The delegation from Singapore with staff from The Office of Professional Learning at York U.

The Professional Learning Office in the Faculty of Education was asked by the Ministry of Education to host a delegation of educators from Singapore for a morning session on Friday May 26. The eleven-member delegation, led by the Director-General of Education, is comprised of curriculum officers from the Curriculum Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore.

The group is visiting Ontario to learn about the development of Canada’s (Ontario’s) education system, in particular the philosophy and principles of primary and secondary education with respect to the English Language curriculum. More specifically, the delegation is learning about:

• Pedagogies that foster deep learning and the development of 21st century competencies (e.g., self-directed learning; harnessing of digital technologies for e-learning and tutoring (learning through media); approaches to developing effective oracy skills; and, students’ voice
• Differentiation (Models of differentiated support for different profiles of students, including at-risk students)
• Adolescent literacy; Critical Literacy; and Multiliteracies
• Reading-Writing connections and Cognitive models of writing

Thanks to York instructional leaders Dr. Lana Parker (Pedagogies that foster deep learning and the development of 21st century competencies) and Dr. Diane Vetter (Critical Literacy, adolescent literacy, literacy theory and pedagogy) for the presentations that they made to the delegation.