EAPSI: Cultural Underpinnings of Singapore Students' Good Performance in Mathematics: Implications for Mathematics Educators in the US

长期以来，美国中小学生的数学成绩一直很差。这一直是数学教育者和决策者所关注的问题。多年来，政策制定者和教育工作者一直试图通过改革——旨在改善教学法、教师资格和课程的改革——来纠正这种状况。尽管进行了这些改革，但问题依然存在。相反，新加坡的小学和高中学生在数学方面都表现得非常好，在世界上名列前茅。因此，新加坡成为包括美国在内的西方数学教育工作者寻求建议的热门国家。然而，他们忽视的一个领域，并没有寻求建议，那就是新加坡的数学教育文化领域。这种教学和学习数学的文化正是这个项目所要研究的。了解文化规范与学生课堂行为之间的联系有助于为包括美国在内的世界其他地区的数学教学和数学教育政策提供信息。该项目将在新加坡国立教育学院进行，由Berinderjeet Kaur博士指导，他的主要研究兴趣是数学教师的课堂教学法。此次合作提供了对独特数据的访问，这将使人们对学生的数学表现有新的认识。人类学家普遍认为，一些群体在学校表现良好，因为他们的文化与学校文化是一致的（Ogbu, 1982）。因此，这个项目将试图了解社会的文化规范和学生的行为。该项目采用民族志方法，旨在了解新加坡学生和教师的文化规范与课堂行为之间的关系。学生和他们的老师的课堂和课外文化将被研究，文化规范对学生的影响？学习和做数学的能力将被探索。课堂观察和对教师、学生和家长的访谈将通过录音和录像进行。这个项目的学校将在我在新加坡的东道主的帮助下选择和招募参与者。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会和新加坡国家研究基金会共同资助，隶属于东亚和太平洋暑期学院项目，支持一名美国研究生进行暑期研究。

The United States has been bedeviled with poor mathematics performance of elementary and high school students for a long time now. This has been the concern of mathematics educators and policy-makers alike. Policy-makers and educators over the years have tried to remedy the situation by means of reforms - reforms aimed at improving pedagogy, teacher qualifications, and the curricula. Despite these reforms, the problem persists. On the contrary, Singapore's students in both elementary and high schools are performing exceedingly well in mathematics, and are ranked among the best in the world. Singapore has, therefore, become a sought-after country for advice for mathematics educators from the west, United States included. However, one area which they overlooked, and have not sought advice is the area of mathematics education culture in Singapore. This culture of teaching and learning mathematics is what this project seeks to study. Understanding the linkages between the cultural norms and the classroom behaviors of students can help inform mathematics instruction and mathematics education policy in other parts of the world, including the United States. This project will be conducted at the National Institute of Education, Singapore under the mentorship of Dr. Berinderjeet Kaur, whose primary research interest is in classroom pedagogy of mathematics teachers. The collaboration provides access to unique data that will enable new insights into students' mathematics performance. Anthropologists generally believe that some groups do well in school because their cultures are congruent with school culture (Ogbu, 1982). This project will therefore try to learn about the cultural norms of the society and the behaviors of students. Employing ethnographic methodology, the project will seek to understand the relationships between cultural norms and classroom behaviors of students and teachers in Singapore. The classroom and after school cultures of students and their teachers will be studied, and the impact of the cultural norms on students? ability to learn and do mathematics will be explored. Classroom observations and interviews of teachers, students and their parents will be conducted using audio and video tapes. The schools for this project will be selected and participants recruited with the help of my host in Singapore. This award, under East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Singapore.