Primary school maths: A vicious circle (from TODAY May 8)

[coast]

sean wife:

To all experienced parents out here….what would be your best advice for parents whose kids are still not in primary school education yet?


If a kindergarten child can handle say P1 basic maths questions, should they continue to practice more on those challenging P1 questions (i.e. higher order thinking kind), or proceed to do basic P2 syllabus...?

Thanks.

Develop his passion in Maths (in general any subject). Kids tend to do well when they are self-motivated. You do not have to follow any syllabus. Go by topic and make a particular topic interesting by incorporating games, real-life examples. There is really no limit when a child is keen to learn something. But be aware of questions that are vague or play around with \"words\" (especially in assessment books) ... don't kill the child's passion by insisting every question has to be learnt and answered.

[coast]

Mychildren:

My P3 DS always came back with his school work with \"modals ?\" on his math worksheet. For I knew that he is lazy to draw them and he can solve the problem by just thinking in his mind and writing the number sentences like _ x _ = _ etc.


Sigh..... Think he is lazy to spend time using ruler to draw neat and tidy rectangle boxes.

Actually, time is spend on drawing those boxes. Will this slow down the speed and so some may not finish the paper in time just because of that.
Just sharing. :lightrod:

Just sharing too ... a model ruler might help You can get it from Popular (less than $2?) or ask him to check if his school bookshop sells it.

[Chenonceau]

jesschan:

I have read so often in this forum that - schools set very high standards in their examinations and test things that are not taught in class such that most of the children in the top class do not do well - and I always wonder is this the norm for most schools in Singapore or is it happening only in elite/popular schools. (I define such schools as those that have limited vacancies at P1 Registration Phase 2C.)

Ah yes... schools which don't do this... will send fewer students to top secondary schools where opportunities for Overseas CIP, university level mentorships etc... are MORE available than in your neighbourhood secondary school. 40% of NYPS makes it past the 25X t-score because it tests beyond AND it also teaches beyond.

At the end of the road, it isn't even schools that over test. It is the PSLE itself and the fact that learning opportunities and resources are disproportionately allocated across schools.

[Mychildren]

coast:

Just sharing too ... a model ruler might help You can get it from Popular (less than $2?) or ask him to check if his school bookshop sells it.

Thanks, coast, will go popular and get one.

[coast]

coast:

Just sharing too ... a model ruler might help You can get it from Popular (less than $2?) or ask him to check if his school bookshop sells it.

Mychildren:

Thanks, coast, will go popular and get one.

You are welcome Hope your DS likes it but I know some upper primary kids stop using it after a while and revert back to freehand or normal ruler. I think the size of the model ruler could be the reason (it's quite big). Do look for it in the \"ruler\" section (where you can find normal rulers, flexi rulers, ...).

My P2 DS likes using it so far and brings it to school every day

[coast]

Chenonceau:

jesschan:

I have read so often in this forum that - schools set very high standards in their examinations and test things that are not taught in class such that most of the children in the top class do not do well - and I always wonder is this the norm for most schools in Singapore or is it happening only in elite/popular schools. (I define such schools as those that have limited vacancies at P1 Registration Phase 2C.)

Ah yes... schools which don't do this... will send fewer students to top secondary schools where opportunities for Overseas CIP, university level mentorships etc... are MORE available than in your neighbourhood secondary school. 40% of NYPS makes it past the 25X t-score because it tests beyond AND it also teaches beyond.

At the end of the road, it isn't even schools that over test. It is the PSLE itself and the fact that learning opportunities and resources are disproportionately allocated across schools.

There are other reasons why they do well ...

1) Many of these students (just like the rest of Singapore) attend enrichment/ tuition outside schools
2) If I am not wrong, the school provides optional enrichment (including academics) classes conducted by outside vendors after school hours
3) There is a big cohort of GEP intake at P3 (I think their GEP cohort is bigger than some other GEP schools). GEP students tend to do better at PSLE

[Nebbermind]

atutor2001:

Yes model is only 1 of the many heuristic approach. However, it is ironical to draw model because if someone can understand the logic/approach, he/she can solve without the models. Why spend time drawing the model? If one does not have the slightest idea of how to solve, drawing the models the wrong way will not help either. There are many ways to draw models but weak students usually only know how to draw simple comparison model of A & B. They can stare at them for the entire duration of the exam and nothing will surface.


The impression given by many teachers and tutors is that drawing model will show us the way to the solution for most problem. To make matter worse, many teachers go to the extent of threatening their students that marks will be deducted if they don't use model. (because they only know how to determine if working is correct or wrong as answer keys used model).

To further complicate matter, many innovative individuals would do their best to apply/promote \"model method\" to all kinds of problem sum, including those that can be easier solved with other methods. A typical example is to represent the value of money in 4 units of $10 notes, with a rectangle divided into 4 rows and 10 columns.

Model concept has been abused. I have experimented with kids who failed miserably using model. Just teach them simple algebraic manipulation and simultaneous equations, they can solve most, if not all, the conventional problem sums by P6.

I think the main problem is that the kids don't try to analyzing the questions and try to solve it. Instead, they try to find a suitable heuristic to fit the qns. Like someone mentioned, the difficult qns can involve a couple or more heuristic...and the kids goes into mental block state. Math is not something u can solve with some standard prescribed steps.

[Edureach]

Every pupil in school takes the same exam so i think is really fair. The entire cohort eventually sit for the same paper so that’s also fair. At the end of the day, capable pupils will still do well.


We can talk and talk in the end the percentage of pupils scoring A* remains constant.

[Nebbermind]

Edureach:

Every pupil in school takes the same exam so i think is really fair. The entire cohort eventually sit for the same paper so that's also fair. At the end of the day, capable pupils will still do well.


We can talk and talk in the end the percentage of pupils scoring A* remains constant.

I think u missed the point.
The issue here is that the qns are far too advanced and many of the kids required alot of external help in order to get these A*.

[Edureach]

Nebbermind:

Edureach:

Every pupil in school takes the same exam so i think is really fair. The entire cohort eventually sit for the same paper so that's also fair. At the end of the day, capable pupils will still do well.


We can talk and talk in the end the percentage of pupils scoring A* remains constant.

I think u missed the point.
The issue here is that the qns are far too advanced and many of the kids required alot of external help in order to get these A*.

External help? That's means they are of A standard and not A*. If so easy to score an A* by temselves, that's means many can be admitted to famous schools. Anw, our stand are different and no need for us to debate.