According to a large-scale study of secondary school students in California, USA, awards for good school attendance seem to make no significant difference. In fact, in some circumstances, it could actually make absenteeism worse. Researches found that if prizes were promised in advance, it made no difference to whether students attended school. If the … Read more
Music teacher Ng Sheh Feng is on a mission to make music accessible to all, even for visually impaired students. She is also trying to debunk the myth that music is only for “atas” (upper-class) people. In the last three years, the Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School music coordinator has exposed students – many of … Read more
Throughout their schooling years, and especially during the A-levels, students are used to reading, memorising and regurgitating what they learned in class. However, when it comes to university, rote learning and regurgitation is not enough since lecturers expect something more. University demands students to be able to think critically; they need the skills to … Read more
In this article, Richard Vedder reflects on the changes he has observed in the education landscape before his 54th year of teaching Economics at the tertiary level. Mr Vedder observed that today, compulsory readings for students are only the prescribed textbook as well as occasional suggestions for students to watch a short video on YouTube. … Read more
Children need time to play and learn best when they are ready. It’s not about immediate results. This may well be contrarian thinking in a society as competitive as Singapore. However, allowing children to enjoy learning is actually the inner fuel that fires their desire to keep learning. Thus, it is best not to extinguish … Read more
The UK government has recently announced that it is launching a new initiative to address the “scandal” of children starting school in Britain without vital literacy skills. Education Secretary Damian Hinds promised to halve within a decade the number of British children lacking the required level of early speaking or reading skills – termed the … Read more
In today’s digital world, a research has found that future generations are more likely to be influenced by robots. The research conducted at University of Plymouth, found that children tended to trust robots without robots without question which raised ethical issues as robots and automation become more pervasive. In the research, children aged seven … Read more
A grim underpass in Pontypridd, UK, was once marked with racist graffiti and crude markings. Recently however, it has been transformed into a colourful mural as part of the Ynysangharad War Memorial Park. The colourful mural was created by a team of children aged from nine to 18, using spray paint and armed with … Read more
Exams are an inevitable and unavoidable part of a student’s life. However, what is more important than taking the exams is how students manage the results they get, especially if the results are not what they expected. Negative results can bring about various thinking errors such as “dichotomous thinking” when students perceive things in black … Read more
In the recent A-levels in the UK, more students sat for A-level Chinese than A-level German amidst a continuing decline in modern foreign languages. In fact, Chinese has become more popular among A-level students than German for the first time – with 3,334 students taking the subject in 2018 compared to 3,058 students who sat … Read more