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Abstract

Over the past decade, researchers have begun to make excellent progress in understanding how classrooms and schools can better provide quality instruction for all children. Research in classroom pedagogies in Singapore through the Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, and Nanyang Technological University has also yielded significant results in the typical classroom practices in Singapore. Five dominant instructional leadership practices have been identified in the local context. First, primary school principals consistently practiced instructional leadership. Second, instructional leaders are distributed in nature. Third, school principals seem to display a greater range of instructional leadership domains. Fourth, instructional leadership tends to align with the national contextual uniqueness of the Singapore state. Fifth, school principals may adopt the instructional goals of their predecessors if these goals are still relevant. In this case study, greater understanding on a principal’s beliefs and practices of instructional leadership is provided as the reader “follow” the principal, and as she applies various dimensions of instructional leadership in her interactions and meetings with school staff, pupils, and parents.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All the schools in Singapore are arranged into four zones—North/South/East/West. The schools are grouped into clusters and each cluster is facilitated by a Cluster Superintendent.

  2. 2.

    There are three streams at the secondary level: Express, Normal (academic), and Normal (technical). The Normal stream is intended for academically weaker students. Students in the Normal stream generally spend an additional year to complete their secondary education.

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Correspondence to F. S. David Ng .

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Ng, F.S.D. (2019). Instructional Leadership. In: Wong, B., Hairon, S., Ng, P. (eds) School Leadership and Educational Change in Singapore. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74746-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74746-0_2

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