Chapter 24
Singapore: The Information Technology Masterplan and the Expansion of GIS for Geography Education Yan Liu, Geok Chin Ivy Tan, and Xi Xiang
24.1 Education in the Twenty-First Century in Singapore Before the turn of the century, education in Singapore primarily focused on “quantity,” with the target of providing education for the masses and reducing attrition rates in schools. At the turn of the new century, for Singapore to redefine herself to be competitive regionally and globally, education has been identified as one of the keys to the success of the new economic strategy (Goh, 2001). Hence, there is a need to transform education and learning from focusing on “quantity” to providing “quality” education. In 1996, the Ministry of Education in Singapore commissioned an External Review Team to examine the prevailing school curriculum and make recommendations for educational reform (Ministry of Education, 1998). The report highlighted the urgent need to deal with the over-crowded curriculum. Such an overcrowded curriculum could not provide the time and space to generate a positive learning culture. There was also a heavy emphasis on drilling students to get the right answers for the examinations. Students spent a lot of time in completing workbooks and very little time on creative learning. One of the review team’s recommendations was to provide all students with the experience of self-directed learning which can take the form of project work or open-ended assignments. There was also a need to reduce the didactic, whole-class, teacher talk and teaching so as to provide more time for learner-centered activities that involved more interaction between the students and the teacher and with other students in cooperative efforts. In response, in 1997, the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, spoke about Singapore’s vision of meeting future challenges as encapsulated in the concept of “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation” (Goh, 1997). Following this vision, new initiatives emphasizing Thinking Skills, Information Technology, Project Work, National Education, Teach Less Learn More, and Innovation and Enterprise have been introduced into schools (Ng, 2008, Tan, 2002). Y. Liu (B) University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia e-mail:
[email protected] A.J. Milson et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2120-3_24, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
215
216
Y. Liu et al.
The Information Technology Masterplan (IT Masterplan) was launched to integrate the use of Information Technology (IT) in the classrooms (Ministry of Education, 1997). Within five years (1997–2002), it was expected to achieve a teacher–notebook ratio of 2:1, a pupil–computer ratio of 2:1, and that IT be used up to 30% of curriculum time (Deng & Gopinathan, 2005). Schools were upgraded with facilities like computer laboratories, media resource libraries, and IT learning resource rooms. In 2002, IT Masterplan II was launched with the key focus on redesigning the curriculum and creating a more student-centered learning environment. Schools were given more autonomy in using funds for IT in the classrooms. The importance of and need for professional development of teachers to help them integrate the use of IT were also recognized in the IT Masterplan II. A more customized approach was adopted to develop teacher competency in using IT for teaching and learning. These approaches included getting teachers to partner with one another in co-planning and co-teaching lessons, guiding teachers in lesson design and classroom delivery, and introducing a platform for replicating the best practices in professional development. Numerous other workshops on using IT to support teaching and learning were organized for teachers and principals (Deng & Gopinathan, 2005).
24.2 History of GIS Use in Secondary Schools 24.2.1 EduGIS In 1998, in response to the IT Masterplan, the Humanities and Social Studies Education (HSSE) Academic Group of the National Institute of Education (NIE), in collaboration with the Educational Technology Division (ETD) of the Ministry of Education, conducted training workshops on IT tools for the teaching and learning of geography. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was first introduced to Singapore secondary schools and junior colleges as a teaching and learning tool for geography through those workshops. The collaborative effort between NIE and ETD resulted in the production of a GIS-based resource package called EduGIS, which essentially contained readyto-use GIS datasets and GIS-based geography lesson plans and activity worksheets stored on CD format. This GIS learning package was developed based on the use of the commercial GIS software, Esri’s ArcView GIS and its free Web-based version ArcExplorer. Joint workshops by NIE and ETD were conducted initially to train teachers on the use of ArcView or ArcExplorer to encourage the use of GIS. After 2001, GIS training was mainly provided by ETD instructors for secondary school and junior college teachers on the use of EduGIS package and other GIS tools for project work. Some schools had also invited GIS software vendors to give talks and conduct GIS sharing sessions at individual schools or in school clusters. In 2002, the Ministry offered every school a subsidy of S$2000 for the purchase of GIS software.
24
Singapore: The Information Technology Masterplan and the Expansion . . .
217
24.2.2 Early Adoption of GIS in Schools In December 2002, a group of researchers from NIE conducted a study to determine the status of GIS availability and use in schools (Yap, Tan, Zhu, & Wettasinghe, 2008). Two questionnaire surveys and three focus group discussions were used to gather data for the study. The first questionnaire was completed by the Heads of Department (HOD) to assess the availability of GIS software and GIS teaching packages in schools. The second questionnaire was completed by the geography teachers. Some teachers were invited to take part in the focus group discussion. In the assessment from the first set of questionnaires, more than half (56.2%) of the 89 HODs stated that they did not have any GIS software in the school. A similar proportion of schools (58.4%) did not have any GIS-based resource package. Of those with GIS-based resources, only 3% of the HODs claimed that the schools designed their own GIS resources; the remainder were very dependent on the EduGIS resource package prepared by NIE and ETD. From the schools with GIS software, 33.7% had installed ArcExplorer and 25.8% had purchased ArcView GIS software. Those installing both ArcExplorer and ArcView software were 16.9%. Lack of funds was cited as one of the reasons for not acquiring any GIS software although the Ministry of Education had offered a subsidy of S$2000 to every school for the purchase of GIS software. A total of 323 geography teachers responded to the second set of questionnaires. Less than half of the respondents had GIS training and most of the training occurred within the last five years of the IT Masterplan. Even with GIS training, only 38 of them (11.8%) had ever conducted GIS-based lessons using EduGIS. The three most important factors that discouraged the teachers from using GIS included insufficient curriculum time, need for extra preparation time, and the lack of suitable instructional packages. The teachers were concerned about the time-consuming nature of GIS-based lesson preparation and implementation. Many of them also felt constrained by the lack of suitable GIS resources. Some felt that the GIS software and resource packages available to them were also difficult to use. Other discouraging factors that surfaced at the focus group discussions included hardware problems, lack of GIS training, and incompetence in use of GIS software. Overall, the integration of GIS in the teaching and learning of geography subjects had been slow in the first decade since it was first introduced into Singapore secondary schools, despite the financial and training support given to schools and teachers by the Ministry of Education.
24.2.3 Spatial Challenge Competition Most recently, there has been an increasing interest in teachers who wish to expose their students to new methods and skills, including GIS technologies. This increased interest in GIS use in schools can be attributed to a number of factors, including the increased number of trainee teachers who received GIS training from NIE and research on the effectiveness of GIS use in schools (Liu, Bui, Chang, & Lossman,
218
Y. Liu et al.
2010; Liu & Laxman, 2009). In addition, community-based GIS programs such as the SLA Spatial Challenge competitions also play an important role in promoting GIS in schools. The SLA Spatial Challenge is an initiative of the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) with support from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and other industry partners such as Esri South Asia with the aim of exposing students to GIS technologies and engaging students to seek, process, and apply knowledge infused in their curriculum on real life issues through the use of GIS. First launched in 2008, the Spatial Challenge competitions have received overwhelming responses from the schools. A total of 27 schools and more than 200 students participated in the competitions in 2008 and 2009. All students and some of their teachers received two days of training on GIS use provided by Esri South Asia. SLA and its organizing partners also provide GIS data and attend to technical queries from students throughout the entire duration of the competition. Such community-based initiatives have resulted in popularity of GIS use by teachers and students. However, despite the various efforts in exposing GIS technologies to students in Singapore, GIS is still not incorporated into the secondary school curricula and taught as explicitly in Singapore. Only in the geography curriculum is GIS able to be relevantly used in some schools. In Singapore schools, GIS is not used in other subject areas such as mathematics and sciences.
24.3 Case Study: Raffles Institution Raffles Institution (RI) is a prestigious school in Singapore with a long tradition of excellence and scholarship. It offers a unique six-year integrated program called the Raffles Program for exceptionally talented students, culminating in the SingaporeCambridge GCE “A” Levels Examinations. The rigorous yet stimulating Raffles Program prepares students for the demands of a fast-changing world where they are expected to be responsible risk-takers when leading and serving the community and nation. Therefore, it allows more space in the curriculum for teachers to introduce advanced content and higher order process-and-product work and overarching themes and concepts for students to hone valuable skills they need to surge far ahead in life. One of its unique programs is for their students to learn about and with GIS technology, where their teachers had engaged faculty from NIE to offer customized training courses for both the teachers and students. More recently, researchers from the Education and Outreach Office of the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) teamed up with NIE to develop a curriculum module on volcano science and volcanic hazards for secondary school students, with the aim to spark students’ interest in earth science and to stretch students’ minds to think like geologists in four dimensions across timeframes and detectives piecing incomplete data together (Earth Observatory of Singapore, 2010). GIS was introduced in the module to teach students the basic concepts of data collection and processing, analysis, interpretation, and prediction. The volcano education module was piloted at Raffles Institution in October 2009. The geography teacher, Mrs Yak Siew Yang,
24
Singapore: The Information Technology Masterplan and the Expansion . . .
219
volunteered to coordinate with the module development team in implementing the module with her students from Secondary 2 and Secondary 3 Grades.
24.3.1 Participants Twenty-three students from Secondary 2 and five from Secondary 3 volunteered as early adopters to pioneer the volcano education module. These students were at above-average level and already studied earthquake and volcano units prior to signing up for the module.
24.3.2 Learning Design The activities were focused on the use of GIS technology using Esri’s ArcGIS 9 software program to investigate volcano distribution and analyze the extent of impacts that volcano hazards may pose to human societies using authentic data from various sources. In addition to learning and reinforcing the content knowledge on volcano and volcano hazards, students also learned ArcGIS as a mapping tool to develop their spatial thinking and analytical skills. An outline of the learning activities is listed in Table 24.1.
24.3.3 Students’ Learning Experiences The learning experiences of participants in the volcano module using GIS were evaluated through a Likert-scale based questionnaire survey and analyzed statistically. Questions in the survey cover both the perceived usefulness of GIS as well as the perceived ease-of-use of the ArcGIS software program. The perceived usefulness of GIS is reflected through three sub-categories, including the subject knowledge of geography, geographic skills, and motivation, attitude, and self-efficacy. The score students can give to each question ranges from 1 to 5, with 1 being not helpful at all or strongly disagree and 5 being very helpful or strongly agree. Students who participated in the module highlighted many of the instructional strengths of GIS that enabled them to become more competent spatial thinkers and problem solvers as well as self-directed learners. They also pointed out some of the challenges and difficulties they encountered in their interactions within the GIS environment, which educators need to bear in mind in the development and enactment of GIS enabled pedagogy. Table 24.2 provides a summary of the results from the survey. Most of the students reported that GIS is a useful and promising technology that offered educational potential in enhancing their learning process. Students viewed GIS as an effective technology that could be leveraged by educators in improving and innovating students’ learning of core competency-based geographic knowledge and skills. As one student wrote in his reflection report,
220
Y. Liu et al.
I felt that this course was really interesting, allowing us to pin-point the places of all the volcanoes around the world as well as able to zoom into a specific region to analyze it. What struck me most is the ability of the program to calculate the number of people that will be affected by the volcano if it erupts, giving the eruptions expected pattern of outflow. This will really help scientists and politicians to decide the area of evacuation in cases of emergencies.
The majority of students reported that using GIS to investigate a range of relevant volcano topics was helpful. Since the computerized GIS system has enormous digital information capacity that allows users to rapidly access, analyze, and process vast amounts of spatially referenced data, students could analytically explore a myriad of issues and engage in decision-making. This was especially evident in their last activity using GIS to analyze the impact of the volcano hazard at the Mt Merapi area in Indonesia.
Table 24.1 Volcano learning activities using GIS Time First session (9:30–11:30)
Outline of GIS activities 5 min 35 min
45 min
35 min
Break (15 min) Second session (11:45–12:45)
50 min
10 min
Introduce the module on GIS activities and specify the learning objectives of the module Create a world hazard map • Explore volcano data collected from Smithsonian Institute website (www.volcano.si.edu) using Microsoft Excel; • Get familiar with ArcGIS software program; • Map the volcano data using ArcGIS; • Explore the data through various attribute querying activities Extract volcano data to produce a volcano distribution map in South East Asia • Learn to query volcano data based on geographical locations; • Extract data from large database to generate dataset for SE Asia; • Generate map layout; • Answer questions Explore Volcanic explosivity index (VEI) using GIS • Understand the concept of VEI and the relationship between VEI and volcano eruption scale; • Learn the produce interactive graph/chart to analyze the VEI data using ArcGIS; • Answer questions Map and analyze volcanic hazard using Mt Merapi as a case study • Produce a hazard map at Mt Merapi using data provided; • Produce population and population density maps; • Analyze the data to identify how many people in each of the hazard zones were affected by the volcano eruption; and • Learn to produce charts/graphs to support data analysis and presentation Wrap up the course
24
Singapore: The Information Technology Masterplan and the Expansion . . .
221
Table 24.2 Students’ perceived learning experience using GIS Items
Mean
SD
Geographic knowledge – GIS helped me to • Analyze data patterns, linkages, and trends • Examine spatial organization of different places • Investigate different topics of concern • Establish interdisciplinary learning (geography, math, history, etc.)
4.44 4.37 3.89 3.67
0.70 0.74 0.64 0.83
Geographic skill – GIS helped me to • Enhance my ability to ask my own questions and seek answers • Use maps to process and analyze geographic information • Explore issues from different angles of analysis • Learn to interpret and examine data better • Make decisions using the most recent information • Learn to facilitate and collaborate with my fellow students
3.70 4.59 4.07 4.44 4.00 3.96
0.83 0.57 0.73 0.64 0.73 0.71
Motivation, attitude, and self-efficacy • GIS helped me to engage in problem solving • GIS has boosted my motivation for learning geography • Using GIS is an effective method to improving learning • GIS helped me to develop scientific inquiry skill • GIS helped me to be a better learner
4.11 4.19 4.15 3.85 4.15
0.75 0.79 0.82 0.82 0.82
Perceived ease-of-use of GIS • I feel comfortable using GIS • I prefer using GIS in my learning as compared to other methods • I find it easy to use ArcGIS software program
3.93 4.07 1.69
0.83 0.87 0.42
Overall, the pedagogical productivity and promise of a GIS instructional orientation to curricular improvement has been evidently well-established in this survey. Students were satisfied with the scaffolding role of GIS as a tool for mapping and spatial analysis and felt motivated in wanting to use it to deepen their applied understanding of theoretical concepts. Students expressed a favorable stance toward embedding GIS in curricular practices to foster a paradigmatic shift from didactic geography classrooms to student-centered active learning ecologies. However, although students were generally comfortable with the GIS program and associated tools, they reported a very low score of 1.69 on the perceived ease-of-use of ArcGIS. The major difficulty faced by students was to familiarize themselves with the ArcGIS software interface, which is catered to the needs of the professional rather than educational community. As one student commented, “the technical aspect of operating the program was quite difficult and frankly I got quite lost at times. But luckily, the friendly staff came over to help me.” Appropriately addressing or mitigating these challenges during the planning and execution phases of a GIS educational module may ensure successful advocacy and implementation of GIS technology as a rigorous curricular model.
222
Y. Liu et al.
24.4 Opportunities and Challenges The implementation of the IT Masterplan II offers various opportunities for teachers and students to engage IT, including GIS technology in their teaching and learning practice in Singapore’s schools. School-based interventions using GIS technologies also demonstrate the pedagogical benefits of GIS use in developing higher order learning skills (Liu et al., 2010; Liu & Laxman, 2009). Currently the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Planning and Development Division is planning to develop a nationwide framework to introduce GIS into the geography curriculum from lower secondary and upper secondary schools to junior colleges. The integration of GIS into the school curriculum will not only motivate students in learning geography but also empower them to become spatial thinkers and problem solvers. However, many factors exist that discourage the use of GIS in schools. Some of the barriers identified by Kerski (2000) are also shared by Singapore teachers. These include: lack of time for developing GIS lessons in addition to the standard curriculum; little support for training; lack of training geared toward educators; and the perceived complexity of GIS software. The following section identifies some significant challenges that need to be addressed by educators and educational management for effective enforcement of GIS use in schools.
24.4.1 Increasing Teachers’ Competency of GIS Knowledge and Skills One of the biggest challenges of implementing GIS in schools is the initial time investment that teachers require in learning GIS software before they feel comfortable introducing it into their classroom for students to use. Learning a full GIS software program such as ArcGIS can be overwhelming to any novice user because of its vast range of functionalities. For teachers, more time is required learning the software and then developing GIS lessons to enhance a curriculum topic (Baker, 2005; Bower, 2005; Kerski, 2000; O’Dea, 2002). There is also the need to train and provide ongoing professional development for teachers in the proficient usage of GIS with educational intent. This support can take two different forms: (1) internal support in establishing collaborative networks or communities of practice within individual schools or school clusters to tap the expertise of experienced GIS teachers; and (2) external support comes from training vendors or agencies in disseminating information on technical development of the GIS software or in raising GIS-oriented pedagogical proficiencies.
24.4.2 Developing GIS-Based Curriculum Resources and Datasets for Easy Adoption by Teachers The effective use of GIS in schools requires support of curriculum-specific instructional materials as well as relevant data and other resources for easy adoption by
24
Singapore: The Information Technology Masterplan and the Expansion . . .
223
teachers. This can be achieved through the joint effort of teachers, GIS experts, as well as curriculum specialists. Teachers who received formal GIS training or who have gained experience from implementing GIS in their schools can be identified as leaders in this initiative to develop GIS-related instructional materials that are well-integrated within existing curriculum. In addition, although many geographical datasets are available for free public access, there is still a general lack of purposely-built geographical data available for educational use, especially at regional and local scales. This suggests the need for a centrally placed geographical data repository in Singapore for teachers and students to share and use in their classes.
24.4.3 Developing GIS Software Program for Educational Use Another big challenge to the successful implementation of GIS in schools is the availability of appropriate GIS software program for educational use (Liu & Laxman, 2009; Liu & Zhu, 2008). ArcGIS is industry oriented and has widespread usage in many different fields. However, the use of standard ArcGIS program as an instructional tool in schools does come with its costs, that is, the sophisticated interface of the program is not user-friendly for beginners, and many ArcGIS functionalities are not applicable or relevant within the secondary school geography learning context. This suggests the need for a GIS software program purposefully built for educational use.
References Baker, T. R. (2005). Internet-based GIS mapping in support of K-12 education. The Professional Geographers, 57(1), 44–50. Bower, P. A. (2005). Using an Internet map server and coastal remote sensing for education. Unpublished master thesis, Oregon State University. Deng, Z. Y., & Gopinathan, S. (2005). The information technology masterplan. In J. Tan, & P. T. Ng (Eds.), Shaping Singapore’s future: Thinking schools, learning nation (pp. 22–40). Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall. Earth Observatory of Singapore. (2010). Volcano science moves into the classroom. Accessed August 14, 2010, http://www.earthobservatory.sg/media/news-and-features/50volcano-science-moves-into-the-classroom.html Goh, C. T. (1997). Shaping our future: ‘Thinking Schools’ and a ‘Learning Nation’. Speeches (Singapore), 21(3), 12–20. Goh, C. T. (2001). Shaping lives, moulding nation. Speeches (Singapore), 25(4), 11–24. Kerski, J. J. (2000). The implementation and effectiveness of Geographic Information Systems Technology and methods in secondary education. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder. Liu, S. X., & Zhu, X. (2008). Designing a structured and interactive learning environment based on GIS for secondary geography education. Journal of Geography, 107(1), 12–19. Liu, Y., Bui, E. N., Chang, C.-H., & Lossman, H. (2010). PBL-GIS in secondary geography education: Does it result in higher-order learning outcomes? Journal of Geography, 109(4), 150–158.
224
Y. Liu et al.
Liu, Y., & Laxman, K. (2009). GIS-enabled PBL pedagogy: The effects on students’ learning in the classroom. I-manager’s Journal on School Educational Technology, 5(2), 15–27. Ministry of Education. (1997). Masterplan for information technology in education: A summary. Singapore: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education. (1998). Curriculum review report. Singapore: Ministry of Education. Ng, P. T. (2008). Teach less, learn more: Seeking curricular and pedagogical innovation. In J. Tan & P. T. Ng (Eds.), Thinking schools, learning nation: Contemporary issues and challenges (pp. 61–71). Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall. O’Dea, E. K. (2002). Integrating geographic information systems and community mapping into secondary science education: A Web GIS approach. Unpublished master’s thesis, Oregon State University, Oregon. Tan, J. (2002). Education in the early 21st century: Challenges and dilemmas. In D. da Cunha (Ed.), Singapore in the New Millennium (pp. 154–186). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Yap, L. Y., Tan, G. C. I., Zhu, X., & Wettasinghe, M. C. (2008). An assessment of the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in teaching geography in Singapore schools. Journal of Geography, 107(2), 52–60.
