Exploring the Presence of Engineering Indices in the Singaporean High School Physics Standards: A Content Analysis (work-in-progress)

Singapore is one of the leading countries globally in industry indicators, ranking second in the 2018 World Economic Forum's Readiness for the Future of Production Report and first out of 120 nations in the 2017 Danish Institute of Industry Global Industry 4.0 Readiness Index. This reflects Singapore's robust and diversified industrial capacity, as well as its leadership in sectors such as avionics, computing, biological engineering, and microelectronics. Underlying this global competitiveness is the Singaporean education system, which hinges on fostering students' engineering knowledge, skills, and interest. Towards understanding how engineering is supported across levels of education, this work-in-progress examines potential engineering indices embedded in existing science courses (i.e., physics) across high school and identifies entry points for new engineering ideas. A content analysis technique was employed to investigate reform documents from the Ministry of Education (MOE) website using the Framework for Quality K-12 Engineering Education. We iteratively reviewed the magnitude of engineering indices infused in the standards and the ramifications of including aspects of engineering in various scientific domains. Preliminary findings indicate that observed engineering indices fluctuate across both physics subjects and different grade levels. In addition to the extended discussion, this study also provides future directions for potential studies.