Dr Imelda Caleon publishes a research paper and speaks at Ministry of Education’s Uplift and Educational Support Seminar 2022

Dr Imelda Caleon, Assistant Dean of Partnerships and Senior Research Scientist at the Office of Education Research (OER), published a research paper titled “’It's not just about grades’: Teachers' alternative perceptions of students performing at a low level and of these students' academic success”. The paper featured a study that explored secondary teachers' perceptions of students performing at a low level and of these students' academic success by using strength- and deficit-based perspectives, as well as phenomenography. Various categories were constructed to capture range of conceptions that displayed varying degrees of student agency, with teacher empathy manifested at different levels. Ordering the categories based on phenomenographic methods enabled the identification of potentially “powerful” ways the teachers responded to students' needs, which included engaging in partnerships to improve students' potential and moving away from examination-oriented definitions of success. The paper concluded on how these perceptions shape instructional practices, as well as implications for research and practice.

On 28 July 2022, Dr Imelda was also invited to present at Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Uplift and Educational Support (UES) Seminar 2022. The UES Seminar aims to update educators the research, policies and practices supporting disadvantaged students, vulnerable students and learners requiring educational support. She gave a presentation titled “Nurturing Resilient and Flourishing Learners: Insights from a Decade of Research involving Academically At-Risk Learners in Singapore” to approximately 1,000 participants from schools, MOE HQ and clusters.