Singapore Math

In 1981, the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) created a project team identified as the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore (now titled the Curriculum Planning Development Institute of Singapore) that composed a mathematics program for primary grades in Singapore. The goal of this mathematics curriculum was to create a labor force with technical skills that surpassed all others in the Third World. Ministry of Education primary grades translate to kindergarten through Grade 12 in the United States. The curriculum was published initially in 1982. The first edition focused on mathematical computation. The mathematics was presented at three levels of understanding: concrete, pictorial, and abstract. The intent was to have students develop meaningful mathematics skills with flexible thinking. Such a level of understanding would serve as a foundation for the study of mathematics in the high school years, thus enabling students to be well prepared for advanced mathematics at the university level.

The textbook series was revised in 1992 to have problem solving as the basis of the curriculum. A goal of this curriculum was to enable students to use mathematics in challenging situations as well as to know basic computation. In 1994, the Ministry of Education did not change the curriculum, but did reduce the amount of mathematical content in the textbook series to allow for subject mastery. By 1999, the Ministry of Education realized that the curriculum needed to be reduced in order for teachers to inject more thinking skills, technology, and the national education messages into the curriculum. The content that was removed from the curriculum included math that was just recall items, math that centered on technical details rather than conceptual understanding, and math that research had identified as too abstract for a given grade level. This was the third edition of the mathematics series.

International recognition of this curriculum began with the Third International Mathematics and Science Study results in 1995 when Singapore students scored in the number-one position when compared with 41 other industrial nations in their mathematical skills. The study group continued their work under the name of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); in 1999 and 2003, Singapore students maintained their top ranking in the world for mathematical proficiency.

While the Ministry of Education of Singapore identified the mathematics curriculum that they created as the Primary Mathematics Series, once the TIMSS results were distributed, educators in the United States and Canada began to identify the curriculum as “Singapore Math.” The Primary Mathematics Series textbooks were privatized in 2001 in order to make changes to the series with greater speed.

The Ministry of Education recognized the change in teaching methodologies in 2001 with another curriculum revision, including newer cognitive approaches to teaching and learning along with different assessment modes. Since the Singapore government sponsored this series, it included citizenship skills and values as well as information technology. In response to market demand in 2003, an American version was published that used American currency and measurements. The most recent revision to the series came in 2007. The changes focused on the inclusion of calculator usage and a reduction in mental mathematics.

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