[Maths-Education] Singapore vs Japan - Teaching Styles and Learning
Daniel Pearcy
dpearcy at stnicholas.com.br
Mon Mar 21 20:29:44 GMT 2011
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
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