Author: guanyinmiao

A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting. Carlos Castaneda.
Classroom in Brazil

Better social mix of students in IP schools than non-IP ones? Challenging measures of “social mixing”

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How social mixing in schools is defined and measured determines how student diversity is evaluated, and it is therefore worth challenging Education Minister Ong Ye Kung’s claim that “the social mix of students in Integrated Programme (IP) schools is actually better than that in non-IP schools” (ST, Dec. 27). The metric used by the Ministry of Education (MOE) is that “every 100 Secondary 1 students in a school should come from 20 or more primary schools”. A school with 300 secondary one students, as inferred, should have these students hailing from at least 60 different primary schools. Based on this too, MOE should be able to track the total number of primary schools represented in each secondary school’s secondary one cohort.

Four children holding hands

“The influence of adult and peer role models on children’ and adolescents’ sharing decisions”: Sample selection and the importance of research context

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Ruggeri et al. (2018) are interested in the sharing decisions of Italian and Singaporean children and adolescents, examining – through an adapted dictator game with the use of a comic character, so as to experimentally study how the participants think goods should be shared – the influence of peers versus adults and of fair versus unfair suggestions. And while the unsurprising findings still offer useful insights to educators and practitioners who work with young people, there should also be greater attention on sample selection and the importance of research context.

Man in business suit

Student expectations to earn S$3,000 to S$4,000 from their first jobs: Contextualising expectations with reality

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Scholarship portal BrightSparks conducted a survey of 3,215 university, polytechnic, and junior college students, and news outlets ran with the provocative headlines “1 in 5 students in Singapore expect starting salaries of S$4,000 or more, survey finds” (Nov. 21) and “Three in four students in Singapore expect more than $3,000 from their first job” (Nov. 20). Unsurprisingly, the headlines drew derisive criticisms against young Singaporeans characterised as being unrealistic or too demanding with their inflated salary expectations, even though results of the Ministry of Education’s Graduate Employment Surveys (GES) show that the expected starting salaries – especially that of potential university graduates – are very much in reach.

Two blue chairs

Singaporean preparedness for retirement: Holding research publications and indices to higher standards (in the media)

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A persistent trend in this “What it might have been?” section – with reviews of newspaper articles referencing research or data – is that articles often lead with eye-catching headlines of the research findings, yet disappoint with thin exposition of the research methodology. TODAY’s (Dec. 4) coverage of an index ostensibly measuring retirement readiness, in that familiar pattern, dove into the main findings without examining how they were derived, and in addition the supplementary information provided was inadequate.