Cheng, Lu Pien

In this paper the teachers’ learning journey on designing a mathematics problem that involves a real-life context is reported. This is part of a larger project undertaken in a primary school in Singapore where the teachers were engaged in planning, observing and critiquing mathematics lessons to investigate teaching and learning. These unique features from laboratory class cycles were used to facilitate the design and implementation of mathematics problems involving real-life context. Based on one cycle of a laboratory class of an authentic classroom lesson, the teachers’ construction of the mathematics problems embedded in real-life context is reported. The children’s solutions to one of the problems are also discussed in this paper.

Mathematical connections are true relationships and are important for deep mathematical understanding. Connections are also important components of successful problem solving. At the heart of effective teaching and learning of mathematics is task design. This chapter unpacks the different types of mathematical connections through concrete examples to address aspects of task design that draw attention to connections. The relationships between task design, anticipated pedagogies and student learning are also illustrated for teachers to make links and connections explicit in the primary mathematics classrooms.

It is easy to dismiss the work of “teaching students to apply formula” as a low-order priority and thus trivialises the professional knowledge associated with this practice. Our encounter with an experienced teacher—through the examination of her practices and elaborations—challenges this simplistic assumption. There are layers of complexities that are as yet under-discussed in the existing literature. This paper reports a case study of her practices that reflect a complex integration of relevant theories in task design. Through examining her praxis around the theme of “recognise the form”, we discuss theoretical ideas that can potentially advance principles in the sequencing of examples for the purpose of helping students develop proficiency in applying formula.

A research project on using comics for teaching mathematics was initiated in one Singapore primary school. One class of Grade 5 (students of age 11–12) students was exposed to comics for mathematics instruction. This paper reports a case study of seven students’ perception of the features of the comics instructional package and how these features impacted their learning of mathematics. The students’ responses in an interview with the researchers were analysed using Thematic Analysis and presented using the Singapore mathematics curriculum framework. Four main features of the comics instructional package: (1) humour; (2) story narrative; (3) scaffolding provided by the questions and (3) visuals and four main themes: Increase in (a) enjoyment; (b) understanding; (c) appreciation of real-world applications of mathematics and (d) participation during lessons; were uncovered. The use of comics could potentially impact positively on developing students’ Attitudes, Skills, Concepts and Processes of the Singapore mathematics curriculum framework in learning mathematics.

Mathematics education in Singapore schools in the twenty-first century is still going through the period of change and innovation that began in the early 1990s: changes in emphasis from rote memorisation to meaningful understanding of concepts and problem-solving; from a dependence on paper and pencil and manipulative calculations and skills to mental computations and thinking strategies; and from teaching by telling to activity-based learning, group work, and communication in mathematics. This chapter makes an attempt to describe how the mathematics curriculum in Singapore has responded to such changes and innovations. At the same time, the chapter has chosen three out of many major innovations in Singapore mathematics education and discusses them in relation to school mathematics: problems in real-world contexts (PRWC), Learning Support for Mathematics (LSM), and Improving Confidence and Achievement in Numeracy (ICAN). These innovations are selected because the ways Singapore has approached them might be of theoretical and practical interest to international readers.

This paper documents how a team progressed through the five stages of team development as a result of a school-based professional development program using a laboratory class cycle. Six Grade two teachers and their administrator in a primary school in the south eastern United States participated in the study. All the teachers were interviewed at the end of each laboratory class cycle. Their administrator was interviewed after the program ended. A grounded theory approach and constant comparative method were used. The study revealed how the teachers' participation in the program progressed according to Tuckman and Jenson's (1997) model of team development in the laboratory class cycle. Establishment of trust among teachers and team support over an extended time were identified as important factors in shaping the team development.

In this article, we present a case study of six Singaporean elementary school teachers working in a Lesson Study team that prepared them for problem solving instruction. The Lesson Study process included preparing, observing, and critiquing mathematics lessons in the context of solving fractions tasks. By conducting Lesson Study, we anticipated that these teachers would develop greater insight into students’ mathematics, which would influence their classroom practices. Through the process of planning, observing and critiquing and by purposefully listening to students’ explanations, the teachers began to better understand their students’ learning, which in turn could help them develop their students' mathematical knowledge.

As teachers begin to construct an understanding of ‘inquiry’, and incorporate IBL into their classroom practice, they are challenged to be sensitive to the ‘constructivist’ nature of the CLD. This paper presents a reflection model structured to trigger thinking about beliefs in teaching and learning in order for teachers to re-examine their practice and adopt new pedagogies. The reflections by two secondary school mathematics teachers are presented as they experiment with inquiry-based learning in the CLD. The teachers showed awareness, monitoring and regulation of their teaching practices including new and existing beliefs.