60 years of math education in Singapore

1
60 years of math education in Singapore

• Lee Peng Yee
• Nat Inst of Ed Singapore

2
Math education in terms of syllabus and
textbooks
3
Interviews

• We ask 4 persons the questions
• What mathematics did they learn?
• What textbooks did they use?
• How did their teachers teach mathematics?
• How did they learn mathematics?

4
5 periods in 60 years

• After WW II to first local syllabus in 1959
• From syllabus A and B to syllabus C
• Maths reform in the 70s
• Back to basic
• The new initiatives since 1997 (refer to Soh
  Cheow Kian)

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Singapore

• Land area 683 sq km (263 sq miles)
• Population 4 million
• British colony for around 150 years
• Independence in 1965
• A service hub for sea, air, finance etc

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Maths Reform in 70s

• Introduced modern topics
• It induced massive re-training of teachers
• First locally produced textbooks
• More peer learning and less reliance on teaching
• Mathematics (up to Grade 10) made compulsory
  since 1974

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Back to basic

• It coincided with merging of different language
  schools and streaming of students
• New syllabus with primary school textbooks
  produced by MOE
• Calculators since 1982 and all examinations in
  English since 1984

8
First local syllabus

• First local syllabus 1959 using the spiral
  approach
• Options to teach mathematics as a unified subject
  or with different branches
• Used imported textbooks
• No statistics, calculus in Additional Mathematics
  (Grade 9-10)
• Syllabus and teaching were traditional

9
Early days

• Built more and more schools
• Schools run by missionaries and local communities
• No public exam and no streaming
• Expatriate teachers and foreign textbooks
• Chinese schools known to be better in mathematics

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Summary

• 1945 1960 Early days
• 1960 1970 First local syllabus
• 1970 1980 Maths reform
• 1980 1995 Back to basic
• 1995 2005 New initiatives (refer to
• Soh Cheow Kian)

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Major events

• Merging of different language schools
• Streaming of students with different abilities
• From foreign syllabus and textbooks to locally
  produced
• From expatriate teachers to locally trained
• From professional training to nurturing
  entrepreneurship

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Outcome

• Mathematics is taught in English
• Practise differentiated teaching
• More science stream students and mathematics
  compulsory
• Build up local expertise in textbook writing,
  teacher training and research
• Own system and nowhere to copy

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Teach less to more

• Teach less mathematics
• to more students

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Words in Chinese

• One aspect of cultural background
• Teaching ?? means teaching and learning
• Learning ?? means learning and practising
• Parabola ??? means a projectile
• Radius ?? means a half of the diameter

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Looking forward

• There will be a genuine reduction of content
• We make thinking more explicit in teaching
• There will be other modes of assessment
• The use of technology makes learning more
  experimental
• We expect an increasing use of resource materials
  in teaching

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Teacher preparation

• Highlight subject knowledge
• Teach for exam and also teach for learning
• Assessment for learning and not learning for
  assessment

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Conclusion

• The system is more structured and more officially
  regulated
• It will remain so for the next 5 years
• More room for innovation in classroom teaching
• It depends on the availability of local resource
  materials

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END

• pylee_at_nie.edu.sg
• Chicago 2005