Singapore Mathematics

My wife and I got married last year.  We're finally about to go for our honeymoon next week (woot!), and one of our destinations is Singapore.

How is mathematics taught in Singapore?

I thought about this question suddenly last night, and couldn't sleep.  After some initial reading, it seems that they use textbooks that "have a consistent and strong emphasis on problem solving and model drawing, with a focus on in-depth understanding of the essential math skills recommended in the NCTM Curriculum Focal Points."

Wait, so it's a series of textbooks?  Not quite what I wanted, but the concept of problem solving is interesting to me, so I went on their website and read a bit about it.  It does sound appealing.  I haven't invested too much time reading the specifics of what they need to say.  I think I need to see a textbook for myself, in order to decide whether I like it.

But okay, let me step back.  I wanted to find out about how mathematics is taught in Singapore!  Damn my tendencies of jumping on interesting tangents.

I then found a secondary syllabus through the Singapore Ministry of Education.  And discovered lots to read over!  It certainly looks lengthy (maybe I will read this a bit later), but I was mainly interested in how they approached "problem solving."  There doesn't seem to be details here, so I moved on.

I found an exploratory study on ERIC, which contained a lot of interesting things to read as well.

Singapore has a centralized mathematics system, with detailed and consistent implementation procedures.

This little line on page x concerned me a little bit... but the skimming process continues...

Singapore’s textbooks build deep understanding of mathematical concepts through multistep problems and concrete illustrations that demonstrate how abstract mathematical concepts are used to solve problems from different perspectives. Traditional U.S. textbooks rarely get beyond definitions and formulas, developing only students’ mechanical ability to apply mathematical concepts.  

The main idea here I can definitely get behind.  Especially when they throw out a meaty concept like "deep understanding of mathematical concepts."

And this is where I stopped skimming.  There appears to be close to 200 pages, and that's not something I can handle in one sitting!

I think I will come back later and read that more carefully.  There are some lingering concerns of mine about this (like whether the delivery of the materials emphasizes exploratory learning, or whether it's still memorization), but I am an optimist when it comes to being able to extract something useful out of anything.

To be continued...