Coping with Struggling Students in Singapore

A change of syllabus, bringing about a subsequent change in the format of high-stake examinations, has important implications on teachers and students, The purpose of the research is to investigate how teachers cope with the new English Language GCE O level examination (syllabus 1128) with struggling readers and writers. A qualitative research design was employed to explore this question. Two experienced English teachers were interviewed regarding their experience teaching the new examination format. Three coping strategies were inductively derived from the interview data.

The new English Language (hereafter EL) 2010 syllabus aims to raise the level of communication competency (English language syllabus 2010, 2008). Based on the change in the EL syllabus, a new EL GCE O-level (1128) examination format has taken place with effect from 2013. As shown in Appendix 1, the new assessment focuses on higher-order thinking and writing skills to equip students with the necessary English proficiency to remain competitive at the global level.

The results of a study on how teachers cope with this new format with struggling readers and writers will offer implications in the pedagogical dimension. While there have been many studies on the learning strategies for the previous examination format (1127), there has been a paucity of studies in how EL teachers cope with struggling learners with 1128.

Literature Review

Challenges with the implementation of a new syllabus

The implementation of new syllabus results in far-reaching implications. The challenges faced by teachers with the implementation of EL syllabus 2001 will shed some light on the possible issues that teachers might face with the current examination format. The implementation of EL Syllabus 2001 and GCE 0-level (1127) posed several challenges for teachers. In Goh’s book (2005), she highlighted four main issues, namely: (1) insufficient teaching materials (2) time constraints (3) pupils’ aptitude and attitude and (4) examination issues. Teachers perceived the syllabus change as a daunting task due to the lack of assistance given to them in the pedagogical dimension (Kramer-Dahl, 2008).

At the beginning of the implementation of 1127, teachers were concerned how the weak students could cope with the new requirements (Goh, 2005). With the implementation of 1128, considerable research is required to understand the issues it brings to teachers and students, particularly struggling learners.

Assistance required by struggling readers and writers

Struggling learners have difficulties comprehending grade-level text, writing a paragraph and being motivated to learn (Ganske, Monroe, & Strickland, 2003). Lan and Lanthier (2003) reported that there is a higher tendency for them to drop out of school.

However, the motivational level of struggling learners can be improved with good classroom practices like using interesting age-appropriate reading materials (Ganske et al., 2003) and teacher’s attitude. These struggling learners benefit from small group instruction so that teachers can focus on their needs and monitor their progress. High expectations in class is still critical so that they develop academic competency (Michaels, Wilson, & Margolis, 2005). Providing a supportive writing environment with constructive activities is particularly important for struggling writers (Pajares, 2003). These struggling learners require ‘conspicuous strategies’ (Michaels et al., 2005) in reading and writing through repeated scaffolding and demonstration which will help them attain success. Not only that, Terrill, Scruggs, and Mastropieri (2004) recommends multiple reinforcements of previously taught skills for better retention.

Having encountered multiple failures (Grolnick & Ryan, 1990), struggling learners need motivation for progress to take place. The learning environment must be a safe and encouraging one so that learners are not afraid to make mistakes (Michaels et al., 2005). Test preparation must be incorporated in their daily lessons so that they are familiar with the examination expectations (Ganske et al., 2003) to build their self-confidence (McCabe, 2003).

Method

In this study, the researcher sets out to investigate the strategies EL teachers use to cope with the writing and reading components of the new examination format with struggling readers and writers.

To understand how teachers cope with the new EL examination format, a qualitative research design was employed. A qualitative research, which is inductive in nature, would give researchers deeper insights on the research question. Focussing on the participants’ perspectives, a qualitative research is interested in understanding how people uncover meaning from their experiences, activities or phenomenon (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Only after the 12 items in the “Ethical Issues Checklist” in (Patton, 2015) have been considered did the research commence.

The main objective of purposeful sampling is to focus on particular features of a population that are of interest, which will assist researchers to answer the research questions (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Creswell, 2014). Two experienced English teachers who have taught both 1127 and 1128 were interviewed to provide insight on the change in the format on the struggling learners in their class and the strategies that they employed to help them. Appendix 2 describes the profile of these two teachers while Appendix 3 gives a brief description of the profile of the school. The interview questions (as shown in Appendix 4), consisting of open-ended questions, were carefully crafted because effective questions can provide deep insight to the study (Agee, 2009). Data was collected through interviews of approximately 25 minutes in length. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Themes were derived after data was analysed using the constant comparative method of analysis.

Findings

At the time of writing, the examination is still considered relatively new. Teachers are “still grappling” on how to sufficiently prepare struggling readers and writers for the examination due to the uncertainty on the type of questions that may appear in the examination. Three common strategies were identified. Firstly, teachers are given support at the departmental level to ensure effective teaching. Secondly, the resource bank provides relevant teaching materials. Thirdly, good teaching practices are employed to help struggling readers and writers cope with the examination.

EL department as a support

Various strategies are used at the departmental level to help teachers manage