Dr Christina Ratnam

Dr Christina Ratnam is a Senior Lecturer in the Policy, Curriculum and Leadership Academic Group at National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

She previously taught English Literature and English Language in a local secondary school and served in various capacities at the Ministry of Education: implementing the English Language 1992 syllabus, designing the English Literature teaching syllabus (1996), producing educational media, and crafting a framework for a kindergarten curriculum (2003).

At NTU, she teaches on crafting the curriculum where she enjoys “unpacking” the curriculum implications of various purposes on knowledge that is valued, learning and assessment experiences, and how they are organized. Christina also teaches on theories and perspectives on learning, where she is intrigued by her students’ sharing of their reflections of their own perspectives of learning. Christina is also involved in facilitating conversations with school leaders, middle leaders and teacher leaders about their roles in curriculum leadership. Her research interests include evaluation of curriculum implementation and teacher learning and professional development. Her funded research projects include: unpacking the variety in lesson study in Singapore; exploring the designing of a growth mindset curriculum in a Singaporean school; examining teachers’ conceptions and use of reflection to understand their practice; and perspectives of middle leaders on leading differentiated instruction.

Christina facilitated a course on designing and evaluating the curriculum for NAFA’s academic management in 2016. Using the Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP) Evaluation Model, she led colleagues in 8 disciplines to plan and carry out curriculum planning, implementation and assessment, in preparation for a new curriculum that was subsequently rolled out in 2017. She has since continued to be a mentor-friend-advisor to curriculum-led initiatives, including a project that celebrates the dynamic relationship between teaching and learning of the arts through the eyes of doyen artist-educators at NAFA.