"John has 5 apples more than Judy. If John gives 1 apple to Judy, Johon will have twice as many apples as Judy. How many did each of them have before John gave Judy the apples"
The above is a typical Singapore maths question that primary school kids are required to solve before they are taught algebra. The answer can be obtained in a number of ways including modeling and guessing. The type of techniques applied to solve maths problems BEFORE algebra was invented has been found in verbose ancient Greek and Egyptian text that have been excavated....the thinking that iwas grasped only by the best ancient mathematicians 2000 yrs . After the Arabs invented algebra and tge decimal system all these problems can be solved easily and systematically.....its starts by saying lets the number of apples John originally have be X and any child old enough can follow through tge subsequent steps in an systematic manner. That was the great contribution of Arabic mathematicians that transformed the world reducing complexity of problems so that the masses can solve problems only solvable by ancient sages.
An analogy can be found in the computer world. In the old days the way to program to a computer was to use punch cards and binary logic....only the brightest engineers can program a computer to do something. Nowadays with higher level computer languages, almost anyone can taught to write a computer program ...and the task of asking a computer to do something is very much simplified. While machine language is still taught so that students can appreciate the internals of a computer, its use is limited and it is not the main stay of any computer science course these days.
The problem with Singapore maths is it makes simple maths questions difficult by requiring students to solve them before the simplest most appropriate techniques to use are taught to the students. This makes the problem more complicated that it is so that 'more gifted, talented' students can be identified from weaker ones, This is a very attractive and appealing notion for an elitist type system highly determined to pigeon hole and sort the students based on 'gifted...and less gifted defined by their ability to solve these questions. However as a way f educating students, and from the perspective
of learning it is actually very bad.
I have been giving tuition to poor students for free for many years and I am convinced Singapore maths will deliver a very poor education outcome in the long run - it is only god for separating and dividing students up and nothing else:
1. Singapore maths mixes logic and maths which is 2 separate areas. If you for for GRE tests to ascertain your suitability for higher education. The maths and logic tests are separated. You can be weak and but strong in the other - engineers may be good at maths but poor in logic but lawyers may be the other way around. By mixing the 2, you cannot identity which area the student is weak at. Its like taking the total time of a triathlon not the break down, you cannot identify weakness to address in a child's education. This is very bad. The problems in Singapore maths questions are also verbose and English language comes into play so it mixes too many elements.
2. Singapore maths is thrown away in secondary school for conventional maths. So all the effort is wasted as O levels requires conventional maths.
3. It does not yield long term results and I believe it harms a students in the long run. Just look at our universities now all the post graduate students in areas of maths, engineering and physics are from Vietnam, China and India. That means our long term outcomes of this form of teaching is dismal and discourages students from going further in these areas. All these students taught in the conventional way completely crushed our students at the higher level.
Singapore maths must be reformed immediately before it causes more harm. Many American schools that tried to adopted it have actually failed and gone back to conventional maths. In Singapore it has spawned numerous tutuion centers and a whole industry to help students get ahead at thus form of maths to gain entry to better secondary schools. The long term outcome for all this unnecessary high stress and effort is evident in our universities as foreign students educated in conventional mathematics beats out Singaporeans at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We cannot continue to disadvantage and harm our students with this form of teaching
For those who are still stuck at the math question I gave at the beginning the answer is Joh n had 7 apples and Judy had 2 apples.
The above is a typical Singapore maths question that primary school kids are required to solve before they are taught algebra. The answer can be obtained in a number of ways including modeling and guessing. The type of techniques applied to solve maths problems BEFORE algebra was invented has been found in verbose ancient Greek and Egyptian text that have been excavated....the thinking that iwas grasped only by the best ancient mathematicians 2000 yrs . After the Arabs invented algebra and tge decimal system all these problems can be solved easily and systematically.....its starts by saying lets the number of apples John originally have be X and any child old enough can follow through tge subsequent steps in an systematic manner. That was the great contribution of Arabic mathematicians that transformed the world reducing complexity of problems so that the masses can solve problems only solvable by ancient sages.
An analogy can be found in the computer world. In the old days the way to program to a computer was to use punch cards and binary logic....only the brightest engineers can program a computer to do something. Nowadays with higher level computer languages, almost anyone can taught to write a computer program ...and the task of asking a computer to do something is very much simplified. While machine language is still taught so that students can appreciate the internals of a computer, its use is limited and it is not the main stay of any computer science course these days.
The problem with Singapore maths is it makes simple maths questions difficult by requiring students to solve them before the simplest most appropriate techniques to use are taught to the students. This makes the problem more complicated that it is so that 'more gifted, talented' students can be identified from weaker ones, This is a very attractive and appealing notion for an elitist type system highly determined to pigeon hole and sort the students based on 'gifted...and less gifted defined by their ability to solve these questions. However as a way f educating students, and from the perspective
of learning it is actually very bad.
I have been giving tuition to poor students for free for many years and I am convinced Singapore maths will deliver a very poor education outcome in the long run - it is only god for separating and dividing students up and nothing else:
1. Singapore maths mixes logic and maths which is 2 separate areas. If you for for GRE tests to ascertain your suitability for higher education. The maths and logic tests are separated. You can be weak and but strong in the other - engineers may be good at maths but poor in logic but lawyers may be the other way around. By mixing the 2, you cannot identity which area the student is weak at. Its like taking the total time of a triathlon not the break down, you cannot identify weakness to address in a child's education. This is very bad. The problems in Singapore maths questions are also verbose and English language comes into play so it mixes too many elements.
2. Singapore maths is thrown away in secondary school for conventional maths. So all the effort is wasted as O levels requires conventional maths.
3. It does not yield long term results and I believe it harms a students in the long run. Just look at our universities now all the post graduate students in areas of maths, engineering and physics are from Vietnam, China and India. That means our long term outcomes of this form of teaching is dismal and discourages students from going further in these areas. All these students taught in the conventional way completely crushed our students at the higher level.
Singapore maths must be reformed immediately before it causes more harm. Many American schools that tried to adopted it have actually failed and gone back to conventional maths. In Singapore it has spawned numerous tutuion centers and a whole industry to help students get ahead at thus form of maths to gain entry to better secondary schools. The long term outcome for all this unnecessary high stress and effort is evident in our universities as foreign students educated in conventional mathematics beats out Singaporeans at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We cannot continue to disadvantage and harm our students with this form of teaching
For those who are still stuck at the math question I gave at the beginning the answer is Joh n had 7 apples and Judy had 2 apples.
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