Skip main navigation

Summary and extended reading

Here we provide a summary of the first week and some extended reading.
Curved shelves of library books
© University of Southampton

In this first week of the course, we have covered the following main points:

  1. Asian students‘ high-performance in mathematics is related to a variety of factors. A key factor is the mathematics teaching methods used in Asian classrooms.

  2. Well-established and widely used teaching principles from Singapore include Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach and the Bar Model method.

  3. Well-established and widely used teaching principles from Shanghai include Two Basics and Teaching with Variation.

Readings

Some suggestions for reading for this week are:

Week 1

Leung, F. K. S. (2001). In search of an East Asian identity in mathematics education. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 47(1), 35-51.

TIMSS 2015 Mathematics Framework & Student Achievement (available online here).

Optional

Fan, L. (2012). Why do Singapore students excel in International Mathematical competitions? Inaugural lecture at University of Southampton School of Education. (available online here).

Next week

Next week, we will focus on Singapore mathematics teaching methods. We will particularly focus on the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach of mathematics and the Bar Model method. Both methods are widely used in successful Singaporean classrooms.

Congratulations on completing Week 1 and we look forward to seeing you in Week 2!

© University of Southampton
This article is from the free online

World Class Maths: Asian Teaching Methods

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now