Coping with Struggling Students in Singapore Essay Example

In Goh’s book (2005), she highlighted four main issues, namely: (1) insufficient teaching materials (2) time constraints (3) pupils’ aptitude and attitude and (4) examination issues. Teachers perceived the syllabus change as a daunting task due to the lack of assistance given to them in the pedagogical dimension (Kramer-Dahl, 2008). At the beginning of the implementation of 1127, teachers were concerned how the weak students could cope with the new requirements (Goh, 2005).

With the implementation of 1128, considerable research is required to understand the issues it brings to teachers and students, particularly struggling learners. Assistance required by struggling readers and writers Struggling learners have difficulties comprehending grade-level text, writing a paragraph and being motivated to learn (Ganske, Monroe, & Strickland, 2003). Lan and Lanthier (2003) reported that there is a higher tendency for them to drop out of school. However, the motivational level of struggling learners can be improved with good classroom practices like using interesting age-appropriate reading materials (Ganske et al. 2003) and teacher’s attitude.

These struggling learners benefit from small group instruction so that teachers can focus on their needs and monitor their progress. High expectations in class is still critical so that they develop academic competency (Michaels, Wilson, & Margolis, 2005). Providing a supportive writing environment with constructive activities is particularly important for struggling writers (Pajares, 2003). These struggling learners require ‘conspicuous strategies’ (Michaels et al. , 2005) in reading and writing through repeated scaffolding and demonstration which will help them attain success.

Not only that, Terrill, Scruggs, and Mastropieri (2004) recommends multiple reinforcements of previously taught skills for better retention. Having encountered multiple failures (Grolnick & Ryan, 1990), struggling learners need motivation for

progress to take place. The learning environment must be a safe and encouraging one so that learners are not afraid to make mistakes (Michaels et al. , 2005). Test preparation must be incorporated in their daily lessons so that they are familiar with the examination expectations (Ganske et al. , 2003) to build their self-confidence (McCabe, 2003). Method

In this study, the researcher sets out to investigate the strategies EL teachers use to cope with the writing and reading components of the new examination format with struggling readers and writers. To understand how teachers cope with the new EL examination format, a qualitative research design was employed. A qualitative research, which is inductive in nature, would give researchers deeper insights on the research question. Focussing on the participants’ perspectives, a qualitative research is interested in understanding how people uncover meaning from their experiences, activities or phenomenon (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).

Only after the 12 items in the “Ethical Issues Checklist” in (Patton, 2015) have been considered did the research commence. The main objective of purposeful sampling is to focus on particular features of a population that are of interest, which will assist researchers to answer the research questions (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Creswell, 2014). Two experienced English teachers who have taught both 1127 and 1128 were interviewed to provide insight on the change in the format on the struggling learners in their class and the strategies that they employed to help them.

Appendix 2 describes the profile of these two teachers while Appendix 3 gives a brief description of the profile of the school. The interview questions (as shown in Appendix 4), consisting of open-ended questions, were carefully

crafted because effective questions can provide deep insight to the study (Agee, 2009). Data was collected through interviews of approximately 25 minutes in length. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Themes were derived after data was analysed using the constant comparative method of analysis. Findings

At the time of writing, the examination is still considered relatively new. Teachers are “still grappling” on how to sufficiently prepare struggling readers and writers for the examination due to the uncertainty on the type of questions that may appear in the examination. Three common strategies were identified. Firstly, teachers are given support at the departmental level to ensure effective teaching. Secondly, the resource bank provides relevant teaching materials. Thirdly, good teaching practices are employed to help struggling readers and writers cope with the examination.

EL department as a support Various strategies are used at the departmental level to help teachers manage the new examination format. The two teachers are teaching small classes consisting of not more than 15 students per class. Small groups are especially effective for struggling learners (Ganske et al. , 2003). Teachers pay more attention to these learners, providing extensive verbal and written feedback on how they can improve their writing. Skills to teach are decided at departmental level. These skills are documented in the Scheme of Work (SOW), which is a working document in this school.

As pointed out by Teacher A, not all the plans in the SOW will be carried out due to disruptions caused by unforeseen events in school. The two teachers are not overly stressed by the need to cover everything stipulated in the SOW. Instead, they focus on the essential skills that they

need to teach the struggling students. To add on, Professional Learning Circles (PLC) are conducted every Tuesday. The purpose is to discuss teaching strategies and to share teaching resources. However, there may not be full attendance because some teachers are straddling between a few levels.

Through these various methods, the department provides assistance to the teachers to help them cope with the struggling readers and writers. Resource Bank As mentioned by Teacher A, the textbook All About English is not relevant to the struggling learners: The content is remote. For weak ones, they find it harder to find the connection. Thus, the responsibility for coming up with relevant teaching materials for the struggling learners falls on the teachers. Teacher B was part of the team who came up with the teaching materials.

She compiled examination papers based on the new format from various schools over the past three years. Hence, the school has a relatively good collection of examination papers which both teachers use in classes often so that students are familiar with the types of questions in 1128 (Ganske et al. , 2003). However, since the examination is relatively new, the setters of these papers are still grappling with the demands of the examination. Hence, the questions may not fully reflect the assessment objectives determined by Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (hereafter SEAB).

To summarise, Teacher A and B rely on the resource bank to teach the various components to these struggling learners because the prescribed textbook is deemed as irrelevant and remote for the learners in XXX Secondary School. Good teaching practices Good teaching practices are essential to help the struggling learners. Aware of the low

motivation level, the two teachers are mindful of the need to help these learners “attain small successes first”. Teacher A mentions: A lot of these leaners lack confidence. They need a stimulating and safe environment.

Set little tasks that they can achieve. Help them see that they can achieve small success. To assist the struggling readers and writers, both teachers demonstrate writing and reading skills repeatedly and explicitly. Struggling readers and writers benefit from such demonstrations. Regular practices with other schools’ examination papers is part of the class routine (Ganske et al. , 2003). To increase the chance of answering the question correctly, students need explicit assistance in processing most of the questions in 1128 which they regard as challenging.

Teacher B reveals that students face problems in answering Paper 1 Section C. Both teachers did not mention how they help them to cope with such questions, except to comment that the students do not “read extensively”. For Paper 2, Teacher B resorts to asking her students to write down the technique to answer different questions types that may appear in Paper 2 in a little notebook so that they can refer to it when in doubt. However the progress is very slow. Teacher B points out that her students are still “answering language type questions in a content way” despite her reminder for the past nine months.

She adds: The style of answering is wrong. They are still not getting it. In summary, these struggling learners who are usually unmotivated require more than good pedagogical practices. They also require teachers who are able to motivate them. Discussion Due to the scope of the research, the researcher is

unable to collect data from the entire recommended population. Therefore, the researcher is mindful of the concerns about the reliability and validity of data elicited from the small sample. As 1128 was first conducted in 2013, there is little prior research in this area.

Accuracy of the data is validated via members’ checking and triangulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers cope with the new GCE O-level examination (1128) with struggling readers and writers. From the interviews, it was discovered that although they use three methods to cope with the new format, they found the new format more challenging for struggling learners as compared to 1127 (Refer to Appendix 5 and 6 for a comparison between Paper 1 and Paper 2 of 1127 and 1128).

These findings are discussed in terms of what the researcher knows about struggling learners (Ganske et al. 2003) and the issues that a change in the English syllabus may bring (Goh, Zhang, Ng, & Koh, 2005). From the teachers’ interview, it is clear that they face several challenges with struggling learners in their daily teaching of the English language. Although motivating these students is not the main focus of this study, their lack of motivation presents real issues in the classroom, which affects their language acquisition. Despite their low proficiency level, these students are still required to sit for the 1128 GCE O-level examination.

Teachers have a great urgency to close the gap so that they are ready for the examination in October. Managing the students’ needs, time constraints and the demands of the school is not an easy task for teachers. They need good support from the department

and school. The direction of the department is essential to ensure that teachers could cope with the new examination format with struggling learners. Small instruction groups, weekly PLCs and SOW are a few identified departmental measures. Another way that helped the two teachers cope with the new format is the pooling of resources.

As the prescribed textbook is inadequate and thus not used, the resource bank consisting of a compilation of internal school examination papers, other schools’ examination papers and teaching materials contributed by the various teachers in the level becomes integral. However, Teacher A believes that the quality of the teaching materials may be compromised if they are prepared by inexperienced teachers. Also, if the relevant resources could come from the ministry, that would save a lot of time so teachers can use the time to engage in lesson planning or productive discussion with students.

Both teachers did not doubt their ability to teach the new syllabus. They believe they possess the necessary experience and knowledge to handle it. However, working with struggling learners demands a lot from the teachers. Paper 1 Section C is a challenge for struggling writers because the essay questions test them on their general knowledge and language proficiency. Therefore, content area learning and language skills are necessary in EL classes today. Motivating struggling learners becomes part of the teaching repertoire.

It is the responsibility of the teachers to ensure a positive learning climate where students are unafraid to make mistakes and learning anxiety is kept to a minimum. Recommendations This study is context-specific. Its application is relevant for other teachers who teach students with weak English foundation. The two teachers identified two

major areas in which they would like to be supported to better cope with the challenges presented by the current examination format. By making relevant and effective teaching materials readily in the market will reduce the amount of time teachers need to spend on resource building.

It is integral that these teaching materials comply with the EL syllabus 2010 to provide proper pedagogical guidance. Both teachers have also requested for more training workshops to set good examination papers based on the assessment objectives of SEAB. Teachers of various experience level from different schools should be included in this research to get a more representative picture. As the implementation of EL syllabus 2010 and GCE O-level (1128) is relatively new, further research in this area is warranted to manage curriculum innovation (Goh, 2005).