This paper compares the evolution of two initiatives—one in Singapore and one in New York City—designed expressly to support the development and spread of new and innovative school models. These two initiatives—Future Schools in Singapore and the iZone in New York City—reflected the hope that new school models and associated innovations could be incubated and then replicated to help create system-wide conditions that would allow new approaches to schooling to emerge. Despite dramatically different system contexts—in terms of governance, politics and professional capacity—we show how both initiatives have to deal with basic institutional, political and societal conditions that sustain conventional educational practice. We focus particularly on how common factors like capacity demands, frequent changes in policies and emerging technologies create opportunities for the development of some new resources and practices even as they reinforce many aspects of the conventional "grammar of schooling." Although this analysis emphasizes common challenges for developing more "innovative" approaches to schooling, we highlight as well the often-unanticipated developments that contribute to smaller scale innovations and incremental change. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Aims: To explore nurses’ perceptions of the transformation in Singapore's nursing education and its impact on the delivery of nursing care. Background: Nursing education in Singapore has sailed through a sea of changes, from the apprenticeship model of training in hospitals to institutions of higher learning. Limited primary studies have explored the evolution of nursing education, and none have explored its impact on the delivery of nursing care, based on nurses’ perceptions. Methods: A descriptive qualitative design with purposive and snowball sampling was used to recruit 18 experienced nurses from local teaching institutions and healthcare clusters. Semistructured individual face-to-face interviews were conducted using an interview guide. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research reporting guideline was used to report the study. Findings: Five themes emerged: ‘evolution of the nursing education approach’, ‘clinical learning environments’, ‘evaluation of changes in the nursing education approach’, ‘attitudes toward the provision of various levels of education’ and ‘influences of various competencies on the delivery of nursing care’. Conclusion: Changes in teaching pedagogies, learning, assessment, curriculum structure, content and clinical learning environment were commonly reported, which provided insights into understanding nursing education transformation and its impact on nursing practice. Implications for nursing education: The findings could better prepare nurses for the demanding needs of the contemporary healthcare landscape. Nurse educators and leaders should evaluate gaps in nursing education and implement strategies to improve students’ learning experiences and outcomes. Implications for nursing policy: Policy-makers can draw on our findings to revise the core competencies guidelines and improve future training by supporting the healthcare needs of society. © 2021 International Council of Nurses.

Singapore's bilingual policy legitimises English not only as the language of governmental administration and interethnic communication, but also as the medium of instruction in all schools on all levels and across all subjects except mother tongues (MTs). As a result of these politics of language recognition, a visible shift has occurred in all ethnic groups away from MTs towards English. To rectify the language shift situation, the government has emphasised that developing bilingualism and raising bilingual children should begin in preschools. In this paper, we examine two top-down official documents: Review of Mother Tongue Languages Report, issued in 2011, and Nurturing Early Learners Framework for Mother Tongue Languages, developed in 2013. Attempting to identify some of the complex factors that influence language shift, we present an intertextual analysis of the Report and the curriculum Framework. In doing so, we compare the consistencies and locate the implicit inconsistencies in the policy position on bilingual education in preschools. We conclude the article by outlining the implications for changing the current bilingual educational models and providing teacher training programmes that maximise the learning opportunities of young bilingual learners.

This study explored the patterns and predictors of code-switching (CS) in Singapore preschoolers by analyzing the data elicited from an existing early childhood corpus. Altogether 943 cases of CS produced by 111 children aged 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, 5;6, respectively, were analyzed. The results indicated that: (1) ‘insertion’, ‘intersentential’, and ‘backflagging’ were identified as the most common types of CS, whereas‘alternation’ was rarely found; (2) there was a significant age-related increase in the production repertoire, the occurrence rate, the number of children producing CS, the frequency, and the type of CS, and age was confirmed the significant predictor; (3) children from the families with at least one bilingual parent produced the most CS, whereas those from the families without any bilingual parents produced the least; (4) parental bilingualism attitude, storytelling, and singing activities negatively predicted the CS frequency and type, whereas parental language input patterns positively predicted the frequency; and (5) children from the families with parents believing that bilingual education should start from kindergarten years (Ages 3-6) had the highest frequency of CS. These findings have added empirical evidence about CS in a multilingual Asian society and highlighted the impact of parent bilingual input patterns on CS in early childhood. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The Singapore government has laid out a regulation for daily minimum time spent outdoors and the Outdoor Learning Guide (OLG) to support children’s outdoor experiences in full-day childcare programmes. However, there is scarce research on young children’s outdoor learning experiences from children’s and teachers’ perspectives. This study aims to make sense of children’s outdoor learning using the child-sensitive tool–pedagogical documentation–in a Singapore childcare centre. It highlights the value of outdoor learning experiences for children as well as teachers’ views of outdoor learning through the implementation of pedagogical documentation. Pedagogical documentation as an in-depth, qualitative research approach has allowed us to generate two learning stories, revealing the impact of children’s outdoor learning experiences on their social-emotional development and learning dispositions. Additionally, the reflective discussions with teachers uncovered their perspectives of outdoor learning and pedagogical knowledge. Pedagogical documentation made children’s outdoor learning visible while keeping a balance between children’s and teachers’ voices. © 2022 EECERA.

This chapter focuses on a narrow-global understanding of performance in the context of International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs). From the standpoint of standardised transnational evaluation, the performance of an education system is measured by its average scores and ranking in the subjects or domains tested in the ILSA. The chapter provides an overview of the achievements of Singapore, Shanghai, and Hong Kong in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). A foundational presupposition of PISA and ILSAs is their reliance on standardised quantitative measures. The governance of ILSAs has brought on and entrenched a global testing culture where "testing becomes synonymous with accountability, which becomes synonymous with education quality". The recognition of resilient students in PISA resonates with supporters of Confucianism who believe in equal educational opportunity for all, as exemplified by Confucius' teaching of many disciples who came from poor and underprivileged family backgrounds.