Partnerships with Communities and Its Influences on Teacher Learning: Reflections on a Singapore Perspective
摘要
This chapter reflects on, chapters in Part II, partnerships and its influences on teacher learning in Singapore. Singapore’s professional learning (PL) approach is built on partnerships and collaboration to empower teachers and develop their transformative professionalism. Teacher agency, collective work and authentic partnerships form the basis for high quality, diverse and experiential learning for teachers. There are three key takeaways from Singapore’s approach, (1) alignment from policy to practice, (2) collaborative mentoring approaches and (3) use of a digital portfolio to chart teachers’ self-reflection and inquiry. Contextually, Singapore is a small education system which enables quality partnerships and effective collaborative practices. Distributed leadership is more realisable. A robust career framework with well articulated promotion tracks, progression routes and entitlement enables professional learning. The strength of Singapore’s professional learning is based on partnership and collective expertise in implementing curriculum. Professional knowledge and learning are co-constructed to develop teachers’ self-efficacy. Singapore’s professional learning model openly invites teachers to ask questions and inquire within a trusting and safe environment. Key insights are coherence, alignment, careful approach and intention, co-construction, collaboration and inquiry focused. However, lessons from Singapore cannot be transferred without caution and careful thought around the powerful and unique contextual and cultural features of any system.