For Schools

As a DREAMS participating school/teacher, your students are a part of our diverse participant group of >7000 students sharing about what it’s like to be a secondary school student in Singapore.

On This Page

Your Role

The DREAMS research team sincerely thanks you for your involvement in coordinating data collection for our study. Without you, this study wouldn’t be possible.

What can I expect as a participating school of DREAMS?

  • Annual surveys
    • Students will be invited to complete 2 surveys per year for students throughout their secondary education (2023-2026/7)
    • Parents and teachers will be invited to complete 1 survey per year during the same time period.
    • Students, parents, and teachers may be invited for additional follow-up interview sessions in Term 4.
  • Annual school visits (if desired)
    • For our team to distribute tokens of appreciation to your students for their participation and/or share about our study.
  • Each participating school has an appointed teacher as a Point of Contact (POC) liaising with our research team.
  • Our findings will be shared periodically through various channels (eg. on our website, social media, presentations, reports, tip sheets)

What is my role as a teacher?

  • If you have students(s) participating in DREAMS, you will be invited to complete 1 annual survey sent to your email in Term 3. 
  • You may be invited for a follow-up interview session in Term 4.

What else can I do as part of a participating school?

  • Please reach out to your DREAMS point of contact to discuss further collaborations!
  • Follow us on Instagram or Facebook for regular project updates and findings.
  • Read more about DREAMS here

Upcoming Events

School Leaders Sharing

  • Term 3
  • By invitation only

This session is for principals/school leaders of DREAMS participating schools. Our team will share key findings from the DREAMS study and hold a Q&A.

Parent Webinar 2025

  • Term 4
  • Zoom

Parents will be invited to a webinar where we will share insights from the DREAMS study and discuss topics relevant to adolescent development.

Tip Sheets for Teachers

Click to view: 

Understanding Our Students with Specific Learning Disabilities in Secondary Schools (25/08/25)

Harnessing Relationships to Improve Sense of Belonging and Motivation (08/01/25)

Student Career Aspirations (28/05/24)

Timeline*

* subject to change & may differ by school

Frequently Asked Questions

  • AI tools will transcribe interview audio and generate initial draft transcripts ​
  • These tools are managed by trusted service providers who follow data protection guidelines, though they are not directly operated by NTU​
  • Identifying information will be scrubbed from the audio files before they are uploaded, and completed transcripts + audio recordings are deleted and not retained by the service provider​
  • Exposure to data leakage is prevented as much as possible​

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Our team plans to generate personalised reports for schools with full cohort participation at the end of the study. As DREAMS is a longitudinal study, we’re only able to share these insights after data collection concludes, to avoid influencing school practices in ways that may compromise the integrity of the findings. We thank you for your continued support and patience.

We will regularly share our study findings through various channels (eg. tip sheets, blog posts, social media updates, academic publications, and presentations etc.) throughout the duration of the study. The best way to stay up to date is by following us on Instagram or Facebook.

The DREAMS research team takes our responsibility as guardians of participants’ information very seriously. We have several procedures in place to keep your data and privacy secure and protected.

DREAMS has approval and oversight from the NTU Institutional Review Board (IRB), ensuring compliance with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The NTU-IRB ensures the protection of human subjects involved in research studies by maintaining the highest levels of research ethics and integrity.

Your participation in this research will be kept confidential. Identifying information (e.g., name, last 4 characters of NRIC, e-mail address) will be asked to ensure the accuracy of our records, for linking of data collected at different time points, and for contacting you. Identifying information is removed and replaced with a random numeric ID to ensure anonymity before it is transferred to our research team for analysis, where everyone’s answers are combined and reported as aggregates.

The findings of this study may be reported in scientific presentations and reports, as well as social and broadcast media. Your identity will NOT be reflected or disclosed in these presentations, reports, and publications.

This study is run by the National Institute of Education commissioned by the Ministry of Education

Opting out of any surveys will not affect your relationship with the National Institute of Education or Ministry of Education or impact any ongoing assessment/grades. You may skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

You decide whether to complete the surveys. While participation is voluntary, we encourage you to take part. Your survey responses are a direct contribution to meaningful research that can positively influence policies and practices related to student education and well-being.

Yes teachers of participants will receive a survey in their emails once a year in Term 3.

A diverse range of schools were invited to obtain a diverse sample of various educational pathways. 28 schools accepted the invitation to the study in 2023.