Meet Nithiyah Sokumaran

Nithiyah has been working in the special education sector for more than fifteen years. She is experienced in working with children with mild intellectual disability and/or autism presenting with comorbid disabilities such as a ADHD or GDD as well as learning difficulties in academic, social, communication and daily living skills. Throughout the years, she has planned programmes and behavioural interventions to suit diverse learning needs in her classroom. 

Nithiyah recently graduated with her Master in Education (Curriculum and Teaching) from the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. She had previously obtained her first Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the National University of Singapore. She furthered her education with a second Bachelor in Education (Special Education) from Flinders University, South Australia, achieving a Dean’s letter of Commendation. She also holds a Diploma in Special Education from National Institute of Education, Singapore and a Certificate in Autism from the Autism Resource Centre. 

Nithiyah believes that learners can be explicitly taught to be agentic in their own learning, meaning that they can become proactive, self-directed and motivated to take strategic control of their learning processes. She aims for curriculum to include higher-level goals and skills such as critical thinking, logical reasoning and self-determination through careful breakdown into manageable parts using simple language for comprehension and a structured, step-by-step approach. 

Nithiyah has keen interest in formative feedback practices, assessment for learning and self-regulated learning. She hopes to guide other teachers to develop in their pedagogy, evidence-based educational interventions and to mentor them in their feedback strategies. She advocates that providing a feedback-rich classroom environment is crucial for reinforcement of learning, student metacognition and self-reflection of their own learning.