happen during science lesson when it's their turn. I'm attending a tea session organized by my dd1's school, I will grill them with my burning qns then.
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