Cross-Cultural Communication: Singapore Education System Analysis

This briefing paper provides a detailed analysis of Singapore's education system to assist German secondary school teachers spending three months in Singapore. It explores key aspects including the bilingual education policy, communication styles (contrasting Singapore's high-context culture with Germany's direct communication), the structure of secondary education (including different streams and the PSLE), co-curricular activities, and the Integrated Programme. The report also examines Singapore's teaching practices, including the Singapore Teaching Practice model and the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy, highlighting the focus on holistic education and student-centered learning. The paper further discusses the instructional regime in Singapore, emphasizing its uniformity, reliance on textbooks, and teacher-dominated classroom discussions. The analysis underscores the differences between the Singaporean and German education systems, particularly in language, communication, and teaching methodologies, aiming to enhance mutual understanding and effective cross-cultural communication for the visiting teachers.

Running head: CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Cross Cultural Communication
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Efficient cross cultural communication is essential for the well-being and well-
functioning of the societies and a basic understanding of the cultural diversity is the key to
effective cross cultural communications (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016). The charge of effective
cross cultural communication is to produce some guidelines by means of which people from
diverse cultures could communicate with one another in better way. This briefing paper is
going to present some detailed analysis of the education system of Singapore so that the
secondary school teachers from Germany who are going to spend 3 months in Singapore
working in their primary schools could get an idea about the culture and the education system
of theirs in order to contribute their best.
The Singaporean Education system is aimed towards the excellence for the students
and it gives great flexibility and importance to effective communication, perseverance,
building relationships and time management (Zahari et al., 2018). It has always been a
significant focus of the world-wide interest and attention in past few years. On the other
hand, Germany is a quite big country and there is a fierce competition among the students
there. Since centuries Germany was a key centre for education and comprised of several
famous colleges and universities. The secondary education system of Singapore is different
from what the German teachers see in Germany. A brief analysis of the secondary education
system of Singapore is presented below:
Language Spoken- It is to note that Singapore has a bilingual education policy and
there all the students studying in the government schools are taught English as their first
language. Therefore, it would not be that tough for the German teachers who have good
fluency in English to interact with the students and teachers there. However, languages like
Tamil, Mandarin and Malay are also taught in the schools as second language by the MOE
and are the commonly spoken language there (Chew, 2017). Hence, in order to interact with
the rest other common public, teachers from Germany need to be have fluency in this

2CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
language as well. With the same, for the international students, third language are also
offered and they include German, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and French.
Communication Style- The way in which cultures communicate differs greatly and at
the same time, they are either low-context or high-context communicators. According to Yeo
and Pang (2017), Singapore is a high-context culture and the message delivered here is
mostly indirect and it would be the job the German teachers to figure out and identify what
they are trying to tell them. It is to mention that a large part of the meaning of the Asian
words or Asian communication is coded in their non-verbal cues, silence and contact etc. and
with the same, they leave it up to the other people in order to read between their lines. The
German teachers coming from Germany, where direct communication is highly rewarded and
valued, there people directly say what they mean and mean what they say (Chan, 2017). As
quality and precision are greatly regarded in Germany, it makes sense that the culture of
Germany wants to avoid any sort of misunderstandings among themselves. However, in the
case of Singapore, this often comes across as confrontational, crude, rude and blunt for most
of the Singaporeans or Asians.
It is also to note that as claimed by Bird and Mendenhall (2016) Singapore is a diverse
nation and it is ethic mixed. As stated, English, Malay, Tamil and Mandarin Chinese are the
four commonly spoken languages. Most of the schools in Singapore run the curriculum in
English language and therefore, the English level are highly good in Singapore and most of
the common people are fluent in this language (Curdt-Christiansen, 2016). Notwithstanding
this fact, mutual comprehension and good communication often need more than just a
common language and there can be several misunderstandings flowing because of diverse
concepts of the proper and improper use of language. Furthermore, in most of the Asian
cultures, “no” is a difficult word. It is equal to disagreement and can influence the harmony

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of the situation (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016). However, in the education and school context it
would hardly make any difference for the German teachers.
Secondary Education- In Singapore, the secondary education is based on 4 different
streams and they are Integrated Programme, Normal or Academic, Normal or Technical and
Express. It is to note that the Singaporeans are not allowed to attend the International schools
present on the island if not granted permission for the same by the Ministry of Education
(MOE). Towards the end of the Primary 6 class, the national PSLE (Primary School Leaving
Examination) is held (Loh & Shih, 2016). As per the result of this examination, the passing
students are allowed to leave the primary school and are placed in the secondary schools. All
this is done depending on the performance of the very student in this particular examination
(Omar, 2017). MOE has reviewed the assessment and curriculum system in order to develop
learning and thinking skills for the future. The secondary school students are provided with
more choices in order to decide on which subject combination they want to opt for in the
schools (Goodwin, Darling-Hammond & Low, 2017). With the same, they can also new
subjects like Drama, Economics and Computer Studies.
Co-curricular activities and Integrated Programmes- It is mandatory for both the
secondary and primary school students to participate in CCA (Co-Curricular Activities). Each
students should participate in at least one activity. However, it is to note that the CCA that are
offered at the secondary level are basically categorised as the Performing Arts, Sports and
Games, Uniformed Groups and Clubs and Societies (Gopinathan, 2017). There are several
CCA activities offered at the secondary school level but different schools choose different
CCAs. So, it depends on to which the German teachers would be going. Furthermore, it is
also to mention in this context that the participation in the CCAs is graded altogether with all
the other non-academic achievement all through the secondary school education of the
student in the scoring system called LEAPS 2.0 (Goodwin, Darling-Hammond & Low,

4CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
2017). The points that are accumulated in the field of leadership, participation, enrichment,
service and achievement will determine the CCA grade of the student. The LEAPS 2.0 is all
about these elements. Also, it is to note that the method of calculating the two bonus points
are very different and with LEAPS 2.0 making it tough for achieving the two bonus points
(Yang et al., 2015). Integrated Programmes in Singapore are also called ‘Tough Train
Programme’ (Goodwin, Darling-Hammond & Low, 2017). It is basically a scheme that
allows the most able secondary students in the Singapore to bypass the ‘O’ levels and taking
into the ‘A’ levels or an equivalent exam, directly when he or she is at the age of 18 years.
This program allow the students to take more time in order to be allocated to the enrichment
activities.
Teaching practise in Singapore- The Singapore Teaching Practise is a model, which
makes explicit how the effective learning and teaching is attained in the schools of Singapore
(Fulmer, Lee & Tan, 2015). It is basically represented in the form of an orchid flowed that
reflects the context of country within which teachers practise their craft. Below mentioned is
the figure of the same.

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Figure 1: The model of STP (Singapore Teaching Practise)
The Singaporean Philosophy, Understanding of the Subject Matter and Goals,
Understanding Teaching and Understanding Students and Learning are the four core teaching
processes at the heart of PP (Pedagogical Practises) of Singapore and it is something that
make explicit what teachers put into practise. Moreover, the Singapore Curriculum
Philosophy (SCP) presents the core beliefs of the teaching fraternity of Singapore regarding
learning and teaching (Castro-Hallgren, 2017). These beliefs place every students at the heart
of their educational decisions and at the same time, guide the implementation and designing
of the curriculum. Singaporean education system is designed in a manner that reflects that
they believe in holistic education and that, they focus on the learning needs of the children
and make the best out of their learning experiences (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016). Also,
learning takes place individually and collaboratively in the Singapore classrooms, as children
construct and co-construct meaning from their own knowledge and experiences. The
teacher’s guide the learners and students in order to attain prior knowledge, and at the same
time, assimilate and accommodate new knowledge through exploration, and interaction with
others (Goodwin, Darling-Hammond & Low, 2017). This allows them to build a strong
foundation of knowledge by connecting new ideas and experiences with what they already
know, thus facilitating the understanding of concepts and the application of what they have
learnt to different contexts in Singapore education system.
Instructional regime in Singapore- It is to note that the classroom instruction in
Singapore is greatly uniform and scripted over all the subjects and levels. There, teaching
process is coherent and pragmatic and it draws upon a large range of the pedagogical
traditions- both Western and Eastern. The teaching in Singapore is basically focused on the
coverage of the entire education curriculum along with the procedural knowledge, the
transmission of the factual knowledge among the students as well as preparing the students

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for the end of the semesters and the national level examinations (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016).
With the same, teachers in the secondary schools greatly depend on the textbooks, worked
examples, worksheets as well as the high range of drills and practices. At the same time, they
also strongly focus on the mastery of the particular process along with the potential of
representing the problems and issues in clear manner, particularly in the subject of
mathematics (Goodwin, Darling-Hammond & Low, 2017). The classroom talks are highly
teacher dominated and also they avoid extended and external context discussions in the
classrooms. According to Loh and Shih (2016), “Singaporean teachers only make limited use
of “high leverage” or unusually effective teaching practices that contemporary educational
research (at least in the West) regards as critical to the development of conceptual
understanding and “learning how to learn””. For instance, they make very limited usage of
checking prior knowledge of the students and in communicating about the learning goals and
the standards of achieving them. With the same, while monitoring the learning of the students
and providing them feedbacks upon their progress and performance, they highly do so in the
ways by focusing more on understanding whether or not they are knowing the right answers
instead of assessing their level of understanding (Goodwin, Darling-Hammond & Low,
2017).
Working across different cultures is more interesting and is also more enjoyable than
working or doing business within one’s own nationality. From the above analysis it can be
stated that the education system of Singapore greatly differs from that of Germany in terms of
language spoken, communication style, teaching practise, secondary education system and
the use of co-curricular activities and grading system. There is a wide range of courses in the
Singapore education system and they are both academic and practical knowledge oriented.
Also, students are given the freedom to choose subjects as per their interests and also, the
education system heavily depend on the system of feedbacks. Mutual comprehension and

7CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
good communication often need more than just a common language and there can be several
misunderstandings flowing because of diverse concepts of the proper and improper use of
language. Also, it is to note that Singapore is a high-context culture and the messages
delivered there are mostly indirect in nature and it would be the job the German teachers to
figure out and identify what they are trying to tell them. Lastly, the teaching regime in
Singapore is highly focused on the performance of the students in examination and on the
transmission of the conventional curriculum knowledge.

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