Professional Development Courses

 

PCL AG regularly offers short workshops taught by our faculty who are experts in these fields:

• Developing Professional Learning Communities Through Lesson Study

  ICT 0100 - Introduction to Lesson Study

  Duration: 7 hrs

  This course will introduce lesson study as an ongoing, teacher-led, professional learning process that will develop teachers’ capacities and dispositions as they discuss curriculum and subject matter, pedagogy, assessment, student learning, and other related issues. Participants will explore the various stages of the lesson study cycle from unit and lesson planning (PLAN), research lesson implementation (DO), observation (SEE), post-research lesson discussion and refinements made to the research lesson (IMPROVE) vicariously through the use of video cases. The benefits and challenges in implementing lesson study will also be explored.
  
  
  

  ICT 0102 - Experiencing Lesson Study

  Duration: 7 hrs

  This course provides the opportunity for teachers and school key personnel to experience a real live research lesson (RL) observation and post RL colloquium. Throughout this experience, participants will learn how to observe with a focus on student learning and be exposed to a variety of observation tools. They will discuss their observations in a post RL colloquium, supported by experienced faculty members of NIE and other resource persons as “knowledgeable others”. This course is offered mainly as a school-based workshop but it can also be cluster-based with teachers and key personnel from different schools. As part of the workshop will involve observing a real live RL, the course facilitator will work with a team of teachers in crafting the RL. Arrangements for crafting the RL will be discussed further with the course facilitator.
  
  
  

  ICT 0105 - Equipping Facilitators for Lesson Study

  Duration: 7 hrs

  This course provides the opportunity for teachers and school key personnel who are involved in facilitating and leading lesson study (LS) cycles in their own school, to clarify their conceptions and discuss how to continue with and sustain the LS journey. In this course, LS facilitators will discuss challenges of implementation of LS in their own school, and how to steer the discussion in a lesson study cycle. The depth of discussion in this course will depend on the questions raised from the experience of involvement in previous LC cycles by the participants. As such, this course will only benefit participants who have been involved in LS.

• Developing Curriculum Capabilities of Teachers

  ICT 0208 - Curriculum Decision Making For School Leaders
  
  

  Duration: 12 hrs

  This course serves to develop the capacities of school leaders to lead in school- based curriculum designing. It challenges school leaders to reclaim their professionalism as curriculum and pedagogical leaders of the school. Opportunities will be provided for participants to reflect on their personal theory of curriculum and the impact of their personal theory on curriculum decisions regarding goals, objectives, content, structure, assessment, teaching approaches and the scope and sequence of learning experiences.

   

• Developing The Pedagogical Repertoire of Teachers

  ICT 0407 - Talk in our Classroom

  Duration: 7 hrs

  This course promotes a new culture of teacher and student talk in the classroom that goes beyond the IRE/F (Initiation-Response-Evaluation/Feedback) interaction mode. This workshop promotes dialogic teaching which has the potential to engage learners, stimulate and extend their thinking, and advance their learning and understanding across subjects.This module aims to prepare teachers for handling the C2015 policies of maximising students' learning outcomes, in particular, Self-directed Learning (SDL) and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) competencies. Dialogic talk may also be used as a powerful tool for scaffolding formative assessment events in the classroom and will help participants in their understanding of talk, questioning strategies and formative assessment.

  
  ICT 0415 - Developing Critical and Inventive Thinking Through Design Projects

  Duration: 6 hrs

  This course explores a way of teaching and learning critical thinking skills and inventive thinking skills through a single programme or project. By experiencing the learning process themselves, participants will examine how design projects can be used to develop students’ critical and inventive thinking skills.

   

  ICT 0416 - Design Thinking as a Methodology for Developing 21st Century Skills and Competencies: Introduction for Educators

  Duration: 3 hrs

  In this introductory workshop, participants will learn what design thinking is, with a focus on understanding the core values and sensibilities of the design thinker. They will experience the design thinking processes in a hands-on activity, and then critically explore how design thinking may be used to develop 21st century skills and competencies in schools.
  
  
  

  ICT 0417 - Design Thinking: Tools and Methods
  
  Duration: 14 hrs
  

  This course introduces participants to the concept of design thinking, as well as a basic set of design thinking tools and processes. Participants will immediately put into practice the tools and processes they have learned as they attempt to create innovative solutions to solve a real-world human problem. The course ends with an exploration of possible ways of applying design thinking tools and processes in Singapore schools.

   

  ICT 0419 - Dialogic Argumentation: Development of Thinking and Expository Writing

  Duration: 10 hrs

  This course will introduce participants to the practice of dialogic argumentation. We explore the theory of how social argumentation mirrors individual thinking and is thus a productive path to developing 21st century dispositions and thinking values. The curriculum is a structured approach designed to help students debate broad issues represented by 2 opposing perspectives. Research evidence shows that repeated practice of dialogic argumentation improves students’ expository essay writing, as expository essay writing requires a high level ability to integrate multiple perspectives and evidence. Participants will engage in dialogic argumentation with each other in order to better understand the argumentation process. Time will also be set aside for participants to discuss issues of implementation in the classroom.

• Enhancing The Professionalism of Teachers

  ICT 0500 - Teaching Inquiry through Reflective Practice

  Duration: 7 hrs

  Reflective Practice serves to provide teachers with the capacity to look into the work they do every day so as to shape meaningful practice from the various events and situations that they confront in the daily grind of their practice. In this course, we introduce teachers to the theories and practice of reflection, and ways to make reflection a meaningful habit to support their work.

   

  ICT0509 - Enabling Data-Driven Conversations: A Foundation Course in Statistical Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics 

  Duration:  8 hrs

  ICT 0509 is an introductory level course on general research methods commonly used in the school settings and hands-on practice using SPSS statistics conducted in the computer lab at NIE.  The aim of the course is to provide participants with the skills to confidently identify a research problem, design a research study, obtain exposures to various research methods (both qualitative and quantitative methods), and conduct a basic repertoire of statistical data analyses using foundational level of SPSS statistical tests.  Participants will have opportunity to discuss their research interest (if any), develop research questions and methodology, and gain basic experiences in analyzing interview data and applying simple statistics for data analysis for quantitative research data




For enquiries, please contact: Ms Chee Mee Chin | meechin.chee@nie.edu.sg | 6790 3239