The President Call for a Teaching Method to Ensure Success in Algebra II

The National Mathematics Advisory Panel convened in April 2006 to address the lack of native-born Americans in the science and engineer pipeline. If America is to remain strong and a leader in the world, its production of native trained scientists and engineers must increased. For years, the United States has maintained its science and engineering community with a large infusion of highly trained people from developing nations, in particular China and India. As the economies of their homeland mature, these immigrants will choose to remain at home to practice their professions. The 24-member presidential panel announced this prediction and during its deliberations, sought steps to ensure an increase in the development of home grown talents.

Larry Faulkner, the chairman of the panel and former president of the University of Texas at Austin, cited mathematics education as one of the keys to increase the US scientific and engineering communities. The panel noted that mathematics is not a cool school subject, yet it is fundamental to most of the things done within our society and to the health and safety of the country.

STUDENT PROBLEMS IN MATHEMATICS

The panel reported that most students have difficulty understanding fractions and decimals. As decimals and fractions are key to understand advanced courses in mathematics, they are starting points for educational reforms.

It is well-known that students who have success in Algebra II are more likely to graduate from college. So the president charged the panel to find ways to deliver a mathematics preparation that leads to more students completing Algebra II.

Other announcements from the panel:

• Students from Singapore have never scored less than first place on an international mathematics skills test. On that same test, the United States usually score in the middle of the pack of the participating nations.

• Singapore teaching methods stress content while covering fewer topics than their American counterparts.

• Singapore's textbooks build deep understanding of mathematical concepts through multi-step problems and concrete illustrations that demonstrate how abstract mathematical concepts are used to solve problems from different perspectives.

CALL FOR CHANGE

As a consequence of these finding, the president issued a call for the adoption of the Singapore method of instructions to teach pre-algebra mathematics. Several state have committed to this reform, however previous educational reform movements suggest reform it is not likely in the near future.

FACTS OF INTEREST

The Singapore textbooks, titled "Primary Mathematics," are published for the US market by a small company in Oregon, Marshall Cavendish International. They are slim volumes, weighing a fraction of a conventional American text.

In the early grades, word problems are always solved the same way: Draw a picture representing the problem and its solution. Then express it with numbers, and finally write it in words. The philosophy of this approach is concrete to pictorial to abstract. Not all US teachers who are familiar with this teaching method like it, and many who are familiar with it, choose not to use it.

The Singapore books aren't easy for teachers to use without training. This method generates a lot of student enthusiasm. You can tell when you walk into a classroom using Singapore math.

After 10 years of studying the Singapore curriculum, Yoram Sagher, a mathematics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he still has "very pleasant surprises and realizations" while reading the these textbooks. Sagher, who helped train many teachers to use the Singapore method said, he is constantly amazed by "the gentle, clever ways that the mathematics is brought to the intuition of the students."