SPEECH BY MR CHAN SOO SEN, MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION, AT THE 1ST REGIONAL INNOVATIVE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE 2004, ON TUESDAY, 7 DECEMBER 2004, AT 9.00 AM AT THE NANYANG EXECUTIVE CENTRE, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, 60 NANYANG VIEW

Dr Martyn Forrest
Secretary, Department of Education, State of Tasmania, Australia

Professor Juan Miguel Luz
Undersecretary for Finance & Administration, Department of Education, Philippines

Ms Mandhana Sangkhakishna
Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Thailand

Mr. Eduardo Rosini
Regional Vice President, Microsoft Asia Pacific

Dr Sheldon Shaeffer
Director, UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education

Professor Leo Tan
Director, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Distinguished Speakers, Guests and Teachers

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good Morning

1.      I am pleased to join you this morning for the First Regional Innovative Teachers’ Conference, organized by Microsoft Asia Pacific, in partnership with the National Institute of Education (NIE) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Asia and Pacific Education Bureau.  We are here today to learn from those who have excelled in using innovative practices in their everyday teaching and learning environment.

Providing Every Pupil with a Good Education

2.      Whatever our education policies and systems, what matters ultimately is that our teachers deliver a good education to all our pupils. Our pupils must have the opportunity to question, and to think independently and with an open mind. Teachers are not just delivering content, but they must also come up with strategies to address the unique needs of their pupils to make teaching and learning a lively experience. They need to see how best to make learning enjoyable and relevant to their pupils, while adapting their teaching methods to be in sync with an ever-changing environment beyond the classroom. They should seek to relate effectively to their pupils, understand what interests them, and prepare meaningful lessons.  Innovative teaching methods can make a real difference to how well students learn and inspire them to embrace life-long learning.

3.      Innovation is not just about enhancing technologies, harnessing emerging economies or garnering new business. It is more than that. Innovation is a social phenomenon. It is about people in exciting enterprises, people from all walks of life embracing new things, and doing them in new ways. Innovation means developing an entrepreneurial spirit which embraces and promotes risk-taking, creativity and imagination.

IT in Schools

4.       One important medium for exploring innovation in teaching is through information technology (IT). The use of IT in schools is no longer just a simple matter of using personal computers (PCs) and laptops, networks and bandwidth, or CD-ROMs. We have gone beyond the hardwiring, beyond the passive use of packaged software. IT in schools is now being driven by human experimentation - by teachers and students who are using the latest IT tools to push the boundaries of learning, and make lessons more interesting and engaging.

5.       Technology may act as a tool, but in itself, is not what innovation in education is about. Our teachers are often at the forefront of realising our goals in education. What makes the crucial difference is how well the teacher uses this technology and integrates it into the overall teaching and learning experience. IT can be used to simply replicate what is done on the blackboard or in the textbooks. On the other hand, IT can also be used to open up new vistas and to allow students to learn in new ways. Teachers have been empowered by IT and inspired to develop truly fresh teaching strategies.

6.       Several teachers here today have achieved this admirably. Fifty-nine deserving winners from 11 countries in the Asia Pacific region will receive the Microsoft Regional Innovative Teachers’ Award for their creative and innovative use of IT for teaching and learning in the classroom. My congratulations to all of you.

Initiatives to Promote the use of IT in Schools

7.       In Singapore, the Ministry of Education has provided teachers with enhanced professional development programmes to help them creatively integrate IT into teaching and learning. We are building the leadership capacity in schools for technology planning and evaluation. For example, IT Heads of Department (HODs) focus not just on IT, but also on their roles as instructional leaders, working alongside other subject HODs to champion the integration of IT into the curriculum.  Teachers have also gone on work attachments, which help give them a broader sense of technology’s possibilities. The Ministry has incorporated these work attachments into courses for all HODs at NIE. This year alone, 32 HODs and teachers have benefited from such work attachments, which can be with business organisations such as Microsoft, and research and education institutions such as the Institute for Infocomm Research, as well as our polytechnics and universities. For instance, Ms Teo Chew Lee, former HOD/Science, from Damai Secondary School, recently went on a four-month research attachment with the Ontario Institute for Study of Education, University of Toronto, to explore how the area of knowledge-building was facilitated using technology in a different learning environment. She has gleaned important learning points for application in our local context and will be embarking on a school-cluster project to be carried out next year.

8.       Teachers are making good strides in using technology to innovate their classroom teaching and learning.  For instance, Mrs Cynthia Seto from Geylang Methodist Primary has used Microsoft Excel to create interactive learning resources to integrate pupils’ understanding of related Mathematics concepts like ratios and percentages. Mrs Seto has also supported her fellow teachers in their use of IT by coaching other Primary 5 teachers on how to use Microsoft Excel as a cognitive tool to teach topics like percentages and has co-conducted Mathematics workshops at the Teachers’ Network on the use of Microsoft PowerPoint as a tool for teaching model drawing. At Pasir Ris Secondary, Mdm Rahimah bte Abdul Rahman used the free MSN online discussion forum to get her students to write reflectively and to engage in discussions on the movie, The Lord of the Rings, to promote interdisciplinary studies in English, History and Science. By riding on the students’ interest in the movie and their familiarity with modern technology applications, she was able to deepen and enrich their learning experiences. These are just a few of the many recent examples of innovations that are taking place in Singapore schools.

9.       Another strategy that the Ministry has embarked upon is the building of Communities of Practice or CoPs. These CoPs serve as forums for professional sharing and provide important collegial support and mentoring. The formation of the CoP for Social Studies teachers early in this year led to a sharing session in September, for these teachers to share lesson ideas and resources.  At a subsequent Social Studies resource-building camp for another 50 secondary teachers, members of the Social Studies CoP came together to share their newly acquired expertise with their colleagues. In addition, there are common online platforms, such as Microsoft’s Innovative Teachers’ Network (ITN) programme for the Asia Pacific region, which enjoys its official launch at this Conference. Through the ITN programme, teachers will now have access to professional development resources, a platform for the advancement of best practices and access to the worldwide community of teachers as learners. 

10.      Moving ahead, perhaps both public and private organizations can cooperate and collaborate with one another to leverage on each other’s experiences and strengths.  In Singapore, a partnership between the InfoComm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), NIE and Microsoft has been formed to establish a Backpack.Net Centre, which will support the research and development of emerging technologies in education. The Backpack.Net Centre will also showcase new technologies to inspire students, teachers and education solution providers.  This Centre will have the potential to develop new pedagogies and demonstrate the benefits and power of e-learning.

Conclusion

11.      I would like to congratulate Microsoft, NIE and UNESCO Asia Pacific Education Bureau for their efforts in organising this Conference to support the goals of the ITN programme.  With more than 120 selected innovative teachers from 16 different countries, I believe this is the first dedicated conference for innovative teachers in the Asia Pacific region.

12.      I encourage all of you to share your innovative teaching strategies. Your co-operation and collaboration will help bring teaching and learning to greater heights for the benefit of our future generations. May you have an enriching and successful Conference.

Thank you.