THF Working Paper

Working Papers Series No.2 /2018

Twenty Years of
Thinking Schools,
Learning Nation
(TSLN) Vision:
Reflections on
Singapore’s ICT
Masterplans
Dr. Uma Natarajan
The HEAD Foundation
Dr. Kenneth Lim
National Institute of Education, Singapore
Professor Cheah Horn Mun
Singapore University of Social Sciences
Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision:

Uma Natarajan, Kenneth Lim, Cheah Horn Mun

Abstract
In the year 1997, Singapore committed to reforming its education system, to prepare
young Singaporeans for changes in the coming decades. The national Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) Masterplans were one of a series of reform
initiatives that began with a focus towards change in the teaching and learning in
Singapore classrooms with technology integration. In this article, we summarize the
four ICT masterplans implemented since the “Thinking Schools Learning Nation
Initiative” (TSLN). Following the introduction of the first masterplan for ICT in
education, the Ministry of Education ensured that schools had infrastructure,
leadership and necessary teacher training to successfully implement the initiatives.
The descriptions of the implementations and a case study from a Future School are
valuable lessons for other national systems in the region and beyond, seeking to
integrate ICT in their education systems. We conclude by raising some questions on
where we are, what could be the next level in the technology reform journey and
what we think has been achieved.

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

Introduction

In 1997, the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong, articulated

Singapore’s vision for 21st century teaching and learning in his famous speech

entitled “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation” (TSLN, Goh, 1997) thus,

A nation’s wealth in the 21st Century will depend on the capacity of its people
to learn. Their imagination, their ability to seek out new technologies and
ideas, and to apply them in everything they do will be the key source of
economic growth. Their collective capacity to learn will determine the well-
being of the nation.

In his speech, the Prime Minister outlined Singapore’s vision for the future and how

education could play a crucial role in the nation’s transformation. He argued that

despite Singapore having a strong education system, the existing formula for success

at that point was not enough to prepare Singapore’s young generation in view of

globalization and the new challenges they were likely to face in the forthcoming

decades. One of the key responses he suggested was the introduction of information

technology which would lay the basis for new teaching and learning practices and

innovation. Mr Goh laid the emphasis on the need to transform the education

system, with ubiquitous use of ICT in education. Integration of ICT in education was

believed to have the potential to enhance the necessary digital skills of the students,

transform their learning experiences in schools, and develop them into effective

members of the future workforce (MOE, 1997). What followed from then on was a

series of initiatives to upgrade the education system to be more responsive to the

21st century challenges. Singapore has implemented four Information and

Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education Master Plans over the last 20 years

in an effort to help the country forge ahead in a changing world, and prepare its

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

workforce for a knowledge-based economy in the future, thus helping the country

remain competitive.

This paper will begin with a description of Singapore’s national ICT Masterplans since

1997, summarizing their aims and achievements. Subsequently, we will examine in

greater detail its impact on the education, economic and social dimensions of life in

the Singapore society. We will share relevant examples and what lessons could be

learned from Singapore’s technology in education journey. This might be relevant to

other countries in the region and beyond, seeking to effectively integrate ICT in their

education systems. For example, simply having ICT infrastructure in place and

training teachers to use both hardware and software is insufficient. To be able to

impart skills and develop dispositions that will be relevant to the future economy,

teachers need to continue to improve upon their instructional design capacities. We

will examine how teachers are able to adapt the technologies as they emerge and

evolve.

Acknowledging the paradigmatic effect of the then-nascent Internet and its

transformative potential in teaching and learning, information and communication

technologies (ICTs) were formally introduced in 1997 with the launch of the first

Masterplan for ICT in education (National Archives, Singapore

http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/speeches/). Since then, three follow-on

masterplans have been implemented, with the latest being launched in early 2015.

While each plan built on the previous ones and prioritised the factors that

predominated its ‘success', they were also able to adapt strategies to the shifting

contexts of the Singaporean education system. This seamless adaptability is a crucial

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

factor in the strength of the implementation of education masterplans in Singapore’s

local schools.

Singapore’s three ICT Masterplans

The first ICT Masterplan was launched in 1997 with a budget of SGD 2 billion and the

objective was to lay a strong foundation in ICT for all schools in Singapore in terms of

technology infrastructure and educator capacity (MOE, 2002). The target was to

begin teacher capacity building for technology tools so that teachers were

comfortable to begin using the computers. Networked access for entire schools with

Internet and an ambitious 5:1 pupil to computer ratio was planned. Towards the end

of the first phase in the year 2002, Singapore was ranked second in the world, after

Finland, in the then Global Competitiveness Report (2001-2002) for the availability of

Internet access in schools. Between 30 and 50 hours of teacher capacity building was

planned for every teacher in the system over a one-year period, which was

considered remarkable by international comparisons. In fact, a policy was

established that entitled each teacher to have 100 hours of sponsored professional

development per year. Teachers had to complete a few modules of just ICT training

over 30 to 50 training hours in the initial stages of the masterplans.

ICT Masterplan 2 followed in 2003 with a budget of $600 million, where a key focus

was the establishment of structures, such as tiered support for schools at various

levels of using ICT for Teaching and Learning, to promote a culture of exploration

and innovation in the use of ICT in education. During this phase, a set of baseline ICT

standards that every student in the system had to attain at certain milestones of

their education (eg. by Primary 3 or Secondary 3 level) was also implemented. These

reflected MOE’s commitment to continue a coordinated, national effort to maintain

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

the country’s economic competitiveness in an increasingly competitive world.

Schools competed amongst one another to showcase the innovative usage of ICT in

education within their everyday curricula. New alternative pedagogies such as

inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning emerged. ICT related products

from the students included blogs, e-portfolios, animations and videos where they

demonstrated what they learned in class. It is important to note that all of these

were happening concurrently with the rise of socio-technological innovations such as

Wikipedia, YouTube and the immersive world of Second Life.

The third Masterplan began in the year 2009. The emphasis this time was to

enhance ICT integration within the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in order to

keep pace with 21st century competencies (MOE, 2008) . Use of ICT was encouraged

not only for building technology literate citizens but also to instil higher order

thinking, communication and collaboration skills. A push towards varied ways of

learning using ICT was encouraged - self-regulated learning, individualised

instruction, anytime anywhere learning, deeper learning, collaborative learning etc.

Teacher capacity building continued throughout and a concerted effort to identify

and support pockets of teacher innovations were initiated. Teachers were also

encouraged to share best practices and learn from their peers.

The Ministry continued to focus concurrently on leadership capacity building for

implementing ICT based plans in the schools. The impetus was to identify successful

school leaders as peer coaches for other leaders, and teachers as peer mentors for

others to support the implementation of successful ICT initiatives, and find

innovative practices that could be scaled across schools. By 2014, several initiatives

like Fasttrack @ school, Edvantage, and eduLab were implemented and evaluated,

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

With the implementation of these masterplans, the overall ICT infrastructure in

schools has improved to the current state which allows for high speed broadband

and 4G access island-wide (Koh & Lee, 2008). As a consequence of these integrated

efforts, teachers and school leaders began to grow comfortable using technologies

for teaching and learning. The cultural mindset shift is noticeable through the types

of questions and requests for support raised; where these once reflected

apprehensions about the technologies, it is broadly now about how best to use them

effectively for education. At the same time, in 2015, about 93% resident households

reported using an Internet-enabled mobile phone and other internet-enabled

equipment (e.g. Game console with internet connection, Smart TV, etc)

(https://www.imda.gov.sg/industry-development/facts-and-

figures/telecommunications) In a broader sense, it is important to note that changes

in the education system were happening alongside transition in the use of

technology beyond the school, at home and within the larger society.

As Singapore continues to progress and remain globally competitive, the country is

continually expanding and refining its ICT apparatus that includes infrastructure and

capacity building. The MOE clearly believes that the implementation of ICT in

Education is a vehicle that can help students develop skills that are relevant to the

global economic shifts. To date, four ICT masterplans have been successfully

implemented, namely, Masterplan One (1997 – 2002), Masterplan Two (2003 -

2008), Masterplan Three (2009 – 2014), and Masterplan Four (2015 – present).

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

Technology in schools 20 years on (2015-Present)

The Fourth Masterplan for ICT in Education (Mp4), which is currently being

implemented, is meant to build on the experiences and successes of the preceding

three Masterplans for ICT in Education, and extends the emphases beyond self-

directed and collaborative learning (SDL and CoL) to the overall curriculum. Mp4’s

focus is to use ICT productively to develop knowledge through subject mastery, skills

through 21st Century Competencies, and attitudes through responsible digital

citizenry. The alignment of this fourth masterplan follows MOE’s direction towards

student-centric and values-driven education. Mp4’s vision is to nurture “Future-

ready and Responsible Digital Learners”. The objective is also to deepen digital

learning in the areas of cyber-wellness and responsible and safe media literacy.

On the whole, mp4 aims to put “Quality Learning in the Hands of Every Learner -

Empowered with Technology” (https://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/masterplan-

4/vision-and-goals). The two enablers associated with this objective are: i) Teachers

as Designers of Learning Experiences and Environments, and ii) School Leaders as

Culture Builders. A set of future-ready, scalable, and reliable infrastructure in every

school will form a firm basis for achieving this vision of quality learning with ICT.

These will enable the students to have the capacity to learn anytime and anywhere.

Four different approaches listed within mp4 seek to explain how the vision will be

achieved in their respective areas:

Deeper ICT integration in curriculum, assessment and pedagogy

The focus in this area is on the end-to-end integration of ICT into curriculum,

pedagogy, and assessment of subject disciplines and supporting resources. This will

ensure that ICT is appropriately embedded at the design and development stages of

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

curriculum. Specific strategies to bring about deeper integration of ICT are: integrate

ICT into the national curriculum, provide quality online learning resources for

students, incorporate ICT in assessment, and deepen digital learning in the areas of

cyberwellness and new media literacy.

Sustained professional learning

Mp4 takes a more systematic view of the various capacity building efforts for ICT in

learning from pre-service to in-service teacher training. It will also provide a more

coherent core knowledge-base to better bring about quality teaching and learning

with ICT among various members in the school team. The following key strategies

aim to bring about sustained professional learning using ICT in the teaching

fraternity: build capacity of school teams, develop good ICT practices, and

strengthen Networked Learning Communities (iNLCs) for Technology in Learning.

Translational research, Innovation and Scaling

This approach in mp4 seeks to nurture a culture of innovation and reflective practice

across schools. To this end, it aims to engage schools and teachers in

experimentation and innovation efforts. This will allow teachers to engage each

other in professional discourse and in so doing, learn, reflect, and explore issues

together, deepen their knowledge of practices and improve their craft. Through

translational research, successful evidence-based practices will be identified and

scaled up to benefit other schools in the system. The strategies to support, drive and

encourage experimentation and innovation in schools are: scan for educational

technology-related issues and applications, seed innovations across schools and

translate research findings into classroom practices, and spread successful practices

for adoption and adaptation across schools.

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

The FutureSchools@Singapore (FS) initiative, under which ICT solutions are

developed in partnership with infocomm industries and implemented to support

effective approaches to teaching and learning, has produced many new tools and

applications that have transformed the classroom experience for both teachers and

students ( MOE, 2015). Since 2008, concurrently with the mp4, the establishment of

the FutureSchools in Singapore was another initiative where ten selected schools

across the island worked closely with the MOE, IDA, and infocomm industry

partners, to significantly change student learning to be self-directed and

collaborative, A product called the AmBook – an interactive digital textbook which

takes an inquiry-based approach to learning was one, among several student

innovations that were developed (MOE, 2011; imda.gov.sg). It is crucial to extend

the new teaching and learning practices within the education system through

effective scaling strategies.

Teacher capacity development and preservice training

Professional development (PD) of teachers to ensure that teachers have the capacity

to weave new practices into their respective teaching and learning contexts have

been continuous and concurrent. The PD includes ICT skills trainings and the peer-

supported, collaborative and self-directed nature of ICT pedagogical developments.

Hence, having been equipped with the appropriate sets of skills, teachers are not

only familiar and comfortable with utilising ICT for teaching and learning, but have

also developed the mindset of a reflective practitioner in exploring different avenues

regarding ICT pedagogical approaches. The National Institute of Education (NIE) has

revised its teacher preparation curricula over a few years so the graduating trainees

had basic ICT skills and some core pedagogical training to be able to use the ICT

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

resources. The academic faculty were trained and they had to model the use of ICT

for all trainee teachers. On top of these, the strategies adopted for the professional

development of school leaders have contributed significantly to a conducive

environment for the use of ICT for teaching and learning. For example, a

“Technology in Learning — Implications for School Leaders” module was designed to

train and emphasise how the role of the leader was crucial in providing the vision,

direction and support (Koh, T. S., & Lee, S. K., 2008). Thus, the current education

system has the cultural disposition, infrastructure, and expertise to engage in

technology-based teaching and learning

Learning with technology in a Singapore classroom: Future School Case Studies

The school in which the intervention described here was implemented is a state-

funded school in Singapore. The school enjoyed access to additional funds under the

FutureSchool (FS) programme of the Ministry of Education (MOE, 2015). The FS

programme operated under a unified structure (known as 'eduLab') that coupled the

endeavours of schools, institutions of higher learning (IHL), and industry, to focus on

the use of Interactive and Digital Media (IDM) in Education projects. Besides

providing support for bottom-up initiatives, the school leaders were also actively

involved in leading curriculum innovations and research to promote higher order

thinking and collaborative learning among students. The teachers made use of a

shared pedagogical discourse and expertise that allowed for active engagement and

participation in the development of innovative curriculum. This was enabled through

the careful nurturing of professional learning communities among teachers to enable

them to meet and collaborate on curriculum improvement and innovation. To

effectively support the school-wide embrace of technologies for teaching and

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

learning, the school campus was equipped with wireless capability with a dedicated

data transfer capacity of 20mbps.

To illustrate the collected and concerted approach adopted for developing and

scaling pedagogically sound practices in the use of ICT in Education, the following

section describes an intervention among Grade Nine students in 2015. The

intervention was a technologically-mediated learning environment designed by

teachers and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Education in

Singapore to nurture values associated with citizenship education. The classroom

environment was designed around the metaphor of a Newsroom, in order to

encourage students to understand the connections between the formal citizenship

education curriculum and their everyday interactions on social media. The

environment was web-based and was designed to be deployable over a range of

popular handheld platforms which students would already have ready access to. This

case study is particularly important and relevant in the current ongoing national

debate on the “Deliberate Online Falsehoods - Causes, Consequences and

Countermeasures”, which focuses on the consequences that using digital

technologies to spread of falsehoods online can have on the Singapore society.

Educators and learners today live in a time when potential opportunities for learning

present themselves nearly every moment. Smartphones and computers allow us to

receive news nearly instantaneously and continually. Mobile devices permit

communication where material can be broadcast immediately. Liang et al. (2005)

outline some communication affordances afforded by mobiles with educational

applications aimed at supporting teacher-directed instruction, small group learning,

and individual learning: response collecting (engaging in question and answer

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

sessions), Posting, Pushing or delivering learning content, Controlling, File-

exchanging and Instant-messaging (exchanging ideas with peers in another group).

Tan and So (2015) emphasize the physical environment within which mobile learning

takes place and how real world contextualization could generate critical thinking and

collaborative knowledge building. With localised apps such as ‘Channel NewsAsia’

and ‘Straits Times’, which provides the latest news updates, the youth of today have

fewer reasons to access printed newspapers as their source of news. However, with

news moving onto online platforms, the line between news and entertainment

becomes increasingly blurred as Internet media companies such as BuzzFeed and

Daily Mail publish a mix of real news, fake news, ‘alternative facts’, and

entertainment. With no dearth of such sites on the Internet, one would find it harder

to discern whether a site is from a genuine news company. Furthermore, given that

even the main news media tended to get their newsfeed from the same source, the

reporting could generally be fairly homogenous, especially for breakout news. This is

a tendency that the demand for speed has traded off against veracity and quality. On

the whole, the youth of today encounter and are able to access facts, statements

purporting to be facts, quasi-factual statements and fake news to a degree

unprecedented in history. Students read about peace conferences, political issues

abroad, wars, and countless other things online while having their breakfast or

taking the bus to school. The advent of online messaging has made communication

faster than ever. The information overload at high speed has resulted in news

consumption being done increasingly at the surface level, where scanning headlines

become the sum total of our engagement with news. This has added further

challenge to proper analysis of news content. The access to news has been mainly

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

through digital devices. Data from the 2015 annual survey of infocomm usage in

households and by individuals conducted by the then Infocomm Media Development

Authority of Singapore revealed that about 85 percent of youths used handheld

mobiles to access social networks.

At the beginning of the lesson, each group was assigned a topic with two opposing

stands or viewpoints. Different groups within the class may be assigned the same

topic or different topics. The two sides within each group are each assigned a

specific stand. The lesson consisted of several stages, i.e. source review and

selection, presentation of stands, presentation for perspective reversal, presentation

of reversed stands, and collaborative creation of final artefacts. Each of these stages

had a time limit. During the source selection stage, the students used the Newsroom

interface to review the sources (text paragraphs, images, audio or video data) which

had been made available for their group for their particular stand, and select sources

which they would like to present in order to support their stand. Each side within a

group had their own separate Newsroom for organizing source material. The process

of review and selection was updated in real-time. The outcome of the task was to

write a final report presenting a stand on the topic which the group had been

debating about - either to choose one of the stands, or to present some synthesis of

the two stands. This activity was synchronous within the group. At the end of this

activity, the final report was submitted to the teacher. This stage typically lasted

between 30 to 60 minutes.

Students in Singapore were well versed in new media, from creating their own

content online to reading forum posts, and they were very much engaged with new

media. The question is then, how digitally literate were they? One key aspects of

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

new media literacy is the ability to assess new media content critically, including

recognising misinformation. This is significant as social media platforms become

inseparable from people's lives, and we want students to be critical of what they

read and see, and not take them at face value. The functional aspects of digital

literacy are how well they use such new media resources and how responsible they

are in participating in such new media activities.

Findings

In the interviews and focus group discussions with the students, it was clear that

they showed a high degree of media literacy and also displayed wide knowledge

about different news media outlets. They were able to list major news outlets such

as “BBC, CNN, The Sun, Fox...etc”. They got their news from traditional media such

as TV, Cable, Radio, newspapers as well as online media such as Yahoo news,

Twitter, Facebook, Reddit...etc. They were able to give examples of how certain

news outlets will offer biased interpretation of certain news items, the examples

they gave was about a protest against a shooting and the photo the news media

used misled readers into believing that the protesters were more numerous than

reality.

The second example is a Structured Academic Controversy lesson. The Controversy

that the students were introduced to was the naming of two Indonesian corvette

warships in 2014, after two Indonesian commandos had been hanged in Singapore in

1965. Singapore had hanged the two Indonesian commandos because they had

planted a bomb in Singapore which killed three people and injured at least 33 others

during the period of the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation (known as Konfrontasi) of

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

1963-1966. The naming of the warships in 2014 after the two saboteurs worsened

relations between Singapore and Indonesia at that time.

Newsroom helped students appreciate the biases inherent in journalistic

epistemologies (both in terms of traditional broadcast media and the broadsheet

press, as well as in terms of more emergent forms of social media). With regard the

latter, students also showed an increased awareness of their self-regulatory

behaviour. Based on the data collected during the Structured Academic Controversy

lessons, some examples of how the students approached new media and engaged

with each other on discussions on how news event were portrayed. These include:

Students displaying sensitivity to the context of the reporting through the use of

emphasis - “Indonesia's actions of naming its navy ships after the two Indonesians

who bomb Macdonald’s [sic] house were justified. To the Indonesians the "bombers"

were just marines and were not seen as terrorists,”

Students being critical in an affirmative manner, looking for flaws in explanations -

Though the bombers were just marines, they were associated greatly with the major

chaos that struck Singapore upon the bombing of the MacDonald House. Whether

they were seen as terrorists or not, there was not a positive relation to their names

as they were the bombers who attacked Singapore”.

Students showing empathy and trying to provide a balanced point of view: When

Indonesia pleaded for reschedule of the execution, Singapore yet chose to ignore and

proceeded on with the execution. In a way, Indonesia sees this as the two marines

sacrificing their lives for their country. Therefore, the two marines are heroes and

Indonesia honours them”

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

A student presenting his case clearly with evidence to support his logic “It is not

justified as one may question the narrative Indonesia intend to bring when naming its

naval ships after the two bombers. This is evident in source A where (Singaporeans

would ask what message Indonesia is trying to send by naming its warship in this

manner). After the matter has been closed in May 1973, Singapore and Indonesia are

in good terms. However, when Indonesia decided to name the ships after the

bombers, Indonesia is, whether intentionally or unintentionally, bringing up the

dreadful past between both countries”

Students being reflective and looking at the issue from a macro perspective;

analysing the bigger picture - “The action of renaming the naval ships after the two

bombers is not justified as the action may bring misunderstandings and it is also a

sensitive issue to Singaporeans, who were deeply affected by the bombing incident

back in the past. In the source, it states that ‘Singaporeans would ask what message

Indonesia is trying to send by naming its warship in this manner.’ This proves that

even after decades, Singaporeans are never able to forget about the bombing

incident. As it might have been a terrifying experience to them, renaming the naval

ships after the two bombers will cause disputes and the friendship between

Singapore and Indonesia will be at risk. Hence, the renaming of the naval ships is not

a justified action to be taken.”

In Singapore's context, a digital and media literate person is one who is able to

critically evaluate and interpret information on media platforms, both online and

offline, make informed choices and be aware of the choices of information an

individual creates, posts and shares online, and finally, be accountable and

demonstrate sound judgement for the actions in their online interactions.

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

Media literate students and learners and the concept of digital citizenship assumes

that students are better able to understand the complex messages we receive from

social media, television, Internet, newspapers, magazines, books, and all other forms

of media. Media literacy skills are increasingly been included in the educational goals

of our schools. Many educators have discovered that media literacy is an effective

and engaging way to apply critical thinking skills to a wide range of issues. The

mobile based Newsroom platform lends itself readily to support and foster such

development and effort to educate and communicate with our students on media

literacy.

Taking Stock and Looking Forward

Singapore continues to outperform all other countries in the recent 2015 Trends in

International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) indicating that Singapore

primary school students are highly competent in Mathematics and Science. There

exists a criticism that Singaporean students lack creativity and problem-solving skills.

However, the 2015 results from both TIMSS and PISA have suggested otherwise.

PISA 2015 assessed students on an important 21st century skill - collaborative

problem-solving. This was part of OECD’s updated assessments whereby the tests

measure other skills that are becoming increasingly crucial to thrive in the

workplace. In this area, Singapore students came top at problem-solving as a team.

This indicated that strong performance in academic areas did not necessarily imply

weak social skills (MOE, 2013).

This paper has attempted to examine how Singapore prepared her students for the

knowledge economy by implementing three ICT Masterplans spanning from 1997 to

2014 with the fourth ICT Masterplan currently ongoing since 2015. The

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

implementation of the four ICT Masterplans have seen the progression from

improvement of frequency (quantity) of ICT use by teachers and students towards

the quality of its use; and in the transformation from principally a teacher-centred,

direct instruction pedagogy to a more learner-centred, constructivist pedagogy with

the integration of ICT. Over the two decades of ICT Masterplans in Education, the

use of ICT in teaching and learning has evolved from a strong focus on “Foundation

building” towards the “strengthening and scaling” of pedagogically sound practices.

As ICT is increasingly woven into teaching and learning interactions, the work of ICT

Masterplans would necessarily be more complex and diverse. However, the key

elements of successful use of ICT in education remains broadly the same. They are -

(i) strong ICT infrastructure that can support their use in education;

(ii) teacher capacity in adapting pedagogically sound ICT-based teaching and

learning practices;

(iii) strong school leaders who can provide the enabling environment for

teachers to work within; and

(iv) a continual engagement in exploring and experimenting with innovative

practices.

The success of the first two masterplans can be attributed to the rigorous efforts

and resolve of MOE in providing the necessary resources and building the

structures, as well as establishing the ground support from teachers and school

leaders in realising their vision and goals. Research studies on the third

masterplan indicated that mp3 has largely succeeded in moving schools to use

ICT towards 21st century learning, particularly in the areas of self-directed and

collaborative learning (Tan et al., 2011). The latest data from PISA assessments in

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

2015 demonstrates that the top performers in Singapore are adequately skilled

in and knowledgeable about science to creatively and autonomously apply their

knowledge and skills to a wide variety of situations, including unfamiliar ones.

Following that, it is also important to note that one in four students in Singapore

are able to handle tasks that require the ability to formulate complex situations

mathematically, using symbolic representations.

The culture of sharing amongst educators has been carefully nurtured through the

Masterplans, and this needs to continue so that best practices can be effectively

spread within the system. In a vibrant teaching and learning community, teachers

can learn innovative teaching and learning approaches that work, and interact with

experts and educators from Universities and even other teacher colleagues from

outside the country. Mp4 has envisioned the strategy of “Strengthen Networked

Learning Communities (iNLCs) for Technology in Learning” to sustain professional

learning among the pre- and in-service communities. The plan is also to seed

innovative practices across schools and spread the successes for wider adoption. It is

critical that teachers and school leaders model in their day-to-day activities, the

attributes of a 21st century learner with the use of ICT. Students, on the other hand,

no longer need to turn to their teachers and schools for all the answers to their

learning needs. In the new culture of learning, the divide between formal and

informal learning becomes blurred. Much can be learned from interaction with

peers, everyday activities and the social media. Schools should recognise this and

perhaps alternative assessment methods can be considered to incorporate student

learning in their informal activities.

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

Continuing research needs to be done to better understand the factors that help or

hinder the whole-school implementation of ICT. This will ensure that learning points

and usable pedagogical innovations cascades to the schools and the educational

system as a whole. A longitudinal study of successes and challenges faced over the

course of the four masterplans will aid in assessing where the classrooms and

teachers are today, since the implementation of the first masterplan; and to identify

areas where further strengthening is needed. With mp4 now advancing into its

middle phase, there is great potential for Singapore to share her learnings and

collaborate with the greater international community, so that genuine

transformation of teaching and learning practices using ICT can take firm roots in

various regional education systems.

The work of the first three ICT Masterplans in Singapore between 1997 and 2014

was manifold - to establish the physical ICT infrastructure in the schools, to provide

digital teaching and learning resources for teachers to design ICT-based lessons, and

most importantly, investment in teacher capacity building to equip teachers with the

knowledge and skills of the various ICT tools and pedagogical training for designing

and implementing the ICT lessons. Other nations in the Southeast Asian region that

are reforming their education systems with ICT as part of the reform agenda, have

some valuable lessons to learn from Singapore in this regard.

Subsequently, there was a slow shift towards building the schools’ capacity to

innovate using ICT in teaching and learning by selecting and identifying “Lead ICT”

schools. This approach stimulated a strong culture of ICT use in particular schools

which became anchor points for scaling innovative practices across the rest of the

system. The following are some questions that now arise:

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

1. What could be the ‘next tier’ of ICT Masterplans within the Singapore

education system?

2. What changes in thinking and learning behaviours evolve when students are

increasingly exposed to different inquiry-oriented, problem-solving and self-

directed learning approaches across their school years and subjects?

3. What processes and capacity building are needed to help schools effect

strong, sustainable and impactful technological pedagogical innovations?

4. How can valuable innovations be sustained and scaled that are important and

valuable to our students?

5. Where are students in the journey towards fully being being digital citizens in

the Singapore Smart Nation?

Smart Nation is Singapore’s vision today to be a competitive global city. Itis a

movement with an entire nation focussed on harnessing digital technologies to build

a future-ready Singapore. The ICT Masterplans in schools following the TSLN vision

was one integral element to help citizens achieve their aspirations through good jobs

and opportunities. The last 20 years has seen a revolutionary shift in classrooms

where teaching has become learner centric, and the use of ICT increasingly more

pervasive. In 2018, teachers in Singapore appear much more comfortable with

technology in classrooms, using it for both teaching, administration, as well as their

own learning. The shift requires transforming an entire system. The process has

involved and continues to involve overcoming several barriers at many levels in

order for the change to be sustained. Beginning with a vision, a leadership to

implement the vision, enabling infrastructure, followed by curricular changes.

Further, encouraging teachers to move away from a direct-instruction pedagogy to a

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

technology-integrated inquiry-oriented pedagogy was a huge challenge but now

shown that was not impossible. Influencing a change in teacher beliefs and

perceptions along with building a professional community of practice to support it is

happening, and efforts to sustain it is continuous. Teacher professional development

for technology infused teaching and learning happened in several phases. A

cascading model of teacher capacity building in phases, with the help of skilful

classroom practitioners has proved to be as a highly effective way of scaling the

training.

While Singapore’s educational system has been successful and efficient in producing

skilled workers, the government recognises that for Singapore to continue to thrive

in the knowledge-based global economy, a more sustainable innovations-driven,

ecosystem is critical. Singapore does have her strengths in being able to attract and

develop a talent pool in the STEM (Science, Technology, and Engineering &

Mathematics) disciplines, enabling its workforce to better meet the greater demand

for infocomm-technology professionals and engineers. The Smart Nation initiative

when completed, will have created new opportunities in a digital age, and

transforming the way people live, work and play, so that Singapore remains an

outstanding global city (https://www.smartnation.sg/happenings/press-

releases/strategic-national-projects-to-build-a-smart-nation). Within such an

environment, it is important that workers are able to work collaboratively in teams,

think critically and innovatively, add value to existing knowledge and cultural

artefacts, and be competent in the use of information technology and

telecommunications. This calls for the nurturing of knowledge workers, first within

the formal education system, and later within the continuing education landscape.

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

Such demands have led many developed and developing countries to embark on

reforming their respective education systems (Day & Sachs, 2004).

It is often assumed that high-stakes tests in Singapore inflict pressure on teachers’

pedagogic styles to “teach to the test“, resulting in rote learning. This contrasts with

pedagogical practices, such as inquiry-oriented and self-directed pedagogies, that

aim to strengthen the learners’ 21t century skills. However, examples from various

future school interventions have demonstrated that different types of assessments

at classroom level have helped children to acquire the content knowledge, inquiry

and creativity skills, and 21st century competencies needed for the 2030 workforce

(Norris et al). Other case studies have been reported on how innovative curricular

designs in Science classrooms that incorporate elements that help in bridging formal

and informal student learning spaces using seamless mobile technologies have been

successful (C.K. Looi et al, 2016). The introduction of the recent online platform,

Student Learning Space (SLS) for various primary and secondary schools is another

initiative that empowers students towards self-directed learning.

To conclude, the Singapore education system is one of the best public education

systems in the world today twenty years hence. The “Thinking Schools Learning

Nation (TSLN) initiative and the accompanying ICT Masterplans were system-wide

endeavours that attempted to transform the Singapore education system. The plans

demonstrated the importance of addressing important factors like infrastructure,

resources and capacity building – a holistic ecosystem to support learning with ICT. A

clear vision supported by able leadership that worked hand in hand with an

alignment of purpose was critical to the successful implementation of the initiative.

The foundation laid during the early years provided a great platform for subsequent

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

progressive changes over the next 20 years. It is important to mention that OECD’s

2015 report shows that there has been no appreciable improvement in student

achievement in international assessments in reading, mathematics or science, on

average, in countries that have invested heavily in ICT for education. But the

argument here is that Singapore has successfully implemented ICT in a wide-ranging

scale in schools so that technology can help build an inclusive and accessible society.

The Masterplans have addressed digital and information divides through a sustained

agenda of ICT education in schools, where there are opportunities and avenues for

“ALL” citizens to engage and participate in the digital economy.

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Natarajan, Uma (2018). Twenty Years of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) Vision: Reflections on Singapore’s
ICT Masterplans

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