The legacy of instrumentality in policy and pedagogy in the teaching of English: the case of Singapore

Albright, James; Kramer-Dahl, Anneliese

doi:10.1080/02671520902867200

Cited by 30 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Due to their excessive preparation for the mundane aspects of teaching, little focus was placed on pupil interaction, resulting in general, discrete and low-level concerns over classroom procedures. This is in a way resonates what Albright and Kramer-Dahl (2009) have found out about even among relatively more experienced teachers in Singapore. Kramer-Dahl (2009) has also expressed concerns about the system in which English teachers work to rigidly interpret the syllabus.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

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Dialogic Discussion as a Platform for Constructing Knowledge: Student-teachers’ Interaction Patterns and Strategies in Learning to Teach English

Zhang

2020

Preprint

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Beginning teachers are frequently heard making observations that the knowledge and skills they have acquired on the training programmes do not come handy when they want to apply them in their real-work situations. They have also reported lacking the ability to integrate theory and practice in reality. Henceforth, teacher-educators are faced with challenges of how to balance proportionally the two strands of pivotal knowledge that are necessarily connected with teacher-education curricula in pre-service teacher preparation. One of the approaches to examining the issue is to investigate student teachers’ dialogues for knowledge-construction to uncover the interaction patterns and strategies they use in negotiating lesson objectives. Against such a background, this paper reports on a study of 24 student teachers receiving training in English language teaching on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at a teacher education institute in Singapore. It was intended to find out the negotiation processes in relation to lesson-planning objectives and how student teachers positioned themselves and others in the processes in the pre-service teacher-education classroom. Results show that student teachers were more concerned about surviving the first lesson than about promoting pupil learning in constructing knowledge about language teaching. The stronger peers’ dominance in the discussion process was taken for granted, suggesting that learning took place in a mutually beneficial and constructive manner and that student teachers’ willingness to cooperate and readiness to express themselves were indicative of their intention to maintain group cohesion and dynamics. These, in turn, are necessary prerequisites for student teachers to become collaborative and reflective practitioners.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…This is in a way resonates what Albright and Kramer-Dahl (2009) have found out about even among relatively more experienced teachers in Singapore. Kramer-Dahl (2009) has also expressed concerns about the system in which English teachers work to rigidly interpret the syllabus.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Dialogic Discussion as a Platform for Constructing Knowledge: Student-teachers’ Interaction Patterns and Strategies in Learning to Teach English

Zhang

2020

Preprint

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“…For example, Albright and Kramer-Dahl (2009) discuss the ubiquity and impact of examinations in terms of educational policies and long-standing teacher beliefs about literacy learning in Singapore, not to mention parents and students as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing ideologies of learning in group talk and their impediments to collaboration

Anderson

Weninger

2012

Linguistics and Education

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“…Research has shown that despite decades of educational reform, the way teachers teach and students learn has changed little (Hargreaves and Goodson 2006;Tyack and Cuban 1995) and that government policy mandates have minimal impact on teaching in classrooms (Albright and Kramer-Dahl 2009;Elmore 2007). One reason for this is the mandatory nature of the changes and the impact they have on teachers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…When teachers do not understand the change, or are emotionally distressed because of the way it is being implemented, they are likely to resist implementing the change, or implement it in a different form from that intended by the initiators of the change (Spillane, Reiser, and Reimer 2002). Sometimes teachers' practices are governed by previous policy mandates, rather than the latest innovation (Albright and Kramer-Dahl 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Managing mandated educational change

Clement

2013

School Leadership & Management

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This paper explores teachers' perspectives on the management of mandated educational change in order to understand how it may be managed more effectively. A case study of teachers' responses to the introduction of a quality teaching initiative in two New South Wales schools found that while some teachers described the strong negative impact of this externally initiated approach, others had taken charge of the required change and worked creatively with it. This suggests that it is possible for mandated change to be managed in positive ways, and an alternative approach is explored. Implications for governments, schools and teachers are discussed.

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The legacy of instrumentality in policy and pedagogy in the teaching of English: the case of Singapore

Cited by 30 publications

References 20 publications

Dialogic Discussion as a Platform for Constructing Knowledge: Student-teachers’ Interaction Patterns and Strategies in Learning to Teach English

Dialogic Discussion as a Platform for Constructing Knowledge: Student-teachers’ Interaction Patterns and Strategies in Learning to Teach English

Tracing ideologies of learning in group talk and their impediments to collaboration

Managing mandated educational change

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