Prof Tan Oon Seng shares at the K12 Education Transformation Framework for a “New Normal” Summit
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Microsoft organised a three-day summit titled “K-12 Education Transformation Framework for a “New Normal” Summit”. The summit took place at the Microsoft Singapore Office from 28 June to 30 June 2022. This summit was specially curated to draw on global best practices on K–12 education transformation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic where digital education has gained new momentum.
Catering to the policymakers and senior education leaders from ADB’s developing member countries, the organisers invited experts in the field of K-12 education and created this platform for members to share and learn from each other. The participants include senior education policymakers from Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
Prof Tan Oon Seng, Centre Director for the Centre of Research in Child Development, Office of Education Research, was invited as an expert to share on the theme “Educational Transformation: Insights from the Singapore Experience.” The summit focused on four thematic areas: (i) leadership and policy; (ii) teaching and learning; (iii) intelligent environments; and (iv) students and school success elements of education transformation. In his one-hour presentation, Prof Tan commended ADB for the initiative and affirmed the comprehensiveness of the Microsoft Education Transformation Framework. Prof Tan shared how education must be grounded in the fundamentals of character building and 21st-century competencies in the changing educational ecology whilst tapping on the possibilities of technology. He emphasised the importance of the curriculum process, investing in teacher development and understanding student engagement.
The DMC participants also visited schools in Singapore to witness how education transformation is implemented and experienced the technologies in the Microsoft Experience Center in shaping the four thematic areas of education transformation.