Lessons from Abroad: Singapore’s secrets to training world-class teachers
Singapore has been a hot topic in education circles ever since it began to appear near the top of the pack of international assessments in math and science in the mid-90s. The country has been held up as an example of a place where education is being done right: Singapore’s standards were higher and better than ours. Its commitment to education stronger. Its teacher training more rigorous.
This month, I visited the tiny nation to see firsthand just what it’s doing and whether lessons from Singapore are really something the U.S. can replicate. During a week touring schools and talking to students and educators, I had a chance to spend several hours at the National Institute of Education (NIE), the school responsible for training all the country’s teachers. It’s a selective school regarded highly by many in the international education community. But I learned a few things that surprised me:
- The school averages 16,000 applicants for 2,000 slots annually, without bothering to do any outreach to high school students.
Teaching is a sought-after profession in Singapore, so the NIE doesn’t need to send brochures to top students or advertise in schools. It is guaranteed an abundance of good candidates because becoming a teacher is highly prestigious. Admissions staff only look seriously at those in the top third of their class, though, and a competitive interview process weeds out those who might just be interested in the salary the Ministry of Education pays students during their training to become a teacher.
Jennifer Stollman, academic director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in Oxford, is spending hours planning ways to share lessons about Freedom Summer, the 1964 civil rights campaign to register blacks to vote in a climate rife with violent resistance. The William Winter Institute is a non-profit based at the University of Mississippi that works with communities in Mississ