Why is the Singapore Maths Approach ranked best in the world?

by Tiffany Y. Singapore Maths Expert

As a maths teacher who's conversed with like-minded professionals, you may have heard of the Singapore maths approach. This approach is quite different from how mathematics is taught elsewhere, and the island country has the results to prove it.

In fact, Singaporean students outperformed the OECD average in maths in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018. Based on these results, it’s little wonder that the approach to teaching mathematics in Singapore is ranked as the best in the world.

But why exactly is the Singaporean maths approach ranked the best in the world? And what makes it different from typical maths teaching methods? Look no further, as we’ll take a deep dive to find out what contributes to the impressive results of the Singapore maths approach.

What Makes the Singapore Maths Approach the Best in the World?

There are several factors that add up to make the Singapore maths approach the best in the world. We’ll go into a bit of detail on these below, so continue reading to learn more.

1. Emphasis on Mastery

Singapore maths teaches students to attain deep mastery of a subject. This is achieved by mastering a few concepts per academic year and building on them to the next level.

In contrast, American math tends to focus on drilling and memorization. While this can help students memorize how to arrive at certain results, it doesn’t teach them the “how” and “why”. Singapore maths helps students to understand the learning material at a deeper level.

By focusing on building a deeper, conceptual understanding of maths, students are able to truly understand the learning material and are less likely to forget it.

2. Embracing a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that one can cultivate their basic qualities via their efforts. With the Singapore maths model, parents do not need to rely on behavior modifying techniques or products alone as this method of teaching embraces the mentality that one can change (their skills, behavior, etc.) and grow through effort and experience. As a result, Singapore Maths Model experts can swiftly execute and achieve these objectives.

Singapore’s Ministry of Education has a pedagogical approach that incorporates developing a growth mindset that “... leads to lasting learning beyond the test.” A growth mindset doesn’t just apply to learning and understanding maths, but other areas of one’s life too. Examples of this are losing weight or learning a new skill.

Singapore maths students outperform others because they’re taught the belief that they can succeed at maths if they put effort into it. This is in contrast to a fixed mindset, which would be the belief that one just isn’t good at maths.

3. Focus on Visual Representations

Singapore maths students learn maths according to the concrete, pictorial, and abstract (CPA) method by Jerome Bruner, an American psychologist. It’s a learning approach that helps learners grasp abstract concepts. This is achieved by the use of tactile and visual aids, such as fruit or coins.

The pictorial phase, which is the middle step, helps learners bridge the gap between concrete and the abstract. Using visualization helps students of Singapore maths understand the reasoning behind maths calculations and not just how to work them out.

An example of this is students drawing bar models to visually represent word problems. By doing this, learners can use these pictorial models to understand word problems. These word problems are often challenging for maths students, especially when it comes to difficult maths concepts.

In contrast, traditional maths teaching methods don’t incorporate the pictorial phase—they typically use a concrete-abstract approach.

4. Improving Mental Math

Last but not least, it’s mental mathematics. This is the practice of doing maths in your head without using a calculator or pen and paper.

The Singapore maths approach encourages learners to be able to work out maths problems in their heads.

By teaching students to calculate mathematical equations mentally, they help learners gain number sense and place value.

Number sense is the ability to understand mathematical concepts and how numbers relate to one another. Understanding place value, on the other hand, is knowing what the value of a digit is based on its position in a numerical value. These are important aspects of mathematics.