Primary school maths: A vicious circle (from TODAY May 8)
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Hah? Now I m confused. Are you lookingfortutor? I thot she was the one who say that?
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peapot:
Hah? Now I m confused. Are you lookingfortutor? I thot she was the one who say that?
Nope cause my post was above urs mah lol misunderstanding then
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Chenonceau:
IMHO, every situation, every circumstance is a learning opportunity. We spend all our lives learning ... and teaching ...
So the expectation is that every parent must all learn the content in primary school so we can teach our kids? In that case, what is the school for?Laura02:
I agreed that learning the model method is quite challenging, but how can we expect our kids to master the model method, if we ourselves give up on trying to learn it. What sort of message are we giving our kids if we say to them \" Ah girl or Ah boy, mummy and daddy don't understand your maths, but die-die you must not only learn it, but must also score 100% for Maths.\" it isn't fair to them.
You actually KNOW parents who don't bother to help their kids... who don't bother to gve their kids tuition AND still expect their kids to score 100? Then who is funding the billion dollar tuition industry?
And if your child fails Math, you will look at him and say... \"It's ok. Fail, is fail lor... you're just not capable. I am not giving you tuition nor extra help. Go ask your school.\"
I accept your point of view. Your sarcasm hurts. I was merely stating my point of view. Which is : don't expect your child to do what you yourself cannot do. I empathise with the child.
In truth, I am waiting for my child to fail, or at least, to not do as well as she expects to. Perhaps I am idealistic, or naive, but I hope that she'll learn to pick herself up and motivate herself to do better. You see, I believe in learning from my mistakes, my failures. I hope that she learns resilience from having failed. I am sorry that failure does not always motivate, but that is an individual response. But its good that there is a diversity in experiences, and responses, and opinions. Even if I am a lone voice. -
My kids are in their twenties now. I thought them math some 10 over years ago. A year before my eldest’s PSLE, the question on 1+2+…+99 came out in PSLE. The next day, our local press was swarmed with complaints. Today, if a P6 kid can’t solve that, he/she is in trouble. Yet we have parents here saying that there is not much change in the PSLE math standard. Very funny.
I learnt the model method to teach my kids. Luck for me, my eldest’s math teacher taught them the "unit method". He is a great teacher who accept all methods. He went on to become GEP teacher and is now in MOE. I have said this many times in this forum and am going to say it again. Model is not a mathematical method. It is an explanatory tool to promote understanding. How it become a tool for solving math amazed me. In reality, we need to know the way to the solution in order to draw the model. Simply starting with model to get to the solution of a complex problem sum is near impossible. Parents are hook winked by model solution because it is a great "tool for explanation". I saw some funny terms like internal transfer, constant total, constant change/difference… in this forum and when to browse through the math assess books. I was saddened. They were categorising each problem type and giving them names, each with a specific solving method. How many types of question do we expect the poor kid to memorise. Yet many parents here are praising the wonder of models. Very funny. -
Laura02:
Do not be dishearten Laura, there are people who share your views. I do. I agree that we should not expect our children to do what we cannot do and I often wonder why some parents push their children so hard on things they could not achieve themselves but driving their dreams through their kids, so I have respect for parents who would try and then guide. I later realise that there is one category of parents who are not exactly expecting their children to do what they cannot do but there is a lot of expectations from some schools as well. As mentioned a few times, the problems we face with today's education is not one-dimensional, there are many who contributed to the problem, in fact every category of people has culprits though it may not be everyone in that category as in not all are parents, not all are teachers, not all are schools...etc...but certainly everyone is dragged along in the process.....
IMHO, every situation, every circumstance is a learning opportunity. We spend all our lives learning ... and teaching ...
I accept your point of view. Your sarcasm hurts. I was merely stating my point of view. Which is : don't expect your child to do what you yourself cannot do. I empathise with the child.
In truth, I am waiting for my child to fail, or at least, to not do as well as she expects to. Perhaps I am idealistic, or naive, but I hope that she'll learn to pick herself up and motivate herself to do better. You see, I believe in learning from my mistakes, my failures. I hope that she learns resilience from having failed. I am sorry that failure does not always motivate, but that is an individual response. But its good that there is a diversity in experiences, and responses, and opinions. Even if I am a lone voice.
I would like to continue to hear your viewpoints. Diverse views give a balanced approach to all problem solving. cheers! -
ksi:
:hugs: Laura. I do share your viewpoint too. I have a P5 (hi-ability) who dÃdn't have any enrichment classes/tuition from P1 - mid P4, and a P4 (lower ability than the P5 kid) who didn't have any enrichment classes/tuition until mid last year at P3. They only have EL and CL enrichment/tuition so far for 1 yr, and I am stopping 1 subject each child so that they have more time to learn and relax amidst the hectic compulsory school supplementary classes and CCAs.
Do not be dishearten Laura, there are people who share your views. I do. I agree that we should not expect our children to do what we cannot do and I often wonder why some parents push their children so hard on things they could not achieve themselves but driving their dreams through their kids, so I have respect for parents who would try and then guide. I later realise that there is one category of parents who are not exactly expecting their children to do what they cannot do but there is a lot of expectations from some schools as well. As mentioned a few times, the problems we face with today's education is not one-dimensional, there are many who contributed to the problem, in fact every category of people has culprits though it may not be everyone in that category as in not all are parents, not all are teachers, not all are schools...etc...but certainly everyone is dragged along in the process.....Laura02:
IMHO, every situation, every circumstance is a learning opportunity. We spend all our lives learning ... and teaching ...
I accept your point of view. Your sarcasm hurts. I was merely stating my point of view. Which is : don't expect your child to do what you yourself cannot do. I empathise with the child.
In truth, I am waiting for my child to fail, or at least, to not do as well as she expects to. Perhaps I am idealistic, or naive, but I hope that she'll learn to pick herself up and motivate herself to do better. You see, I believe in learning from my mistakes, my failures. I hope that she learns resilience from having failed. I am sorry that failure does not always motivate, but that is an individual response. But its good that there is a diversity in experiences, and responses, and opinions. Even if I am a lone voice.
I would like to continue to hear your viewpoints. Diverse views give a balanced approach to all problem solving. cheers!
Like you, I learn along with my kids - if they encounter problems in their school work, I try to solve the problems too. If I can't, I am resourceful enough to get things done. That's me - always curious and keen to learn. And I show to my kids that no hurdle (in this context) is insurmountable. Along the way, I also go through what they have to go though and really, I do admire all the kids who have to walk this journey (Thank God I don't belong to the same generation- not with my illiterate mum!) Thankfully, God bless me with a career with very flexible schedule to support my interest. I know many mothers who do not have such luxury, I acknowledge that.
From a kindred spirit -
atutor2001:
I have to :hi5: with you and tell you I share your sentiments on the methods. Commercial gain is the outcome of driving this nasty stress deeper. Honestly, categorising each problem and giving names with specific solving method is even more difficult to master the subject if the mental block of math is not resolved in the mind. However, it is great for marketing to impress parents. Today I hear this statement again for Math: \"I have practised virtually all the papers required and yet I have never seen a question like this one before in today's exam.\" Testing above cognitive level? It is within topic. The reality is, Math is like musical notes. If you know the basic notes, there are millions of songs that can be composed, so are the children going to hit every question before? No. Even if methods are prescribed, they have to learn to identify the question pattern and apply the methods wisely. Some probably can do it, others may drown in the several methods before they get a chance at Math. And if the question has a combo of 2 heuristics to be applied...die...it cannot be solved and the child would say that he/she has not seen the question before.My kids are in their twenties now. I thought them math some 10 over years ago. A year before my eldest's PSLE, the question on 1+2+..+99 came out in PSLE. The next day, our local press was swarmed with complaints. Today, if a P6 kid can't solve that, he/she is in trouble. Yet we have parents here saying that there is not much change in the PSLE math standard. Very funny.
I learnt the model method to teach my kids. Luck for me, my eldest's math teacher taught them the \"unit method\". He is a great teacher who accept all methods. He went on to become GEP teacher and is now in MOE. I have said this many times in this forum and am going to say it again. Model is not a mathematical method. It is an explanatory tool to promote understanding. How it become a tool for solving math amazed me. In reality, we need to know the way to the solution in order to draw the model. Simply starting with model to get to the solution of a complex problem sum is near impossible. Parents are hook winked by model solution because it is a great \"tool for explanation\". I saw some funny terms like internal transfer, constant total, constant change/difference... in this forum and when to browse through the math assess books. I was saddened. They were categorising each problem type and giving them names, each with a specific solving method. How many types of question do we expect the poor kid to memorise. Yet many parents here are praising the wonder of models. Very funny.
Having said this, the other extreme would be the \"Teach Less, Learn More\"....not teaching at all and expect ALL kids to be able to learn on their own.
Yes we live in a funny place.
Bottomline for me is, we can have a group of superkids (stretch them, mould them, knead them), but for the majority, let them not be deprived of the love for learning. Love for learning is a lifelong skill....kill it early, it has no benefit to anyone, least of all, Singapore. P -
atutor2001:
funny indeedMy kids are in their twenties now. I thought them math some 10 over years ago. A year before my eldest's PSLE, the question on 1+2+..+99 came out in PSLE. The next day, our local press was swarmed with complaints. Today, if a P6 kid can't solve that, he/she is in trouble. Yet we have parents here saying that there is not much change in the PSLE math standard. Very funny.
I learnt the model method to teach my kids. Luck for me, my eldest's math teacher taught them the \"unit method\". He is a great teacher who accept all methods. He went on to become GEP teacher and is now in MOE. I have said this many times in this forum and am going to say it again. Model is not a mathematical method. It is an explanatory tool to promote understanding. How it become a tool for solving math amazed me. In reality, we need to know the way to the solution in order to draw the model. Simply starting with model to get to the solution of a complex problem sum is near impossible. Parents are hook winked by model solution because it is a great \"tool for explanation\". I saw some funny terms like internal transfer, constant total, constant change/difference... in this forum and when to browse through the math assess books. I was saddened. They were categorising each problem type and giving them names, each with a specific solving method. How many types of question do we expect the poor kid to memorise. Yet many parents here are praising the wonder of models. Very funny. -
Suz855:
those milk powder ever promised you BIGGER brain ? development does not necessarily be in physical size ....Sorry, I cannot agree w u, our children drink expensive milk powder wit DHA ...etc .... They are suppose to help in brain development blah blah blah .. So how can their brain grow smaller
:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: -
peapot:
I think MOE should look at smaller class, more teachers and test only what is taught. Do they think all kids will know how to solve higher order q without some teaching? Sigh! Even I have prob solving it. Even my tutor needs answer sheet to cross check his answer.
may be that is to cross check whether the answer sheet is wrong. LOL
when we pointed out the teacher's mistakes long time ago, the teacher said \"I was just testing you guys whether paying attention or not\". :faint: :faint:
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