MR DENNIS Hayes expressed his concern that Finland's move towards interdisciplinary "phenomenon-based" learning would make learning merely about preparing students for working life rather than educating them ("Finland giving up excellent education system"; Wednesday).
In fact, these goals are not mutually exclusive: Finland's policy may serve to bring about a more comprehensive and relevant education for students, making it something that Singapore's Ministry of Education should seriously consider.
No discipline can exist in isolation. Many of the problems that are faced by societies today require weaving multiple disciplines together in order to come up with a comprehensive solution.
For instance, resolving the annual haze experienced by Singapore requires the input of political scientists and economists to assess policy interventions, and engineers to produce new conservation technology.
It is clear that students will need a more interdisciplinary education to confront real-world problems.
What Finland's policy does is that it tries to stimulate real-world case studies so that students are better able to combine different areas of knowledge.
This not only allows students to learn the skills of applying knowledge to the real world, but also fosters a more comprehensive acquisition of knowledge as they learn to see issues and ideas from different perspectives, thus allowing for insights greater than the sum of the parts.
This is arguably superior to an education that limits students by segregating strictly different areas of knowledge.
Singapore has long been moving towards a knowledge-based economy and has also been grappling with the problem of an education that breeds regimented thinking.
By introducing interdisciplinary pedagogy, we produce not only a more relevant workforce, but also one that is able to think more critically through different modes of thought.
Singapore students will benefit if more research is undertaken with a view to implementing such ideas in its education system.
Ng Qi Siang
In fact, these goals are not mutually exclusive: Finland's policy may serve to bring about a more comprehensive and relevant education for students, making it something that Singapore's Ministry of Education should seriously consider.
No discipline can exist in isolation. Many of the problems that are faced by societies today require weaving multiple disciplines together in order to come up with a comprehensive solution.
For instance, resolving the annual haze experienced by Singapore requires the input of political scientists and economists to assess policy interventions, and engineers to produce new conservation technology.
It is clear that students will need a more interdisciplinary education to confront real-world problems.
What Finland's policy does is that it tries to stimulate real-world case studies so that students are better able to combine different areas of knowledge.
This not only allows students to learn the skills of applying knowledge to the real world, but also fosters a more comprehensive acquisition of knowledge as they learn to see issues and ideas from different perspectives, thus allowing for insights greater than the sum of the parts.
This is arguably superior to an education that limits students by segregating strictly different areas of knowledge.
Singapore has long been moving towards a knowledge-based economy and has also been grappling with the problem of an education that breeds regimented thinking.
By introducing interdisciplinary pedagogy, we produce not only a more relevant workforce, but also one that is able to think more critically through different modes of thought.
Singapore students will benefit if more research is undertaken with a view to implementing such ideas in its education system.
Ng Qi Siang
