Singapore Math: How It Can Help Improve U'S' Mathematics Learning

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Singapore Math How It Can Help Improve U.S.
Mathematics Learning
Alan Ginsburg U.S. Department of
Education Chair, APEC Human Resources
Development Presentation to Maryland State Board
of Education May 28, 2009
Opinions are those of the presenter and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the U.S.
Department of Education or APEC
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Presentation Outline

• Importance of primary mathematics.
• Can we compare U.S. and Singapore?
• Results from U.S. pilots of Singapore Math.
• Comparing Singapore U.S. math systems on
• Frameworks
• Textbooks
• Assessments
• Teachers
• Singapore and other math standards online.

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Presentation Basis

• Ginsburg, Leinwand, Anstrom, and Pollock (2005).
  What the United States Can Learn From Singapores
  World-Class Mathematics System And What Singapore
  Can Learn From the United States. American
  Institute for Researchhttp//www.air.org/news/doc
  uments/Singapore20Report20(Bookmark20Version).p
  df

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Neglect of U.S. Primary Mathematics Performance

• In our K-12 we were doing okay at the 4th
  grade, we were doing middle-of-the-road in the
  8th grade, and by 12th grade we were hovering
  near the bottom in international tests related to
  math. Tracy Koon, Intels director of corporate
  affairs, quoted in T. Friedman, The World Is Flat
  (2005)
• NCES, National Academy of Sciences, and Business
  Roundtable have drawn similar conclusions about
  U.S. students primary-level international
  mathematics performance.
• Proposals to reform U.S. mathematics instruction
  have largely ignored primary grades.

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U.S. Math Scores Are Substantially Below Asian
Average at Grade 4
Source TIMSS 2007 (Mullis, I., Martin, M.,
Gonzalez, E., and Chrostowski, S. (2008). TIMSS
2007 international mathematics report.
http//timss.bc.edu/PDF/t03_download/T03_M_Front.p
df
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Is Singapore too Different from the U.S. for
Comparison?

• Size 500,000 pupils, which is a little bigger
  than the Chicago Public Schools and a little
  smaller than Connecticut.
• Population Racially diverse student body 75
  Chinese, 15 Malaysian, and 10 Indian.
• Expectations Singapore students are 2.5 times
  more likely than U.S. students to receive
  high-levels of math homework (8th grade TIMSS).

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Results From U.S. Pilots of Singapore Math
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Why is Singapore Math Successful in Singapore?

• The components of Singapores system
  frameworks, texts, tests and teacher prep are
  carefully aligned and reflect a higher quality
  than comparable U.S. components.
• See Education Commission of the States
  International Benchmarking Toolkit (2009).
  http//www.ecs.org/IB/compare.html.

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Math Frameworks Singapores 2005 Topics and
Outcomes Grades 16
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(No Transcript)
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Example Singapore Exposure to Fractions Grades
2-6
Primary 2 Concept of fraction as part of a
whole Primary 3 Equivalent fractions Primary 4
Fraction of a set of objects Fraction of a
quantity Improper fractions mixed
numbers Addition and subtraction of
fractions Primary 5 Concept of fraction as
division Product of fractions Primary 6
Concept of fractions as ratio
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MD. VOLUNTARY STATE CURRICULUM MATHEMATICS PREK
3 KNOWLEDGE OF NUMBER RELATIONSHIPS AND
COMPUTATION/ARITHMETIC
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Singapore and U.S. Treatment of At-Risk Students

• U.S.
• Compensatory education often taught by untrained
  teacher aides
• No Child Left Behind holds students to same
  standards and highly-qualified teachers.
• Hold schools rather than students accountable.

• Singapore
• Supplementary after-school instruction lead by a
  specially-trained teacher (Grade 1)
• Weaker math students identified for special track
  with more instruction and same content but at a
  slower pace (Grades 5-6)
• Students streamed based on Primary School Leaving
  Exam (Grade 7)

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Textbooks What We Examined

• Singapores two texts and two workbooks at each
  grade published by Ministry of Education
• U.S. Textbooks
• Traditional Text Scott-Foresman Series (80
  usage in elementary grades)
• Reform Text Everyday Mathematics (20 usage in
  elementary grades)

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Grade 1 Singapore Textbooks Have Fewer Lessons,
More pages per Lesson, and More Pages of Exercises
Ginsburg Leinwand (2005). What the U.S. can
learn from Singapores World-class mathematics
system, AIR
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Singapore Maths visual approach
is well-suited for students whose first language
Is not English
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A Straight Forward U.S. Gr. 6 Pie Chart Problem
Involving Summing to a Total
Cost of Raising a Child to Age 18 (for each 100)
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A Singapore Gr. 6 Pie Chart Problem Requiring
Strong Conceptual Understanding by Incorporating
Angles
Source Singaporemath.com Inc (2003). Active
Primary Math Series
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How Challenging Are the Singapore and U.S.
Assessments?
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A Singapore Grade 6 Hard Problem You Wont See on
U.S. Grade 8 State Assessments
Source Singapore MOE
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Singapore Math Challenges U.S. Teachers in the
Following Ways

• Automaticity (e.g. mental math).
• Deep understanding of math concepts.
• Student-centered rather than teacher-centered
  textbook fill-in omitted lesson materials.
• Builds on prior concepts.
• Vision of how to teach lessons.

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Singapore Other Math Standards
http//hrd.apec.org/index.php/Mathematics_standard
s
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Singapores Math is Good, but Their Food is Even
Better!
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Thank you

• If you have additional comments or questions,
  please contact me at
• Alan Ginsburg
• Alan.Ginsburg_at_ed.gov
• [phone]