NIE NTU Paper Presentation at AERA

Objectives
While teacher education (TE) and TE research in Singapore have made great strides in improving the provision of high-quality teachers to learners, education stakeholders cannot rest on their laurels by merely implementing new and cutting-edge practices. Beyond the requisite knowledge, skills and competencies, there needs to be a reimagination of how teachers may be better prepared and supported by expert teacher educators who envision the future and who are responsive to the present and future needs of society. This presentation describes how such a reimagination first needs a transformative shift in how we look at the continuum of education that empowers all stakeholders, from teacher educators to teachers and to learners. It focuses on developing teacher educators and on emphasizing their part in empowering education. With this empowerment, educational justice may prevail, education inequalities may be addressed, the importance of well-being may be placed at the forefront, and human flourishing, which is the purpose of education, may be restored.

Perspectives
In light of current global challenges such as war, disruptions such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the surge of artificial intelligence, along with crises in energy and climate, and global pandemics like Covid-19, the world requires global remedy and restoration. Teacher education and teacher education faculty have to possess mindsets and dispositions of future-readiness in order to provide meaningful, relevant and empowering teacher education programmes to equip teachers and, in turn, learners for unknown futures.

Methods
This presentation draws from literature of future-readiness and Singapore organizational documents that were collated and analyzed to inform this presentation. Singapore is a tiny island, city, nation, state and country whose educational achievements have been admired internationally. All teachers are prepared at the pre-service level at the nation’s sole teacher preparation institute, the National Institute of Education, housed within Nanyang Technological University.

Findings
From the research literature and desktop analysis of organizational documents, a remapping of education as a continuum, that is, teacher educators to teachers to learners, was deemed to be urgent. This paradigm shift allows us to see education as a whole where each part of the continuum is needed to take care of and develop teachers. When all parts are well cared for, the whole continuum is able to flourish. The findings are applied to the Singapore context and presented as a case study for consideration.

Significance
This presentation argues the need for teacher education faculty that are future-ready. It is only with such faculty that teacher education programmes may be re-designed to produce learners who are resilient, values-anchored, and seen learning as a lifelong endeavor. This presentation presents the case of ongoing faculty development efforts in Singapore’s national teacher education institute that aims to nurture teacher educators who are champions of justice, exemplars of lifelong learning mindsets, designers of innovative and engaging learning spaces, and inspirational mentors. Such TE faculty can help nurture future-ready teachers who can help repair and remediate our societies and build a generation of learners ready to face and flourish in a complex and unpredictable future.

The study examined the longitudinal relationships among emotions, appraisals, and behavioral engagement with feedback in 314 Singaporean secondary students. Over four waves, emotions, evaluations, and receptivity to feedback were assessed after writing assignments. Repeated Measures ANOVA showed variations in enjoyment, pride, excitement, anxiety, and shame but no significant differences in behavioral engagement or overall positive and negative affect. Latent growth models revealed a decrease in enjoyment, pride, hope, and excitement, while anxiety and shame varied by initial levels. Gender differences and changes in feedback receptivity were noted. Cross-lagged panel analysis indicated high stability in the reciprocal influence of emotions and engagement over time. Findings highlight the links among emotions, appraisals, and engagement with feedback.

Purpose & Perspective
Singapore’s education system is renowned for its rigorous assessment practices which are integral to the nation’s high-performing academic culture. Recent reforms in Singapore have focused on shifting the emphasis on summative assessment towards formative assessment (Tan, 2017), which comprises: short assessment tasks that identify students’ needs, abilities, and interest; ongoing monitoring of students’ learning progress; and giving feedback to students to improve their learning. This research focuses on the transformative impact of classroom assessment (CA) on the reflective practices and practical reasoning (Audi, 2006) of English primary school teachers amidst educational reforms in Singapore. We focus on CA as it is embedded in the classroom teaching for examining how teachers design and implement assessment practices to check how their teaching impact on students learning, followed by on-going adjustment in the specific classroom context (Vanlommel & Schildkamp, 2019; Wyatt-Smith, et al., 2024). We studied how teachers can adapt decisions in teaching by observing students’ learning in the CA processes, remaining attentive to situations where existing routines are ineffective and seeking alternative solutions.

Methods & Results
Situated against the backdrop of Singapore's assessment reforms, the study uses data from a two-year research project involving ten primary schools. Specifically, we draw upon the Pragmatist notion of “reflection”, the concepts of “practical reasoning” (Audi, 2006) and “assessment as inquiry” (Delandshere, 2002), while exploring the teaching heuristic goal systems (Janssen et al., 2014) of two English primary school teachers (one male novice teacher and one female experienced teacher) in Singapore. The participants represented typical cases illustrating different forms of practical reasoning in responses to educational reforms. To trace teachers’ practical reasoning and co-construct their goal systems, the laddering method (Veledo-de Oliviera et al. 2006) was adapted, involving four rounds of one-hour lesson observations and one-hour stimulated recall interviews with each participant over two years. We traced the processes of classroom activities (including CA) within the laddering systems in eight lessons (four for each participant) and conducted within-case analysis and cross-case analysis (Miles et al., 2019) on the evolving patterns of the teachers’ practical reasoning. Figure 1 depicts one example of such a laddering. We examined the alignment (or lack thereof) between the goals teachers adopt and the principles advocated in educational reforms, and identified subsequent challenges in enacting practices to understand how these goals guide (or fail to guide) teachers’ choices, as influenced by CA processes. The study revealed the evolving patterns of teachers’ practical reasoning and emphasized that CA analysis and interpretation was crucial for revealing and refining "practical reasoning" in responses to educational changes.

Significance
This study sheds light on how to engage teachers in deeper consideration of the purposes, processes, and meanings of educational change in Singapore. In particular, the study emphasizes the critical role of CA in mediating teacher reflections and promoting critical dialogues during assessment reforms.

Objective
New and exciting educational technologies frequently emerge, each promising to transform the way we teach and learn. The new kid on the block is Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) which has brought about more platforms to give automated instantaneous feedback to student writing. However, does the use of Artificial Intelligence in feedback (AIF), like many previous educational technologies before it, live up to its expectations? This paper reports on the use of one AIF platform in an after-school tuition program offered to students from financially disadvantaged families. The two research questions that guided the study were (a) What are the students’ experiences of AIF? (b) How did AIF affect student outcomes?

Methods and Data Source
This two-year case study sought to examine the impact of this intervention on 21 students (aged 13-14). These participants, from different schools, were enrolled in the programme that aimed to improve their English language skills with weekly 2-hour sessions. These sessions incorporated the use of an AI-based application (Scribo) that can quickly analyse submitted work for technical aspects such as grammar, word choice, and punctuation. This article reports findings from interviews with both students and their tutors. The qualitative data were analysed using Bandura’s model of triadic reciprocality comprising environmental, personal, and behavioral factors.

Results and Significance
The students reported that the AI feedback (AIF) tool was easy to use and beneficial to their writing. The just-in-time feedback, along with teacher guidance, resources, and peer feedback, created a positive learning environment where students felt guided and encouraged to improve. Editing their work soon became a habit, with students even enjoying the process, treating it as a challenge to achieve higher AIF scores. The whole experience demonstrably boosted students' self-efficacy in writing, with AIF scores providing tangible evidence of progress, increasing their confidence. This newfound confidence extended to their schoolwork, where they noticed fewer errors and received positive feedback from teachers, further validating their improvement. Bandura’s social cognitive self-regulation theory adopted for the study proved helpful as both as a theoretical lens and as an analytical tool for understanding the complex processes involved in AIF. It highlights to both the policy maker and the classroom teacher specific areas to work on to effect more positive outcomes from the use of AIF. For the policy maker, the study highlights that providing equal access to quality resources like AI, coupled with effective pedagogy, can potentially mitigate educational inequity driven by socioeconomic differences. Though this study was sited in an after-school programme, the findings are consistent with another study conducted in five mainstream schools. Teachers with large class enrolments can find comfort that AIF tools like Scribo can engage students to independently seek and act on feedback. The integration of AI feedback (AIF) within a structured feedback pedagogy (pre-feedback, process, post-feedback), shows promise in enhancing learners' motivation and skills for self-improvement. These competencies are crucial for all students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, highlighting the potential of AIF in promoting equitable educational outcomes.

1. Objectives
This paper critically examines how partnerships involving research, practice and policy actors should be understood and assessed. We focus on Singapore’s school improvement efforts using research-practice/research-practice-policy partnerships (RPP/Ps) in relation to two network evaluation approaches (Henrick et al,2023; Peurach et al,2016) to address fundamental questions about the partnership dynamics and politics.

2. Perspective(s)
The paper argues that RPP/Ps are complex social-cultural-technological-political configurations that simultaneously create innovative networked learning and bureaucratic governance structures, often in tension (Douglas,1992). Furthermore, any developmental evaluation of partnership efforts involving research, practice and/or policy actors must first address fundamental assumptions about the nature of the entangled relationships between research, policy and practice in education. Drawing on Whitty and Wisby (2016, p.2) who caution that research cannot and should not be the “handmaiden of policy and practice” even while it has to respond to external priorities, policy sociology theories (Whitty, 2002) are used to trace evolving RPP/P interactions and actors. The global rise in the use of data as evidence, fast policymaking, impact ideology, networked learning and improvement efforts have led to an urgent need to consider the distinctions between research for/of policy/practice, and policy/practice of/for research, and their implications for any developmental evaluation of RPP/Ps.

3. Data Sources & Methods
Singapore’s education research funding (2002-current) has resulted in a rich database of findings on educational improvement. This paper uses such findings and the authors’ autoethnographic accounts of their experiences in developing RPP/Ps in Singapore’s context (Ellis et al,2010). Two cases are presented – one of a government-funded, policy-facing empirical study into Singapore classroom pedagogies which has developed a unique RPPP configuration, and the second of a practice-facing, investigator-driven, ground-up school-based RPP focusing on classroom-based assessment innovations. Data and analysis uses autoethnographic methods and Actor Network Theory (Latour, 1987,1999) to show how developmental evaluation of partnership efforts must consider both human actors and non-human artefacts/actors to assess the effectiveness of RPP/Ps.

4. Findings
Our study leverages Henrick et al (2023) to reflect on its applicability to Singapore’s context. Trust is significantly dependent on negotiating the epistemic authority of researchers, the positional authority of policymakers and the praxial authority of teachers, with associated challenges. Contrary to Fischer-Schoneborn & Ehmke (2023), boundary work significantly requires developing competencies among partners, with policymakers needing to understand research methods and ethics, and researchers translating findings for high-stakes policy meetings (Farrell et al,2022; Weddle,2023). Cyclical turnover of partnership actors and demands for fast evidence also affect partnership success. Importantly, partnerships must assess form and substance of relational and professional conversations, and artefacts that bridge partnership differences, and reduce tensions.

5. Study Significance
We propose further dimensions for consideration when conducting any developmental evaluation of RPP/Ps, caution that RPP/P approaches designed to improve teaching need to be mindful of potentially impeding growth because of the relational positioning of practitioners, researchers and policymakers vis-a-vis one another- inexpert, stubborn, overly complicated, uninformed, irrelevant.

Like many countries worldwide, the early childhood (EC) sector in Singapore is grappling with workforce turnover and attrition issues (Authors, 2022b; Authors, 2024c) amidst continuous expansion of EC services. To meet the increasing demand for EC services, the 23,000-strong EC workforce will require 3,500 more educators by 2025 (Ministry of Social and Family Development [MSF], 2022a). Realising the importance of developing a highly skilled and engaged EC workforce for Singapore’s economic and social productivity, as well as for children’s positive and healthy life trajectories (Lim & Heng, 2024; Yang et al., 2022), the government has rolled out various strategies to improve the working conditions of EC educators. Examples include increasing the salaries of educators in government-supported preschools, providing funding for preschools in their digital transformation efforts to improve productivity, and removing the requirement for preschools to operate on Saturdays (MSF, 2022b). However, media reports indicate that while educators welcomed these new initiatives, they stressed the need to focus on improving staff welfare and work-life balance (Ang, 2022). These reactions suggest that there may be a gap in our understanding of the concerns and needs of EC educators in the local context.

Guided by the conceptual framework for holistic educator well-being (Authors, under review) and the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), this study examines the state of EC educators’ well-being in Singapore and the associations between their job demands, job resources, and well-being. We focus our investigation on educators’ physical well-being (perceptions of general health) and professional well-being (job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion), as well as their feelings about their centre and their work (job resources) and work-related stressors (job demands). A total of 309 EC educators working in formal EC education settings (full-day childcare centres and half-day kindergartens) completed a survey of the study variables. As shown in Table 1, the sample comprised mainly female educators (98.4%) aged between 21 to 35 years old (70.1%) and taught different age groups ranging from 3- to 6-year-olds.

Table 2 presents the results of our regression analyses for each aspect of well-being (general health, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction). Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictive influence of educators’ job resources and demands on well-being, after accounting for the influence of educators’ personal and financial resources (i.e., household income, number of dependents, years of working experience in the EC sector). Findings demonstrate that different aspects of educators’ job resources and demands predicted their physical and professional well-being. Work-related stressors (e.g., There is little time to prepare for my program and/or responsibilities) significantly predicted all three aspects of well-being. Educators’ feelings about their work significantly predicted their job satisfaction. This finding indicates that educators who reported more positive feelings about their work (e.g., The work I do is stimulating and challenging) experienced higher levels of job satisfaction. In addition, educators with more positive feelings about their centre (e.g., I take pride in my centre) reported lower levels of emotional exhaustion and higher levels of job satisfaction.