Diversifying Schools

Professor David Hung is Dean of Education Research at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He currently oversees education research grants from various external sources of funding. His research interests are in learning and instructional technologies, constructivism and social constructivism, cognition and communities of practice. In particular, he is interested in the social cultural orientations in the contextual systems of schools in Singapore and he works on scaling of innovations in schools as one of his key research foci. Professor Hung has also delved into the Science of Learning in Education (SoLE). His foundations in learning and the learning sciences has prepared him for his foray into the neuroscience, physiological, and other biological indicators of learning. Professor Hung juxtaposes the science of educational systems with the science of learning. More recently, he was appointed as the NTU’s President’s Chair in Learning Sciences. Dr Longkai Wu is currently a Research Scientist and faculty member at the Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in the area of Learning Sciences and Technologies at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His research is on the development of sustainable frameworks to translate and scale education innovations into classroom practices in Singapore school system. He has worked closely with local primary and secondary schools, as well as Ministry of Education, to formulate the nexus among research innovations, scaled practices and education policies.  Over the years, he has also been involved in international collaboration with Hong Kong, Taiwan, US, Finland and UK universities on classroom and school improvement. Dr Dennis Kwek is Centre Director, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, and Associate Dean (Strategic Engagement), Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A Senior Research Scientist with over 25 years of research experience in the UK and Singapore, his research interests include system studies in education, policy research, classroom pedagogies, sociology and philosophy of education, and teacher professional development. He is currently leading National Institute of Education’s CORE Research Programme (2004-present), a multi-million-dollar government-funded large-scale baseline suite of empirical studies into Singaporean classroom pedagogies.

• Section One: Case studies of Diversified Adoption of Innovation.- Chapter 1 Creating sustainable levers for ICT integration: A development trajectory of an ICT-enriched school.- Chapter 2 Nurturing maker dispositions among children with open-source tools: a case study of a junior high school in Singapore.- Chapter 3 Scaling Community, Conditions, Culture and Carryovers through Apprenticing and Ecological Leadership: The SCAEL Model.- Chapter 4 Learning Initiatives for the Future of Education (LIFE): “It takes a Village” to enable Research Practice Nexus.- Section Two: Diversified Changes from the School View.- Chapter 5 An Exploration of Contextual Factors in Enacting Making-Centered Learning Programmes in Singapore Schools.- Chapter 6 School-based Niche Programmes in Singapore.- Chapter 7 Exploring out-of-classroom structural affordances for learning: A case study of a co-curricular activity.- Chapter 8 Fostering school-wide knowledge building practice and culture: The realities of leadership by the middle managers through network.- Section Three: Diversified Changes from the Systems View.- Chapter 9 School to School Networks for Sustaining Education Innovation Change: Situating Teacher Leaders at Every Middle of the System.- Chapter 10 Addressing the skills gap: What schools can do to cultivate innovation and problem solving.- Chapter 11 Leadership Supporting Innovation in Curriculum: Essential Lessons.- Chapter 12 Teacher learning communities as catalytic levers for educational innovations in Singapore schools.- Chapter 13 An Exploratory Approach to Teacher Professional Development in a Secondary School in Singapore.- Chapter 14 Capacity Building as a Driver for Innovation and Change: Different Contexts, Different Pathways.- Chapter 15 The Problem of Integration: How Schools Can Fill the Skills Gap.- Section Four: The International perspective.- Chapter 16 Exemplary Career Educational Practices of Joetsu City in Japan.- Chapter 17 The Evolution of Efforts to Improve Education in New York City (2001 – 2016).- Chapter 18 Doing Things Differently in Order to Do Them Better: An Assessment of the Factors that Influence Innovation in Schools and School Systems.- Section Five – Conclusion.- Chapter 19 Building a cohesive 21st century learning orientated community in Singapore – Summary and Conclusion.