MOE Tertiary Education Research Fund Grant Award

SMU Office of Research – The MOE Tertiary Education Research Fund (TRF), an inaugural fund launched in April 2015, supports applied educational research at Singapore’s Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), including the publicly-funded universities, polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education (ITE). The TRF aims to empower educators and institutions to actively and continuously improve teaching and learning (T&L) practices based on reliable research and data, and to promote effective and innovative T&L practices which have the potential to improve the quality of T&L across all IHLs in Singapore.

The Office of Research is pleased to announce that the research proposal from the SMU-X team was awarded the MOE TRF grant. Below is the summary of the proposal, and we wish them the best in their research!

Project Title: Evaluating SMU-X Pedagogy: An Innovative Approach to Prepare University Students with Future Work Skills

Duration: 2 years

Overview: SMU embarked on a transformational learning journey aimed at inculcating innovation in its curriculum by launching eight pilot undergraduate courses in 2015 that adopt a new pedagogy design called ‘SMU-X’. The SMU-X pedagogy comprises of four principles: project-based learning tackling real world problems and issues; inter-disciplinary learning activities; close faculty and external partner relationship; and active mentoring. By applying the four principles in a SMU-X course, it is believed that several future work skills may be inculcated in the learning process. These skills include critical and inventive thinking; communication, collaboration and information skills; and civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills.

The research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the eight SMU-X pilot courses. Interviews, surveys and quasi-experiments will be conducted between January 2016 and December 2016. Semi-structured interviews and survey will be carried out with relevant stakeholders, asking specifically their perceptions on SMU-X course design’s impact on overall student experience in learning future work skills. In terms of target audience, undergraduate students who have completed the pilot SMU-X courses will be targeted. Semi-structured interviews and informal discussions will be conducted with them.

Altogether, interviewees will consist mainly of students, instructors and industry partners involved in the SMU-X courses. The interview topics and questions will be developed prior to the fieldwork; the questions will be open-ended and exploratory to allow opinions to be expressed. Triangulation of data will be carried out for the findings wherever possible by searching for convergence among multiple sources of information to form themes in our investigation. This will be achieved through secondary data including direct observations, as well as documents and artefacts, such as internal documents, media reports and others.

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