Singapore Primary School Chinese Textbooks And Drama In Education

Singapore Primary School Chinese had gone through 50 years of change since its independence in 1965. During this time, five significant reports were issued and by 2007,6 sets of Chinese Primary School syllabi and 11 sets of Chinese Primary School textbooks had been published. Singapore government launched the "????" report in 2010, a new set of Chinese Primary School Syllabus and new Chinese Primary 1 textbooks were published in 2015. The purpose of education under the new round of the education innovation was described by Singapore Minister of Education Mr Heng Swee Keat as student centered and value-driven in the 21st century. That means to develop students holistically with regards to the moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and social aspects through core values and moral education. Drama in Education is one of the strategies in holistic education. In this thesis, I will focus on how drama in education was carried out in the 11 sets of Primary School Chinese textbooks during these 50 years after Singapore become independent.This thesis is divided into five chapters which begins with introduction and ends with a conclusion cum suggestion.Chapter one:The introduction includes the purpose and significance of thesis, research on the Singapore Primary School Chinese Textbook, research on Drama in Education and Singapore Primary School Chinese Textbook, research on the holistic education and Singapore Primary School Chinese Textbook and research on the same theme of this theses, etc. Among the research of academic history, the feasibility for the "Singapore Chinese primary school textbooks and Drama in Education" topics were discussed.Chapter two:Analyzed the history of Drama in Education in Singapore School Chinese textbooks. Review the standard of selected articles of textbooks, compare different arrangement of genre and theme of content for drama articles in the primary school textbooks during sowing, cultivation, germination, growth, grafting and reflection period through part 1 until part 6.Chapter three:To explore the moral education, intellectual education, aesthetic education of drama articles for construction of Primary School Chinese Textbooks. For part one, analyzed the construction of moral education in drama articles through value orientation, they include discussion and reviewing 7 sets of primary school syllabus,11 sets of Primary School Chinese text books and developing of drama in education. Part two, analyzed the theme and plot of intellectual education of drama articles, they include the changes of theme of 72 drama articles, explanation of plot of 72 drama articles and difficulties of construction. Part 3, analyzed the construction of aesthetic education in drama articles through the vision of aesthetic, they are include the viewing of reading direction of 7 sets of Primary School Chinese syllabus, cultivation of lower primary pupils of aesthetic sensibility competence through the sense of language, building of middle primary pupils of appreciation of reading competence through the contexts and characters of drama, promotion of higher primary pupils of creativity competence through revision of drama articles.Chapter four:Analyzed the social and emotional learning through drama articles from Primary School Chinese text books. Part one, overviewing the learning of social and emotional skills through the Primary School Chinese Syllabus, part two, analyzed the learning of social and emotional skills through the language of drama.Chapter five:conclusion and suggestion.After research, the author found there are tremendous changes to the status of drama in education since the 1st published Primary School Chinese textbook in the 70s by MOE. The change is not due education-driven but mainly due to the changes of the social language environment and the change in language education policy of Chinese languages. The adjustments did not enable drama in education to flourish and it entered into a stagnation in 2007. Although there are show and tell theatres in E-Chinese text book 2015 "Happy Buddy "of Primary one, but we could not see the proper status of drama in education in Primary School Chinese Syllabus. The thesis suggests the proper use of drama in education as a teaching strategy could successfully bring about holistic development of students. To do so,we need , a reasonable amount of the drama articles in textbooks and to arrange proper articles in textbooks or school-based lessons. Furthermore, the training of holistic teachers is critical, only all-round holistic teachers with healthy social emotional skills could effectively train generations of all-round students with good Singapore characters.