1. Experiencing
Singapore Math
Experiencing Singapore Math
Newark East Brunswick
Yeap Ban Har
Marshall Cavendish Institute
Singapore
yeapbanhar@gmail.com
Slides are available at
www.banhar.blogspot.com
2. Experiencing
Singapore Math
Land
270 sq miles
People
introduction 4.7 million
GDP per capita
1965 USD510
2010 USD43,300
in current USD
Junyuan Secondary
School, Singapore
4. General Overview of Singapore and
its Education System
Students
500 000
Teachers
30 000
Principals & Vice-Principals
900
Schools
173 Primary Schools (Primary 1 – 6)
155 Secondary Schools (Secondary 1 – 4)
13 Junior Colleges (JC 1 – 2) Canossa Convent Primary School,
15 Mixed-Level Schools Singapore
The data refers to 1-12 school system. Pre-school is not part of the formal education
system. The data excludes post-secondary education system which includes institutes
of technical education, polytechnics and universities.
5. High achievement was not a given. In
1960, among 30 615 candidates who
sat for the first Primary School Leaving
Examination, 45% of the candidates
passed.
Keon Ming Public School, Singapore
6. Experiencing
Singapore Math
All major international tests (literacy, science and mathematics) between 1964
and 2003 were placed on a common scale. Selected countries shown in the table.
Score 1960-1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
500 Japan Japan Japan Japan
Korea Korea Korea
Hong Kong Singapore Hong Kong
Hong Kong Singapore
400 Thailand Singapore Malaysia Malaysia
Thailand Thailand Thailand
The Philippines
300 Indonesia Indonesia
The Philippines The Philippines
Reference: E. Hanusek, D. Jamison, E. Jamison & L. Woessmann (2008)
7.
8. Experiencing
Singapore Math
1982
Introduction of Singapore mathematics
textbooks as they are known today.
Mathematics is “an excellent
vehicle for the development
1992 and improvement of a person’s
Introduction of Problem- intellectual competence”.
Solving Curriculum Ministry of Education Singapore 2006
1997 2001
Thinking Schools Introduction of textbooks published by
Learning Nation private publishers and approved by
Ministry of Education.
2007
New editions of textbooks are
published with the introduction of the
revised curriculum.
Page 1
10. Achievement
Attitude
Singapore 71 41
Hong Kong 67 40
Taiwan 50 24
Grade 4
Japan 62 23
Kazakhstan 89 19
England 62 16
Russia 80 16
International 72 5
11. Achievement
Attitude
Taiwan 37 45
S Korea 33 40
Singapore 60 40
Grade 8
Hong Kong 47 31
Japan 30 26
Hungary 30 10
England 40 8
International 54 2
13. Experiencing
Singapore Math
Experiencing Singapore Math
Initial Concrete Experiences & Building Conceptual Understanding
Yeap Ban Har
Marshall Cavendish Institute
Singapore
yeapbanhar@gmail.com
Slides are available at
www.banhar.blogspot.com
14. Experiencing
Singapore Math
Relational
Understanding
R Skemp
what & how Concrete
Introduction
J Bruner
Junyuan Secondary
School, Singapore
Page 08
Page 13
20. Experiencing
Singapore Math
Experiencing Singapore Math
Emphasis on Number Sense & Visualization
Yeap Ban Har
Marshall Cavendish Institute
Singapore
yeapbanhar@gmail.com
Slides are available at
www.banhar.blogspot.com