| 1. |
I am delighted to be here at the first international symposium on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. To our overseas guests, a very warm welcome to Singapore.
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| 2. |
Today, we find ourselves in the midst of a knowledge-based society that is driven by globalization and rapid technological advances. These 2 forces are sweeping through nearly every aspect of our society, education included. Therefore, this symposium is timely; it addresses the issues of teaching and learning in higher education, and also on life-long learning which will become an important component in our education system in the face of the forces of change.
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| 3. |
In the past, education in Singapore was in a 'survival' phase. Our schools and tertiary institutions were focused on producing trained workers in order for us to survive as a nation in the early years of our independence and industrialisation. When we passed that phase, we began to fine-tune our system to make it more efficient. Streaming was introduced, we produced standard textbooks and told teachers what to teach, and expanded tertiary education opportunities for our students. This is the 'efficiency' phase of the development of our education system. Today, a knowledge economy has caused us to rethink our education paradigm. It is no longer adequate for our schools, universities, polytechnics and ITE to just produce skilled workers in the most efficient way. It is no longer enough to look at 'efficiency' from the focus of system and organisation alone. We have the responsibility now of preparing and equipping our students to meet the challenges of a dynamically changing future that results from the creation and exploitation of knowledge. To be even more efficient, we have to take into account of the individual's ability.
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| Ability-Driven Education
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| 4. |
In a knowledge economy, intellectual capital is the nation's wealth. But intellectual capital is not just about a person's mental or intellectual capability. It also embodies other equally important aspects that make up a whole person. The education system in a knowledge economy should be to provide a balanced and well-rounded education that will develop every individual morally, intellectually, physically, socially and aesthetically so that his or her full potential can be realised. This is the aim of my Ministry.
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| 5. |
How do we develop every individual to his or her full potential? After all, every individual is different in terms of his or her abilities. Some may be capable of very high level of thinking or abstraction. They may excel in their ability to analyse and solve problems and apply what has been learned in them and conceptualise novel solutions. Other individuals may be gifted in their appreciation and creation of art and music. There are others who may excel in the way they relate and connect with people. Some are more skilled with their hands and have a knack in the use of tools. There may be some who possess a combination of these abilities.
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| 6. |
One way to address this I suggest is to look into how we teach and how our students learn. If teaching and learning do not take into consideration the different abilities of individuals, then the resources committed to the education system would not be optimally used -- however efficient the system and organisation per se may be. The full development potential of each individual would be severely compromised.
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| 7. |
Ideally, we would like to be able to customise education for every individual. But no country in the world, however rich, has the necessary resources to tailor its education system at an individual level. It would simply be not practical to do so. Nor would it be necessary.
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| 8. |
In Singapore schools, the Ministry "mass" customises our educational programmes by catering to groups of students with similar needs and injecting as much flexibility into these programmes, as far as our resources allow, to meet the varying requirements within each group of students.
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| 9. |
Streaming of our students in the schools is a manifestation of an attempt to cater to clusters of different abilities among our students. It allows students to progress through the educational ladder at a pace and level that best match their abilities.
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| Catering for Different Abilities in Post-Secondary Institutions
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| 10. |
Our school teachers are probably more familiar with the issue of students of different abilities as they have always been dealing with large groups of students. For our lecturers in the tertiary institutions, ability-driven education may just begin to dawn on them with the opening up of the access to higher education.
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| 11. |
In the early 1980s, less than 15% of a cohort of students enter the polytechnics and universities. Today, with the demands of the economy resulting from increased global competition, nearly 60% are admitted into our tertiary institutions - 20% to the universities, 40% to the polytechnics. With such an increase in the cohort participation rate, students entering your institutions would have abilities that spread across a wide spectrum. I am sure many of you would have lamented or heard laments, about how the quality of students now is so different from the past. The reality is, such large cohort intakes would remain, and are even likely to increase. Already, our target is to have 25% of a cohort of students enter the universities. You will see an even wider spectrum of abilities.
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| 12. |
If we were to develop our students to their fullest, we can no longer treat them as a homogeneous group as in the past when the number of students are much smaller and abilities more homogeneous. Our tertiary institutions need to find new paradigms, new structures, new delivery and assessment methods, and pedagogy to address this. We have arrived at yet another phase of development in our education system - the 'ability driven' phase.
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| 13. |
Our institutions have already embarked on ability-driven programmes to cater to the different needs of the students. Some polytechnic departments for example have their versions of streaming - placing students of similar abilities in the same tutorial groups and challenging the more able ones to take extra modules and more difficult subjects. NUS through its core curriculum programme is also tailoring a special programme for the brighter students.
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| Continuing Education and Training
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| 14. |
The issue of ability-driven education will become more accentuated when we start to talk about continuing education and life-long learning in which our tertiary institutions would play a crucial role.
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| 15. |
It is not difficult for anyone to realise that teaching and training an adult worker is very different from teaching a fresh school leaver. The expectations and motivations are different, the learning abilities are different, the external pressures are different. It would be disastrous to teach the adult workers using the same teaching material and methods for fresh school leavers. At the Skill Redevelopment Centre at Bukit Merah for mature students, I noticed that the text of reference material for students was printed in exceptionally large fonts, similar to the large text bibles you see in some mature churches.
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| 16. |
When our universities and polytechnics start to gear themselves up to meet the challenges of mass continual education and training, they should not only look at physical and manpower resources. We need to invest time in redesigning the curricula to adapt them to adult learners. We need to approach the delivery of lessons in an innovative way, making use of new teaching technology and methodologies. We need lecturers who are able to interact and handle mature learners in a way different from school leavers. In short, we need a new approach towards continual education and training.
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| Conclusion
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| 17. |
Some of you may already have solutions to the problems I mentioned, and are ready to share them with others in this symposium. Others may be here to seek new approaches to problems or find out what better ways there are to these problems. I am sure that this symposium will be an opportunity for synergy; to exchange ideas and experiences, share good practices, and learn from each other on the enhancement of teaching and learning at the tertiary level.
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| 18. |
The challenges of globalisation and rapid technological advancement have brought upon us an opportunity to relook at the way we do things, and question traditions and existing practices. We must ensure that every student in our country is given the opportunity to excel and to be developed to his fullest potential in order to contribute effectively in the new economy. As educators in higher education, you have the responsibility to mould and further nurture the students that have been given the basic education in our schools, before they enter the workforce and society.
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| 19. |
I wish you a stimulating and fruitful deliberation at this symposium.
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| 20. |
Thank you. |
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