Smithville R-II School District

professional development for teachers of mathematics

Presentation Slides are available at

www.banhar.blogspot.com

teaching math the way it should be taught

yeap ban har

www.banhar.blogspot.com

High Achievement, Positive Attitude

Low Achievement, Desperate Economy

“Upon separation from Malaysia in 1965, Singaporewas faced with … high levels of unemploymentand poverty. Seventy percent of Singapore’shouseholds lived in badly overcrowdedconditions, and a third of its people squatted inslums on the city fringes. Unemployment averaged14%, GDP per capita was less than $2,700, and halfof the population was illiterate.”

South KoreaJapan

China

Taiwan

Hong Kong

Vietnam Philippines

Thailand

MalaysiaSingapore

Indonesia

| Hanusek, Jamison, Jamison & Woessmann 2008

Score 1960-1970s 1980s

500’s Japan Hong Kong

Japan

Korea

400’s Thailand Philippines

Singapore

Thailand

300’s

| Hanusek, Jamison, Jamison & Woessmann 2008

In 1980’s, new approaches in teaching and learning math were piloted in Singapore schools.

| Hanusek, Jamison, Jamison & Woessmann 2008

Score 1960-1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

500’s Japan Hong Kong

Japan

Korea

Hong Kong

Japan

Korea

Singapore

Hong Kong

Japan

Korea

Singapore

400’s Thailand Philippines

Singapore

Thailand

Malaysia

Thailand

Malaysia

Thailand

300’s Indonesia

Philippines

Indonesia

Philippines

In 1992, the problem-solving curriculum was formally introduced in Grade 1 and Grade 7.

| PISA 2012

Country % of Low

Performers

% of High

Performers

Mean

Shanghai 3.8 55.4 613

Singapore 8.3 40.0 573

Hong Kong 8.5 33.7 561

South Korea 9.1 30.9 554

Japan 11.1 23.7 536

Finland 12.3 15.3 519

OECD 23.1 12.6 494

| MacPherson Primary School, Singapore

| PISA 2012

Country % of Low

Performers

% of High

Performers

Mean

Singapore 8.3 40.0 573

Vietnam 14.2 13.3 511

Thailand 49.7 2.6 427

Malaysia 51.8 1.3 421

Indonesia 75.7 0.3 375

OECD 23.1 12.6 494

| Bina Bangsa School, Indonesia

| PISA 2012

Country % of Low

Performers

% of High

Performers

Mean

Singapore 8.3 40.0 573

Vietnam 14.2 13.3 511

Thailand 49.7 2.6 427

Malaysia 51.8 1.3 421

Indonesia 75.7 0.3 375

OECD 23.1 12.6 494| Nanyang Primary School, Singapore

Problem-Solving Approach

Case Study: Addition of Whole Numbers

Addition of Whole Numbers

Grade 1 Lesson

Anchor Task

Add 6 and 8

| Seoul Foreign School

South Korea

● ●

●

●

●

●

● ●

● ●

● ●

●

●

●

●

●

●

● ●

● ●

● ●

● ●

● ●

● ●

●

●

●

●

● ●

● ●

● ●

●

●

● ●

● ●

● ●

● ●

● ●

●

●

●

●

● ●

●

●

●

●

● ●

● ●

● ●

●

●

● ●

● ●

●

●

●

● ●

● ●

●

●

●

● ●

●

●

●

●

● ●

● ●

● ●

●

●

CPA Approach

Case Study: Division of Fractions

Division of Fractions

Grade 5 Lesson

Anchor Task

23

1

| Anglo Chinese Junior College, Singapore

Emphasis on Visuals

Case Study: Word Problems

National Test Item

Mr Lee baked 185 more chicken pies than tuna pies. After selling 3/5 of the chicken pies and half of the tuna pies, he had 146 pies left.

How many pies did he sell?

Challenging Problems in Formal Assessment

Case Study: Division of Fractions

National Test Item

A fruit stall sold pears at 70 cents each and apples at 40 cents each.

Sally bought some pears and Tom bought some apples from the fruit stall.

Sally spent $1.10 more than Tom, but had 7 fruits fewer than Tom.

(a) How many pears did Sally buy?

(b) How much did Tom spend on the apples?