Academy of Singapore Teachers

Today I went to visit the Academy of Singapore Teachers. This is Singapore's institution that focuses on teacher professionalism and the professional development of teachers. I attended part of a workshop for their "primary" (elementary) teachers that focused on "Students' Alternative Conceptions" in science.

During the workshop I was able to spend some time speaking with the teachers about their approaches to teaching science at the elementary level, what they do, and what their challenges are. The teachers shared that they are working on how to bridge what students already know with what they need to know; that if students are able to connect to science they like it, but if the science is too abstract, they don't. Most of the primary schools in Singapore have "science gardens," and one teacher shared about their school's eco-garden and wilderness trail that they use to teach concepts like adaptation and environmental science. Many of the teachers described how they might take the students outside to look for seeds if they were studying seed dispersal, for example, which was neat for me to hear, since that is what we do during our field trip to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston! Each primary school also has 2 science lab rooms where teachers can take their students to do science activities, but if the materials are easy enough, students can also so science in their classrooms.

I also asked the teachers what some of their challenges were. Similar to Boston, the teachers mentioned the issue of time. In Singapore, students do not have designated time to do science until Grade 3. In grades 3 and 4, they do 2 hours of science a week, and for grades 5 and 6 they do 2.5-3 hours a week. The teachers felt like they could do more in-depth science if they had more time. A teacher also shared another challenge, which was getting students to write thorough science answers. She felt like students would often give short written answers, and would often leave out key words, for their exams, but during in-class discussions the students could explain things very well with the teacher's guidance. This also sounded like a familiar challenge that we are working on in Boston! Sometimes it's just nice to know that kids are the same, even on the other side of the world!

After my day at the Academy of Singapore Teachers, I took the subway to Dakota Station, near where we were going to eat dinner. Here is the subway map, and also make sure you don't bring any durian fruit on the train! (It smells too bad.)

For dinner, we went to the Old Airport Road Hawker Food Stalls. We drank refreshing sugar cane juice, and ate barbecue sting ray, chicken satay, spicy Singaporean noodles, and more! Everything was very tasty.

After dinner, we headed out to the Malay Village, where it was the final night of the evening bazaar, celebrating the Muslim holiday of Hari Raya (the Malay word for Eid al-Fitr), the end of Ramadan. We browsed through the shopping tents and tried some Hari Raya cookies.