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Could students benefit from having the same teacher for several years?
A method where teachers stay with a group of children for several years in school is getting results overseas. But there are pros and cons for its use here.
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Academic research has found that one of the main advantages of looping is stronger student-teacher relationships.
PHOTO: PEXELS
Jason Tan
Singapore is well-known for scaling the heights over the years when it comes to the triennial Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings. The country is often first or second in rankings for maths, science and reading in the tests conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). However, the recent successes in rankings of countries using a particular learning approach called “looping” has me pondering its use for Singapore.
I came across an essay about this titled “What most American schools do wrong” in The New York Times by Professor Adam Grant, an organisational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The piece recommended a wider use of looping in American schools, along the lines of schools in Finland and Estonia.
