At the opening of the Thinking Conference in 1997, the Prime Minister of Singapore shared Singapore’s vision of meeting future challenges as encapsulated in the concept of “Thinking Schools and Learning Nation.” Following this vision, new initiatives emphasizing Thinking Skills, Information Technology, and Inter-disciplinary Project Work were introduced to schools. To realize this vision, teaching practices have to shift from the prevailing teacher-centred mode to a more student-centred one. Cooperative learning is one way of reorganizing the classroom to promote such student-centred learning. Furthermore, Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society and the use of cooperative learning in schools seeks to promote inter-group and inter-racial relations.

The National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore, the country’s sole teacher-training institute, has for several years advocated the use of cooperative learning in pre-service and in-service courses. We introduce the different methods of cooperative learning to achieve different instructional goals. Other educational agencies and departments that have also supported the cooperative learning movement in Singapore are the Singapore Teachers’ Union and the Curriculum Planning and Development Division of the Ministry of Education in Singapore. Since 1998 the Singapore Teachers’ Union has invited Spencer Kagan to lead cooperative learning workshops. The Curriculum Planning and Development Division has encouraged the use of cooperative learning methods by incorporating them in the revised curriculum materials for both primary and secondary schools in subjects like social studies, history and geography. Detailed notes on the procedures for some of the cooperative learning methods like Aronson’s Jigsaw and techniques (e.g., Lyman and Tighes’ Think-Pair-Share, and Kagan’s Roundrobin and Roundtable) are provided in teachers’ “resource files”. By now most teachers are familiar with these.

Despite these efforts, many teachers in Singapore were reported to be skeptical of the potential applicability of cooperative learning methods in the classrooms. Some of the reasons the teachers gave for not using small group teaching were: limited curriculum time and demanding syllabus, difficulty in managing groupwork as the average class-size is forty, need to prepare students for examination and poor language proficiency of the students. The teachers who professed using cooperative learning in their classrooms were mainly using Kagan’s structures and Jigsaw. Christine Lee (IASCE Board member) presented a critical account of the current practice and pitfalls of cooperative learning in Singapore at the recent IASCE conference in Manchester.

Research on cooperative learning in Singapore is still in its infancy, but further efforts are underway. An experimental study using cooperative methods Jigsaw, Learning Together and the Structural Approach was conducted in eight fifth-grade classes in two primary schools by a team of researchers in NIE. Four classes (N=144) in one school were the experimental group and four other classes (N=143) from a comparable school were the control group. The results of the experimental study were reported in four separate papers (Lee et al., 1999; Lee, Ng & Phang, 1999 & 2002; Ng & Lee, 1999; Tey et al., 1999) which were summarized in the IASCE Newsletter, vol. 19, no. 1, 2000. Research at the secondary level is also limited. Recently, one experimental study was conducted in two secondary schools in Singapore (Tan, Lee & Sharan, 2002). Four eighth-grade classes (N=138) used the Group Investigation method of cooperative learning while three classes (N=103) used the Whole-Class method of instruction. The preliminary results were reported at IASCE conference in Manchester.

Lee, C., Chew, J., Ng, M. & Tey, S.H. (1999). Teachers’ use of cooperative learning in the classrooms: Case studies of four elementary school teachers. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association. Montreal, Canada. Social Studies Development Center of Indiana University: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science. ED 434071. 22 pages.

Lee, C., Ng, M. & Phang, R. (1999). A school-based study of cooperative learning and its effects on social studies achievement, attitude towards the subject and classroom climate in four social studies classrooms. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association. Montreal, Canada. Social Studies Development Center of Indiana University: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education. ED 434070.

Lee, C., Ng, M. & Phang, R. (2002). Effects of cooperative learning on elementary school children in Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 22(1), pp. 3 - 15. Singapore: Oxford University Press.

Lee, K.E.C. (2002). Cooperative learning in Singapore schools: Potential, practice and pitfalls. Paper presented at IASCE Conference: Cooperative Learning and Responsible Citizenship in the 21st Century. Manchester, England.

Ng, M. & Lee, C. (1999). The effects of cooperative learning on the cross-ethnic friendship choices of children. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association. Montreal, Canada. Social Studies Development Center of Indiana University: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education. ED 436284.

Tan, G.C.I., Lee, K.E.C. & Sharan S (2002). Effects of group investigation on academic achievement and motivation of high and low ability students in Singapore secondary schools. Paper presented at IASCE Conference: Cooperative Learning and Responsible Citizenship in the 21st Century. Manchester, England.

Tey, S.H., Lee, C., Ng, M. & Chew, J. (1999). Primary five pupils’ cooperative behaviours and perceptions of the use of cooperative learning in social studies classes in Singapore. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association. Montreal, Canada. Social Studies Development Center of Indiana University: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, ED 436286. 25 pages.