1) STP

The STP Website (requires OPAL access)

https://opal.moe.edu.sg/stp/

ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE — Prior knowledge is what we know and can do as a result of one’s life experiences. For our students, this includes previously learned content knowledge, concepts and skills. Prior knowledge significantly influences our learning, including our ability to remember, understand, reason, and apply new knowledge and skills.

AROUSING INTEREST — Students who are interested in the content of a lesson will be engaged and intrinsically motivated to learn at higher levels of complexity. This is aligned with our belief in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy that when children find meaning in learning, they are motivated and challenged, and take ownership of their learning.

BUILDING TRUST — Establishing trust between teacher and students is key to developing meaningful and positive relationships, and it takes effort from both the teacher and students. The teacher, as the trusted adult, needs to take the initiative to build positive relationships with his students based on trust and respect. With trust, students feel safe to approach the teacher for help and support. Being honest, reliable, fair, professional, and competent (Adamson, 2010) is helpful in building trust with students. Establishing trust starts from day one, and it has to be built throughout the school year.

CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK — Both ‘checking for understanding’ and ‘providing feedback’ are important formative assessment approaches. ‘Checking for understanding’ ascertains the gap between students’ current understanding and the desired learning outcomes. ‘Providing feedback’ aims to close the gap between where the student is and where the student should be, in relation to the lesson objectives. Both ‘checking for understanding’ and ‘providing feedback’ allow teachers toclarify lesson objectives for their students,guide students’ metacognition as part of the learning process,provide timely response to their students’ learning, modify subsequent instruction to meet students’ learning, and create opportunities for students to show that the feedback has enabled them to close their learning gap.

CONCLUDING THE LESSON — 'Concluding' typically occurs at the end of a lesson, and it can serve as a review or summary of the key points presented earlier. Teachers can take advantage of 'concluding' to help students draw links to subsequent lessons or make explicit the 21st century competencies the students have learned.

CONSIDERING LEARNERS' PROFILES — An integral part of learner-centred teaching is the understanding and consideration of learners’ profiles. Equipped with the knowledge of students’ unique strengths, learning preferences, needs, interests, prior knowledge, and readiness to engage in learning (Powell & Kusama-Powell, 2011), teachers can design appropriate learning experiences for students. This is aligned with the beliefs in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy that we value every child as an individual, and recognise that our children have diverse learning needs and bring with them a wide range of experiences, beliefs, knowledge, and skills. It is by managing this complex interplay of factors that a teacher enhances the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

DECIDING ON INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES — Teachers use a variety of appropriate instructional strategies to attain the desired outcomes intended for our students. The use of appropriate instructional strategies contributes to enhanced student engagement, develops deeper student understanding in the subject, and ultimately leads to more effective student learning. Deciding on appropriate instructional strategies for lessons involves making deliberate choices based on the intended lesson objectives, and teacher’s understanding of the students' profile, their learning needs, readiness level, interest, and prior knowledge.

DECIDING ON TEACHING AIDS AND LEARNING RESOURCES — Teaching aids and learning resources, including ICT resources, are tools to complement and support the instructional strategies planned and used by teachers to engage diverse learners within and beyond the classroom context.

DETERMINING LESSON OBJECTIVES — Lesson objectives are what we want students to achieve at the end of a lesson or unit of instruction. They frame the instructional checkpoints in a roadmap for the teacher and are aligned with the broader learning outcomes for the students. Thus, it is important that students be made aware of the lesson objectives in every lesson. Lesson objectives take into consideration the knowledge, skills, learner strategies, attitudes, and behaviours that students will demonstrate at the end of the instruction. Specifically, they are determined according to the aims of the syllabus and incorporate the development of 21st century competencies. They are also structured in operational terms such that they are specific, manageable, and assessable.

EMPOWERING LEARNERS — Teachers can empower students by providing them with opportunities to make choices and by involving them more actively in the learning process. Empowering our students helps to increase their motivation and engagement in learning. The teacher may cultivate the sense of empowerment individually or as a class. When the teacher empowers the students as a class, the students’ sense of accountability towards one another is enhanced; at the individual level, empowering students encourages them to take greater ownership over their personal learning. Empowering students is aligned with the belief in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy that every child wants to and can learn.

ENCOURAGING LEARNER ENGAGEMENT — Learner engagement impacts the overall motivation to learn as it is an important condition for learning and achievement. Students are engaged when they are attentive, motivated, interested, and participating in the learning actively. This chapter focuses on how a teacher can encourage ‘every student [to be] an engaged learner’, aligned with the belief in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy that when children find meaning in learning, they are motivated and challenged, and take ownership of their learning.

ESTABLISHING INTERACTION AND RAPPORT — Establishing interaction and rapport is about setting up positive social and emotional connections between teacher and students, and amongst students in the learning environment.

EXERCISING FLEXIBILITY — This Teaching Area focuses on how teachers exercise flexibility during lessons to meet students’ needs. It involves teachers thinking on their feet during instruction, and responding spontaneously and effectively to what happens in class. It also involves teachers' proactive anticipation of what may occur during the learning process. While lesson planning is important, the lesson plan is not a script to be strictly adhered to (Mutton, Hagger, & Burn, 2011). Teachers will need to respond flexibly to the needs of students during the lesson as they teach.

FACILITATING COLLABORATIVE LEARNING — Collaborative learning involves students working in pairs or groups on a problem- or an inquiry-based activity. Collaborative learning, when well facilitated, enables knowledge to be socially constructed among students and subsequently internalised individually. This is aligned with the belief that learning takes place individually and collaboratively, as children construct and co-construct meaning from knowledge and experiences (Singapore Curriculum Philosophy).

MAINTAINING POSITIVE DISCIPLINE — Maintaining positive discipline focuses on establishing a conducive environment for learning and the development of self-disciplined students, both in class and in school. It involves teachers taking proactive steps to build positive teacher-student relationships, to teach prosocial behaviours, to manage students’ misbehaviours, and to implement appropriate consequences.

PACING AND MAINTAINING MOMENTUM — Pacing refers to the speed with which the teacher conducts a lesson, and the amount of time the teacher allocates to each instructional activity. It is based on the teacher’s understanding of the students and their readiness to learn, and assessment data regarding how much they know and understand. Teachers can flexibly adjust the teaching and the lesson plan when students are progressing faster or slower than expected. This coheres with the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy, which advocates the appropriate adaptation of teaching pace, approaches, and assessment practices to meet the learning needs of the students.

PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES — The four core Teaching Processes at the heart of PP make explicit what teachers put into practice and reflect on before, during and after their interaction with the students in all learning contexts. When applying and reflecting on the four Teaching Processes, teachers can look into some or all of the corresponding 24 Teaching Areas.

PLANNING KEY QUESTIONS — Planning key questions is a significant teaching skill teachers need to acquire because questions promote student involvement and engagement, and guide students’ learning. Questions are not just for testing students. Effective questioning involves more than just drawing memorised information from students. It is a process by which teachers deliberately engage students in cognitive and metacognitive operations with specific purposes and student outcomes in mind. Teachers use the mode of questioning to assess students’ progress and performance during a lesson as a way to monitor how well they are learning, and to provide feedback to help them make progress in their learning. The use of questioning to assess students’ progress and check on their learning is aligned with the belief in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy that assessment is integral to the learning process.

PROVIDING CLEAR EXPLANATION — Clarity in teaching refers to classroom instruction that enables students to have a clear understanding of what is to be learned. Teachers need to be equipped with effective communication skills, use language that is developmentally appropriate for their students, and use appropriate terms and concepts correctly. Teaching with clarity involves the clear articulation of instructions and explanations, and where appropriate, the sharing of the thinking behind the actions. Visual aids may be used if helpful.

SELECTING AND SEQUENCING CONTENT — As outlined in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy, our children have diverse learning needs and bring with them a wide range of experiences, beliefs, knowledge, and skills. For learning to be effective, we adapt our teaching pace, approaches, and assessment practices to be developmentally appropriate. Hence, selecting and sequencing content is an essential component of the design of a lesson for specific groups of students.

SEQUENCING LEARNING — Sequencing learning within and across lessons involves ordering and organising student learning. The order and organisation of a lesson affects the way students learn, in particular how they process, retain, and apply the information, ideas, and concepts. Teachers sequence learning within and across lessons so that there can be smooth transitions which will enable students to achieve the learning outcomes. Making decisions about sequencing student learning should be done at the lesson preparation phase.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS AND ROUTINES — Setting clear expectations and routines for student behaviours is critical for effective classroom management, instruction, and lesson enactment. Expectations for student behaviours refer to what makes appropriate behaviours, as well as the consequences that result from inappropriate behaviours. Teachers need to be clear and consistent in their expectations, so that students understand what desired behaviours are expected of them and are more likely to conduct themselves well.

SETTING MEANINGFUL ASSIGNMENTS — Setting meaningful assignments involves setting homework or assignments that students complete outside of curriculum time. Such work should contain questions or activities at different levels of difficulty to challenge students to think critically and creatively. When well-planned and carried out, it reinforces and consolidates learning, as well as deepens understanding of lessons taught. Moreover, it can activate students’ prior knowledge about the topic and prepare them for the subsequent lesson—an important consideration in the learning process as outlined in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy.Analysing students’ responses to the assignments can help teachers with the planning and improvement of relevant teaching practices so as to meet the needs of students, and to address their learning gaps. This is aligned with the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy: specifically, we design assessments with clarity of purpose, and use the feedback to help students improve learning by addressing their learning gaps. In addition, when we design assignments to check for students’ understanding and progress, we are enacting learner-centred assessment. These assignments provide opportunities for students to take ownership of, to monitor, and to assess their own learning.

SUPPORTING SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING — When designing SDL activities, the teacher needs to be clear regarding the intent, and take into account the students’ level of readiness, and his own ability to facilitate the activity. For SDL to work well, teachers must ensure that students are well supported by providing them with clear instructions, sufficient resources, and a specific scope of learning. The use of assessments to provide students with feedback is instrumental in helping them develop SDL competencies (as reflected in the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy).

USING QUESTIONS TO DEEPEN LEARNING — Questioning is an integral part of quality teaching for quality learning. Skilful questioning is a strategy which teachers use to engage students in integrating new learning, and in applying what they have learned to new contexts. This forms part of the process of developing students’ critical and inventive thinking. Questioning also allows teachers to gather information on students’ learning in order to improve future teaching, learning, and students’ performance.