A case study of Singapore 2011 secondary Chinese language curriculum implementation : teacher’s perception and enactment = 新加坡2011中學華文課程實施的個案研究 : 教師的感知與實踐

Abstract

Singapore's Bilingual Policy has been implemented for more than half a century. Students study English and their ethnic languages, as known as Mother Tongue in Singapore, in school. Fostering students’ mother tongue language communication skills was particularly highlighted in Mother Tongue Language Education Review in 2004 & 2010 conducted by the Ministry of Education. Singapore 2011 Secondary Chinese Language (CL) curriculum thus focuses on improving students' listening, speaking, reading and writing ability and recommends the approaches of teaching and assessment in corresponding to the skills-oriented initiative. This study is intended to explore the teacher's perception and enactment on the implementation of 2011 curriculum for Secondary Chinese Language. There are not many evidence-based researches on Secondary CL curriculum implementation and teaching and learning of CL in Singapore context. This evidence-based research will fill this gap. Also, this research provides a new referential case for the research on curriculum and instructional materials using. At the same time, it is hoped that the research findings will provide meaningful reference for the curriculum developer, textbook writers, curriculum implementers, teachers and teacher educators. This research is case-study-based. There are mainly three types of mainstream schools in Singapore for Chinese language learning, namely Special Assistant Programme school, mission school and neighborhood school. For the samples of this research, one school is selected from each type of school, and 3 teachers from each school are recruited as the research participants. The teachers are recommended by the school or invited by the researcher. The researcher triangulated the data collected by analyzing from multiple perspectives and in varied ways. The following data is collected: in-depth interview with teachers, classroom observation and audio-recording for one whole unit. Based on the perceiving curriculum and operational curriculum framework, this research explores the characteristics of teachers' curriculum perception and enactment. The results show that teachers can perceive the common themes of the unit and foster students’ character and values through the theme in practice. In terms of different lesson-type, teachers understand its different functions, but they believe that the difficulty of the content of the text, the difficulty of the skills, and the students’ language proficiency will affect their teaching. Therefore, there are four kinds of teaching practice: (1) Use the same method to deal with different lesson-type; (2) Use other media to assist the reading; (3) Reduce reading and teach other language skills; (4) Complete self-reading through various channels. Regardless of perception or enactment, teachers are focused on the teaching of language skills. In dealing with the relationship between text reading and language skills learning, teachers ’practices are as follows: Focus on language skills, text reading is an example of explaining the skills; Teach language skills, followed by text reading; Reduce text reading, add other teaching items; Or focus on the understanding of the text content, and then language skills and so on. In terms of the sequencing of the language skills, teachers understand that the current arrangement in the textbook is beneficial to students’ learning. However, they rearrange the sequence of them. This highlights the teachers’ adaptation in terms of curriculum awareness. Some teachers understand the meaning of "Illustration, Explanation, Practice" and regard it as a scaffold for students’ learning, but most teachers are not familiar with this concept. However, teachers are basically able to introduce the concepts with illustration, explanation and practice by the guiding of the instructional materials. Therefore, instructional materials play a role in guiding teachers’ enactment. Some teachers understand the meaning of the "assessment for learning”, while most teachers are not sure about the concept. All of them present learning goals, check for understanding, provide timely feedback and use rubrics and checklist to promote students’ learning in the process of teaching. But from the teachers’ perception and enactment of the students’ self-reflection part, it is noted that the design of Instructional Materials needs to improve the assessment literacy of teachers needs to be improved. 新加坡的雙語政策實施了超過半個世紀，學生在學校裏學習英語，同時也學習本族群的語言。而在新加坡，各族群語稱爲母語。從2004年的華文課程與教學法檢討到2010年的母語檢討，在雙語學習環境下，母語學習的應用功能尤被凸顯。新加坡《2011中學華文課程標準》明確提出要建立語言能力等級體系，要遵循語言學習的規律，注重技能的訓練，以提高學生的聽說讀寫能力。課程標準也提出了相應的教學與評價建議。本研究意在圍繞2011中學華文課程的三個突出特點，即講讀課、導讀課、自讀課的課型設置、「先例、後説、再練」的技能呈現方式以及促進學習的評價策略，探討教師對課程的感知情況和實踐情況。 圍繞感知課程和運作課程形態，針對新加坡華文課程、華文教師教學進行的實證研究不多。本研究旨在填補這方面的研究空缺。希望研究發現對課程研究者、課程規劃者、教材編寫者、課程實施者、教師培訓者和一綫學校教師提供有意義的借鑒和參考。 本研究採用個案研究設計，在主流學校的三類典型學校中，即華文特選學校、傳統英文背景的學校以及一般鄰里學校，各選一間學校作為研究個案。每間學校以研究員邀請或學校推薦的方式各有三位教師作為研究對象。資料收集的方式包括與教師一對一的深入訪談、教師一個完整單元的課堂教學錄音和課堂觀察。本研究以感知課程和運作課程為結構框架，探討在三類典型學校裏九位教師感知課程和實踐課程的表現特徵及相互關係。 結果顯示，教師能夠感知單元中講讀課、導讀課、自讀課有共同的主題；在實踐中能圍繞單元主題，深化學生的人文素養培養，但也提出三篇文章主題相同會帶來學生學習動機的挑戰。在講讀課、導讀課、自讀課課型方面，教師瞭解各種課型功能不同、層次有別，但認爲課文内容難度、技能難度和學生程度會影響教學。因此衍生出四種教學實踐表現：（一）用相同的方法處理講讀課、導讀課，不區分講讀、導讀；（二）借助其他媒介手段輔助閲讀；（三）縮減課文閲讀，增加其他教學項目；（四）通過多種渠道完成自讀課文閲讀。無論是感知還是實踐，教師都專注於語文技能學習點的落實，篇章内容欣賞居次。在處理課文内容理解和技能學習重點落實關係方面，教師的實踐體現為：圍繞技能學習，課文内容是解説語文技能的例子；先集中講解語文技能，再進入到課文内容的理解；縮減課文閲讀教學，增加其他教學項目；先理解課文内容，再集中學習語文技能；理解課文時，滲透語文技能的學習。 在語文技能學習重點的編排方面，教師瞭解教材中的編排有益於學生技能學習的循序漸進，螺旋上升。但教師從實踐經驗出發，認爲有些技能學習點在課本出現的順序應該調整，而在實踐中教師在保留單元整體内容的基礎上，調整了一些技能學習重點的教學順序。這反映教師在課程意識方面的調適取向。對於技能學習點的呈現方式，部分教師瞭解「先例、後説、再練」的涵義，認爲是給學生搭建學習鷹架的過程，但大部分教師不熟悉這個概念。然而在教學實踐層面，教師使用教材進行教學，基本上能夠做到介紹語文技能學習重點的概念、以具體例子輔助加深理解、再以練習鞏固所學。由此可見，課程資源起了引導教師教學實踐的作用。 對於「促進學習的評價」策略，部分教師瞭解其涵義，認爲它是與教學同步，要及時給學生提供反饋；但大部分教師不確定這個概念的具體含義。從實踐表現上看教師基本都能在教學時向學生清楚説明該單元及該課節的學習目標；在教學過程中檢查學生的理解並及時給學生提供反饋；也有教師利用核查清單及評量表，促進學生學習。但是，對於單元自我反思板塊，教師普遍反映教材中供學生勾選的項目文字表述籠統寬泛、缺少自我評價反思的後續跟進、學生的自我評價反思能力不足，也有教師認爲自己有瞭解學生學習效果的其他方式等。基於上述想法，參與研究的所有教師在實踐中都沒有處理教材的學生自我評價反思部分。這説明針對2011中學華文課程就落實「促進學習的評價」策略而言，教材設計有待改進，教師的評價素養有待提高。