Learning to motivate
IF you are planning to pursue a doctoral programme, consider a Doctor in Education ( EdD) programme at the National Institute of Education ( NIE) in Singapore.
An autonomous institute under one of the top universities in the world, Nanyang Technological University ( NTU), NIE is considered the heart of the nation’s teacher education and education research.
Teacher with the Ministry of Education Singapore Tan Dai Hwee is on her learning journey and shares her experience as an EdD student.
Tan always believed no one is spared from learning and trying out new things, no matter how experienced and accomplished one is.
Having taught students for more than 10 years, she believes it is not so much what the teacher does, but what happens inside the students’ heads that will result in their understanding or being able to do something.
To make sure learning occurs for students in the intended way, teachers need to know how students learn and what motivates them.
But very often in reality, teachers are more concerned with covering the syllabus and drilling the students for examinations, and students may not have experienced real learning. Tan was keen to learn about learning and how to make it work.
One of the EdD programme’s concentration courses on Learning and Motivation fulfilled her professional interest in this area.
The programme helped honed Tan’s critical and reflective thinking skills, and she has grown more analytical and methodical in her thinking processes.
The frank and open feedback from her professors and coursemates on her research pushed her to be more reflective, encouraging her to constantly refine and improve on her research.
As she pursued the programme on a part- time basis, juggling her studies with her full- time work and family commitments was a big challenge.
Furthermore, as she had no prior experience in doing research, Tan had to quickly get up to speed with the basics, like forming research questions, coming up with the appropriate research design, conducting data collection and data analyses.
“I remembered the first time I was required to submit a research proposal, I was completely clueless about what to choose for my research topic and how to go about putting up a research proposal,” confessed Tan.
“Thankfully, with the expert guidance of my professors and helpful advice from my coursemates, I now have a better idea about my research topic and how to conduct a research study.”
Tan considers the EdD programme a perfect choice for those interested in extending their expertise and developing skills in critical reflection in practice.
The coursework component provides solid groundwork for research and theoretical grounding before students embark on their dissertation writing.
She likes EdD’s rigour and scholarly expectations of a PhD, yet placing strong emphasis on professional practice.
The Doctor in Education programme is ongoing until June 15 for the January 2017 intake.
For more information, visit www. nie. edu. sg/ edd, while information on other programmes available during the January 2017 intake can be found at www. nie. edu. sg/ jan2017. The temptation when you are new is to connect with one person and to hang on to him for dear life.
If you happen to have hit on your future BFF that’s great but it’s unlikely.
Remember that when you are nervous, you may overlook differences in ideas and activities.
Make lots of new acquaintances then you can study with your friend and see other friends for tennis and book club. If you’re shy, the best thing to do is to join a club because these have regular activities centred on things everyone likes to do.
However, don’t think that you will make friends instantly. You’ll need to go several times before you figure out who they are and they need time to get to know you.
After all, friendship isn’t like instant coffee – it needs time to brew.