Abstract
With the goal of aligning itself with Singapore’s Ministry of Education’s Masterplan 3, Nan Chiau Primary School has transformed its pedagogy from direct-instruction to inquiry-oriented, using 1:1, mobile devices as a key catalyst for that transformation. In this chapter, then, we argue that in order to make that transformation, the educators at Nan Chiau – administrators, teachers, staff – as well students and their parents, addressed 11 “barriers” – from putting forth a vision to dealing with existing assessments with teacher, student, and parent change in the middle, and the need for a new curriculum counting as two barriers, because of its difficulty and centrality! Key is that the transformation was school-based, not teacher-centric; being school-based meant that it could scale – from P3 science to all P3 subjects and onto to P4, all subjects. As Nan Chiau demonstrates, an educational organization can change and can better prepare the children in its charge for the future – a future where uncertainty and the pace of change is greater than at any time in the past.
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Notes
- 1.
The PSLE – the Primary School Leaving Exam – is a very high-stakes test that all Singaporean students take at the end of grade 6. The choice of which secondary school a student attends is determined by the student’s score on the PSLE. A poor score means that the top schools are not available.
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- 3.
ICT stands for “information and communications technologies.” ICT is a term used outside the U.S. Inside the U.S., we would refer to “computing technologies.” For all practical purposes “ICT” and “computing technologies” are interchangeable.
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- 10.
While the school-issued smartphones did not come with voice calling/texting plans, the smartphones still could access the Internet – which means students could have been using Skype/What’s App, etc. Frankly, teachers – and students, who readily reported inappropriate uses to their teachers – reportedly saw precious few inappropriate uses.
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Acknowledgments
CN and ES, first and foremost, thank all the Nan Chiau personnel – the teachers, the administrators, the staff, the students, the parents – for inviting us into their community and opening their arms, their hearts, and their minds to us. The friendships we have built over our many visits to Nan Chiau are very, very special and will endure. We have been exceedingly fortunate to have spent time – delightful time – with virtually every author in this book! Thank you, Nan Chiau Primary School!
And, we gratefully acknowledge the social and intellectual friendships we made with those outside of Nan Chiau. Among the many, many individuals with whom we shared a meal and thought-provoking conversations we wish to particularly acknowledge Dr. CHAI, Ching Sing, Dr. CHEAH Horn Mun, Mdm HO Peng, Dr. KOH Thiam Seng, and Dr. LOOI, Chee-Kit.
Wireless Reach Qualcomm provided support at the right time to help catalyze the Nan Chiau transformation. We thank Ms. Erin Gavin, Wireless Reach Program Officer, for her unwavering support and her imaginative administrative practices.
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Norris, C., Soloway, E., Tan, C.M. (2016). Successfully Addressing the 11 Barriers to School Change: A Case Study from Nan Chiau Primary School, Singapore. In: Chai, C., Lim, C., Tan, C. (eds) Future Learning in Primary Schools. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-579-2_13
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