Resume of Principal Consultant
Mdm Yeo Ai Leng has 35 years of experience in the education industry. She began her career as a teacher in Hwa Chong Junior College, and moved on to Ministry of Education (MOE) HQ in 1993 as a specialist writer in Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore (CDIS), developing the Geography curriculum for secondary students. In 1997, she became a Senior IT Instructor in the Educational Technology Division (ETD). As a Senior IT Instructor since the inception of the IT Master Plan, she was involved in the training of teachers and key personnel in schools to infuse IT in the curriculum.
Her involvement in curriculum design and development for the IT Masterplan as well as teacher professional development at MOE also gave her special insight in communicating to her audience the essence of teaching and learning in our education system. She is able to demonstrate to the teachers how to contextualize and localize pedagogical theory and strategies in accordance to their subject areas. The participants have benefited from her easy and meticulous approach during the training. Her dream is to develop teachers to be curators of learning content, life coaches in values and character-building, and designers of effective learning experiences.
Her interest and insight in curriculum redesign according to the disciplines and needs of the students, assessment, educational technology, thinking skills, and different teaching strategies such as cooperative learning and quality questioning add to her ability to enhance the learning process across all levels of teachers. Her research focus is on the pedagogical content knowledge of teachers and their professional development. Since then, she has set up a consultancy firm called Roots Excellence and has acted as a consultant to numerous schools such as Bukit View Secondary, Bendemeer Primary, Canberra Primary, Cedar Girls’, Chongfu, Crescent Girls’, Dazhong Primary, Dunman High, Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah, Nan Chiau High, Pioneer Secondary, Sembawang Primary, School of the Arts, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, Singapore International School (Hong Kong), Tanjong Katong Secondary, and Yishun Secondary to re-design curriculum using Understanding by Design (UbD), the Teaching for Design (TfU) frameworks or concept-based approach at departmental and whole-school levels. Some of the subjects where Ai Leng met at departmental level to redesign their curriculum are Science, Social Studies (Sec and Primary), History, Geography, Mathematics, Mother Tongue, Music, English Language, Retail Operations, Drama, Dance, Physical Education and Art. She will meet them during their TTT/PLC slot or online.
At Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (Pri) and White Sands Primary, she trained the teachers to re-design their project work curriculum at Primary 3 to 5 using the UbD framework and to implement it with research skills. She conducted an introduction to UbD workshop for E4 cluster organized by Telok Kurau Primary for both primary and secondary schools catering to the local syllabus and aligning with high-stakes testing. At Tanjong Katong Secondary, she was their external consultant for their TLLM Ignite Programme in planning and training the teachers to implement integrated curriculum at Secondary One from 2007 – 2009.
She also trained teachers in North 2 Cluster schools such as Chongfu and Northland Secondary to implement critical thinking, differentiated instruction, facilitation skills and Assessment for Learning while integrating technology. In 2009, Ministry of Education appointed her as an external consultant to the TLLM Ignite 2! Schools looking into integrated curriculum. In 2011, she was the keynote speaker for N2 cluster conference on assessment. Since 2017, the schools that she has been working with for differentiated instruction include Fuhua Primary, Henry Park, Hong Wen, Geylang Methodist Primary, Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah, Marymount Convent, Pei Tong Primary, Punggol Green Primary, and Singapore International School (Hong Kong).
She was one of the consultants assisting St Joseph Institution from 2011-2012 to make a transition to IB curriculum using Understanding by Design Framework and Concept-based Curriculum. At the same time, she was involved in helping schools such as Queensway Secondary to introduce inquiry-based learning as a school-wide pedagogy.
From 2014 onwards, she has been training the teachers in Singapore International School (Hong Kong) to use the UbD framework to align and map a rigorous curriculum from pre-school years to DP2 as they prepare the students for IGCSE curriculum and the IB Diploma Programme. In addition, she taught the teachers to design ongoing assessment that is valid, reliable, sufficient and fair so that feedback can be accurate and robust to help improve teaching and learning.
Ai Leng is also passionate about training teachers to discover and assess the cognitive and affective thinking of the students while teaching the students how to think critically using Socratic Questioning, Richard Paul’s Wheel of Reasoning or thinking routines from Making Thinking Visible. Schools such as Dazhong Primary, Kheng Cheng Primary, Fuhua Primary, Tanjong Katong Girls’ Secondary integrated thinking routines into their curriculum to develop students’ thinking and learning abilities.
Furthermore, she helps to bring about changes in the schools such as Marymount Convent through coaching key personnel to be curriculum leaders and coaches using observation, reflective conversation and effective feedback (Feiman-Nemser, 2001) to enhance teachers’ professional learning adopting a “Train the Trainers” Model. As key personnel in the various departments play a critical role shaping and bringing about significant changes in the curriculum through the way they think (depth of understanding, beliefs, values and intentions), say and do (Sparks, 2007), the key personnel form part of a professional learning community led by the consultant.
Moreover, she was a part-time lecturer of the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Academic Group at National Institute of Education (NIE), where she shared with Research Activists development of Integrated Curriculum in 2009, 2010 and 2012, and in-service teachers on Differentiated Instruction in 2011 and 2012. She was also involved in launching a pilot workshop on Assessment for Humanities teachers in 2012 as part of a collaboration between MOE and NIE. Between 2011-2012, she was a also a part-time lecturer of the Humanities and Social Studies Education Academic Group at NIE conducting fieldwork course for secondary school Geography teachers as a preparation for changes in the Humanities syllabus in 2013. Furthermore, she also shared her expertise on instructional and communication technology, and classroom management with the trainee teachers (Dip Ed and PGDE) from 2000 – 2009. Between 2002 – 2003, she was invited as a guest lecturer in BA third year for Social Studies Primary as well as a part-time lecturer in Adv Dip for Social Studies Primary. She also trained the third and fourth year BA trainee teachers in Advanced Strategies for the Teaching of Social Studies. Between 2005 – 2007, she was part of the team responsible for the launching of the new Social Studies (Primary) curriculum along with Understanding by Design (UbD) and Differentiated Instruction, and training the teachers to implement them. In 2007, 2009 and 2012, she was one of the lecturers involved in training the PGDE students in the Teaching and Assessment of Geography. She was also one of the NIE Supervision Coordinators as well as one of the Financial Literacy pedagogy team members developing the teaching package infusing financial literacy into the curriculum.
Between 2005-2011, she was involved in conceptualising and designing e-experiments, online hypermedia educational programs and virtual machines for the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University. In 2013, she was involved in developing their first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) which was launched and delivered via Coursera in February 2014.
Ai Leng holds a Master in Education (Curriculum and Teaching) from Nanyang Technological University, BA (Hons.) from National University of Singapore and Dip Ed distinction from the National Institute of Education. She was awarded the top prize for training practicum. She presented a paper on role of professional development in enhancing the pedagogical content knowledge of secondary school geography teachers in Singapore on 8th and 9th September Educational Research Association of Singapore Conference 2011.