Monday, April 13, 2009

Singapore Math in the Education Onion

Article:
http://theeducationonion.blogspot.com/2009/04/singapore-teachers.html

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Richardson: Here's a West Virginia's superintendent's argument (she flew to Singapore to visit classrooms) - Singapore is based on NCTM standards because someone in Singapore told her so (she doesn't identify the person by name or title). West Virginia uses NCTM standards too.(she knows because she lives there) - so why do students do so poorly in the US compared to students living in Singapore.

Their answer is simple. Its the teachers.

Richardson even explains later that teacher layoffs will actually improve instruction.

These are third rate idiots. Who is paying these people to bray and explain their thinking out loud to us. Why do we even care, except we want better textbooks in the classrooms. Well it ever happen? Only time is on our side.

Anonymous said...

Once again:

Singapore is a k-12 curriculum - textbook, standards, and assessments.
Core Plus is a textbook for grades 9-11 that depends 100% on students using graphing calculators. The problems are undecipherable for most normal people.
Connected Math are a series of units for grades 6-8. Not even textbooks.
Everyday Math is a reference book (no problems?). Not a textbook. Instead, students spend time playing math games in the classroom.

All of these fit within the NCTM framework. YET only one of these programs effectively teaches students. Will the real curriculum please stand up?!

Anonymous said...

Who really cares (other than science students maybe) that TI calculators use tables. My computer uses spreadsheets and at least it don't freeze up if I do something wrong. NCTM/MAA are a pack of liars. They should adopt Singapore and throw out their useless textbooks. Idiots should try teaching in a real classroom out of one of their books for a year. Try Core Plus in eighth grade :) What a curse!