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​LESSON PLAN

Subject: ​History Class:​ 2E3

Unit: ​Unit 3 Was Singapore an Accidental Nation?​ Date:​ January 2020

Topic: ​Chapter 5​ ​Did the Japanese Occupation Change the Way People Viewed Singapore?

Time:​ 40 minutes

Prior Knowledge
Students should already know:
1. People’s views towards Singapore before the JO
2. Why the Japanese colonise countries
3. How the Japanese defeated the British

Links to this lesson

● The shift in perception of the British through the creation of [1] Asia for Asians and [2] and British
as inferior
Links to next lesson
● Evaluate and explain the change in people’s attitude of British as rulers of SG (from before to
during JO)
● How forms of Japanese propaganda change people's views towards the British and towards
themselves

Instructional Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Explain why ​the Japanese adopted “Asia for Asians” and ended the myth of the white man’s
superiority

Time Lesson Development Rationale (optional) Resources

Introduction
5 Greeting and introduction of the teacher
mins Teacher to create rapport with students. This is
essential in delivering an effective lesson.
Building of TSR and classroom
management. TSR is especially
important for this class as
students are academically
weaker with low confidence
level. By establishing TSR,
students will be more inclined to
pay attention, particularly for
frontal teaching, in class.
Students will also be more
comfortable in answering
questions and participating in
discussions.

3 Setting of routines and expectations in the
mins classroom
Teacher to set routines and expectations in the
classroom.
- Materials (history file and textbook) to
be on the table before the teacher
comes into the classroom
Starting the lesson with proper
routines and expectations help
to create a positive classroom
culture. This ensures that
students are ready to
participate actively (MOE:
OPAL, 2017). This is done also

- RAISE YOUR HAND If you need to
speak/contribute to a discussion
- LISTEN when your someone is
speaking
- Contribute to class discussion! Be a
participative and inquisitive Historian.
- File in all your History notes & materials
Hand in your assignments on time
- Ask questions when in doubt
At the end of which, teacher to ask students if
they have any other addition to the existing
routines and expectations.
Teacher to also emphasise the ​reason why
routines and expectations are needed and
necessary for learning to take place in the
classroom.
5 Recap
mins Teacher to conduct a quick recap of what
happened in the previous lesson (before
Japanese Occupation)
- “Let’s have a quick recap of what
happened before the JO”
This is to be done through a mindmap.
Teacher to write the questions on the
whiteboard. Teacher to ask and get responses
from students with the following questions:
[1] How were the locals treated before JO?
- Not involved in the government, had no
say in the administration
[2] Why did the British colonised SG?
- Superiority complex, more civilised
- Burden of responsibility to colonise
[3] How did SG fall into the hands of the
Japanese?
- British was complacent, no one could
break the line of defence in SG, SG was
the “impregnable fortress”
- Japan was way more prepared than the
British
- British was more focused on the home
front war efforts to defeat Nazi Germany
- British guns were pointing the wrong
way. Guns were in the South of
Singapore (Labrador park, Bukit
Chandu, Fort Siloso)
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to apply Erikson’s stages of
psychosocial development by
getting students to take
ownership of their own learning
and classroom environment so
that they develop an
industriousness attitude rather
than inferior one (Tan et al.,
2017). Allowing students to
contribute to the routines and
expectations in the classroom
will make them take ownership
of their own learning. As a
result, students will hopefully
self-regulate and self-manage
their own behaviour in the
classroom where productive
and efficient learning can take
place.
Recap acts as a link between
the previous lesson to the
current lesson. This will ease
students into the lesson and to
a new chapter. Recapping is
important as it helps students
develop a sense of period
where students are able to
construct a (time-based)
framework of historical periods
(before and during JO). With
this, students will be able to
situate new knowledge within its
proper historical contexts.
Furthermore, establishing
proper chronology provides the
means to understand
timeframes, changes and
continuities, and causal links of
factors important for the
transition from before to during
the Japanese occupation.
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- Japan was resilient despite lack of

mapower (British forces outnumbered
Japanese forces 3:1, 130 000: 30 000)
- Japan looked intimidating (Yamashita’s
bluff)
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Lesson Development OR Main Activities

5 Trigger activity: Sparking Curiousity

mins
Teacher to start the lesson by sparking
curiousity with the following question:
Imagine you are a local living in Singapore when
Singapore fell into the hands of the Japanese.
[1] What are your feelings towards the British?
Why?
[2] What are your feelings towards the
Japanese? Why?
Making thinking visible of the
attitudes adopted by the locals
towards the British and the
Japanese. From students’
responses, teacher can then
delve into the idea of the
mindset the people had towards
the British and the Japanese.

Students will be given 2 minutes to share with

their partner.

After which, the teacher gets and shares

students’ responses with the class.

15 Frontal teaching:
mins “Asia for Asians”
Teacher to start frontal teaching by tapping on
students’ prior knowledge of superiority and
inferiority complex. Teacher to ask students
“What kind of mindset did Asians have of
themselves before Japanese rule?” (inferiority
complex). Teacher to then ask a follow up
question to ascertain whether students
understand what inferiority complex: “what does
it mean to have an inferiority complex?” (to feel
like you are less than someone). “And what is
the opposite of having an inferiority complex?”
(superiority complex). “Who had a superiority
complex?” (British/Europeans)

Slide 4
Under Japanese rule, the British were no longer
seen as superior than Asians. The Japanese
rule levelled out the playing field such that
Asians were seen to be just as good or even
better than Europeans. How did the Japanese
created this shift/change in mindset? By calling
for this idea of “Asia for Asians”

They promised them that Asia will no longer be

ruled by the Europeans. Instead, Asians would
get to rule their own country. This idea of Asians
having the autonomy to rule their own country
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or by their fellow Asian brothers was termed

“Asia for Asians.”

Slide 5
Questioning & Studying Source
What did the Japanese mean when they say
Asia for Asians?
What kind of identity or way of life were the
Japanese propagating?
What were the Japanese trying to achieve by
promoting this idea of “Asia for Asians”?

Slide 6
Studying and Inference of Photo of POWs
Looking at this photo, what do you see?
Who are these people?
How did the Japanese make British soldiers look
inferior?
Why do you think they have fallen into this
state? Why are they so skinny?
Why did the Japanese want to make the British
soldiers look this way?
What is the​ purpose​ of making the British
soldiers look this way?

Interesting fact: ​“Some prisoners even told

stories of being forced to drink pints of water,
being tied to the ground and then having gleeful
guards jump on their stomachs.”
“Prisoners were starved of food and the camps
were rife with cholera and dysentery. My father
once told me he would eat anything he could
find including frogs, spiders and snakes”

Slide 7
Teacher to get a student to read the source out
loud. Teacher to then analyse the source and
pick out important details.
Were the Japanese successful in changing the
minds of the people of the British as the superior
ruler?

Closure and Consolidation ​OR​ Post-Activity

Checking for understanding and
7 Teacher to consolidate key learning points (3 assessment of learning.
mins mins)
In this reflection, Whiteboard
Explain why the Japanese adopted “Asia for self-determination theory is Markers
Asians” and made the British look inferior? incorporated in the model
where questions are given to
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- propaganda through the promotion of students. Self-determination is

Asia for Asians, more compliant to
following the Japanese, loyalty and
support
- POWs British as incapable,
incompetent, to make them into the
enemy, in the eyes of the locals the
British were evil and Japanese good,
- Enforcement of a positive image vs
negative image, will support them,
create loyalty, look at Japanese
favourably, no resistance, compliance
3-2-1 Exit cards on post-its ​(4 mins)
Students to jot down:
3 things I have learned today
2 things I found interesting
1 question I still have
defined as “deciding for yourself
how to act in your environment
in order to achieve optimal
learning and adjustment” (Tan,
2017). This is done through the
various questions that students
have to respond to. Teacher to
consolidate and summarise key
learning points for students.
At this point, the teacher will
also evaluate students’ learning
as to whether they have
achieved the instructional
objectives for the lesson
through a short written
summary.

Reflections ​(Choose 1 aspect of the lesson to reflect on – positive or negative one. It can be written in
point form – not more than 1 page)
1. What happened? (What did my students do? What did I do?)
2. Why? (Why did I think things happened this way? Why did I choose to act the way I did?)
3. So what? (What have I learnt from this?)
4. Now what? (What do I want to remember to think about in a similar situation? How do I want to
act in future?)
© 2015, NIE, Office of Teacher Education (OTE), Practicum