Abstract
With the ever-pressing twenty-first century demands, such as the need for new knowledge generation and application, schools today are aware of the necessity to change their structures, processes and practices to be relevant. In Singapore’s centralized education system, the Ministry has introduced several decentralization initiatives in the hope of promoting flexibility and innovation within schools. One such initiative is the Integrated Programme (IP). IP schools are expected to redefine existing educational structures, redesign teaching and learning processes and reshape classroom practices to generate diverse learning experiences. This paper describes the case of one school that has embarked on the IP to shed light on the processes involved in curriculum innovation. Our findings reveal three significant processes: negotiating the programme with the school’s vision, finding common ground for buy-in and investing in preparation time. These are instrumental in the development and enactment of IP by teachers and school leaders. These findings and their implications are deliberated on, providing ways that schools can shape and sustain curricular innovations.
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Notes
Following a review of the education system in 1984 that encouraged a diversification of secondary schools, independent schools were appointed which had more freedom in curricular programmes for academically able learners. In 1994, a second tier of autonomous schools were created that provided greater autonomy to non-independent schools to provide more diverse learning experiences (Ministry of Education 2013).
There are currently 9 independent and 26 autonomous schools (Ministry of Education 2013).
Source indications are from FGDs unless otherwise stated; in this case it is from the Principal’s monthly notes.
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Koh, E., Ponnusamy, L.D., Tan, L.S. et al. A Singapore Case Study of Curriculum Innovation in the Twenty-First Century: Demands, Tensions and Deliberations. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 23, 851–860 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-014-0216-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-014-0216-z