Singapore Curriculum Philosophy

What is the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy?

Education in Singapore seeks to achieve our Desired Outcomes of Education so that our students are future-ready, have a strong sense of national identity, and are equipped with the competencies to navigate, participate and contribute in a globalised world. It aspires to bring out the best in our students so that they are empowered to live life to the fullest, contribute to, and care for their community and nation. It enables them to develop their interests to pursue their passions and fulfil their aspirations. 

To realise the aims of education in Singapore, our curriculum is designed to develop the character, mind and body of our students. It serves to nurture their values and to develop their knowledge, skills and dispositions. Our curriculum provides learning experiences for our students to actively interact and bond with others in both physical and digital spaces. In doing so, they become aware that they are part of society. Through this, they learn to embrace diversity and collaborate with people from different backgrounds.

The Singapore Curriculum Philosophy presents our teaching fraternity’s core beliefs about learning that place every student at the heart of our educational decisions. These beliefs guide the design and implementation of our curriculum. They underpin our practices and guide our teaching actions so that every student is an engaged learner. The Singapore Curriculum Philosophy describes our roles, and those of our students’, in the process of teaching and learning. 

What we believe about teaching and learning

We believe in holistic education to prepare our children well for the future, centred on values, social and emotional well-being and character development. We develop our children's 21st century competencies and build in them a strong foundation of knowledge.
 
We value every child as an individual and believe that every child wants to and can learn. Children have diverse learning needs and bring with them a wide range of experiences, beliefs, knowledge, and skills. For learning to be effective, we adapt our teaching pace, approaches and assessment practices to be developmentally appropriate and meaningful. When children find meaning in learning, they are motivated and challenged, and take ownership of their learning. 

We believe that learning takes place in caring, safe and enabling environments. We cultivate positive teacher-student and peer relationships so that there is a culture of care and mutual respect in our schools, where children learn to be empathetic and appreciate diversity. They are encouraged to take risks responsibly, learn from their mistakes and from one another, and be confident in expressing their views. 

We believe that learning takes place individually and collaboratively. We design learning spaces and experiences that support individual and collaborative learning. We guide learners to activate prior knowledge; interpret and evaluate knowledge from different perspectives; and co-construct, assimilate and accommodate new knowledge through exploration, and interaction with others. We help learners think about their own thinking and learning, and connect new ideas and experiences with what they already know, thus facilitating the understanding of concepts and the application of what they have learnt to different contexts.  

We harness technology as a capability multiplier to enhance teaching and learning and to enable greater customisation of learning. We also build an ecosystem of partnerships with experts and utilise resources in the wider community, where relevant, to enrich learning in an authentic way.
 
We believe that assessment is integral to the teaching and learning process and helps our children become self-directed, lifelong learners, as they monitor, assess, and improve their own learning. We design assessments with clarity of purpose to gather evidence of our learners’ progress, provide timely and targeted feedback to them to move their learning forward, and improve our teaching practices, harnessing technology where useful.