Did you know that the Singapore Chinese Teachers’ Union (SCTU) has been working hard to improve the way it teaches the Chinese language to better prepare students for the workforce?
Well, one of its recent efforts is the partnership with a university in Macau to co-organise its bi-annual International Forum on Chinese Language Education. In fact, this is the eighth time the union has organised this event. Of the 106 Chinese teachers from Singapore who attended, 80 are SCTU members.
The whole point of the forum was to gather Chinese teachers in the region to discuss thesis and ideas on pedagogies. A total of 74 presentations were made across concurrent talks held over two days.
A Member’s Experience
Academy of Singapore Teachers Master Teacher and SCTU Member Tan Geok Hoon, 54, guided two teams in self-initiated projects. The participants shared their outcomes and experiences at the event.
Mdm Tan, who is also a lecturer at Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, said: “It is a good opportunity for our teachers to learn about trends in language teaching and each other's classroom best practices. Other educators from the region provided useful suggestions on how their lesson designs can be enhanced. The conference is also a good networking place where teachers can build and develop new professional friendships for future sharing or collaboration.”
Beyond Textbooks
Learning, however, went beyond the classroom. Four SCTU members who teach at St. Hilda’s Secondary School identified critical thinking as an essential competency in today’s workforce. In wanting to include that into the curriculum, the teachers conducted school-based experimentations over two years to try out things like different learning resources, activities, and lesson observations.
“Teachers need to cultivate a reflective mind, always thinking of how they can do better in classroom teaching. They need to be audacious to try out new methods to level up the quality of students’ learning,” advised Mdm Tan.
Harnessing Technology
SCTU members are also making efforts to keep up with technology. Li Yang, 34, demonstrated how information technology platforms could be used to stimulate students’ participation and interest in the Chinese Language.
Li Yang, who taught Chinese at Hougang Secondary School, has been using WeChat to engage her students since 2017. WeChat is a popular social messaging mobile application within the Chinese community.
“WeChat encourages students to read Chinese text and apply the language after lessons. Not only does using the mobile application follow the behavioural trend, it also allows learning time and location to be flexible. Students can exchange practical and useful content with their classmates and teachers immediately and effectively,” she explained in Mandarin.
