Asia Pacific Education Review Copyright 2003 by Education Research Institute 2003, Vol. 4, No. 2, 161-169 An Exploratory Study on Singaporean Secondary School Students’ Perceptions of Choral Learning Ai-Girl TAN Flora YEE Woei-Chee Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University Singapore Singapore This paper explores 122 secondary school students’ perceptions of the choral learning environment. A survey questionnaire was developed taking into consideration the responses of a pilot study in which students were requested to list what they liked and disliked about the choir. The participants rated their degree of agreement on a five-point scale on psychosocial and other perspectives of choral learning. Three research questions were posed: (1) What are Singaporean secondary school students’ perceptions of choral learning? (2) Are there any gender differences in their perceptions of choral learning? (3) Are there any across school differences in their perceptions of choral learning? The findings of the study were discussed from the perspective of Singapore’s education and learning environment research. Keywords: Choir, learning, Singapore, secondary school students, holistic education. 1Singapore’s education and holistic development Among the highlights was the need to foster creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving competence. The National Since 1997, Singapore’s educational system has Education (NE) program (Lee, 1997) focused on implanting introduced gradually new initiatives aimed to develop every the sense of belongingness among the young. The Information child holistically. The aspiration to educate every child Technology (IT) Master plan (Teo, 1997) implemented holistically was spelt out implicitly through three national programs to up-grade the IT facilities of educational institutions initiatives, and became more explicit in a learning outcome as well as the IT competence of teachers and students. document and its subsequent call for developing every child’s The essence of these three initiatives was then integrated potential. The three initiatives were released between April into a document, the Desired Outcomes of Education (DOE) and June, 1997. (MOE, 1998). The DOE spelt out ideal educational outcomes The Thinking Schools and a Learning Nation (TSLN, in terms of competencies of students at various school levels Goh, 1997) framework was read by the Prime Minister at the and in cognitive (TSLN and IT Master plan) and affective 7th International Conference on Thinking, with the intent to (NE) domains. Subsequent discussions at the policy level call for a nationwide involvement in developing a culture of focused on compulsory, preschool, early childhood, and learning beyond high academic achievement (June, 1997). special education. The inception of the Ability-Driven Education (ADE) paradigm (MOE, 1999) attempted to integrate the above-mentioned initiatives, educational Ai-Girl TAN, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological outcomes, and discussion. University; Flora YEE Woei-Chee, National Institute of Education, The ADE delineated more explicitly the importance of Nanyang Technological University. Correspondence concerning this individual differences, the uniqueness of every child, and article should be addressed to Ai-Girl TAN, National Institute of opportunities for all. Along this ADE paradigm, the School Education, Nanyang Technological University,1 Nanyang Walk,Singapore, 637616. Electronic mail may be sent to Excellence Model (SEM, 2003) was incepted to empower [email protected] school leaders to identify their staff’s strengths and niche Ai-Girl TAN and Flora YEE Woei-Chee areas for improvement. Underlying this model was the Under the ADE paradigm, students are expected to be awareness of promoting staff welfare and students’ wellness. active in academic and non-academic disciplines. The The move to holistic education has been piecemeal and introduction of CCAs, for instance, was meant to relate gradual. At times, it has appeared challenging, as the student learning to multidisciplinary exposure and alternative philosophy of holistic education might not flow smoothly into assessment. Specifically, the CCAs can help implant students’ a culture of education rooted in a competitive system that awareness to be responsible, healthy, socially engaging, and implements streaming and ranking. culturally sensitive citizens. Students learn to take part actively by making choices. They are exposed to authentic Co-curricular Activities and Choral Learning experiences that will likely help uncover and develop their potentials in non-academic domains. In a holistic educational framework, Singapore’s educational system aspires to a system in which every student Other Rationales for the Study should be given the opportunity to develop optimistically and fully in intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal domains Our study examined students’ perceptions of choral (MOE, 1998). To achieve this, intermediate outcomes of learning from their personal and interpersonal perspectives, as education are delineated. Among them is the cultivation of well as from their interactions with the subject (e.g., contents appreciation of aesthetics through not only the formal and structure), their physical environments, and school classroom curriculum but also the co-curricular activities expectations. A person’s perception of the learning environment (CCAs) that each individual school organizes. The CCAs is constructed with reference to his(her) contact and serve as healthy recreation. Students learn, through experience with multiple factors. The factors include participation in CCAs, some forms of self-discipline and alternative curricula (Welch & Walberg, 1972), alternative teamwork. The ultimate aim of CCAs is to develop the school (Fraser, Williamson, & Tobin, 1987), student and student's physique and character. teacher perceptions of the same classroom environment Our paper examines secondary school students’ (Fraser, 1984; Raviv, Raviv, & Reisel, 1990), the class perceptions of choral learning. We identified choir as our (Anderson & Walberg, 1972), and type of school (e.g., domain of study, as it has been a highly regarded non- spiritual or government, Dorman, Fraser, & McRobbie, 1994), academic activity. In line with the nation’s aspiration to just to name a few. Gender, a social category, to some extent nurture every person’s creative competence in multiple can influence a person’s view of the learning environment. disciplines, choir or music programs have received substantial Studies revealed gender differences in learning environment support. Choral programs in the secondary schools are perceptions. It was found that male pupils preferred a developed with the support of the Music Department of the competitive learning environment, in contrast to female CCA branch at the ministerial level. The support ranges from pupils' preference for personal and cooperative learning providing professional instructors attached to schools and environments (Byrne, Hattie, & Fraser, 1986; Owen & organizing complimentary workshops for potential choir Straton, 1980). Females also held more favorable perceptions teachers, to exposing students to large-scale national events, of their classroom environments than males (Fraser, Giddings, such as the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Central Judging, & McRobbie, 1995; Fisher, Fraser, & Rickards, 1997; and the National Day Parade. Henderson, Fisher, & Fraser, 1995). After six years of elementary education, Singaporean A school class is regarded as a social system (Getzel students, based on their Primary School Leaving Examination & Thelen, 1972). The classroom-learning environment is (PSLE), are streamed to Express, Normal Academic, and made up of psychosocial factors such as student cohesiveness, Normal Technical streams. They then take the Ordinary level self-esteem, confidence, sense of belonging, and motivation of examination after four years (Express and Normal (Goh, 2002). A student’s learning process is affected by the Technical) or 5 years (Normal Academic) of secondary interpersonal relationship s/he has with his (her) teacher schooling. Singapore secondary schools introduce choices in (Brekelmans, Wubbels, & Brok, 2002). The learning the subject areas and CCAs. For university admission, in 2003, environment and learning performance are affected by the CCAs were given a considering status in addition to the interrelationships and communications among all members in nationwide examination results. the classroom community (Doyle, 1979; Goh & Fraser, 2000). 162 Singaporean Students’ Perceptions of Coral Learning Hence, it is indispensable to ensure a positive classroom event or aspect each, of what they liked and disliked about climate for effective learning. choir. In approximately 10 to 15 minutes the students wrote Recently, in Singapore, most of the studies on learning their responses on a piece of paper. The responses were environments employed adopted questionnaires (Fraser, 2002) categorized according to themes: “myself” (e.g., I love to sing, or were conducted in laboratory environments (Goh, 2002; and I like to express my feelings), “my instructor” (e.g., she Wong, Young, & Fraser, 1997). Researchers in the field of teaches well, and she is caring), “my peers” (e.g., they are learning environments, in the past several decades have friendly, and they are confident), “the choir learning process” selected methods to uncover psychosocial aspects of the (e.g., it