In Singapore, polytechnic lecturers are considered as dual professionals and are expected to be experts of their disciplines as well as possess a deep knowledge of learners and the teaching strategies needed to engage and develop them holistically. Core to a qualified, committed and high quality teaching force is the preparation, induction, and professional development of our lecturers.
Singapore Polytechnic (SP), like most tertiary institutions, offer a range of professional development activities to equip faculty with basic teaching and learning skills and to ensure that they continue to strengthen their skills throughout their career.
SP recognizes that lecturers at different points of their teaching careers will have different professional development needs and may require specific re-skilling to respond effectively to new institution and national educational directives.
This paper will describe the professional development programmes offered in SP to support: o the needs of new hirers to develop knowledge of their students, how they learn, and what are the best pedagogic practices to support student learning and attainment; o the on-going development of knowledge and skills necessary to implement new school, institution and/or national initiatives; and o the development of pedagogic leaders to enhance and innovate best practices in teaching and learning for SP.
It will also describe the Lecturer Competency Framework that was jointly developed by 5 Singapore Polytechnics and adopted in SP in 2015. The competency framework, consisting of 6 competency domains and 11 competencies, was further customized for the institution’s context and used as the main reference for professional development programmes. Input and survey data from a range of SP teaching staff on the framework will also be shared.
Proceedings of the 12th International CDIO Conference, Turku, Finland, June 12-16 2016