[Maths-Education] Singapore vs Japan - Teaching Styles and Learning

[Daniel Pearcy]

Dear all,

I teach Maths at an International School in Sao Paulo, Brazil and am currently interested in 
International Education. In particular, I´m looking at the difference in teaching and learning 
between Schools in Singapore and Japan. 

I was able to find many different sources on what teaching and learning looks like in 
a 'typical' Japanese lesson that all point towards a problem based environment. The students 
try to find strategies to solve these problems and the strategies are discussed as a class.

However, I found conflicting views on what a typical Singapore lesson looks like. There are 
sources that still point to a teacher dominated rote-learning style and sources that point to 
a huge improvement over the last 13 years in a more problem based, investigatory style since 
the introduction of Government Schemes such as, "Thinking School, Learning Nation."

I would like to know what a typical lesson looks like in Singapore? 

I became interested in this after looking at the PIA international data (2009) on comparisons 
in mathematics results and noticed that Japan and Singapore are Countires that consistently do 
well on an international scale. Parental attitudes, cultural attitudes and percentage of 
students who attend classes outside school are simililar in both Countries so I would like to 
know if the teaching styles are also similar. I also know that there is a strong emphasis on 
pedagody in Japanese teacher training but am not sure if this is the case in Singapore. If 
not, and most Singapore teachers do indeed teach by rote, it is interesting to note that 
Singapore consistently out-performs Japan on an international scale. 

This would certainly change some of my perceptions on what constitutes as 'good learning' in a 
mathematics lesson.

Thanks,

Daniel Pearcy