Singapore Student: Sample of One

Six months ago, almost to the day, the PISA 2015 results were released. The assessment taken by 15-year old students around the world covers three areas: Science, Math and Reading. Singapore topped all three categories. I’ve been perusing the results slowly over the last several months because there was a special in-depth study on science education around the world, including the use of inquiry-based pedagogies. The next round of PISA assessments is 2018. I have a niece studying in Singapore at a public secondary school who will be 15 next year, so she might be part of the next PISA cohort.

One of my sisters was visiting Singapore last week and kindly agreed to facilitate an interview, so that readers could get a glimpse into one student’s experience in the Singapore system. My 14-year old niece is in Secondary 2 in an International Baccalaureate program. I generated the list of questions. My sister conducted the interview and transcribed the responses, and I made some minor edits. I did a subsequent accuracy check was done with my niece via e-mail and asked one follow-up question. Below is the transcript. Editorial remarks are in italics.

What does a typical school-day look like for you?

I get up around 6:30 am, and I leave the house about 7-ish. School normally starts at 7:30am, with assembly. After that we have lessons for 1-1.5 hours (each period). There are many subjects altogether, 13 or more. We take Language Arts. This term we have Chemistry and STEM, but next term we have Physics and Bio. We also take Chinese and Math. We also have history. School ends at 2:30pm. There are two breaks in between – one recess break for about half an hour, and one half-hour lunch break).

Not all class periods are examinable subjects (i.e., there are no final graded national or international exams). Others include Philosophy, Thinking and Knowledge (inquiry, debate), Global Studies - current affairs (the teacher talks about Trump and all that stuff), Independent Studies - you can apply for different courses (i.e., electives), which take you throughout the year. For example, I'm taking Future Problem Solving with a Scenario Writing competition - we write stories based on a futuristic topic. My story is on 3-D printing of humans in the future. Other non-examinable subjects are Art, Music, and Home Economics.

What do you like best about school?

Probably the friends I make in school. Friends make school life more enjoyable, because you're slaving away, but people are slaving along with you. We can talk about books and it helps to lighten up the school atmosphere. It's probably the enjoyable people in class.

The schoolteachers are also really funny. Our history teacher, during the lesson, entertains us with Power Points with animations and music. He said, "If at any time you want to start a haunted house, I have the music". Or when we were learning about the War, he had one with Hitler and a gun coming up. He entertains us with jokes, e.g. claiming to be German and having a Japanese wife (i.e, presumably illustrating the relationship between the Axis powers). Once someone photoshopped his face on a t-shirt and gave it to him. He's that sort of teacher. He got nominated for a Dunking booth.

What is one thing you don’t like about school?

Probably the heavy workload. But even then it can be kind of mitigated, because you still have fun, and at the end of the year, you see how much you learned and you feel a sense of accomplishment. Better than having a light workload (and not learning much).

The day before the geography exam, I stayed in my room 5 hours straight, from 3 pm till 8 pm. Then I had a break for dinner. I didn't have time to drink water so I drank water in the shower (laughter). It's fine 'cause you put in all that effort and feel so accomplished. You come up with a good score.

Which is your favourite class and why?

Normally my favourite class depends on the teacher who is teaching it. This year it's history because it's fun and entertaining, although the teacher does get some of his facts wrong. The other subjects, the teachers more or less drone on. Home Economics was also fun because I enjoy cooking. For the exam, you had 1 hour and you could cook three dishes. That's good because you don't have to stick to this rigid, instruction-based thing.

This year, you’re taking Chemistry. How would you describe what the study of chemistry is about?

We learned about the fundamental basics of chemistry before we moved on to harder chemistry. We learned about atomic structure and protons, electrons and the atomic number of elements in the periodic table, acids and alkalis, about physical and chemical changes, how to identify certain substances based on their colour, etc. For example, MgO is a white solid. We did a lot of experiments with acids and bases, for example, sulfuric acid is a common acid found in the lab and potassium hydroxide is a common alkali found in the lab. We learned about the various pH levels of certain substances.

But I think the most interesting thing is  - we have chemistry coursework - a major project, 8% of our grade. This year's was making our own toothpaste, evaluated based on effectiveness. We searched for ingredients to remove plaque acid. We used coconut oil, cacao nibs, and a bunch of weird ingredients that you wouldn't normally find in toothpaste, as well as normal ingredients. But it looked terrible because it was black. We put in charcoal - it looked like mud. But it smelled good and we ate it and it tasted good!

We tested with factors such as abrasiveness, pH level, whether the toothpaste would be dissolved in vinegar. We coated an egg half with our toothpaste, and half with Colgate, and brushed it off to see if the red of the egg would come off. We had painted it red.

What is one concept you found difficult in chemistry class? What helped you to finally learn it?

I was doing well in chemistry until the exam. I kind of understood all the concepts, but it needed time. You needed to practice, with assessment books, etc. The terms proton, electron, atomic number, mass number - it took a while to differentiate all the terms. I worked at it by bringing all my Chem stuff on vacation and revising it with my dad.

Sometimes I find it hard to apply [chemistry concepts], because you do it with rote learning, so during the exams when they come up with application questions I don't know how to answer.

Do you enjoy chemistry lab? Why or why not?

Hmm... it depends what we're going to do in the lab. It is rather interesting to see how acids and bases react with each other. For example, the other day we mixed alkalis with some sort of solution and there was a residue formed, that spiraled down. That was quite cool. The only thing I would like the lab to have is air-con[ditioning]. Everything else is fine.

What advice would you give someone who is studying chemistry for the first time?

I would tell them to have fun because that's the only way they're going to learn anything. People struggle to understand concepts if they think of it as work. But if you had fun doing the experiment, you will remember it during your later work. I quite enjoyed chemistry.

Anything else you would like to add?

Chemistry is the subject with the potential to make the most puns. My friends and I always make puns using the names of elements in chemistry. For example, I made up this pun for the prefectorial board (although I'm not in it, but I was thinking about it at the time) - lead is Plumbum, which is Pb. The prefectorial board is also referred to as PB. So I came up with "PB leads. Please join us in our equation. We would like to have chemistry with you. Please provide a reaction."

After receiving a transcript of the interview from my sister, I sent a follow-up question to my niece via e-mail to ask what her STEM class was about. Here’s her response.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We learnt STEM for two semesters (4 months) over the course of 2 years. Last year, we learnt about water filtration techniques, and built our very own water filter out of organic items we could find  - E,g, Moringa seeds, activated charcoal, etc. - And conducted experiments to test how effective our filter was at filtering muddy water (which we obtained from a pond). This year, we made dishes based on Molecular Gastronomy, which is Science with food. The school took us to the Singapore Science Centre, and we made two dishes - chocolate spaghetti and chrysanthemum tea caviar - in the lab. We then returned another day to create a spaghetti and caviar dish of our own choice. Furthermore, there was another lesson where we made slime, and yet another where we experimented with Smart materials, which are materials that react to their surroundings. We experimented, inter alia, with nithol wire, hydrophobic sand and thinking putty. I also remembered the time when we made our own pGLO bacteria! STEM is definitely a subject which exposes you to new things you have never learnt before.

So there you have it. The life of a Singapore Student: Sample size of one.

(Island-Flag image from Wikipedia Commons)