What is the Singapore Method?
The Singapore Method is a progressive approach to learning mathematics based on experimentation and discovery. Popular among teachers, the Singapore approach is structured in steps, allowing students to build a solid understanding of mathematics by moving from concrete to abstract through manipulation. With the Singapore Method, learning starts with hands-on practice: students first manipulate materials before tackling theoretical concepts. This method contrasts with the traditional approach often used in schools, where each math lesson is divided into two parts: first, theory, followed by application through written exercises. The Singapore pedagogy offers new perspectives for learning mathematics and can help students who need to manipulate and visualize concepts concretely in order to understand them. This approach is particularly useful for grasping more complex ideas, such as fractions.
How is a lesson structured using the Singapore Method?
The Singapore Method relies on a three-step progressive approach: concrete manipulation, visual representation, and then abstract formalization. The first phase of a lesson using the Singapore Method introduces mathematical concepts through a real-world situation to anchor the concept in reality. For example, sharing a cake to introduce fractions, or assembling cubes to understand addition. By manipulating these blocks, students can easily count and visualize the operation. After this initial hands-on phase, students move on to visual representation through writing. Still in the context of learning addition, after manipulating cubes to add, students draw bars to visually represent the sum. Finally, the last step of the lesson is to formalize the mathematical concepts. After manipulating cubes and drawing bars, students write the addition in its numeric and standardized form, as we all know.
Discover our selection of educational materials for the Singapore Method
On Wesco, discover a selection of educational materials designed to implement the Singapore Method in your classroom: base 10 blocks, Cuisenaire rods, fraction sets, tangrams, 3D solids, sorting plates, etc. These Singapore educational products are rigorously selected and meet the requirements of school curriculums. With our Singapore Method selection, children will gradually discover and master various mathematical concepts, such as numbers and the decimal system, arithmetic, multiples, fractions, and operations.
