Building leadership capacity in Singapore's early childhood sector is crucial due to national initiatives aimed at improving care and education standards.
Written by Emeritus Prof Marjory Ebbeck, Dr Minushree Sharma, and Dr Sheela Warrier, this is a report presented at PECERA 2022 that investigated the outcomes of a relationships-based curriculum introduced in 20 childcare centres in Singapore. The results indicate that the curriculum had benefited children’s well-being over the three years of the study’s duration.
Written by Emeritus Prof Marjory Ebbeck, Dr Hoi Yin Bonnie Yim, Dr Siew Yin Ho, and Dr Minushree Sharma, this paper reports on a research study in Singapore that investigated parents’ satisfaction and understanding of the primary caregiving system, an approach where one main caregiver is assigned to three or four infants within an early childhood educational setting to foster secure attachment and growth.
Written by Assistant Professor Aw Guat Poh, Dr Connie Lum, Peng Xuan-hui, Chen Yuan and Tong Qi-ying, this paper describes and examines parents’ attitude, perceptions and behaviours towards bilingual education in Singapore. Through the findings, this paper offers insights on the impacts of the “English knowing bilingualism” policies on parents’ linguistic choices and behaviours. It also highlights common misconceptions on bilingual learning, where further research was suggested to explore and investigate these findings deeper.
Written by Emeritus Prof Marjory Ebbeck, Associate Professor Bonnie Yim, Yvonne Chan and Mandy Goh, this paper reported Singaporean parents’ and caregivers’ views on their young children’s access and use of technological devices. Along with the emerging use touchscreen devices, views on the benefits and risks of touchscreen devices were specifically sought and reported as well. Results show that a relatively sizeable number of children were exposed to and used technological devices in their daily lives. This paper also highlights key implications and considerations for parents and educators to inform them of ways to better guide their young children in navigating the pervasive digital space.
Written by Cheryl Ching, Caymania Lay, Hia Soo Boon, Dr Thang Leng Leng and Thian Ai Ling (NFC General Manager of My First Skool and afterschool), this paper describes and explores an intergenerational (IG) collaboration programme jointly developed and piloted by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Health’s Silver Circle Senior Care Centre (SCC) and a co-located childcare (My First Skool) in Singapore. The IG programme was designed to meaningfully engage seniors and children through mutual participation in activities and ongoing interactions. This paper provides details on the development, interventions and lessons learned from a senior care perspective as well as discusses the benefits such IG programmes have on the functional abilities and wellbeing of seniors.
Written by Dr Connie Lum et al., this paper describes and analyses Singaporean children’s English and Chinese bilingual learning environment through a survey administered to their parents. It reported that parents with higher English proficiency levels tend to be more willing to communicate in Chinese to their children. Yet, results also showed that parent’s English proficiency levels are negatively correlated with the frequency of the children’s use of Chinese language. Through the findings, this paper presents possible explanations for the results obtained and suggests that Chinese parents have the capacity to create a conducive bilingual learning environment in their families.
