Critical thinking is important for higher education yet challenging to teach. Despite much research and conceptual analysis, the practice of teaching remains both difficult and contested. Studies often draw on the experiences of teachers, or research by teachers on student experiences. Here, we argue that student voice in critical thinking…

Based on an integrated theory of formative assessment and self-regulated learning, this study investigated the relationship between students' perceived formative assessment practices of teachers and their motivational beliefs (self-efficacy and incremental beliefs of ability) and self-regulation strategies (metacognitive self-regulation and…

Effects of reward pedagogy (competitive, cooperative, individualistic, cooperative-competitive, and cooperative-individualistic) on spelling scores and prosocial behavior in Singapore students were examined alongside its interplay with ability level. A total of 1005 Primary 3 and 4 students were randomly assigned to one of the five reward…

This paper examines the incorporation of new literacies to an adapted framework by Parsons et al. in "Journal of Computers," 2(4), 1-8, (2007) to design mobile learning applications for "Elements of Business Skills (EBS)" for a group of lower academic ability secondary school learners in Singapore. Accounts of the actual…

Using the self-determination theory (SDT), this study sought to understand motivational profiles and their links to psychological learning attributes. Participants were 90 secondary three (grade 9) students, aged 15 to 16 years old, from an elite all-girls school in Singapore. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three clusters of students with…

Founded on several highly influential quantitative studies, the past decade has witnessed the OECD and World Bank increasingly converge on the view that cognitive levels of students and education quality, as proxied by international large-scale assessments (ILSAs), are the primary determinant of national economic growth worldwide. More recent OECD…

The present study examined the relations between three motivational variables, i.e. academic self-efficacy, task importance, and interest with three types of learning behaviours, i.e. class engagement, metacognitive self-regulation, and avoidance coping with 1954 secondary students in Singapore. Positive correlations were found between the three…

Diversity is a socially constructed idea where differences are assigned values that are in turn shaped by local socio-political exigencies and narratives. Interpretations of diversity in Anglo-Saxon contexts tend to revolve around identity markers, such as race, gender, (dis)abilities and nationalities. Looking beyond Anglo-Saxon contexts, this…

This study investigated the interaction between self-efficacy and implicit beliefs of ability in their association with maladaptive learning in mathematics. The analysis was based on a large sample of 2538 Singapore Secondary 2 students (M[subscript age] = 13.75), who took measures of entity beliefs of ability, self-efficacy, and three maladaptive…

This paper focusses on the process of learning mathematics in primary school from the perspectives of 62 girls aged seven to 11. For many of these Singaporean girls, English is not the dominant home language, but they all learn mathematics in English. Despite the fact that achievement in mathematics is high nationally, girls appear to be less…

We examine recent research across countries and cultures in regard to the issues related to the formation of gifted and talented education perspectives, policies, and practices. Many modern cultures and subcultures have developed formal and informal definitions of what it means to be gifted and talented, and when we compare the perceptions,…

This study utilized multiple data sources to examine the beliefs about learning and teaching physics and the instructional practices of five beginning teachers and seven experienced teachers from Singapore. Our study was implemented in the unique context of teachers teaching the topic of electricity to students grouped according to academic…

Student self-assessment engages the students in purposeful reflection about what they are learning and how they are learning it. This study investigated the perceptions of students and teachers towards the students' self-assessment ability in two Singapore primary schools. A total of 75 students were taught how to use self-assessment. Eighteen…

The study examined the relations between academic achievement and self-concepts in a sample of 1,067 seventh-grade students from 3 core ability streams in Singapore secondary education. Although between-stream differences in achievement were large, between-stream differences in academic self-concepts were negligible. Within each stream, levels of…

This study considers the discursive construction of a particular type of student in Singapore--the lowest-tracked, Normal Technical (NT), secondary school student. Shaped by meritocratic policies, educational practices, and ideologies common to many late-modern societies, students in the NT track are institutionally and individually constructed…