ICT reform initiatives in Singapore schools: a complexity theory perspective

Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed an exponential growth in the use of technology in our daily life. Notwithstanding its phenomenal influence, the use of technology in education remains sporadic and disjointed. The promise that technology will bring deep-seated changes in the way that educators teach and students learn remains, disappointedly, elusive. This paper argues that the lack of systemic frame of reference may have explanatory power over such less than impressive performance of ICT in education. Tracing the trajectory of Singapore's ICTrelated policies in the educational sector, this paper adopts the complexity lens to study the systemic policy changes that are imbued in the different stages of Singapore's ICTbased reforms. In particular, the paper delves into the three constructs of complexity theory: self-organisation, coevolution and fitness landscape. By juxtaposing the interdependencies of these three concepts against the backdrop of Singapore's educational landscape, the paper contends that the complexity theory perspective has the potential to help policymakers understand the dynamic and complex nature of reforms so as to devise multi-faceted solutions that will address the concerns of all key stakeholders in the learning ecology. Implications for policymaking are also discussed.

Comparative Study of ASEAN Research Productivity

“…Interestingly, the two countries with the highest research productivity in the ASEAN (Singapore and Malaysia) are more dominant in the field of ET than LSM, whereas other ASEAN countries are dominant in the field of LSM. This is due to Singapore having implemented Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Integration in the education sector since 1997 (Toh & So, 2011). Malaysia encourages publications in the engineering sector through its 5-year development plan (Bakri & Zakaria, 2013).…”

School and Teacher Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) readiness across 57 countries: The alignment optimization method

“…Early back to 2008, the ministry of education (MOE) in Singapore established five “Schools of the Future”, which served as a model in not only the curriculum design, teaching and learning but also the material resources (Lim, 2015 ). The independencies of the constituent elements among the self-organizing capacity, coevolution with other systems and fitness development and policymaking in ICT reform have brought Singapore’s stable leading position of school ICT readiness (Toh & So, 2011 ). Other countries such as Sweden, B-S-J-Z (regions of China), United Arab Emirates and United States all ranked among the top league of the assessment.…”

The evolution of Wright’s (1932) adaptive field to contemporary interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciences

“…Consequently, they often don't define what fitness entails, although there are exceptions. Fitness landscapes are used to develop an alternative view of a particular phenomenon concerning public administration and policy, for example to understand why the introduction of ICT in education failed to bring about the expected changes (Toh & So, 2011), to understand the considerations and actions of public managers (Teisman & Klijn, 2008), to understand the expansion of anti-corruption programs (Micheal, 2004), to understand social entrepreneurship (Rhodes & Donnelly-Cox, 2008), or to suggest that ostensibly powerless actors may not be so powerless after all, e.g. through public protests (Sword, 2007).…”