Singapore
Project Description
Case Story
SINGAPORE
Ministry of Education Singapore
PROJECT OVERVIEW
As a trusted partner in education, Educare has over the past ten years been on its mission to shape destinies in Singapore.
In these ten years, Educare has been working in tandem with Ministry of Education (MOE) to fulfil the goals of nurturing and equipping students with 21st Century Competencies. Educare achieves these goals through the provision of educators, professional capital development and learning technology to nurture 21st century competency skills, especially in literacy and numeracy skills.
OUR SOLUTIONS
Education Consultancy
Professional Development
DEVELOPING TEACHERS AND LEARNERS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
We believe our strengths form the core of what ultimately matters — developing teachers and learners for the 21st century. Educare engages schools and educators through a tripartite synergy to realise MOE’s 21st Century Competencies framework. As Educare’s underlying philosophy behind PD is aligned with MOE’s Teacher Growth Model, our workshops and programmes are geared towards developing teachers who would ultimately be Competent Professionals, Collaborative Learners and Transformational Leaders.
Educare offers a myriad of PD programmes to meet the diversified needs of MOE, education officers, school leaders and teachers at the individual, school, district and national levels. Whilst our public workshops serve to elevate the teaching needs of STU’s 12,000 teachers as well as non-STU members, Educare also takes a whole-school approach to deliver customised programmes tailored to each school’s PD needs.
Professional development programmes (2004 – 2014):
- Literacy Skills – including foundational programmes like better spoken English, teaching reading, writing and grammar as well as strategies in teaching accurate pronounciation and appropriate intonation as well as creating the reading classroom, newsletter and magazine production for schools designing and implementing Effective Reading programmes.
- Numeracy Skills – Concept teaching of mathematics, using model methods to solve math problems, teaching challenging problem solving, math core workshops, mathematics tutor induction programme amongst others.
- Leadership & Capacity Building – including performance management to maximise supervisee potential, systems thinking workshops, capacity building for key personnnel, performance and appraisal workshops, coaching workshops, self-evaluation programmes and innovation for breakthrough results and sustainable growth.
- Pedagogical Skills – Through our partnership with Kagan Cooperative Learning we delivered key principles of the Kagan way. In addition, Educare delivered robust programmes featuring Critical Thinking, Problem-Based Learning, Brain-Based Learning , Differentiated Instruction, Active Learning and Self-Directed & Collaborative Learning.
In addition, customised programmes were developed for the Minsitry of Education, Curriculum Policy Office and the Academy of Singapore Teachers. This included an English language trainining seminar, effective faciliation of nurturing Cultures of Thinking, classroom management for Allied Educators (AEDs) and supporting teacher in nurturing 21st century students for AEDs.
Over the years, we have also collaborated with a host of highly acclaimed international experts and speakers to share their enriching experiences.
Jack Canfield
Ruth Sutton
Kent Healy
Paula Rutherford
Ron Ritchhart
Punya Mishra
Eric Jensen
Dr John Maxwell
Dr Spencer Kagan
HR Solutions
TEACHER’S ASSISTANT (TA) SCHEME
Following a proposal in August 2004 by the Singapore Teachers’ Union (STU) to MOE to ease the workload of teachers so that they can focus on teaching, Educare piloted and implemented the Teacher’s Assistant scheme. The scheme aimed to elevate teaching and teachers’ lives through the recruitment and management of TAs. In addition, Educare developed a TA training programme, briefings for school leaders and administrators as well as training and placement in schools. More importantly, TAs were provided with intensive on-the-job trainings at schools.
To ensure the success of the scheme, Educare worked with relevant agencies and ministries such as Workforce Development Agency, Ministry of Education, and National Trades Union Congress.
To date, Educare provides HR solutions to more than 200 government organisations, statutory boards and educational institutions in Singapore.
Learning Technology
In 2009, Educare acquired an IT arm and additional resources which allowed us to provide a wide range of IT services and technologies to schools and educators.
BACKPACKLIVE! PROJECTS
Educare was awarded the development of the BackPackLIVE! Projects for both Gongshang Primary School (GSPS) and Bendemeer Secondary School.
- The BackPackLIVE! iCoLAB Project for Gongshang Primary School focuses on developing a collaborative and self-directed learning portal for students using the Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 technology. This is a structured social networking portal which provides students with various “micro sites” features and tools for performing creative, critical and collaborative learning. The system allows teachers to assess, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the work and the learning processes of the students.
- Bendemeer Secondary School BackPackLIVE! Project – ReACT Portal
The ReACT Portal is a collaborative learning portal to develop students’ critical thinking skills through problem-based learning. It aims to build critical competencies such as self-directedness, confidence, self-management and communication skills in students. Monitoring mechanisms have been implemented in the portal to capture and track the students’ before-and-after progress. This has allowed teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methodologies and propose corresponding intervention strategies.
