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Pilot study brings personalised learning to infant care centres

SINGAPORE — Having a teacher care for four or five babies, instead of a class of up to 20 children. Customising learning plans for each of them. Such a more personalised approach to pre-school education could be adopted at all 77 NTUC First Campus infant care centres from next year if the methods used in a research study prove effective.

Infant care teacher Intan Ismail, from the My First Skool childcare centre, took part in the three-month pilot. Photo: Ernest Chua

Infant care teacher Intan Ismail, from the My First Skool childcare centre, took part in the three-month pilot. Photo: Ernest Chua

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SINGAPORE — Having a teacher care for four or five babies, instead of a class of up to 20 children. Customising learning plans for each of them. Such a more personalised approach to pre-school education could be adopted at all 77 NTUC First Campus infant care centres from next year if the methods used in a research study prove effective.

The study, which involves two centres under the NTUC First Campus group, is a partnership between the Lien Foundation and the NTUC training arm for early childhood educators, SEED Institute. The foundation is providing S$354,000 in funds for the study.

The researchers, whose aim is to raise the quality of pre-school education for children under three years old, will be experimenting with a curriculum that sees a teacher planning different activities, depending on the child’s learning outcomes and preferences.

Each educator will act as a primary caregiver to four or five children while playing a supporting role to the others. For instance, teachers who have been working with the same group of children could plan an exercise involving Play-Doh. But after noticing that a child might be ready to paint or prefers to play with blocks, the teacher could also use these activities to achieve individual learning goals.

The intended outcome is to help the child “develop a sense of trust and belonging, and a ‘can do’ spirit”, said the study’s co-lead investigator Geraldine Teo-Zuzarte, Deputy Director of professional practices at SEED.

Having a constant familiar face for the toddler also helps to establish a stable relationship between the child and teacher, she added.

While the authorities have issued curriculum guidelines for children below three years old, the researchers believe a detailed curriculum is needed to help educators. As the time spent in childcare from 7am to 7pm could be longer than that spent in primary school, this calls for a high-quality environment, they added.

The study’s co-lead investigator, Professor Marjory Ebbeck, Director of SEED’s Centre for Research and Best Practices, stressed that the zero-to-three-years period is a critical one for learning and acquiring languages.

“Experiences have a major shaping role in setting up trajectories for future life. Babies are born with (many) neurons (but) if the neurons are not knitted through responsive parenting and responsive caregiving, then the neurons will disappear,” she said.

Ms Ho Yin Fong, SEED’s Academic Director, said the quality of infant care varies across the sector. There has to be a further mindset change among educators from simply following a schedule to tailoring different activities for each child, she added.

For now, the study will be leveraging on the researchers’ three-month pilot that involved 35 children and 10 teachers at the NTUC First Campus centre at Woodlands.

The researchers will also work with another NTUC First Campus centre and hope to involve up to 65 children and 15 teachers during their year-long study. They will document the children’s social, physical and thinking and communication skills at the start, then track these aspects again after the teachers receive further training and guidance.

Infant care teacher Intan Ismail, 34, who was part of the pilot, said she has learnt to be more observant towards the different learning needs of the children under her care. She will be attempting to focus on a small group of children in the later stages of the research and believes this will enable her to plan specific learning activities for every individual.

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