SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, ACTING MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE MONOGRAPH ON STRATEGIES FOR ACTIVE AND INDEPENDENT LEARNING (SAIL) ON THURSDAY 25 MARCH 2004 AT 1000 HOURS IN THE EDUTORIUM, MOE BUILDING

Mr Wee Heng Tin,
Director-General of Education

Mrs Chan Jee Kun,
Director, Curriculum Planning & Development Division

Principals

Ladies and Gentlemen

NAVIGATING THE FUTURE

1. Good morning to all of you.  I am happy to be here with you this morning as we launch an interesting and practical initiative to raise the quality of education in our schools.

2. We have embarked in recent years on new directions in education, aimed at preparing our students, and preparing Singapore, for a different future.  We cannot tell exactly what this future world will be like, at least not with any confidence or precision.  But we know it will be a fluid and increasingly unpredictable world.  And it will also be a world rich with promise for those who dare to venture, to innovate, and to do things differently.

INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
3. We have to try many ways of preparing our students for this future, in our curriculum, in assessment methods, through co-curricular activities, and through the many other ways in which we nurture young citizens who are ready to brave the challenges and make the most of the opportunities that will come their way.  We should be willing to try out new and practical ideas and approaches in education, make adjustments whenever necessary and occasionally make significant shifts to help ready our young for the future.  As someone  once said, “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”

4. That is why, in recent years, we have brought about numerous improvements and innovations in education.  At the broadest level, we are moving from a highly structured and predictable system, focused on efficiency, to a more diverse system, aimed at promoting flexibility, innovation and a wider range of talents.

5. The most important changes we will have to make to prepare for the future are not in new structures and new educational pathways per se.  The critical shifts will be in how students learn, how actively they think for themselves, and how they interact with their teachers and peers in the course of the day.  That will determine the quality of their learning, whichever the pathway they choose.

6. To bring about these changes in the learning environment, we as educationists must be prepared to go beyond the tried and tested.  We must engage in thoughtful experimentation and innovation in teaching.

STRATEGIES FOR ACTIVE AND INDEPENDENT LEARNING (SAIL)

7. It is in this context that we embarked on developing an instructional approach that has the potential to enhance teaching and learning.  We have called this approach Strategies for Active and Independent Learning, or SAIL.

8. The SAIL approach aims to engage our students in active and reflective learning, and nurture independent learning habits.  It is essentially a way in which a teacher can help a student take responsibility for his own learning.  It helps the student to be aware of where he is in his own learning, what he should know and be able to do, and what he needs to do to improve and progress.  This awareness is the springboard from which students foster habits of self-directed and independent learning.

9. It may be worth setting out briefly what the SAIL approach entails.  The approach emphasises learning as a formative and developmental process, in which instruction and assessment point the way for students to learn and improve continuously.  It is supported by a set of tools.  These are:  first, broad statements of learning expectations; second, tasks that provide scope for students to learn and demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes articulated in these statements of learning expectations; and third, assessment tools that spell out the various dimensions for evaluating students’ performance in these tasks, as well as the levels of attainment for each of the dimensions.

10. Teachers will communicate the learning expectations and assessment criteria clearly to students.  “The statements of learning expectations are kept broad, so as to allow teachers to select open-ended tasks that encourage divergent thinking and alternative responses.  Teachers will use the assessment criteria to provide students with qualitative feedback that will help them better understand their areas of strength, and discover what they need to do to improve their performance.

11. In addition, teachers will provide opportunities for students to use the assessment criteria to evaluate their own work and that of their peers.  The approach then becomes a learning tool for students to reflect on their performance and articulate what they have learnt.  This will help enliven the classroom, by stimulating questions and discussion on what the students learn.

VOICES OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

12. We have designed the SAIL approach through a process of careful experimentation. MOE began the design of the approach 4 years ago.  Several workshops were conducted, to obtain inputs and ideas from teachers.  Over the last 2 years, 17 primary and 20 secondary schools volunteered to try out the SAIL approach in the various subjects.  I found it encouraging that both teachers and students from the participating schools have found the approach useful.  They found that it enriched the teaching and learning process.

13. A Mathematics teacher from Kong Hwa School observed that the SAIL approach allowed her students to play a more active role in their learning.  The Mathematics tasks, which were more open-ended, and the assessment tools, that clearly conveyed the different aspects of mathematical problem solving, challenged students to explore alternative solutions and justify their answers.  In particular, students could use the assessment tools they were given for self-evaluation and peer evaluation, thus obtaining immediate feedback on their learning and performance.

14. This view was echoed by a student from Presbyterian High School, who said “Yes, it’s very, very useful because it guides us, like a guideline.  It’s by itself like a teacher already.  Imagine having two teachers – one explaining and one guiding you.”

15. A Social Studies teacher from Stamford Primary School shared that the SAIL approach gave students a sense of direction in their learning and increased their awareness of what was expected of them.  Even at these primary school classrooms, students were involved in the evaluation of their own work and were motivated to strive to attain a higher performance level.

16. A student from St Gabriel’s Secondary School, like others, said that the SAIL lessons taught her vital thinking skills.  Perhaps most instructive, however, were the comments from an enthusiastic student from Loyang Secondary School.  Exerting a little pressure on his Geography teacher, he remarked that “the [SAIL] lessons are very interesting and I think you can prepare more lessons like these.”

17. The schools that came forward to participate in the SAIL experiment did so with enthusiasm.  They were keen to be part of the development of this innovation in teaching and learning.  The feedback they have provided has been invaluable in helping us make improvements to the design of the approach and the provision of resources.  So I applaud the schools for their innovative spirit.  It is an encouraging sign in education, that we see amongst many of our schools, and we should do all we can to push it forward.

MONOGRAPH ON SAIL

18. To help more schools try out the SAIL approach, MOE has prepared a monograph that sets out the framework, components and practice of SAIL.  It also provides examples of what teachers and students are able to achieve through the SAIL approach.  I hope that teachers will find the monograph useful in seeing how SAIL can be part of their repertoire of strategies in the classroom.

CONCLUSION

19. The SAILing classroom will typically be a livelier one, with greater two-way interaction between teacher and student.  It is more likely to develop students into active, reflective and independent learners, than a perfectly orderly classroom, with students taking copious notes from the teacher, or getting copies of prescribed answers.  This will help us develop traits among students, from young, that will enable them to adapt and thrive in new and unexpected situations.

20. I am sure that the schools that volunteer to experiment with the SAIL approach will find it an effective tool to engage their students in meaningful and thoughtful learning.  I wish them smooth sailing ahead, or as the Chinese say, “yi fan feng shun”.

21. It now gives me great pleasure to launch the monograph on SAIL – Strategies for Active and Independent Learning.

22. Thank you.

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