Reflections from a visit to Asian schools - October 2007

Dr. John A. Kriekard
Superintendent, Paradise Valley Unified School District

My wife recently was asked to do some science consulting abroad and I was able to accompany her to Singapore and Bangkok. I visited both of the private international schools where she worked, but the two most outstanding experiences that I had were at two local public schools. It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on those schools compared to the Paradise Valley Unified School District.

In Bangkok, I visited a school called Pakkred Secondary School, with 3,000 students in grades 7-12. We always think of Asian education as being rigorous in terms of the content, but the four words that create their vision are Educate, Create, Interlink and Enhance. I found it interesting that they focus on these areas instead of the academics as they feel the need to help prepare students for the future. I especially enjoyed my visit to the Raffles’ Girls School in Singapore, which is a public girls’ school. Students must score in the top three percent on the state test at the end of sixth grade in order to qualify for admission. The school enrolls 1,800 girls between the ages of 13 and 16. The school’s administration and teachers view their mission as preparing those top female students for leadership roles throughout the world. Their goal is to empower the students to be thinkers, leaders and pioneers.

Central to the curriculum is the Raffles Approaches to Foster Learning (RAFL). A multi-faceted approach to curriculum, RAFL is process-focused, integrative, authentic, learner centered and continuous. It aims to develop students’ awareness on how best they can learn in different situations, and how they can hone their abilities to adapt to changing and challenging circumstances by applying and using a range of strategies. As a district, we have spent quite a bit of time lately talking about how important it is that our students learn processes for the long haul rather than just specific skills. All of the literature I’ve been reading reinforces my belief that our students will be competing with the graduates of Raffles’ Girls School. One of the most striking differences I observed was that, in Singapore, the K-6 elementary schools offer only four subjects: math, science, English and mother tongue (whichever language is the home language of that student). One of the reasons they score so well in math, for example, is because it is a fourth of their curriculum and they are able to focus on it. Teachers don’t cover all the standards at every grade. At the secondary level there is a very clear focus on a balanced curriculum – balance between the human skills of leadership and character and the content skills, but the content skills are mostly couched in long-term processes.

I look forward to discussions with my educational colleagues in PVUSD as we strive to provide a world-class education for our students. We have a tremendous responsibility to prepare our students for a world that will be so different from today that we don’t even know what it will look like.