Innovation

As a small country, Singapore has since its earliest years, been finding new and creative ways of getting ahead of others, with innovation being a main focus of its development efforts.  In view of this broader landscape, our Nanyang Innovation Direct School Admission (DSA) Programme hopes to invite students who are keen observers, passionate to propose changes in different areas of need and shows a willingness to take risks and experiment with new solutions.

Our programme seeks to develop students’ design mindsets and behaviours, of which creative thinking will be an area of focus. Design is more than just a form-giving aesthetic function but the capacity to propose changes to different areas, come up with human-centric solutions and innovate systems and experiences. We aim to inculcate design mindsets such as learning from failure, creative confidence and ‘make it’ (power of tangibility), to grow our students to arrive at innovative, impactful solutions. We also hope to develop the skills and characteristics of our DSA students through her 4 year journey with us. Some of the skills include the ability to identify and capitalize on untapped areas of opportunities as well as apply and drive empathetic-centred design thinking to better understand users’ feelings and perceptions. Among the characteristics that we strive to develop in our students, it would include the horizontal characteristic of T-shaped (generalizing specialist) individuals – who will be able to develop a range of skills which allows one to cooperate with representatives of other fields and share a common language with them.

The school aims to nurture in students a sense of curiosity about people and attendant issues leading to developing their empathy for others who come from a different cultural and socio-economic context, and also for them to engage with knowledge critically and creatively.

In NYGH, there are three main tiers in our Innovation framework of ‘Just Try’ which focuses on developing mindsets, beliefs and attitudes, ‘Organise and Expand’ which focuses on honing skills and tools, and finally ‘Level Up’ which provides platforms for action by students. Our key innovation approach is anchored on Design Thinking, which is a human-centric approach towards innovation. The students will go through the different stages of Design Thinking through a range of learning experiences such as interacting with community partners and speakers, going on learning journeys and engaging in collaborative learning. They will also embark on team projects to address a design challenge, where they can apply their learning and tap on skills picked up in various contexts.

Through our school programmes, we seek to develop students’ design mindsets and behaviours, which includes developing their capacity to come up with human-centric solutions or innovate systems and experiences. Various platforms will be created such as school-based opportunities for our students to further develop ideas and early versions of prototypes. There will also be an active curation of external partnerships for our students to learn from institutes of higher learning, local start-ups and other community partners.