The "Thinking School, Learning Nation" national policy agenda set forth in 1997 has been considered a watershed moment in the history of Singapore education as well as the nation. It has brought about a raft of new educations reforms that are both comprehensive and intensive in nature. It has also brought about a succeeding education…

Purpose: This paper presents a study on how professional learning communities (PLC) are developed in an Asian setting, and the nature of leadership that helped to cultivate and sustain PLC in this setting. Research Method: The study adopted a sequential mixed method, starting with a survey followed by qualitative case studies, involving focused…

Leadership in early childhood education has been promoted as a collaborative process in which all teachers, rather than just the positional leader, are involved. Collaborative leadership practices are not well understood within the marketised Singapore early childhood education context. Beyond mandatory leadership training, little is known about…

Background: Professional learning communities are increasingly recognized for their significance in building teachers' competencies for educational reform. However, the knowledge development cycle of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) through multiple professional learning communities is not well researched. Purpose: This…

Professional Learning Community (PLC) has steadily grown in importance over the last decade. The growing importance of PLCs lies in its potential to act as a lever for school-based curriculum development and innovation so as to provide diverse learning experiences to satisfy broader learning outcomes beyond academic achievements (e.g., the…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been recognised as having the potential to raise the quality of teachers, teaching and student learning through structured teacher collaboration, and have been featured prominently in Singapore and Shanghai--both considered top-performing Asian societies in the Program for International Student…

This study marries collaborative problem solving and learning study in understanding the onset of a cycle of teacher professional development process within school-based professional learning communities (PLCs). It aimed to explore how a PLC carried out collaborative problem finding--a key process involved in collaborative problem solving--that…

The development of teacher professional learning communities (PLC) has attracted growing attention among practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. The aims of this study were to identify typologies of professional learning teams based on measures of professional learning engagement, and assess their linkages with teachers' value orientations.…

This mixed-methods study employed Hargreaves and Fullan's (Professional capital: transforming teaching in every school, Teachers College Press, New York, 2012) concept of professional capital to re-examine whether professional learning communities (PLCs) transformed instructional practices in contexts that endorse hierarchical cultures. PLCs that…

The authors seek to find common PLC structures and actions among global educational systems to enhance understanding and practice. Six international researchers formed the Global Professional Learning Community Network (GloPLCNet), conducted literature reviews of each country's involvement with PLC actions, and noted similarities and common…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained considerable attention in education. However, PLCs are dependent on how group members collectively work and learn towards shared goals on improving teaching and learning. This would require leadership to support meaningful and productive interactions within PLC contexts, and hence, the…

A history-infused lesson package developed by a team of teachers in a professional learning community was used to teach introductory calculus in a secondary school. First, we report a quasi-experimental design that showed that students in the experimental group performed significantly better than students in the control group. Second, we report on…

This paper seeks to explore the empirical fit of two PLC models, using Singapore as a case. Insights emerged from documentary analyses and interviews with state-affiliated agents from the Academy of Singapore Teachers. The proposed DuFour--Fullan model, despite policy aspirations, remains largely DuFour-predominant in practice. Aspirations for a…

Studying the processes involved in scaling technologically-mediated pedagogical innovations has moved into understanding how wider contexts relate to qualitative outcomes (depth, shift in reform ownership and spread). Understanding patterns in this relationship has been complicated by the diverse outcomes for a single innovation. This study…

Purpose: The three neighbouring nations of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore participated in the 2009, 2012 and 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) cycles. Despite many similarities between the three nations, Singapore has consistently been a top PISA performer, with Malaysia and Indonesia in the bottom third of the…