A symposium to disseminate findings from the Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project (SKIP) as well as to promote research collaborations and exchange of ideas among key stakeholders was held on 19 November 2019. The event was organised by NIE’s Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD) with a view to creating pathways for future SKIP follow-up studies. Ms Lai Wei Lin, Second Permanent Secretary (Education) from Singapore’s Ministry of Education graced the event as the guest-of-honour.
The SKIP Symposium focused on three themes:
- What have we learned about preschool classrooms, teachers, and children?
- Bilingualism in the early years
- Development of children from disadvantaged environments
Professor Kathy Sylva, Professor of Educational Psychology and Honorary Research Fellow with the University of Oxford, delivered the keynote address, while Professor David Hung, Dean (Education Research) from NIE’s Office of Education Research (OER) gave the opening speech.
The panel of speakers at the symposium were:
- Professor Tan Oon Seng, Centre Director, CRCD, NIE
- Associate Professor Kenneth Poon, Co-Director, CRCD and Associate Dean (Education Research), OER, NIE
- Dr Beth O’Brien, Head, Early and Middle Childhood Research, CRCD, NIE
- Dr Nirmala Karuppiah, Head, Education, CRCD, NIE
- Dr Ng Ee Lynn, Research Scientist, CRCD, NIE
- Dr Fannie Khng, Assistant Dean (Research Management), OER, NIE
- Dr David Munez, Research Scientist, CRCD, NIE
- Dr Sun He, Research Scientist, CRCD, NIE
- Dr Nicole Lim, Research Fellow, CRCD, NIE
- Ms Nurul Taqiah Yussof, Research Associate, CRCD, NIE
- Ms Poorani Vijayakumar, Research Assistant, CRCD, NIE