Understanding “Knowledge”, the Essential Approach to Teaching & Learning

Case Studies of Pre-Universities in Singapore

This pioneering text contributes to the theory and practice of teaching and learning. The purpose is to unlock how key stakeholders of the spectrum of pre-universities in Singapore make sense of "knowledge" and "knowledge work", and endeavour to determine how their understanding of "knowledge" shapes their understanding of "knowledge work" and the conditions that affect their knowledge work. This monograph contributes in a most productive fashion to the necessary educational debates on teaching and learning, which quickly segue into pragmatic political debates about what sort of society and global community we desire.

Using three widely diverse pre-university settings in Singapore as case studies, this book seeks to fill the existing gap by elucidating educators' and students' identification of knowledge, knowledge work and the problems and challenges confronting knowledge work.

Contents:

• Introduction

• Methodology/Research Procedures

• Literature Review

• The OrgPoly Case Study

• The OrgJC Case Study

• The VocInst Case Study

• Analysing the Three Case Studies: Discussion and Implications

• Conclusion and Direction

• Appendices:

  • Survey Instrument Development
  • Description of Singapore's Macro Context
  • Guidelines for Administration of Survey Questionnaire
  • Student Questionnaire
  • Staff Questionnaire
  • Interview/Focus Group Discussion Guide
  • Means Findings for Students' Questionnaires
  • Means Findings for Staff Questionnaires

Readership: School administrators, educators and researchers focusing on the significance of values on educational practices, and the theory and practice of teaching and learning.
Key Features:

• This is a pioneering text that delves into the knowledge work at pre-universities in Singapore
• The findings that are presented as three multi-case studies (based on findings gathered from 56 interviews, supplemented by surveys, field notes and reflections obtained from classroom observations and document records) in Singapore's pre-universities serve as evidence that shows the close interrelationships between the values and related educational practices in each site, which both enable and constrain thinking about and engagement in knowledge work
• It is apparent that the epistemic positions are embedded in institutional cultures, and hence can only be understood adequately only if they are studied in the context of its carriers (the teachers and students themselves and the processes in the schools) and the interaction of those carriers with the larger social environment. Major implications that flow from this study's findings is discussed in the book