This super-charged alumnus gives back in Chemistry and more
30 Aug 2024
With his PhD in Organic Chemistry opening doors to numerous careers, Dr Bryan Tan Yong Hao chose the path he found most rewarding: returning to his secondary school as a teacher. He attributes this passion to his many good teachers who had helped him out of a rocky start in life. Now, Dr Tan strives to do the same, focusing on people development in both his students and colleagues.
Dr Tan is the School Staff Developer at Temasek Secondary School and a recipient of the 2024 President’s Award for Teachers.
Dr Bryan Tan puts on two distinct hats in school – one that nurtures and develops staff, and another that sparks his students’ interest in scientific research. His infectious passion in both areas create a domino effect, influencing colleagues and students to go the extra mile for themselves, each other, and the community.
Inspiration: Clear vision guided by life experiences
Dr Tan’s father fell ill when he was in Secondary 2, and his mother became the sole breadwinner. Amid the family woes, he lost focus in school. Noticing his unusual behaviour, his teachers stepped in. They helped him apply for scholarships and bursaries, so that finances could become less of a worry. They also constantly encouraged him to put in his best effort and re-assured him that he can still succeed despite his difficult situation. With the support given, Dr Tan went on to do well consistently, at secondary school, junior college and in his university studies.
When Dr Tan became a teacher, he wanted to give back to the very place that made a difference to him; Temasek Secondary. For him, secondary school “is where students start to grow up and find their way, but are also the most malleable”.
Transformation: Revving up talent development and teacher training
One way Dr Tan cultivates student potential is to work on the school’s talent development programme, the Temasek Ignis Programme (TIP). TIP offers opportunities to develop leadership and communication skills as well as positive learning dispositions. Dr Tan saw how each training strand within TIP was operated separately, leading to students being stretched too thin.
Dr Tan, along with the TIP team, redesigned TIP in 2016 to provide more structure and guidance for the students. Participants (termed TIPpers) would now complete a foundation programme in Lower Secondary before choosing an area of specialisation in Upper Secondary. Some areas of specialisation include Leadership, Science Research, and Humanities.
Dr Tan leads the Science Research specialisation, where TIPpers learn to conduct scientific inquiry, understand the natural world through evidence-based studies, and apply ethics in research. While these skills may not directly impact their grades, students benefit from a deeper understanding of the world, and greater opportunities for success in their chosen area.
“Challenges prepare you for bigger challenges.”
For his first batch of TIPpers, success soon came when they managed to qualify for the finals of the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair in 2019, where hundreds of student teams from upper secondary to junior college level compete. This was also the first time any team from Temasek Secondary had reached the finals. Dr Tan called it a “proud father moment” when a student remarked, “I don’t feel like a small fish anymore. I feel like I can compete with the top teams in Singapore.”.
Through TIP, Dr Tan also partners with the community to grow the students’ awareness of their surroundings, through addressing real-life scenarios. For instance, TIPpers worked on a nine-month-long collaboration in 2023 with non-profit organisation Bold At Work, using design thinking principles to develop solutions to healthcare issues in the community.
Confidence and growth are what the TIP team aims for. Dr Tan’s own growth as an educator came about when he was appointed School Staff Developer (SSD) in 2021. He didn’t see himself as a designer of teachers’ learning, but his school saw the potential in him.
He currently supports his colleagues in various areas of professional development, one of which is to drive the Microteaching initiative, where teachers teach each other. In sharing pedagogies and good practices, teachers in Temasek secondary also discuss the thinking behind the use of different pedagogies, experience classes from their students’ perspective, and apply the learning to their own teaching.
The initiative has borne fruit, leading to many of his colleagues expanding their spheres of influence beyond Temasek Secondary. More than 13 teacher-led projects had been selected for sharing at various platforms such as the Teacher-led Workshop series organised by Academy of Singapore Teachers since 2021.
Reflection: Turning challenges into opportunities
“We only know what we know,” says Dr Tan, who emphasises the importance of building on personal experience by taking on new challenges, because “challenges prepare you for bigger challenges”.
A particularly personal challenge for him has been to raise a son with special needs. Commendably, Dr Tan chooses to perceive this as an opportunity, to take what he has learned as a parent, and apply it to his work in school. Dr Tan took up training to teach students with special education needs (SEN), and now spends an hour a week to mentor them and offer academic support. He recognises that they may need support at any time within the school day, not just during SEN sessions. Dr Tan recounted a time when a student with SEN panicked at the task of lighting a Bunsen burner and he had to calm the student down.
With this in mind, Dr Tan developed plans with the school’s Senior Special Needs Officer and other colleagues trained in SEN to train all teachers on how to support these students and manage such situations better.
His positive attitude, hands-on approach, willingness to get his hands dirty and approachable demeanour has won him the respect from both his students and the teaching fraternity. He puts it down to relationship-building. “If they know you care about them, and they like you, they will fight battles for you.”
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