Tag Archives: early childhood education

Practice makes Professionals

Singapore’s Lien Foundation, which has a strong interest in education and the early childhood sector recently teamed up with one of the largest childcare providers, St. James’ Church Kindergarten to establish a Practicum Centre. That will allow trainee teachers a better experience as they learn to be teachers than they often currently receive.  With better mentoring and a sense of the profession they are entering, the hope is they will both be better teachers and make a career in a sector with a stubbornly high attrition rate.  Here is a piece on the importance of this I published in Today using data from a recent survey I conducted.

Practice Makes Professionals

by Trisha Craig

(op-ed published by Today, August 18, 2014)

Last week’s announcement by the Lien Foundation and St James’ Church Kindergarten that they would be launching a new Practicum Centre for pre-service pre-school teachers heralds a welcome addition to the early childhood education sector.

Designed to provide high-quality mentoring to student teachers during their mandatory classroom teaching, the new centre hopes to enhance the practical skill set of young teachers and help set the stage for a satisfying career as pre-school professionals.  Continue reading →

Start teaching maths and science early

(Op-ed published by Today, June 24, 2014)

By Trisha Craig

Recently, Mr Heng Swee Keat, the Education Minister, highlighted the importance of transforming Singapore’s education system to keep up with changes in the economy. In particular, Mr Heng stressed the need to help students build skills in problem-solving and applying knowledge.

Among other ideas, he said schools must provide our children a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy, and give them a good grounding in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). How do we do that? One of the ways to promote an affinity for STEM is to start early by incorporating maths and science into the early childhood curriculum.

The National Science Board (NSB) in the United States said exposing young children to scientific concepts makes them more comfortable with those ideas when they are older.

Additionally, early knowledge of maths is a good predictor not only of aptitude in the subject later in life, but also of reading ability. The NSB has encouraged the introduction of STEM into pre-school education, an idea that has been supported by many business groups that also worry about the workforce of tomorrow.

Such a suggestion is likely to make some parents recoil in horror, fearing that this will further chip away at the carefree aspect of childhood, pressuring children with more academic work at ever younger ages. Actually, though, that idea of rote learning, which many of us associate with our own experience of learning maths and science, could not be further from the notion of how children best learn science and maths. Continue reading …

 

 

Mind the word gap

(Op-ed published by Today, May 2, 2014)

By Trisha Craig

Singaporean parents famously spare no expense when it comes to ensuring their children’s educational success, with estimates that up to 90 per cent of youngsters take tuition classes from early ages. But one of the most important investments parents can make to improve children’s learning outcomes is free. It turns out to be much more critical than enrichment programmes: It is talking to them.

This may sound like common sense and part of every family’s daily routine but a growing body of evidence shows that a massive word gap exists between children from disadvantaged families compared with their middle-class counterparts. Researchers in the United States note that by the time a poor child is three years old, she will have heard 30 million fewer words than a wealthier peer.

This is because of the patterns of interactions between parents and children in different kind of households. It turns out that, on average, less well-off parents speak less to their children, especially before children have developed language abilities, and the kind of speech tends to be more directive: “Stop that” or “Pick up your toys”.

Children are less likely to develop expansive vocabularies with directed speech because it requires little in the way of response and does not elicit conversation.

Interactive speech, more common among the middle class, forces children to search for words and use them: “What should we do at the playground today?” or “Let’s tell your little brother a story — what kind would he like?” Continue reading …

Pre-school teachers: Leaving before they’ve even started

(Op-ed published by Today, Nov. 8, 2013)

By Trisha Craig

Over the past year, the Government has announced new measures and sources of funding to improve pre-school education in Singapore.

In addition to incentivising operators to hire more qualified teachers at better salaries, proposing schemes to keep pre-school affordable for low- and middle-income families and offering more scholarship money for prospective teachers, the creation of 16,000 more pre-school places is envisioned by 2017.

More places mean more choice for parents, which should be especially welcome news to working mums and dads if centres are nearer their homes or jobs. Yet, it also means, at least in the short run, that the shortage of teachers is likely to be an issue with which the sector will continue to grapple.

High teacher turnover at the pre-school level is a feature of Singapore and among the factors that account for its relatively low ranking globally in pre-school quality. Continue reading …

High cost of low trust in pre-school education

(Op-ed published by The Straits Times on Sept. 6, 2013)

By Trisha Craig

IF PRE-SCHOOL were an Olympic event, Finland would have a lock on the gold.

Its early childhood education system consistently ranks at the top of international charts. And when you walk into typical Finnish classrooms, as I did last week, it is easy to see why.

On the metrics that matter with these global comparisons, Finland excels. The student-teacher ratios are low, meaning each teacher has fewer pupils to attend to. Teachers are well trained. This fosters warm, nurturing and intellectually engaging interactions.

Pre-school teachers in Finland are also well compensated and well respected, which means that centres face less of the disruptive high turnover that often plagues early education systems where teaching is less socially valued. Continue reading …

Embracing technology for the early years

Op-ed published in Today, April 22, 2013
By Trisha Craig and Zachary Walker

The Government’s revised kindergarten curriculum is a model for educating the young, with its emphasis on children’s holistic development, learning through play and ensuring that they begin to develop the 21st-century competencies that they will need as Singaporeans and global citizens.

As we prepare today’s learners for tomorrow’s world, it is important to acknowledge that some of the necessary skills include using technology. The curriculum framework notes a role for technology in the kindergarten classroom and that technology should be used in a developmentally appropriate manner and complement — not substitute — concrete activities like art and crafts or outdoor play.

However, the use of technology by young children is a fraught topic. Many view it as a particularly pernicious form of electronic babysitting, turning children into passive consumers of images and say that thus it has no place in educational settings. According to this view, the early childhood classroom is a peaceful haven from a hectic world that is connected 24/7.

However, precisely because technology is such an all-encompassing feature of modernity, to ignore it in educational settings misses the reality of the lives of most children, who are surrounded by it outside of school. Continue reading …

Let kids play, give teachers trust

Singaporean parents will support a focus on play in pre-school if convinced it will benefit their children later. TODAY file photo

Singaporean parents will support a focus on play in pre-school if convinced it will benefit their children later. TODAY file photo

Op-ed published in Today, March 15, 2013

By Trisha Craig

Wednesday’s announcement by Education Minister Heng Swee Keat that the Ministry of Education (MOE) will, for the first time, become directly involved in establishing and running kindergartens is a welcome and auspicious development. It signals the seriousness the Government attaches to early childhood education and its commitment to raising standards and providing broad access to high quality pre-school.

The programme for now is a pilot one, where models will be tested and best practices sought in 15 demonstration sites. As the MOE embarks on this remarkable endeavour, are there any models of excellence from which it can learn?

Internationally, the gold standard is often considered Finland. Does Finland, a small, wealthy open economy near the Arctic Circle, offer any lessons for Singapore, a small, wealthy open economy near the equator, when it comes to early childhood education?

At first glance, it would seem so. After all, in addition to some financial measures, the two countries are so similar, and top the global charts, on all kinds of international measures of institutional (lack of corruption), economic (global competitiveness), and scholastic performance (maths and science scores at secondary school).

Thus, when they diverge, as they do on pre-school quality — the national angst caused by the revelation that Singapore only ranks 29th internationally is certainly part of the backstory to the improvements outlined in the MOE’s announcement — Finland is a natural place to look at when it comes to lessons on how to improve the system. Continue reading …