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 Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

DEVELOPING  21ST  CENTURY  COMPETENCIES  IN  THE  

MATHEMATICS  CLASSROOM
Yearbook 2016, Association of Mathematics Educators
Copyright © 2016 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
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For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance
Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy
is not required from the publisher.

ISBN 978-981-3143-60-9

Printed in Singapore

RokTing - Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom.indd 1 5/5/2016 2:30:05 PM
 Contents

Chapter 1 21st Century Competencies in Mathematics 1

Classrooms
Pee Choon TOH
Berinderjeet KAUR

Chapter 2 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st 13

Century Competencies
Stephen THORNTON

Chapter 3 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 33

21st Century Competencies
WONG Khoon Yoong

Chapter 4 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 51

Barry KISSANE

Chapter 5 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for 77

Developing 21st Century Skills
Berinderjeet KAUR
WONG Lai Fong
Divya BHARDWAJ

Chapter 6 Teaching in the 21st Century Mathematics 95

Classroom: Metacognitive Questioning
Cynthia SETO
vi Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Chapter 7 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective 109

Thinking: Two Case Studies on the Use of the
National Assessment in Japan
Keiko HINO

Chapter 8 Using Open-Ended Tasks to Foster 21st Century 133

Learners at the Primary Level
YEO Kai Kow Joseph

Chapter 9 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics 149

Classroom
KOAY Phong Lee

Chapter 10 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 165

CHUA Boon Liang

Chapter 11 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: 189

Teachers’ Perceptions
Lay Keow NG
Jaguthsing DINDYAL

Chapter 12 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: 213

Motivation and Cognitive Load
Weng Kin HO
Puay San CHAN

Chapter 13 Use of Comics and Storytelling in Teaching 241

Mathematics
TOH Tin Lam
CHENG Lu Pien
JIANG Heng
LIM Kam Ming
 Contents vii

Chapter 14 Game Theory: An Alternative Mathematical 261

Experience
Ein-Ya GURA

Contributing Authors 273

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 Chapter 1

21st Century Competencies in Mathematics

Classrooms

Pee Choon TOH Berinderjeet KAUR

This chapter introduces the Singapore Framework for 21st Century

Competencies and Student Outcomes (MOE, 2010) and also
provides an overview of the chapters in the book. The chapters are
classified into three broad themes. The first is an examination of
21st century competencies and how they can be developed within
the context of the mathematics curriculum. The second is an in-
depth discussion of evidence-based practices aimed at fostering
specific competencies like metacognition and reflective thinking,
critical thinking, reasoning and communication skills. The third and
last theme is about teaching approaches that are likely to feature
increasingly in 21st century classrooms.

1 Introduction

This yearbook of the Association of Mathematics Educators (AME) in

Singapore focuses on developing 21st Century Competencies in
Mathematics Classrooms. Like previous yearbooks, Mmatical Problem
Solving (Kaur, Yeap, & Kapur, 2009), Maathethematical Applications
and Modelling (Kaur & Dindyal, 2010), Assessment in the Mathematics
Classroom (Kaur & Wong, 2011), Reasoning, Communication and
Connections in Mathematics (Kaur & Toh, 2012), Nurturing Reflective
Leaners in Mathematics (Kaur, 2013), and Learning Experiences to
Promote Mathematics Learning (Toh, Toh, & Kaur, 2014), the theme of
this book is shaped by the school mathematics curriculum developed by
2 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the needs of mathematics teachers

in Singapore schools.
The 21st century is often characterised as one where the world we
live in is complex, highly interconnected and rapidly changing. The
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD,
2005) states that:

Globalisation and modernisation are creating an increasingly diverse

and interconnected world. To make sense of and function well in
this world, individuals need for example to master changing
technologies and to make sense of large amounts of available
information. They also face collective challenges as societies – such
as balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability,
and prosperity with social equity. (p. 4)

The implication is that students should acquire a set of competencies that

would help them better deal with the challenging demands of 21st
century life. These competencies go beyond accumulated factual
knowledge and relates to how one mobilises cognitive and practical
skills, creative abilities, as well as resources such as attitudes, motivation
and values, to deal with complex tasks.
In the United States, the vision of the P21 Partnership for 21st
Century Learning (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2016) since its
formation in 2002 is for students to succeed “in a world where change is
constant and learning never stops.” In their Framework for 21st Century
Learning, the mastery of fundamental academic subjects such as
Mathematics is identified to be essential for student success. Content
mastery should also include the understanding of 21st century
interdisciplinary themes like global awareness, financial literacy, civic
literacy, health literacy and environment literacy. Building on this
bedrock of content knowledge are three types of skills: 1) Learning and
Innovation Skills; 2) Information, Media and Technology Skills; 3) Life
and Career Skills. In particular, the framework states that:
 21st Century Competencies in Mathematics Classrooms 3

Learning and innovations skills are what separate students who are
prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments in
today’s world and those who are not. They include:
 Creativity and Innovation;
 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving;
 Communication;
 Collaboration. (p. 2)

In Singapore, the Ministry of Education also introduced its own

Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes
(henceforth referred to as the Singapore framework) in order to help
students “thrive in a fast-changing and highly connected world.” (MOE,
2010)

2 Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes

The Singapore framework, shown in Figure 1, is grounded on the belief

that knowledge and skills must be underpinned by values. The core
values, namely respect, responsibility, integrity, care, resilience and
harmony define a person’s character and shape the beliefs, attitudes and
actions of the person. Thus, these values form the core of the
framework. The middle ring represents the Social and Emotional
Competencies. These competencies concern firstly with how a student
understands and manages him or herself, and subsequently how a student
relates to others. The outer ring of the framework represents Emerging
21st Century Competencies that are necessary for success in the
globalised world. The framework aims to develop a young person into:

 a confident person who has a strong sense of right and wrong, is

adaptable and resilient, knows himself, is discerning in
judgment, thinks independently and critically, and communicates
effectively.
 a self-directed learner who questions, reflects, perseveres and
takes responsibility for his own learning.
4 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

 an active contributor who is able to work effectively in teams, is

innovative, exercises initiative, takes calculated risks and strives
for excellence.
 a concerned citizen who is rooted to Singapore, has a strong
sense of civic responsibility, is informed about Singapore and the
world, and takes an active part in bettering the lives of others
around him. (MOE, 2010)

Figure 1. Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes

(MOE, 2010)

It is not surprising that the Singapore framework shares many

similarities with the Framework for 21st Century Learning from the
 21st Century Competencies in Mathematics Classrooms 5

United States. One distinct difference is the explicit mention of content

mastery as the bedrock of the latter framework. This in no way suggests
that 21st century competencies in Singapore is to be developed
separately from core curriculum subjects, however it does highlight the
difficulty many teachers face in aligning their lessons to the framework.
How then should teachers develop 21st century competencies in the
classroom? To address the challenge faced by Singapore mathematics
teachers, the Association of Mathematics Educators and the Singapore
Mathematical Society organised the 2015 annual conference for
mathematics teachers with the theme Developing 21st Century
Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom.
The following 13 peer-reviewed chapters resulted from the keynote
lectures and workshops from the conference. The chapters in the book
are classified into three broad themes. The first is an examination of 21st
century competencies and how they can be developed within the context
of the mathematics curriculum. The second is an in-depth discussion of
evidence-based practices aimed at fostering specific competencies like
metacognition and reflective thinking, critical thinking, reasoning and
communication skills. The third and last theme is about teaching
approaches that are likely to feature increasingly in 21st century
classrooms, for example flipped classroom or the use of comics and
storytelling. Together, these chapters offer mathematics teachers many
examples of how 21st century competencies can be fostered in the
classroom.

3 The Mathematics Curriculum and 21st Century Competencies

The aim of the Singapore framework is to develop students into

confident persons, self-directed learners, active contributors and
concerned citizens. It is reasonable to ask how these outcomes relate to
the mathematics curriculum. In chapter 2, Thornton argues that student
outcomes can only be achieved through rigorous intellectual engagement
with core disciplines. Although learning activities in the 21st century
look vastly different from those in the past, mainly because of
technology, the core of what makes for good teaching and learning
6 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

remains largely unchanged. He notes the remarkable similarity of the

core values of the Singapore framework with the virtues described by
Aristotle more than 2000 years ago and showcases the Polymath project:
Bounded gaps between primes, as an exemplar of how the core values of
respect and integrity is demonstrated through the global collaboration of
mathematicians in their quest to solve the twin prime conjecture. He goes
on to illustrate with a number of local student projects in Australia
how the emerging 21st century competencies of civic literacy, global
awareness and cross-cultural skills can be fostered in the classroom.
In chapter 3, Wong explores the linkages between the Singapore
Mathematics curriculum with the four student outcomes of the Singapore
framework. Drawing on several specific real world examples, he
discusses how a teacher can help students develop from confident
students, to self-directed learners, to concerned citizens and finally active
contributors. He ends with suggestions of the competencies teachers
themselves should be equipped with in order to model processes required
to achieve the desired student outcomes.
Kissane provides an alternative viewpoint in chapter 4 that
complements those of the previous two chapters. Instead of focusing on
student outcomes, he focuses on the adult roles of 1) the productive
worker, 2) the careful consumer, 3) the informed citizen, and 4) the
balanced person, that a student assumes after he or she leaves school. He
discusses several relevant examples of how mathematics is involved in
decisions concerning health, insurance and other aspects of everyday life.

4 Metacognition, Critical Thinking and Communications Skills

The Singapore Mathematics Curriculum framework includes

metacognition as one of the five components to help students become
better problem solvers. Metacognition is defined as “thinking about
thinking”, and includes “monitoring of one’s own thinking” and “self-
regulation of learning” (MOE, 2012, p. 17). Thus it is an indispensable
component in developing the desired outcome of a self-directed learner.
Kaur, Wong and Bhardwaj presents in chapter 5, an analysis of data
collected from forty secondary mathematics teachers involved in the
 21st Century Competencies in Mathematics Classrooms 7

Teaching for Metacognition project. A pre-intervention survey of the

teachers’ use of mathematics tasks and understanding of metacognition
found that teachers tended to use more performative tasks rather than
knowledge building tasks in their classrooms. Performative tasks refer to
those that entail the use of lower order thinking skills like recall and
direct application of knowledge, and hence are unlikely to encourage
students to engage in metacognition. The survey also suggested that the
teachers’ initial understanding of metacognition was not comprehensive,
with many of them associating metacognition with higher order thinking
and problem solving. The project thus focused on 1) helping the teachers
craft knowledge building tasks, which call for higher order thinking
skills, and 2) providing the teachers with strategies to engage their
students in metacognition. Examples of how to convert performative
tasks into knowledge building tasks, as well as a list of ten learning
strategies to encourage metacognition are described in the chapter.
Seto continues with the theme of developing metacognition in the
classroom in chapter 6. She focuses on the use of questions to provide
opportunities for students to articulate their problem-solving processes
and illustrates with two classroom excerpts from the primary level.
Hino describes in chapter 7 two teacher education case studies, and
discusses methods for improving teachers’ abilities to listen and respond
to the often under-developed reflective thinking of young students. The
case studies illustrate how tasks from the National Assessment in Japan
and results of students’ performance on these tasks can be used to help
teachers anticipate, compare and investigate students’ thinking.
Critical and inventive thinking is one of the Emerging 21st Century
Competencies identified in the outer ring of the Singapore framework.
One method to foster the development of critical and inventive thinking
is the use of open-ended tasks. In chapter 8, Yeo provides a detailed
literature review of what constitutes an open-ended task and surveys
various research studies involving such tasks. He then provides examples
of two types of open-ended tasks that can be employed in the primary
classroom and concludes with insights into the various issues that
teachers need to be mindful of in the implementation of such tasks.
The ability to communicate is another Emerging 21st Century
Competency. In chapter 9, Koay focuses on how to encourage productive
8 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

mathematics talk in the primary classroom. Useful strategies include

establishing classroom routines and supportive environments, the use of
rich tasks, the use of talk moves and questioning techniques. She stresses
that teachers should relinquish their roles as the sole questioner and
assessor of learning in the classroom and allow students to share the
responsibility of questioning. This would be a positive step towards
helping students take ownership of their own learning and become self-
directed learners.
The process of justification involves the two competencies that we
have previously discussed, namely critical thinking and communication.
In chapter 10, Chua discusses the importance of justification and
introduces four types of justification tasks. He then reports on a study of
how secondary school students and mathematics teachers perform on
justification tasks. The related question of how teachers assess students’
justification is also considered in his study. Although the study suggests
that many students and even some teachers have difficulties in the
process of justification, he believes that given time and sufficient
practice, students can become more proficient. To this end, he concludes
with five strategies for promoting justification.
While these six chapters focus on developing various competencies,
what appears in common is the need for teachers to employ rich
mathematical tasks in the classroom. The implication is that teachers
should take ownership of their own professional development to update
and upgrade their content and pedagogical content knowledge. In doing
so, the teachers themselves exemplify the idea of self-directed learners.
Ng and Dindyal proposes that understanding what teachers value
when they make decisions in selecting examples for instructional
purposes is one way to identify appropriate professional development
opportunities. In chapter 11, they report on a study on the use of
examples in the teaching of mathematics.

5 Pedagogical Approaches in the 21st Century Classroom

One characteristic of the 21st century is the impact of new technology

which is changing the way students learn. A recent phenomenon is the
 21st Century Competencies in Mathematics Classrooms 9

concept of the flipped classroom, where instead of learning the content in

class, students now learn the content out of class through either video-
recordings or other forms of online learning. Classroom time is then
spent on activities like quizzes (to ascertain basic mastery of content
and identify misconceptions) and group discussions, which fosters
collaborative and communication skills. The flipped classroom is also
viewed as an avenue to encourage self-directed learning. In chapter 12,
Ho and Chan describe an implementation of the flipped classroom for
teaching a group of Junior College students and report on the
effectiveness based on the findings of a summative survey, supplemented
by student interviews.
In chapter 13, Toh, Cheng, Jiang and Lim introduce a web-based
mathematics teaching package that leverages on comics and storytelling.
They provide an example of a comic strip that describes two friends on a
shopping trip who were puzzled by the % symbol that they saw. Students
who followed through the comic strip would be presented with
opportunities to learn about percentages and fractions. Toh et al.
conclude that one advantage of using comics is that it develops the skill
of interpreting real-world information presented in graphic form, another
of the Emerging 21st Century Competency identified by the Singapore
framework.
Not all learning in the 21st Century need to leverage on technology.
In the final chapter, Gura describes a course in game theory that can be
adapted to the classroom. Game theory is a branch of mathematics which
aims to build models in order to draw conclusions for decision-making.
It is part of the content of the Singapore Economics curriculum which
states that “one of the 21st Century Competencies emphasised in the
Singapore Economics curriculum is sound reasoning and decision
making under Critical and Inventive Thinking” (University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate, 2015, p. 2).

6 Concluding Thoughts

21st century classrooms call for 21st century teachers. These teachers
must be confident teachers, self-directed learners, active contributors and
10 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

concerned citizens, in order to be effective role models for their students.

In particular, as self-directed learners, they should question, reflect and
look for different ways to improve their craft of teaching.
The chapters in this yearbook provide readers and specifically
classroom teachers with ideas on the why, what and how of developing
21st century competencies in the mathematics classroom. Readers are
urged to read the chapters carefully and try some of the ideas in their
classrooms and convince themselves that these ideas offer a means to
engage students in meaningful mathematical practices meant to develop
the desired learning outcomes.

References

Kaur, B. (2013). Nurturing reflective learners in mathematics. Singapore: World

Scientific.
Kaur, B., & Dindyal, J. (2010). Mathematical applications and modelling. Singapore:
World Scientific.
Kaur, B., & Toh, T.L. (2012). Reasoning, communication and connections in
mathematics. Singapore: World Scientific.
Kaur, B., & Wong, K.Y. (2011). Assessment in the mathematics classroom. Singapore:
World Scientific.
Kaur, B., Yeap, B.H., & Kapur, M. (2009). Mathematical problem solving. Singapore:
World Scientific.
Ministry of Education, Singapore (2010). MOE to enhance learning of 21st century
competencies and strengthen art, music and physical education. Retrieved 31
December, 2015 from www.moe.gov.sg
Ministry of Education, Singapore (2012). O-Level mathematics: Teaching and Learning
Syllabus. Singapore: Author.
Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2016). Framework for 21st Century Learning.
Retrieved 1 January, 2016 from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/docs/
P21_framework_0116.pdf
 21st Century Competencies in Mathematics Classrooms 11

OECD (2005). The definition and selection of key competencies: Executive summary.
Retrieved 31 December, 2015 from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/35070367.pdf
Toh, P.C., Toh, T.L., & Kaur, B. (2014). Learning Experiences to Promote Mathematics
Learning. Singapore: World Scientific.
University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate (2015). H3 Economics
examination syllabuses (for candidates in Singapore only). Cambridge: Author.
May 2, 2013 14:6 BC: 8831 - Probability and Statistical Theory PST˙ws

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 Chapter 2

Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st

Century Competencies

Stephen THORNTON

While much research in mathematics education focuses on how best

to teach a concept or skills to help students understand or solve a
problem, this paper argues that ethical and philosophical decisions
about what is worth learning and for what reason are equally, if not
more important. The Singapore Framework for 21st Century
Competencies and Student Outcomes (MOE, 2010) captures some
of these ethical and philosophical dimensions in its emphasis on the
core values that lie at the heart of the competencies and outcomes. I
argue that the outcomes of confidence, self-direction, citizenship
and active contribution to society can only be achieved through
rigorous intellectual engagement with core disciplines, particularly
mathematics. I show how mathematics contributes to and embodies
intellectual and moral virtues such as truthfulness, open-mindedness
and evidence (Sockett, 2012), and discuss how school mathematics
can contribute to the development of competencies such as civic
literacy, inventive thinking, and communication skills.

1 Introduction

Much of the current educational rhetoric, particularly in the Western

world, emphasizes that society is changing rapidly and that new
technologies demand that students in the 21st Century leave school with
new sets of skills and competencies. Schleicher (2012), for example,
reporting on the International Summit on Preparing Teachers and
14 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century: Lessons from around
the World asks: “What are the skills that young people need to be
successful in this rapidly changing world?” The text goes on to argue:
traditionally mathematics is often taught in an abstract mathematical
world, using formalism first, removed from authentic contexts, and
discouraging to the students that do not see its relevance – for
example, students are taught the techniques of arithmetic, then given
lots of arithmetic computations to complete; or they are shown how
to solve particular types of equations, then given lots of similar
equations to solve. In contrast, in the 21st century, students need to
have an understanding of the fundamental concepts of mathematics,
they need to be able to translate a new situation or problem they face
into a form that exposes the relevance of mathematics, make the
problem amenable to mathematical treatment, identify and use the
relevant mathematical knowledge to solve the problem, and then
evaluate the solution in the original problem context. (p. 34)
In this paper, however, I want to argue that, due in large part to the
increased access to modern technology, learning in 21st century
mathematics may look superficially different to learning in the past, at
heart what matters in good teaching and learning is little different to what
has always mattered. In the description of mathematics in the 21st
century provided above, relevance to the real world, the ability to
formulate a problem mathematically, and the ability to evaluate the
solution in the original context, are contrasted with what are termed
“traditional” approaches to teaching mathematics. Yet I would argue that
good mathematics teaching and learning has always emphasized
relevance, problem formulation and real world applicability, as well as
stressing the spirit and beauty of mathematics. Similarly, creativity and
innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, and
learning to learn and metacognition as described in the Assessment and
Teaching of 21st Century Skills project (Binkley et. al., 2012) have
always been important features of good teaching and learning.
Rather than attempting to list new sets of skills or competencies
needed in the 21st Century, which by default tend to devalue the skills
and competencies that are assumed to be valued in traditional education,
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 15

I argue that a potentially more productive approach is to reflect on the

values and ethics that have always underpinned good teaching and
learning, and to rediscover these in a 21st Century context. In the next
section I discuss the Singapore 21st Century Competencies (MOE, 2010)
and compare the Core Values at the centre of what has come to be called
the “Singapore Swiss Roll” with the intellectual virtues described more
than 2000 years ago by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics (Irwin,
1999), and given contemporary relevance by MacIntyre (2007) and
Sockett (2012). In the following section I describe the Polymath twin
prime project (Gowers, 2009), using it as a contemporary example of
how the discipline of mathematics embodies the virtues of truthfulness,
open-mindedness and impartiality described by Sockett. I then give three
examples from school mathematics that highlight the competencies of
civic literacy, inventive thinking, and communication and information
skills described in the Singapore framework. I suggest that the virtues of
truthfulness, open-mindedness and impartiality are not only ends in
themselves, but underpin each of these three competencies.

2 21st Century Competencies and the Intellectual Virtues

The familiar “Singapore Swiss Roll” describing the desired outcomes of

education for Singapore is shown in Figure 1. This framework is
designed to develop a young person who is:
 a confident person who has a strong sense of right and wrong, is
adaptable and resilient, knows himself, is discerning in
judgment, thinks independently and critically, and communicates
effectively.
 a self-directed learner who questions, reflects, perseveres and
takes responsibility for his own learning.
 an active contributor who is able to work effectively in teams, is
innovative, exercises initiative, takes calculated risks and strives
for excellence.
 a concerned citizen who is rooted to Singapore, has a strong
sense of civic responsibility, is informed about Singapore and the
16 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

world, and takes an active part in bettering the lives of others

around him. (MOE, 2010)

Figure 1. Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes

(MOE, 2010)

At the centre of the framework are the core values that describe the
person’s character, beliefs and attitudes. They are: respect; responsibility;
integrity; care; resilience; and harmony, each of which is elaborated upon
in more detail. These core values bear a remarkable similarity to the
virtues described by Aristotle some 2000 years ago (see Table 1), and are
given contemporary credence by writers such as MacIntyre (2007) and
Sockett (2012).
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 17

In his Nicomachean Ethics (Irwin, 1999) dedicated to, or perhaps

edited by, his son Nicomacheus, Aristotle articulates those values that are
“implicit in the thought, utterance and actions of an educated Athenian”
(MacIntyre, 2007, p. 173). Aristotle holds that every activity or enquiry
aims at some good, that is what is required to live maximally well, or to
attain a state of happiness that he calls eudaimonia. However, by
happiness Aristotle does not mean the pursuit of material pleasure, but
rather a flourishing life, a state of well-being characterized by
blessedness and prosperity. It is a state of oneness with self and with
society, where the citizen acts virtuously because the act is, in and of
itself, virtuous. Aristotle’s virtues thus have a universality that transcends
place and time, yet the practice of those virtues is characterized by
judgment about what is the right thing to do in a particular situation. For
Aristotle and indeed Greek society more generally, virtue, or ἀρετή
(areté), represents excellence in personal and civic life (Moltow,
Thornton, & Kinnear, 2015).
Aristotle distinguishes between the moral virtues, that is those
ethical dispositions conducive to living well amongst other persons in
society, and the intellectual virtues, that is those intellectual dispositions
conducive to the cultivation and deployment of theoretical and practical
knowledge. Aristotle holds that the moral virtues that he terms virtues of
character are learned through habit and practice, and the intellectual
virtues that he terms virtues of thought through instruction. He sees these
virtues as inextricably linked; that is, it is not possible to exhibit
excellence in personal and civic life without having both moral and
intellectual virtues. One classification of Aristotle’s virtues is given in
Table 1. One can see clearly the core values of respect, embodied in
justice and generosity; responsibility, embodied in temperance and
prudence; integrity, embodied in truthfulness and wisdom; care,
embodied in magnanimity and gentleness; resilience, embodied in
courage and harmony; and harmony, embodied in justice and gentleness
throughout these virtues.
18 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Table 1
The moral and intellectual virtues

MORAL VIRTUES INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES

Temperance (sōphrosunē) Intelligence (nous)

Courage (andreia) Scientific knowledge (epistēmē)

Justice (dikaiosuné) Wisdom (sophia)

Truthfulness (alētheia) Art (technē)

Generosity (eleutheriotēs) Prudence (phronēsis)

Magnanimity (megalopsuchia)

Gentleness (praotēs)

In his seminal After Virtue, which has become a key influence in

contemporary virtue ethics, Alasdair MacIntyre (2007) argues that the
modern project of justifying ethics by appeals to rationality or analysis of
linguistic meanings, has necessarily failed. He suggests that
contemporary moral philosophy is in a state of crisis, unable to provide a
means to settle apparently incommensurable moral dilemmas. His
analysis results in a rediscovery of Aristotelian ethics through the
articulation of virtues that describe the qualities or attributes that mark a
person as one of moral and intellectual excellence.
Hugh Sockett (2012) discusses these virtues in an educational
context. He classifies knowledge as public, or propositional, marked by
virtues of truthfulness, open-mindedness and evidence, and private,
marked by virtues of experience, commitment and identity. While each
of these virtues contributes to a person’s character, it is the intellectual
virtues marking public knowledge that play a particular role in formal
education.
Truthfulness, according to Sockett (2012), is a disposition to say
what we know is true, and to seek out what is true. It is marked by
qualities such as accuracy, care and reliability in acquiring knowledge,
and sincerity, the motivation to say what is true. It seems self-evident
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 19

that mathematics has a particular role to play in the cultivation of

truthfulness. Mathematical enquiry is marked by a commitment to
accuracy, both in the logical deduction that characterizes activities such
as geometric or algebraic proof, and in the evaluation of levels of
confidence that characterizes hypothesis testing in statistics. Similarly,
mathematics is marked by a commitment to the communication of truth,
which is in turn evaluated not by whim or personal preference, but on
the basis of the degree to which knowledge claims can be rigorously
justified.
Open-mindedness is a disposition to view knowledge as provisional
through the consistent construction of alternatives. In his seminal Proof
and Refutations Imre Lakatos (1976) presents a wonderful example of an
open-minded community of mathematical inquiry. The participants in
Lakatos’s hypothetical classroom consistently question the legitimacy of
claims relating to the validity of Euler’s Rule linking the number of
edges, vertices and faces of a three-dimensional object, in the process
refining the definition of a polyhedron and clarifying the conditions
under which the rule holds. The participants in the classroom were
willing to both suspend judgment and to put aside self-interest in favor of
an open-minded commitment to public knowledge. While classrooms
such as that described by Lakatos may be hypothetical, there are many
similar examples in the literature, such as Brown and Renshaw’s (2006)
description of collective argumentation in mathematics.
Evidence is characterized by a commitment to justification,
impartiality and judgment. Again, I suggest that these characteristics are
particularly apparent in the discipline of mathematics. Justification
through logical argument is an indispensable aspect of mathematical
reasoning, alternative ways of thinking are given intellectual respect, and
judgments are made about the truth-value of competing alternatives.
Sockett’s (2012) classification of virtues in public knowledge
derives from the intellectual virtues described by Aristotle, particularly
those of scientific knowledge, wisdom and art. I suggest that there is a
remarkable level of congruence between the virtues described by
Aristotle and Sockett, and the core values of respect, responsibility,
integrity, care, resilience and harmony described in Singapore’s model of
21st Century competencies. If we accept that mathematics plays a central
20 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

role in the development of the intellectual virtues described by Sockett

and deriving from those of Aristotle, then it is clear that mathematics is a
crucial element in the development of the core values, and hence the
realization of the desired outcomes of education, described in the
Singapore framework. In the next section I discuss a particular example
from the world of mathematics to illustrate in greater detail how it both
exemplifies and develops these intellectual virtues.

3 Bounded Gaps Between Primes: The Polymath Project

On 14 May 2013 Yitang Zhang, a then unknown mathematician,

published a breakthrough paper (Zhang, 2014) that included a new way
of tackling the twin prime conjecture. The conjecture states that there is
an infinite number of pairs of primes that are two apart, such as 41 and
43. Zhang announced a proof that there are indeed infinitely many prime
pairs, however rather than differing by two as in the twin prime
conjecture, his result showed that these infinitely many pairs were no
more than 70 million apart. The result was the first time anyone had been
able to put a finite bound on gaps between prime numbers, and prompted
a flurry of activity around the world. By 30 May 2013 Scott Morrison
from the Australian National University announced that he had reduced
the gap to 59 470 640, and on 4 June 2013 Terry Tao of the University of
California launched a collaborative project as part of the Internet-based
Polymath endeavour (Gowers, 2009), an open access online
collaboration between mathematicians established in order to share
knowledge and ideas towards solving previously intractable problems in
mathematics. By 27 July 2013 this online collaboration had reduced the
gap between prime pairs to 4680. By April 2014 the gap was 246. In less
than twelve months more progress was made on the twin prime
conjecture than had been made in the previous 2000 years (Nielsen,
2014).
The table of advances published by Nielsen (2014) contains some
300 entries, each of which is the result of work carried out by a
mathematician, using variations and ideas built on the initial paper by
Zhang. Of these 300 or so entries at least 30 are struck out due to
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 21

imprecision or recognition of an initial error. Many others are tentative

results shown with a question mark.
I suggest that this research provides an example par excellence of
the intellectual virtues of truthfulness, open-mindedness and evidence
described by Sockett (2012). It shows how the establishment of a
cooperative research community enabled the initiation and sustaining of
intellectual engagement with a serious problem. It shows how the work
of a previously unknown mathematician was recognized by the
community, and paved the way for rapid progress. It shows how all
results were given intellectual respect, but that each was evaluated
according to the standards of rigor established and accepted by the
community.
In his blog proposing the Polymath project Gowers (2009) provides
three arguments for the potential value of massive online collaboration in
mathematics. First he argues that if many people are working on a
problem there is a greater chance that one person will discover a
technique or idea that helps to solve the problem. Second he argues that,
because different people know different things, the knowledge of a group
is greater than the knowledge of one or two individuals. Third he argues
that different people have different approaches to research.
Gowers (2009) goes on to propose some ground rules to guide work
on the various problems that are proposed as potential Polymath projects.
These ground rules include:
 Keep comments short and not too technical. Express ideas in a
way that others can build on it.
 Try out lots of ideas, even those not fully thought through.
 Point out errors, but in a respectful way. Do not be self-interested
in trying to defend your own ideas.
 Resist the rush towards polished thoughts even if working on the
problem individually appears as if it might lead to a solution or
justification.
 Only pursue a different approach to a problem or a different
problem if the collective agrees that this is a useful thing to do.
 Publication of results is to be in the name of the collective,
regardless of the relative proportion of work carried out by
individuals.
22 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The Polymath project thus provides an excellent example of

collaborative problem solving among mathematicians where the
intellectual virtues of truthfulness, open-mindedness and evidence are
apparent. Although school mathematics can never adopt the same ways
of working as academic mathematics, nor be a special kind of academic
mathematics (Watson, 2004), it is instructive to ask to what extent school
mathematics can contribute to and embed these same intellectual virtues.
In the following section I give three examples from school mathematics
that illustrate these intellectual virtues and that also help to develop the
21st Century competencies of civic literacy, global awareness and cross-
cultural skills; critical and inventive thinking and; communication,
collaboration and information skills described in the outer ring of the
Singapore Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student
Outcomes (MOE, 2010).

4 Examples from School Mathematics

4.1 Tidal surges: Civic literacy

The move towards a social perspective on mathematics education,

described for example by Lerman (2000) has seen an accompanying
trend towards consideration of issues of equity and social justice,
described in critical mathematics education (e.g. Frankenstein, 2006;
Gutstein, 2003). Critical mathematics education maintains that
mathematics has a crucial role to play in engaging with the world of
students to highlight issues of physical, economic and social importance
(Atweh and Ala’i, 2012). Atweh and Brady (2009) term such an
approach socially response-able mathematics, addressing issues of social
justice through engagement with mathematics. It is marked by ethical
principles that embody respect and concern for the other, and that
respond to the demands of the other. Like the intellectual virtues
described by Sockett (2012), which precede and underpin our
engagement with knowledge, critical mathematics education sees ethical
responsibility as a relationship with the other that precedes knowledge of
the other.
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 23

One particular example described by Atweh and Ala’i (2012)

concerns storm and tidal surges in a coastal town in Western Australia.
They describe how a teacher who initially felt uncomfortable “imposing”
social values on his students was able to make mathematics relevant for
students by analyzing a situation of significant importance to the local
community.
The school’s mission balances academic excellence and care for
inclusion of disadvantaged students, in particular Aboriginal
students… [The teacher’s] interest in joining the project was due to
his concern about making mathematics relevant to students: “to find
something that actually meant something to them”. Even though he
came from a school system that focused on issues of social justice,
he did not feel comfortable when dealing directly with issues of
social justice in mathematics. In his own words, “if [the activities] go
too far [from] the mathematics curriculum - that would worry me”.
His concern was that such discussion of social justice and values
might lead to the imposition of the teacher’s values on the students.
(p. 101)
However, the teacher planned a school-based project in which students
calculated how high the town’s storm surge wall needed to be to
safeguard the town from the impact of cyclones that frequently hit the
area. The major impact of such cyclones is often flooding that occurs at
high tide, exacerbated by tidal surges resulting form the cyclone.
Students were able to use their knowledge of trigonometric functions and
spreadsheets to calculate the combined impact of the two factors. They
determined that if a cyclone hit during high tide, the storm surge would
be 6.5 meters, whereas the actual height of the existing wall protecting
that part of the town is at most 2.7 meters. At the conclusion of the
project, the students presented their findings to the local officials and to
an engineer who used similar techniques to obtain almost identical
results. However, he also pointed out the high cost of building a 6.5
meter wall around the town, the aesthetic impact of blocking people’s
coastal views, and the problem of water being trapped behind such a high
wall. Hence, the local Council had adopted an alternative plan, which
was to increase the height from the ground of all new buildings.
24 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

What this example illustrates is that concerns for environmental and

social issues can be an integral part of school mathematics. Such
activities give students a sense of pride and achievement, and also raise
their awareness of critical issues in contemporary society. In short,
through this activity they become response-able students, developing
civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills. In this example,
the intellectual virtues, particularly that of evidence, are also apparent as
students sourced critical data, and used that information to analyze a
critical problem.

4.2 Mathematics through art: Critical and inventive thinking

The potential for developing creativity in school mathematics is,

arguably, often overlooked. School textbooks tend to emphasize the
skills and techniques of arithmetic and algebra, the properties of
geometric figures or the collection and analysis of data. Seldom do they
provide students with opportunities to inquire or explore information and
ideas, to design and imagine possibilities and actions, to reflect on their
thinking and processes, or to synthesize and evaluate a range of
possibilities (ACARA, 2013). When creativity is discussed in school
mathematics it is often seen as an add-on, perhaps in the context of
activities for gifted students, as illustrated by the existence of the
International Group for Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness (MCG),
affiliated with the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction
(ICMI). However, as Sinclair (2009) argues, rather than being frivolous
or elitist, considering aesthetic dimensions can be both liberating and
connecting experiences in school mathematics.
The following example of the power of mathematics to liberate and
connect is taken from Make it Count, an Australian Government funded
project conducted by the Australian Association of Mathematics
Teachers (AAMT) Inc. The aim of the project was to develop an
evidence base of practices that improve Indigenous students’ learning in
mathematics and numeracy through initiatives that were relevant and
targeted to their particular situation. One such initiative was that
conducted by teachers at Alberton Primary School in South Australia
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 25

(Thornton & Statton, 2011). The school is located in a working class area
of Adelaide and has a large proportion of students from low
socioeconomic backgrounds, including a significant number of students
from Indigenous backgrounds. Motivated by a student who asked “Why
can’t we draw all day?”, teachers chose an area of interest and developed
numeracy activities focused around that interest. Students then had the
freedom to choose which group they joined. Areas of interest included
marine science, art, popular culture, or architecture.
Thornton and Statton (2011) report how one teacher, Aaron, was a
talented artist who had always expressed a personal dislike for
mathematics. Aaron reported that he could not see the connection
between mathematics and art, however through exploring ideas such as
the golden ratio, he was able to overcome many of his misapprehensions
and find meaningful situations through which he could integrate
mathematics into art.
In one lesson he worked with a mixed group of year 3, 4 and 5
students to mathematise the process of drawing a face. The students
took measurements in real contexts of the position of various facial
features, and calculated key proportions. They also looked at the
overall shape of faces, noting the variation from a circle or ellipse.
The students then drew an outline of a face, and used rulers to
measure and calculate the required positions and size for the eyes,
ears and nose for their own outline. (Thornton & Statton, 2011, p. 4)
At the conclusion of the mathematics and art activity, Aaron’s students
gave an exhibition at which they displayed their art and talked about the
mathematics they had learned through art. Figure 2 shows one example
of a boy who made 3-dimensional sculptures and was able to talk about
the number of edges, faces and vertices, and, eventually about Euler’s
Rule, the relationship between them.
26 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Figure 2. Artwork developed in an integrated art and mathematics activity

The deliberate embedding of mathematics within art made

mathematics come alive for both Aaron and his students. Students saw
mathematics as a rich area of learning as they extended their own
understanding of measurements, proportions and geometry, and as being
useful in authentic situations such as drawing more realistic faces or
creating 3-dimensional sculptures. Far from being frivolous or elitist
Aaron’s approach of emphasizing creativity and innovation became
central to the students’ learning of mathematics and proved to be
particularly beneficial to these students who had previously disliked
mathematics or struggled to see its relevance in their lives. By opening
the possibility of learning mathematics through art, which in turn gave
access to mathematical learning to students previously disengaged or
alienated from mathematics, Aaron’s approach further embodied the
open-mindedness that Sockett (2012) lists as an intellectual virtue.

4.3 Froebel and Scratch: Information and communication skills

Creativity and innovation are at the heart of the philosophy of Friedrich

Froebel (1782-1852), the founder of the kindergarten movement
(Manning, 2005), who became a major influence in the pedagogical
approach later developed by Maria Montessori and the architectural
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 27

designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. In contrast to the rigid, passive and

repetitive nature of school prevailing at the time, creativity and
experiential learning were at the heart of Froebel’s methods. He
emphasized children’s uniqueness in their learning styles; he emphasized
the importance of play not only for learning but as an end in itself; and
he emphasized the need for children to construct meaning through the
manipulation of physical objects. All this was guided by the teacher
through the thoughtful and systematic use of carefully designed learning
materials, many of which have a mathematical basis. Froebel described
his learning materials as “gifts” and the accompanying activities as
“occupations”. The gifts included soft colored balls, wooden spheres, a
cube that breaks into 27 smaller cubes, a cube, sphere and cylinder
hanging from a bar, and blocks of various lengths, perhaps the forerunner
of Cuisenaire rods.
Froebel held that learning happens first through general impression,
then perception by looking at a single object, then perceiving qualities
and relations, then comparing, judging and finally making conclusions
(Wiebé, 1869). Such activities are clearly impossible without high levels
of verbal and visual communication, both between children themselves
and between children and their teacher. His occupations therefore
included paper-folding, weaving, construction and drawing. Of course,
they did not include use of ICT as Froebel lived long before the advent of
modern technology, but one can easily relocate many of his suggested
occupations into the 21st Century.
One of these was creating designs using lines, for which Froebel
used a slate etched with horizontal and vertical lines. He advocated that
children first practice drawing horizontal lines, then vertical, then
combinations of both, then diagonal lines, and presented several complex
designs that could be constructed in this way. One such design is shown
in Figure 3.
28 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Figure 3. A horizontal and vertical line design suggested by Froebel (Wiebe, p. 196)

Although designed originally for young children to practice drawing,

such a design could be used with older children to develop their skills in
communication and coding, particularly through the use of Scratch. I
created a Scratch program to create this design with the possibility of
extension to more than three squares in each quarter and automatic
scaling to fit the drawing screen. The coding is shown at
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/64324332/.
Although the design in Figure 3 could be constructed with a
combination of turns and moves, generalizing it for any size design
requires the careful use of coordinates, the definition and use of algebraic
variables to represent lengths of lines and numbers of squares and to
enable the calculation of appropriate lengths, as well as careful
 Mathematics Education, Virtues and 21st Century Competencies 29

sequencing and looping to create consistent code. Although using

Scratch to create this design might appear to be an exercise that is
peripheral to the curriculum, it involves a number of key mathematical
concepts learned in secondary school. In addition, it involves high levels
of communication and develops coding skills, an integral aspect of ICT
literacy.
Activities such as this both highlight the information and
communication skills described in the Singapore Framework and develop
a concern for accuracy described by Sockett (2012) as part of the
intellectual virtue of truthfulness. The act of coding demands attention to
precision and offers opportunity to gain instant feedback in a low-cost
environment.

5 Conclusion

More than 2000 years ago, in his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (Irwin,
1999) described a set of intellectual and moral virtues, which bear a
remarkable resemblance to the core values articulated in the Singapore
Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes
(MOE, 2010). In this paper I have argued that mathematics plays a
crucial role in the development of the intellectual virtues of truthfulness,
open-mindedness and evidence described by Sockett (2012) and built on
the ideas of Aristotle. Furthermore school mathematics can play a crucial
role in developing the competencies of civic responsibility and global
awareness, of critical and inventive thinking, and of communication and
information skills. Aristotle also described the joy of mathematics as
lying in its inherent order and symmetry. I cannot help but question
whether the current emphasis on testing and test results that is so much a
part of modern education systems, and that arguably narrows the
curriculum to a set of easily measured skills, is removing a lot of that joy
and beauty from school mathematics. In the process the emphasis shifts
from what it means to be an educated citizen, that is one who displays
the intellectual virtues, towards learning only what it takes to be
successful at a relatively narrow range of school assessments.
30 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Acknowledgements
I wish to thank my colleagues Dr David Moltow from the University of
Tasmania and Dr Virginia Kinnear from Flinders University for their
frequent discussions of virtue ethics and mathematics, and for the
stimulus to explore this area.

References

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from Three Teachers. In J. Dindyal, L. P. Cheng, & S. F. Ng (Eds.), Mathematics
education: Expanding horizons (Proceedings of the 35th annual conference of the
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia) (pp. 98-105). Singapore:
MERGA.
Atweh, B., & Brady, K. (2009). Socially response-able mathematics education:
Implications of an ethical approach. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science &
Technology Education, 5(3), 267-276.
Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2013). Critical
and creative thinking. Retrieved 29 September, 2015 from
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M. (2012). Defining twenty-first century skills. In P. Griffin, B. McGaw and E. Care
(Eds.) Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills (pp. 17-66). Dordrecht:
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Brown, R., & Renshaw, P. (2006). Transforming practice: Using collective
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Frankenstein, M. (2006). Reading the world with math. In E. Gutstein (Ed.) Rethinking
mathematics: teaching social justice by the numbers. Wisconsin: Rethinking
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Gowers, T. (2009). Polymath Project. Retrieved 29 September, 2015 from

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the International group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Hobart 13-18
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21st Century: Lessons from around the World. Paris: OECD publishing.
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Count). Paper presented at the 3rd International Realistic Mathematics Education
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 Chapter 3

Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education

with 21st Century Competencies

WONG Khoon Yoong

Typical mathematics lessons tend to focus on mastery of specific

procedures through drills in routine problems, and this type of
learning experience is not motivating for many secondary school
students. One way to enrich their learning is to show them how the
assigned learning tasks can help them develop 21st century
competencies (21CC). In Singapore, 21CC covers four types of
student outcomes: confident person, self-directed learner, active
contributor, and concerned citizen. These desirable characteristics
are strongly related to the Singapore curriculum framework.
Confidence can be cultivated through exercises in critical thinking;
self-directed learning through taking responsibility of one’s learning
and engaging in metacognitive reflection; concerns as Singapore
citizens through working on mathematics applications and
modelling with Singapore contexts; active contribution is made
through team work to achieve common goals. This paper elaborates
on these outcomes with several mathematics examples.

1 Introduction: Necessity for 21CC

Under traditional direct instruction, teachers spend substantial amount of

class time on showing how to carry out standard procedures, for
example, to multiply decimals, factorise algebraic expressions, and solve
trigonometric equations. The students will use the remaining class time
to practise these skills on routine problems. This drill-and-practice
34 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

approach helps students to master standard skills in accuracy and speed,

but many secondary school students find this type of learning boring and
demotivating. One way to enrich this routine learning experience is to
let students work on tasks that can help them develop 21st century
competencies (21CC).
We are now one and a half decades into the 21st century, and the
first generation of 21st century students, who are 12+, are already in
secondary schools. Yet 21CC hardly form the core of many school
subjects, including Mathematics. This raises the critical question of
whether the current school experiences are adequate in preparing these
students for future learning and career. That future has been described as
globalised, digital, knowledge-based, uncertain, and so forth. A global
trend is to include 21CC into the school curriculum. For example, the
P21 Partnership for 21st Century Learning (Partnership for 21st Century
Learning, n.d.) from the United States aims to ensure that “all learners
acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a world where
change is constant and learning never stops”. The Singapore Ministry of
Education also recognises the need to prepare students to seize the
opportunities brought about by globalisation and technological advances
(MOE, 2010). The continuing prosperity of the nation depends on
whether or not students acquire 21CC now as well as into the future
through life-long learning.
In Singapore, the typical approach to inculcate 21CC is through
active participation in co-curricular activities (CCA), community
services projects, and sporting events. The challenge faced by
mathematics teachers is how to complement these traditional activities
with mathematics learning experiences that can actively foster 21CC.

2 21CC and the Singapore Mathematics Curriculum

21CC is a multi-dimensional construct, and it is often related more to so-

called soft skills or life skills than to technical or academic competencies.
Its main components are given in Table 1.
 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 21CC 35

Table 1
Common components of 21CC

Components Remarks
Technology Digital literacy, social media
Cognition Critical thinking, creativity, financial literacy,
multi-disciplinary processes
Metacognition Learn to learn
Emotions Grit, resilience, growth mindset, emotional intelligence,
risk taking
Values Fairness, kindness, honesty
Social relationships Communication, collaboration, social intelligence, online
networking, global awareness
Health literacy Knowledge of health information, personal responsibility

In fact, many of these competencies are not new. They have been
expounded in previous centuries by educators and laypeople. For
example, the late prime minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, in a
speech given in 1967, noted that

We want our schools to produce citizens who are healthy and hardy,
with a sense of social purpose and group discipline, prepared to work
and to pay for what they want, never expecting something for
nothing. … [Our schools] will teach our students high standards of
personal behaviour, social norms of good and bad, right and wrong.
(Lee, 2013, p. 151)

In a recent OECD report (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2015),

Singapore education was ranked top of 76 education systems worldwide.
However, in a local press report (Teng, 2015), the coordinator of PISA,
Mr Andreas Schleicher, was quoted as commenting that “Singapore may
need to put greater emphasis on students developing creativity, critical
thinking and collaborative skills, and build character attributes such as
mindfulness, curiosity, courage and resilience”. Indeed, these are
important 21CC to foster among students at all levels.
36 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The recent framework for 21CC by the Singapore Ministry of

Education (MOE, 2010) identifies detailed attributes leading to four
types of student outcomes: confident person, self-directed learner,
concerned citizen, and active contributor. These outcomes can be linked
to the various components of the Singapore Mathematics Curriculum
Framework, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2
Correspondence between 21CC student outcomes and the Singapore mathematics
curriculum

21CC: Student Outcomes Components of Singapore Maths Curriculum

Confident person Attitudes, Concepts, Skills, Processes
Self-directed learner Metacognition, Self-regulated learning
Concerned citizen Attitudes, Processes
Active contributor Processes, Problem Solving

This correspondence between the two frameworks suggests that

implementing 21CC does not require making drastic changes to
mathematics lessons. What might be needed is to enrich current learning
experiences to cover these four student outcomes. Each of these
outcomes will be discussed separately in the next four sections,
following a progression from confidence to self-directedness to concerns
and finally to activeness, in ever deepening cycles with topics and grade
levels. In the penultimate section, it is suggested that these four outcomes
also apply to mathematics teachers of the 21st century.

3 Confident Person

Confident students are those who are able and willing to apply whatever
they have learned to challenge ideas that appear to be wrong or counter-
intuitive rather than to accept them as given “facts”. This critical thinking
is a powerful attribute of 21CC because a confident person in the 21st
century must be able to evaluate the validity and implications of
numerous ideas and “facts” he or she will encounter in the globalised,
 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 21CC 37

digital world. Mathematics learning is particularly effective in dealing

with numbers, logic, and diagrams, which people tend to indiscriminately
accept as true. To counter this unquestioned tendency, critical thinkers
will first pose their own questions about the given information. Next,
they will try to answer the questions by conducting research, collecting
relevant information, and discussing their ideas with other people. Quite
often, there may not be right-or-wrong answers, but the process of trying
to find answers rather than being told “the” answers provides the
necessary training to develop 21CC. This is illustrated below by an
example about risks.
The mass media contain numerous reports about health risks. “Risk”
is not a topic in the current mathematics curriculum, although basically it
means the probability of suffering from loss or harm. Consider this
finding. A report (Pang, 2012) noted that among Chinese-Singaporeans,
those who ate Western fast food more than four times a week had an
80% increase in the risk of dying from heart disease. Of 811 people who
followed this diet, 17 died from heart disease. Given this information, the
student can compute the original risk (17/811 or about 0.02), and work out
how many more people would die due to the 80% increase in risk. On the
basis of this analysis, one can make an informed judgment about whether
the “substantial” percentage increase as reported is misleading or really
“serious”. Continuing along similar probing will lead to questions about
risks due to differences in age, gender, socio-economic status, and other
factors. Eventually this may lead to changes in one’s eating habits. For
instance, the report mentioned that Health Promotion Board recommends
that people should not eat fast food more than twice a week (Pang,
2012). This brief outline shows how learning activities can be planned to
promote critical thinking.
The confidence in independent thinking and search for answers that
require mathematics does not develop readily among students who
practise solving only routine problems, because routine practice tends to
cultivate a compliant attribute: they are good at carrying out instructions
but may not be able to think for themselves, without first seeking
“permission” or guidance from others such as teachers and those in
authority. This inability to think for oneself under unpredictable
situations is sadly illustrated by the Sewol tragedy that happened in
38 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Seoul on 16 April 2014. When the Sewol ferry was sinking, most of the
student passengers obeyed the announcement to stay in the cabin
(Sinking of MV Sewol, n.d.), instead of using whatever information was
available to make their own decision for survival in a turbulent situation.
The training for independence and confidence in one’s own thinking
can begin in the safe classroom environment. The first type of learning
task is to ask students to pose and solve their own problems. In his
doctoral study, Chua (2011) found that Secondary 3 students were
generally not competent in posing meaningful geometry problems: about
20% of their problems were vague or mathematically wrong and nearly
half the solvable problems involved only direct recall. This weakness in
problem posing and asking questions in general needs to be addressed
(e.g., Brown & Walter, 2005; Wong, 2015b). This “questioning
competency” can be applied to tackle open-ended investigations and to
make decisions about real-life issues based on available information and
mathematical thinking and modelling (e.g., Lee & Ng, 2015). A
modelling example involving investment is given below. It can be used
to enhance financial literacy, which is another important component of
21CC.
Assume that Bill has bought 1000 shares of a company at $1 each.
As the share market tumbled, he bought and sold the shares in several
transactions, and finally managed to sell all the shares when it went back
to $1 each. Did he break even? Why or why not? To answer this
question, students have to make some assumptions, pose questions about
specific transactions, compute changes in Bill’s investment, look for
patterns, and evaluate the effects of his strategy. They will engage in
simulations and thinking about plausible outcomes. Table 3 shows one
way to keep track of four possible transactions. Instead of asking
students to complete this table, let them design their own way to monitor
the transactions, because this is an important step they ought to learn
when they solve real-life problems. The transactions given in Table 3
show that Bill has made a net profit of $50. Of course, other outcomes
are possible due to the unpredictable nature of the stock market, and
different approaches proposed by the students should be discussed.
 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 21CC 39

Table 3
Transactions for Bill’s investment

Transactions Cash ($) Number of Shares Held

Start 1000 0
Buy at $1 0 1000
Sell at 90¢ 900 0
Buy at 85¢ 50 (900 – 850) 1000
Sell at $1 1050 (50 + 1000) 0

4 Self-Directed Learner

A self-directed learner can take ownership of one’s learning by

developing a set of learn to learn skills and habits. Self-directed learning
is a key component of metacognition, one of the five factors in the
Singapore Mathematics Curriculum. The National Research Council
(2005) in the United States referred to this aspect of metacognition as
helping “students learn to take control of their own learning by defining
learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them” (p. 2).
Several components of metacognition are discussed in the literature (e.g.,
Buoncristiani & Buoncristiani, 2012; Efklides, 2006; Flavell, 1976;
Schraw & Moshman, 1995), and four of these components are selected
here as especially relevant for promoting self-directed learning (see
Wong, 2015a):
 Metacognitive knowledge (MK): knowledge about effective and
ineffective learning strategies.
 Metacognitive skills (MS): actual competence in carrying out
specific learning strategies.
 Metacognitive monitoring (MM): be mindful of what happens
when certain learning strategies are put into practice; aware of
one’s perceptions of the learning tasks as easy or difficult,
familiar or novel, and so on.
 Metacognitive reflection (MR): think about the effects of
metacognitive practices and what to change to bring about better
learning in the future.
40 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Without proper guidance, students may not be able to develop

effective learning strategies on their own. Mathematics teacher education
programmes seldom cover these strategies, and research about study
methods for mathematics is quite limited, although advice about these
methods has been offered (e.g., Ooten, 2010). From personal encounters,
many teachers are not able to advise their students about alternative
learning strategies, other than more routine practice. Indeed, “practice
makes perfect” seems to be the predominant belief about how to improve
performance (e.g., Kaur, 2011; Wong & Tiong, 2006). However, when
students succeed in solving simple problems and have filed their
worksheets neatly, they may fall into what Karpicke, Butler and
Roediger (2009) called the illusions of competence (also see Oakley,
2014). These observations support the assertion made by Buoncristiani
and Buoncristiani (2012) that “students make poor choices about how
they study because they are unaware of alternatives and their
consequences” (p. 128). On a positive note, Wiliam (2011) claimed that
students can be helped to improve their learning. Hattie (2009) urged
teachers to understand “the critical role of teaching appropriate learning
strategies” (p. 36). Hence, there is a need for teachers to help students
develop more effective learning strategies.
Wong (2013) discussed four ways to help students improve their
learning: homework log, records of mistakes, concept map, and student
question cards. What follows below are two different strategies that
cover the four types of metacognitive attributes mentioned above:
distributed practice and learning outcomes.

Example 1. Distributed practice.

For metacognitive knowledge (MK), explain to students that there are
different types of practices and they are not equally effective. If the
students practise skills wrongly without immediate feedback, they will
be perfect in reproducing those mistakes, and this is definitely not the
desirable outcome. Research (e.g., Rohrer, Dedrick, & Burgess, 2014)
has shown that practising a specific number of problems in one setting
(block practice) is not as effective as practising a few of them at initial
learning and then working on the remaining problems at different
practice sessions over weeks or months (distributed practice), with
 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 21CC 41

adequate feedback in both cases. To develop the related metacognitive

skills (MS), the teacher will divide a set of practice problems into a
schedule according to the stipulated guideline and guide students through
it. For metacognitive monitoring (MM), students will record how closely
they have followed the schedule and their own progress through the
problems. Finally, they reflect on their experiences with distributed
practice (MR). This process should be repeated for different topics using
different practice schedules to enable students to compare and contrast
their experiences under a variety of learning situations. In the end,
students learn to regulate their own practice.

Example 2. Learning objectives or specific instructional objectives.

After graduating from pre-service training, many teachers I have worked
with ignore the important roles of learning objectives:

 Most of them do not write down these objectives.

 Those who are expected to do so by their school write single,
broad objectives, for example, to solve linear equations, without
breaking this skill down into a hierarchy of sub-skills which are
to be taught systematically in different episodes of the lessons.
 Most teachers do not state learning objectives at the beginning of
their lessons. A few teachers read the objectives in passing or
flash them on PowerPoint slide so quickly that most students
ignore this teaching episode.
 No teacher has been observed to use learning objectives as a tool
to monitor the progress of the lesson.

However, self-directed learners must be able to define realistic

learning goals and monitor how well they have achieved them. This
competency requires training, and one strategy is to show students how
to use learning objectives to guide their learning. A sketch of how this
might be done is described below.
First, the teacher needs to realise that informing students about
learning objectives can motivate them to pay attention. This idea is
explained to the students as metacognitive knowledge (MK). Write on
the whiteboard the learning objectives, stated in student-friendly words,
42 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

and spend a few minutes elaborating on them or encouraging students to

share their views about the objectives. It might be helpful to get students
to copy these objectives into their notebook or worksheets. This is part of
metacognitive skill (MS). As the lesson progresses, the teacher will tick
off the objectives when they have been dealt with, and this helps the
students to engage in metacognitive monitoring (MM). At the end of the
lesson, the teacher can ask students which objectives they have
understood and which ones need further elaboration. This can be done
verbally or using exit cards. This allows students to engage in
metacognitive reflection (MR). As before, this training has to be repeated
for many lessons before its benefits can be realised.

5 Concerned Citizen

According to the Singapore 21CC framework (MOE, 2010), a concerned

citizen

is rooted to Singapore, has a strong sense of civic responsibility, is

informed about Singapore and the world, and takes an active part in
bettering the lives of others around him [sic].

This includes an awareness of events in both Singapore and the world in

order to inculcate global awareness. Mathematics problems can include
community, national, and global contexts, but more importantly, solving
these tasks must help students gain new knowledge about the world
around them, which should be a critical curriculum goal for the 21st
century (Wong, 2015a). This aligns with an assumption made by Mason,
Burton, and Stacey (2010) that “mathematical thinking helps in
understanding yourself and the world” (p. x).
Consider the following problem with a “water conservation” context:

Mr Tan intends to reduce his current daily water usage by 5%. His
current daily usage is 176 litres. How much water will be saved if he
is successful in his plan?
 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 21CC 43

In general, students just solve it as a standard percentage problem and do

not think much about the answer. They do not learn about the needs to
conserve water, the economic benefits of doing so, the water sources in
Singapore, the blight of water shortage, and global concerns about water
shortage. Without gaining new knowledge, the students are unlikely to
develop any concern about how these issues might affect their life and
that of others now and into the future. Mathematics teachers should not
be fully satisfied with just getting correct answers from their students to
routine “real-life” problems; they should encourage their students to
think about the deeper significance of these real-life contexts. They need
to work with teachers of other subjects to design multi-disciplinary tasks
to provide the opportunities for students to learn to integrate knowledge
and skills from different disciplines to tackle significant issues.
Many contemporary issues can be weaved into problem contexts,
such as healthy diets, energy conservation, recycling, kindness, and so
forth. Examples can be found in Lee and Ng (2015), Wong (2003,
2015a), Wong et al. (2012), and online resources, e.g., the RadicalMath
website (http://radicalmath.org). The following section shows how a
mathematical lens can illuminate different notions about fairness.
Fairness is an important social concept, which impacts on the
behaviours and beliefs of people of all ages and from all walks of life. To
embed this concept into mathematical problems, let students discuss their
views about fairness in each of the following situations, when a sum of
$30 is to be divided among two persons A and B:

1. Each person gets an equal share, i.e., $15 each.

2. The money is earned from a joint venture, and the money is to be
divided according to individual’s effort put into the venture, e.g.,
the effort is 70% versus 30%.
3. The money is given out as vouchers to help people who need it,
e.g., poorer people will get a larger share, say A earns half as
much as B.
4. Fairness as “envy free”, that is, people get what they want. Let A
split the amount in a way that he thinks is fair and then let B
choose first. For money, this usually ends up with equal sharing.
44 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

However, different answers may be obtained if it is about

sharing a cake!
5. Play the “ultimatum” or money-splitting game (Ultimatum game,
n.d.). A and B are strangers and do not communicate during the
game. Let A propose how to divide the sum between him and B.
B decides whether to accept or reject A’s proposal. If B accepts
the proposal, the money is split accordingly; otherwise, neither
of them receives any money. This game is to be played only
once. How do the students react to different splits, say 50-50, 70-
30, and so on? Do their reactions change if B knows that A is a
computer?
6. How do the above strategies work if there were three or more
students and the amount is larger?
7. Consider fairness in a real-life situation. The price of a face mask
is $10. During prolonged hazy days, the shop raises the price to
$15. Is it fair? The students may conduct a survey and compare
the findings with their own values and ideas about fairness.

According to Brafman and Brafman (2008), there are cultural

differences in interpreting fairness, and knowing about these differences
in different social concepts becomes increasingly important in a
globalised world. In Singapore, students routinely work with classmates
from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, and the annual
commemoration of the International Friendship Day has exposed them to
many different cultures. Contents from ethno-mathematics and multi-
cultural traditions can further strengthen this cultural understanding (e.g.,
Nelson, Joseph, & Williams, 1993). However, as students from different
backgrounds may hold strong views about these social-cultural-economic
issues, teachers who intend to use these tasks must be able to help
students navigate through these differences based on rational thinking
rather than emotion-laden responses.
 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 21CC 45

6 Active Contributor

Students who have developed concerns about specific issues should be

encouraged to take active steps to address those concerns in order to
improve the situations. In the words of creativity author Berger (2014),
asking questions “without taking any action may be a source of
stimulating thought or conversation, but it is not likely to produce
change” (p. 31). However, like other types of learning, to take actions
requires motivation, practice, feedback, and encouragement. A student
can be an active contributor individually or in a team.
As an example of being an active contributor to personal needs,
consider the water saving problem above. Students may measure their
own water usage, collect information about different water saving
devices and practices, implement small-scale changes, and determine the
effects of their actions. For example, if they learn that reducing shower
time by one minute can save about six litres of water, they may check
this out through own experimentation and contribute through individual
actions to national policies.
Students can learn to be active contributors when they work in teams
on extended mathematics investigations and co-curricular projects. An
example of such an extended investigation can be built on the risk
problem mentioned under Section 3 above. Students can compute
different risks from the information given in the report and other sources,
discuss the science of food, compare types of healthy diets from different
ethnic groups, and write about their personal experiences of committing
to healthy living. This type of learning experience develops cooperative,
social, and communication skills, motivation to contribute a fair share of
effort to achieve team success, and problem solving. Team leaders can
develop leadership and organizational skills, and every member should
be given the opportunities to develop these 21CC skills.

7 21CC Mathematics Teachers

To be effective in teaching 21CC to their students, mathematics teachers

in the 21st century must have developed attributes similar to these four
types of outcomes so that they can model the processes required to
46 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

achieve these outcomes. This should be a life-long learning goal for the
teachers.

Confident teachers.
They must be confident in their mathematics content knowledge and
pedagogical content knowledge so that they can make informed
decisions about how best to implement their lessons. They must be
digitally literate in using ICT tools to provide enriched learning
experiences that match the digital experiences of their students. The
confidence they display in front of the class can inspire their students to
work hard on the assigned tasks.

Self-directed learners.
They must take full ownership of their professional development, instead
of depending on assigned mentorship and recommendations of their
school’s staff developers. They will benefit from a mindset that treats
every lesson as a miniature experiment to learn more about how their
teaching might impact student learning cognitively, metacognitively, and
emotionally. As the curriculum is likely to be changed periodically, they
must be proactive in learning on their own new mathematics and
pedagogy required by the revised curriculum. As per student learning,
teachers must also learn to ask mathematics questions as well as
education-related questions. In the 21st century, teachers as well as
students can tap on international experts through many forms of online
connections to enhance their learning, for example, by taking courses
from Coursera (http://www.coursera.org).

Concerned citizens.
They must keep abreast of current and significant local and global issues
and share their concerns about these issues with their students. They can
show how mathematics can be helpful in understanding these issues in a
numerate and rational way.

Active contributors.
They may volunteer to organise activities to address issues of particular
concern to them. They will apply their mathematical knowledge or learn
 Enriching Secondary Mathematics Education with 21CC 47

new mathematics to make their contributions really count. Finally, they

can share their professional development journeys with the community
of mathematics educators and through social media.

8 Concluding Remarks

The above sections show how the widely circulated 21st century
competencies can be encapsulated by four types of student outcomes as
delineated by the Singapore 21CC framework. In short, confidence in
applying one’s mathematics knowledge and reasoning can be cultivated
through exercises in critical thinking, problem posing, and research. This
confidence is the basis of self-directed learning when the students enrich
their learning through four types of metacognitive attributes. Teachers
can arouse concerns passions of their students about current issues by
getting them to work on mathematics applications and modelling, and
encourage them to make active contributions individually or in teams to
resolve some of these concerns. These four outcomes do not necessarily
proceed in the linear fashion as indicated, although this progression is a
logical way to make connections among them. The optimal progression
will have to wait for new research into this area.
In an entertaining book consisting of mathematics stories and
puzzles, Constanda (2009) claimed that “In mathematics … you must
always be prepared for the unexpected” (p. 268). Likewise for students in
this 21st century, learning and life events are full of surprises and
uncertainty, and mathematics can be a powerful tool to understand and
deal with events in this VUCA world: Volatility, Uncertainty,
Complexity, and Ambiguity. Mathematics teachers, individually and
collectively, must capitalise on every opportunity, however minor, to
continually infuse 21CC into their mathematics lessons. Future
generations of 21st century students deserve this commitment from their
teachers. The rewards for both teachers and students in this joint effort
will be tremendous and mutually satisfying, indeed.
48 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

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 Chapter 4

Mathematics in 21st Century Life

Barry KISSANE

School mathematics in the 21st century seems likely to be

characterized in part by new expectations regarding the complex
lives of students after they leave school. In this chapter, an analysis
of four domains of 21st century life is provided: working, shopping,
participating in society and personal satisfaction. A productive
worker will need to use the mathematics they have learned at school
in the increasingly rapidly changing world of work. A careful
consumer will need to develop expertise in understanding the many
choices they need to make regularly over the course of their adult
lives. The informed citizen will need to engage with, understand
and even contribute to the rapidly changing world of information in
the 21st century for both personal and national benefit. The
balanced person will need to become aware of and appreciate
mathematical perspectives on everyday events and on mathematics
itself. Some examples are offered in each of these domains,
recognizing that an important part of the craft of mathematics
teaching is to interpret and implement the curriculum to achieve the
best outcomes for students. While some of these outcomes are
determined by short-term transition from school to later study,
others require a longer perspective.

1 Introduction

Today’s secondary school children in Singapore are likely to be adults

from the present time until around 2080 or so, a period which will
comprise about two thirds of the 21st century. In this chapter, we explore
52 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

the several dimensions of that adult life, to enquire about the extent to
which the mathematics curriculum will meet their needs.
For most people, the dimensions of adult life are related to a variety
of roles that people undertake, sometimes simultaneously. These roles
include the following at various stages:
 The successful student
 The productive worker
 The careful consumer
 The informed citizen
 The balanced person.

The first of these roles is fairly widely understood, and hence will
not be a primary focus of this chapter. It is well recognized by students,
their teachers and parents that competent study of mathematics is needed
in school in order to achieve goals after school, and decisions about
course content are often decided externally to the student and the teacher.
For example, future scientists, engineers, psychologists, doctors,
economists and other professionals will study the mathematics deemed
necessary by their professions, following stipulated courses beyond
school.
Accordingly, this chapter will focus attention on the remaining four
roles, which are usually less explicitly identified in school mathematics,
but which are nonetheless of importance for all students (including those
who embark on further study of mathematics).

2 The Productive Worker

Today’s students will spend many years engaged in productive work,

which will require them to make use of the mathematics they have
learned at school. For some time now, school curricula have tried to
emphasize the practical applications of mathematics in the everyday
world, including the workplace. This is a difficult task, in part because
adolescent students have trouble seeing themselves in the workplaces
concerned, and in part because it is difficult to know in advance what
mathematical thinking is actually involved in working.
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 53

A recent project in Australia investigated the place of mathematics

in work in an interesting way. The project involved the Australian
Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT) and the Australian
Industry Group (AIG) (2014a) in a collaboration involving case studies
of entry-level workers in various fields. Teacher-researchers studied a
variety of workplaces to understand the significance of mathematics for
work, and to compare the expectations on new workers with the school
mathematics curriculum. The workers concerned were not university
graduates, but were non-specialists in mathematics, so that the study
provides insights into the role of mathematics for those who are not
quantitative specialists. A major outcome of the research was a
Quantitative Skills Map, outlining the ways in which mathematics was of
significance in a wide range of fields, which included engineering,
drafting, retail, manufacturing, mining and national defence.
The map (AAMT & AIG, 2014a) included four key elements, which
are described in some detail in the report:
 Mathematical Content
 Mathematical Level
 Mathematical Executive Functions
 Workplaces as Technologically Rich Environments.

Of particular interest are the Mathematical Executive Functions

identified, which highlighted the differences between mathematics at
school and mathematics in the workplace. Workers needed a blended set
of skills and capabilities that involved understanding mathematical
concepts, understanding the practical tasks they confronted in the
workplace and understanding the strategic processes of bringing these
together in productive ways (AAMT & AIG, 2014a, p. 2). Mathematics
in the workplace was identified as different in many respects from
mathematics in school, and the report identified several aspects of a
“mismatch between young peoples’ mathematics skills and the
expectations of modern workplaces.” (p. 42)
The study outlined the complex tasks in which workers needed to
use their mathematics, by referring to the executive functions:

Workers use executive functions to perform activities such as

54 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

planning, organizing, strategizing, paying attention to and

remembering details and managing time and space. The three
components of the executive functions included:
 Resisting impulses – stopping to allow time to think before
taking action;
 Effective use of working memory – bearing a number of things
in mind while thinking about how to do something; and
 Cognitive flexibility – a capacity to think about a problem in
different ways. (AAMT & AIG, 2014b, p. 3)

Research of this kind offers some insights into the difference

between how students learn and use mathematics in school and how they
will later make use of their mathematics in the world of work. The
difference is less about the content of the mathematics than it is about the
circumstances in which the mathematics is used in practice. While it is
inevitably difficult for school mathematics to provide contexts that are
regarded as realistic by students, there would seem to be a place for a
closer link between school and work for many students in their final
years of school. An improved understanding of the nature of
mathematics in workplaces would help both teachers and students to
make the transition manageable, but would also support further
developments in the school curriculum to address this purpose.
An additional observation of this study was the increasing
importance of technology of many different kinds in workplaces. The use
of spreadsheets and graphical outputs was commonly observed, but other
technologies have become a standard part of the modern workplace. This
suggests that there is a need to embed digital technologies into the
mathematics curriculum so that they are not seen as optional tools, but a
standard feature of the quantitative environment in which people will
work throughout their working lives. It was clear from the case studies
that technology is changing rapidly the nature of work and the nature of
the mathematics that is used. If schools are to prepare students for
lifelong careers as productive workers, there would seem to be a need to
consider more carefully how technology and mathematics might be
connected at school, as well as in the workplace. These studies have
demonstrated one way to acquire and to disseminate such information.
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 55

Unsurprisingly, teachers have few opportunities to engage with

modern workplaces, so it seems important to find ways to provide
teachers with better and up-to-date information about the nature of
modern work, in order to help them prepare students to make a smooth
transition from school to work.
Other studies have also examined the mathematical needs of workers
beyond school. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) has recently begun supplementing the well-known
PISA studies with studies of adult competencies. A recent OECD
initiative, the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult
Competencies (PIAAC) has begun to examine:

How skills are used at home, in the workplace and in the

community; how these skills are developed, maintained and lost
over a lifetime; and how these skills are related to labour market
participation, income, health, and social and political engagement.
(OECD, 2013).

The PIACC skills, not just restricted to mathematical skills, include

a range of integrated skills such as interpreting information and engaging
with technology in various ways. The initial PIACC work has thus
explored the literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technological
environments of adults. Although work in this area is relatively new, it
might also be expected to offer insights into how to improve the
connections between the world of school mathematics and the adult
world of work and other activities, in addition to offering insights into
good ways of building on school experiences for workplace training.
While important, mathematics is not the only element in this work;
building strong connections among mathematics, technology and
language in suitable contexts will be an important element of productive
workers in the 21st century. It is more challenging to obtain information
about adults than about school children (since they are not conveniently
accessible via schools), but it is hoped that the imminent PIACC reports
about Singapore in particular will be informative to teachers and others.
56 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

3 The Careful Consumer

Regardless of their occupation, students of today will become the

consumers of tomorrow, responsible for making good decisions on the
everyday tasks of living in a modern world. Many of these decisions
require a level of mathematical understanding that is not always
recognized and not always focused upon in school. These decisions
affect many parts of the lives of families, as well as the economy that
includes them. For example, consumers make many of their own
decisions regarding their housing, health, food, transportation, vacations,
children’s upbringing and leisure time. Mathematics is involved in most
of these decisions, although frequently this is not recognized. In this
section, we look briefly at some illustrative examples.

3.1 Shopping

The everyday task of grocery shopping in a modern supermarket often

involves mathematical thinking. Consumers need to choose among a
variety of products, with prices and quantities varying, differing
ingredients, discounts provided in various ways and often in the midst of
advertising pressures. Of course, habit can prevail, with shoppers
routinely choosing again the same products as they have chosen
previously, although mathematical thinking can also be brought to bear
on such matters. To illustrate the situation with a typical example, the
author recently needed to replenish his supply of sweeteners, used in his
daily coffee. The sweetener label is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Sweetener label

 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 57

On arriving at the supermarket, a bewildering array of alternatives is

available, some of which are shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2. Some alternative sweeteners

On closer inspection, the choice is not merely one of preferences,

according to individual tastes. Different quantities of sweeteners are
available, for different prices. Some use different ingredients. Figure 3
shows some illustrations of these differences.

Figure 3. Comparing sweeteners

58 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The supermarket labels displayed, in accordance with Australian

consumer laws, provide some information to assist shoppers with making
comparisons among products, but in this case one unit price is displayed
per 100g, another is displayed per 100 units (tablets) and a third
displayed per single tablet, so that the consumer still needs significant
mental arithmetic skills to compare these from a financial point of view.
Compounding these comparisons, some sweeteners are twice as
sweet as others, so that tablets need to be broken in half to obtain an
equivalent amount of sweetness. While the obvious comparison is about
price, some consumers might seek to compare details of ingredients for
some purpose, such as health or taste preferences, requiring a careful
mathematical comparison of the fine details of products. In addition,
decisions of this kind often need to be made in a brief period of time, and
without the benefit of either a calculator or pen and paper, requiring
confidence and fluency with mental estimations in order to reach optimal
decisions.
Of course, this is just one example, while householders typically
purchase many different kinds of products. As Kemp (2012) and Kissane
(2012) have suggested, it would seem important for students to
experience the kind of thinking that is involved in this sort of informal
mathematical work as part of their school curriculum, although there is
an optimistic tendency to assume that if students learn the necessary
mathematics, they will apply it when needed.

3.2 Housing

For most adults, the largest purchase they will make is related to their
housing. Decisions about whether to rent a property, or purchase a flat or
a house to live in are not available to all people, for economic reasons,
and there are significant differences between countries in this respect.
However, if people have sufficient resources to contemplate purchasing a
property, a great deal of mathematics is required in order to understand
well how much it will cost them over a period of time.
The mathematics of housing investment inevitably requires an
understanding of compound interest when regular repayments are made,
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 59

so that, effectively, a form of reducible interest is involved, since the

amount of mortgage repayment that is effectively paying interest on a
loan will change over time. The situation becomes even more complex if
the changing value of money is taken into account (in the form of some
kind of inflation).
The school curriculum generally helps students to understand simple
interest, which is almost never used in practice (even though the basic
principle of using an interest rate is employed to model other kinds of
financial situations). While students often study compound interest, they
generally do so in the context of depositing money into an account, and
leaving it to accumulate interest (a rare practice for most people). To
handle the mathematics of reducible interest, and thus to understand their
housing finance, students in fact need to use a suitable technology to
handle the calculations. A spreadsheet on a computer or a calculator is
sufficient for this, but it is rare for this to be part of the standard school
curriculum.
If the details of the mathematics are clear to people, they are then
enabled to consider the effects of varying the parameters of their housing
purchase, such as starting with a larger deposit, changing the duration of
the loan, making extra cash deposits or finding opportunities with
different interest rates. Without a means of undertaking these kinds of
investigations, consumers are left entirely at the mercy of the people
selling the properties to them, which seems undesirable. Again, the
school curriculum and the teacher in the classroom might consider the
practicalities of computing interest, in addition to a study of simple and
compound interest, in order to address the needs of adult consumers in
the 21st century.

3.3 Health

Another area in which consumers require some mathematical thinking

concerns their health. Kemp (2012) provided several examples of
suitable activities related to health, especially to diet and its
consequences, using everyday materials such as the labeling on food
packets. Adults in the 21st century will need to have both the experience
60 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

and the inclination to attend to information of these kinds in order to

develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
People are not always healthy, however, and in the modern world,
testing for medical conditions has become common and is often
recommended as a precaution when symptoms suggest that there might
be problems. Typical examples are screening tests for breast cancer for
women and prostate cancer for men. However, no tests are perfect, and it
is important that consumers have sufficient mathematical competence to
understand the resulting information, in conjunction with the advice from
medical practitioners. In fact, Gigerenzer (2002) has undertaken
considerable research that suggests that many medical practitioners
themselves struggle with the mathematics involved, making it even more
important that consumers themselves are able to understand the
significance of results.
To explore an example, the case of breast cancer is well described
on the Understanding Uncertainty website in the UK (2008). The
website describes mammography tests among 50-70 year old women in
the UK, noting three important aspects:
 Mammography detects approximately 85% of breast cancers.
 Around 10% of women with no cancer will get a positive result
(in error).
 About 1% of the population age group has breast cancer.

If a positive test result is returned following a mammography, how

likely is it that the woman concerned actually has breast cancer (rather
than an erroneous test result)? It seems from Gigerenzer’s studies, and
those of other people, that this is a surprisingly difficult question to
answer, and it is not unusual for people to over-interpret the risk,
sometimes with undesirable consequences (such as invasive surgery or
treatments), as well as substantial worry for patients themselves and their
families. This problem is well-known amongst medical people and
educated people, but less well-known by the general public.
It can be argued (as both Gigerenzer and the website suggest) that
the problem is better understood if percentages (which are in effect,
conditional probabilities) are avoided. Thus, natural numbers are used in
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 61

Table 1, relying upon the percentages to show the expected results of

1000 women undergoing the mammography test.

Table 1
Representing mammography tests in natural numbers

Test is positive Test is negative Total

Cancer 9 1 10
No cancer 99 891 990
Total 108 892 1000

From this way of thinking about the test, it is clear that only about 9
of the 108 positive test results are returned by women with cancer. In
other words, a positive test result suggests about 1 chance in 12 or 8%
probability that a woman has breast cancer. Many people interpret the
(fallible) test much more severely than this. Indeed, Blastland and
Spiegelhalter (2013, p. 263) cite a UK study reporting that three times as
many women are treated unnecessarily for every woman whose life is
saved by screening for breast cancer.
Of course, tests may be more reliable in the future, and other
diagnostic information is used as well, but it seems important that health
consumers be empowered by mathematics to be able to interpret
information provided to them to some extent, or at least to be sufficiently
aware to ask their doctors important questions, rather than accepting
results uncritically. In this case, the (difficult) mathematics of conditional
probability might be involved, although – as noted – it may be more
insightful to use numbers than percentages. It may be optimistic for
schools to teach students conditional probability and to assume that they
are then able to use it when needed; it seems instead more realistic for
work of this kind to be included in the school mathematics curriculum.
There are many everyday matters related to health that also involve
adults making careful personal decisions, requiring a level of
mathematical competence to interpret the information presented to them
by health officials or accessible from other sources. Examples of these
explored in various ways by Blastland and Spiegelhalter (2013) include
62 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

vaccination, contraception, taking drugs, alcohol, tobacco, childbirth and

surgery.

3.4 Gambling and intuition

Gambling remains a popular pastime in many countries, including both

Singapore and Australia, and it seems likely to continue to be a feature of
life in the 21st century. A good recent discussion by Blastland and
Spiegelhalter (2013, pp. 129-138) observes that some modern forms of
gambling – such as lotteries – are sometimes not even recognized as
gambling, while other forms of gambling (such as internet gambling) are
becoming increasingly popular, and problem gambling by individuals is
now recognized as a significant problem. A careful consumer needs to
develop some appreciation of how gambling works to help avoid
personal problems associated with gambling; accordingly it seems rare,
anecdotally at least, for mathematicians and statisticians to engage in
excessive gambling, as they are more likely to understand the risks and
likely outcomes of many legal forms of gambling. Although it is not
uncommon for the school curriculum to refer to elementary probability,
it is less common for the mathematics of gambling to be addressed
explicitly in school, in part because gambling is regarded as an ‘adult’
activity and in part because it is difficult for schools to teach about
gambling without parents and others misinterpreting this as encouraging
students to gamble.
Without a good mathematical understanding of probability theory
and expectations associated with gambling, which often require
relatively sophisticated mathematics, people are understandably inclined
to rely on their intuitions, when confronted with gambling opportunities.
Perhaps, then, a minimum curriculum in mathematics might direct
attention to helping students realize that their intuitions are frequently
incorrect: that some events happen more often than they expect, while
others are rarer than they might expect.
The traditional ‘birthday problem’ is a good example, and easily
used in a classroom. The problem concerns whether or not two people in
the same room share a common birthday (such as 23 April, irrespective
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 63

of the year of birth). Because there are many possible birthdays (365 or
even 366 in leap years), most people regard it as surprising to find
someone with the same birthday as themselves, and so a common
intuition is that a small group of people (such as might be in a classroom
or a pair of football teams) is unlikely to have at least two people with
the same birthday. It is quick and easy to test this intuition in practice in
a classroom and many students will be surprised to learn that their
intuition is defective. Since an actual class can be used only once, a good
adaptation of this problem using a spreadsheet is provided by Tay
(2011). A probabilistic analysis, suitable for older students, is available
at Wikipedia (Birthday Problem, n.d.), and shows that a group of only 23
people is sufficient for the probability of match to be about 50%, while a
group of 40 random people has a greater than 90% chance of two people
sharing a birthday.
Students might also have opportunities to see the dangers of paying
too much heed to our intuitions from other probabilistic activities that
will test them. Good examples are the Cereal Box problem and the
Monty Hall problem, both well-known and described well with suitable
online simulations (e.g., Baetz & Reese, 2010; Utah State University,
n.d.). Activities like these can also be studied formally by older students,
but there is value in students seeing that their intuitions, and those of
other people, can be quite wrong, a valuable and informal lesson to learn
when they later confront gambling situations.
Other classroom activities may have a similar character, to allow
students to see that their intuitions are unreliable and perhaps later to be
studied by some students in more advanced classes. For example, if
students in a class are asked to write down what they regard as a typical
sequence of ten random tosses of a fair coin (such as HHTTHTHTTH,
recording successive results as tails or heads), the class intuitions
regarding what is ‘typical’ can be easily tested. If the intuitive results are
compared with theoretical results, many students in most classes will be
surprised:
 It is more likely that four or six heads will occur than five heads.
 About half the time (in ten tosses) there will be a run of at least
three heads in a row.
64 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

 About 80% of the time, there will be a run of at least three heads
or at least three tails in a row.

Most students are surprised to find that their idea of ‘typical’ is often
incorrect, a valuable lesson for later confronting situations involving
gambling.

3.5 Insurance

Another feature of modern life, likely to persist into the 21st century, is
insurance. Consumers need to decide which kinds of insurance, if any, to
purchase and to understand some of the mathematics involved in order to
make good decisions. The mathematics of insurance is unfortunately
quite complex, and is generally undertaken by actuaries in large and
powerful insurance companies, so that it is not reasonable for the school
curriculum to attempt to deal with the details. However, consumers need
to decide about the merits of life insurance, house insurance, medical
insurance, vehicle insurance, travel insurance, etc. and to make
comparisons between different products, so that it seems important that
the mathematical ideas are at least introduced at some stage of school.
The most likely place for this is in courses concerned with
probability and statistics, where students might learn about the broad
mechanisms used by insurance companies to determine risks and to
evaluate expectations. The links between data (such as life tables and
accident and crime statistics) and the associated empirically derived
probabilities can be made clear to students. Similarly, even if the
theoretical concept of expectation is too difficult for many students, a
reasonable understanding of the consequences of insurance can be
obtained via computer simulations on spreadsheets, computer software or
calculators.

4 The Informed Citizen

To succeed and to prosper, modern democracies like those in Singapore

and Australia rely on developing and maintaining an informed citizenry.
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 65

Informed citizens are aware of current issues of the day and have a
capacity to engage with them personally to reach their own opinions,
rather than relying entirely on the views of others, such as friends,
journalists or politicians. A democracy is strengthened by having an
educated population willing and capable to analyze situations to reach
strong conclusions and – ultimately – vote accordingly to ensure that the
best decisions are reached. In this context, it is worth noting that the
PIACC work, as described earlier, has identified the importance of social
and political engagement by adults. (OECD, 2013).
As the early years of the 21st century have already made clear,
citizens will live in an information age, and mathematics will be an
important element in their effective engagement with information.
Information is available in many forms, including newspapers,
magazines, online sites and social media. Information is often
compressed for efficient display into tables of data or graphs or various
kinds, as well as text and speech. Each of these forms requires
mathematical expertise to deal with.
Previous AME Yearbooks have provided extensive advice and
examples of how people might use mathematics for these purposes, so
that they are reaching their own conclusions to some extent, rather than
relying on the interpretations and conclusions of others. Kemp (2010)
described and exemplified her Five Step Framework for interpreting
graphs and tables, and gave several Singaporean examples of the
framework in use. The framework provides systematic advice and
specific help to students to unpack the data that have been compressed
into tables and graphs. She noted that research has indicated that analysis
of information is often more complex than is realized, and students need
to develop expertise in distinguishing sound interpretations from others.
Thus, people need to think carefully about the arguments presented by
the media and the evidence that is given to support them. They also need
to be aware that there are often defects in the graphs and tables that can
unintentionally, or intentionally, mislead or misinform the reader.
(Kemp, 2010, p. 200)
Similarly, Kissane (2012) described and illustrated several aspects of
‘numeracy’, concerned with using mathematical ideas and mathematical
thinking to understand and interpret everyday situations. Many everyday
66 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

tasks, including those related to information presented in various media,

require students to make use of the mathematics they have already
learned in novel ways. He described a number of Australian projects that
have concluded that numerate behavior does not necessarily happen
without conscious attention in the school curriculum. If we want
numerate citizens, it is optimistic to expect that learning mathematics by
itself will be sufficient to realize that goal.
A characteristic of public information in recent years is the
widespread use of digital media, in addition to the traditional printed
media of newspapers, magazines, radio and television. The informed
citizen will be expected to use their mathematical expertise in a range of
settings, many of which will not have been the explicit focus of
schooling. Thus, for example, the Singapore Department of Statistics
provides a facility for online users to construct their own tables from the
available data (using a Table Builder facility) rather than relying on
tables constructed by Departmental staff.
To elaborate and improve upon this concept, the Department now
publishes the SingStat Mobile App (2015), in addition to conventional
data presentations in published books and online possibilities, so that
users can access data of interest to them whenever they wish and
wherever they are. The example in Figure 4 shows that users of the app
can generate their own information to answer questions of their own
interest, which of course still requires expertise to interpret the
information competently.
In this case, a user can see from the graph that, while the number of
mobile phones in Singapore continued to rise steadily from 2007 to 2013,
the number of SMS text messages sent after 2011 has declined steadily
and significantly, perhaps suggesting that people are communicating
with each other in different ways from SMS and even that the mobile
phones recently are likely to be smartphones. Interpreting the graph is
made a little more difficult by the use of two different vertical scales
(one for millions and the other for billions), which of course is
accommodated in Kemp’s framework (2010).
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 67

Figure 4. SingStat graph comparing SMS and phone use

Online presentations of information are already changing, less than

two decades into the 21st century, so it seems reasonable that they will
continue to change in ways that are not yet clear. An example of a recent
change is for information to be presented online in a way that allows the
user to interact with it, as part of the task of interpreting it. For example,
Jericho (2015) describes recent changes in the Australian economy for
public readership, including a series of graphs that can themselves be
manipulated in various ways by the reader. The manipulations include an
ability for readers to select different variables or time periods for
analysis, or even to obtain the data being represented graphically, from
original sources, should they wish. Active reading of this kind will
require new mathematical skills to be acquired and exercised by citizens
to become adequately informed about the events and issues of the day.
Tools for people to present their own data online are now available, and
it seems important for mathematics teachers to stay abreast of these kinds
of opportunities, which seem likely to become more important into the
century, and to help their students explore their productive use. A good
example is the open source software for journalists and others,
Datawrapper (2015), which was used by Jericho (2015).
Statistics seem to be often collected and publicly disseminated on
bad news, rather than good news. (Causes of death, disasters, accidents,
68 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

declining standards, global warming, traffic accidents, species extinction,

etc.). This raises some interesting questions on the extent to which it is a
good idea to focus attention on these things with school children.
However, one view is that they are living in a real world and, are
bombarded with information (very often negative in tone) on social
media and on television, so injecting some data into those discussions to
complement the journalism or deep-rooted prejudice of many kinds in
thinking about the issues of the day, even about frightening and
unpleasant issues of the day would seem to be a useful contribution of
mathematics. So, with appropriate caveats regarding the age of children,
websites such as that maintained by the Institute for Economics and
Peace (2015), which includes infographics related to important global
issues of the day such as world peace and terrorism, may have a valuable
place in school mathematics.
In a wider domain, in recent years the presentation of public
information online has undergone a transformation, in which people can
construct their own representations of reality to convey a message or tell
a story for others to use. The infographics on the Institute for Economics
and Peace (2015) website are good examples. Perhaps the best example
of this at present uses the Tableau Public software (2015) which is used
to highlight a data visualization each day (called Viz of the Day). The
visualizations can be downloaded by users, who can then interact with
them, unlike the case of static information in a table or a graph or in text.
Citizens in the 21st century can be expected not only to engage with and
interpret such visualizations, but also to become producers of
information to inform others. Some of the skills involved are certainly
mathematical, and students have a right to expect that their schooling
will equip them to undertake activities of these kinds into their adult
lives. Again, a mathematics curriculum for the 21st century might
consider how to encourage and support students to do this.
As well as representing data, news and other media such as the
Internet are often used to inform the public about important
breakthroughs in science and technology, although these are sometimes
selectively reported in sensationalist ways, to attract more readers or
viewers to a news item. A good example of this occurred in October
2015 following the publication of a World Health Organization press
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 69

release (International Association for Research on Cancer, 2015) at the

same time as a research report was published in the prestigious Lancet
journal in the UK. The press release noted, “The experts concluded that
each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of
colorectal cancer by 18%” (p. 1). The same study also reported an
increased risk of 17% associated with eating 100 gram of red meat per
day.
News media in many countries use such professional information as
a source of news, which in a number of cases was reported with an
alarmist headline, such as “Bacon, sausages, ham and other processed
meats are cancer-causing, red meat probably is too: WHO” (Australian
Broadcasting Commission, 2015). Such headlines generated a level of
fear in the public and a corresponding level of hostility by meat
industries. Informed citizens might be expected to be careful readers of
media of these kinds, and realize that the actual risks of contracting
colorectal (CR) cancer were not published, only the extent to which they
were increased by meat consumption. Few of the media reports clarified
the precise meaning of increasing a risk by 17% or 18%, and it seems
likely that many readers naively interpreted the reports as suggesting that
these were in fact the probabilities of meat eaters contracting the cancer.
In an Internet age, informed citizens might be expected to both
realize that the cancer risks were not published and to seek them online
to understand well the levels of personal risk involved. For example, US
data provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015)
indicate that the probability of a (US) woman aged 50 contracting CR
cancer in the next ten years is 0.0052, in the next 20 years is 0.0137 and
the next 30 years is 0.0269. Put another way, about 1.4 US women in a
hundred will develop this cancer sometime between 50 and 70 years of
age. So, about 98.6 women in every hundred will not do so between 50
and 70. While cancer is an awful disease, these seem to be modest risks.
If a woman consumes 100 gram of red meat a day, however,
according to the press release these risks will rise by 17% to,
respectively, 0.0061, 0.0160 and 0.0315; in that case, about 1.6 women
in 100 will develop the cancer between ages 50 and 70. While that’s
certainly an increase, it is questionable whether such an increase ought to
have caused so much apparent international alarm. Indeed, the reaction in
70 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

several countries makes clear that many citizens do not (or are not able
to) read news media with due care, and are easily influenced by alarmist
headlines.
Informed citizens can be expected to look beyond the headlines and
use mathematical thinking to analyze carefully what they read. In this
case, some online discussions such as Harcombe (2015) challenging the
interpretation and the presentation of the results of the research were
quickly available online. Indeed, possibly as a result of the reactions to
the extensive media reports (not to the research itself), the World Health
Organization (2015) also published further clarifying information on the
matter. To interpret carefully information presented in the media,
tomorrow’s informed citizens need to be educated today to engage in this
kind of activity, and the school mathematics curriculum has an important
role in helping them to do so.

5 The Balanced Person

The final contribution of mathematics to the lives of 21st century citizens

is concerned not with the use of mathematics, but with its appreciation.
In modern affluent societies like those of Singapore and Australia, lives
can be enriched through the use of leisure time through mathematics.
While leisure time is a relatively new concept, people of the 21st century
can be expected to live longer and work less than those of earlier times,
so that an opportunity to enrich their lives through access to mathematics
exists. Mathematics as a source of pleasure and enrichment is no less
deserving of a place in the world of 21st century people than literature,
media, the arts and sport, but is commonly neglected. A balance between
sources of personal pleasure that are intellectual, aesthetic and physical is
desirable in a society that is fortunate enough to support all of these.
There would seem to be two main sources of written mathematical
materials for people to read for pleasure: printed materials and online
materials. As noted elsewhere (Kissane, 2009), there is now a substantial
body of mathematical writing available for popular consumption,
although it seems not to be widely known. In Australia, the best
bookshops often have mathematical materials listed (incorrectly) in a
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 71

category of ‘popular science’, which may contribute to the problem. The

best bookshops in Singapore have many examples, modern and
otherwise, of mathematical writing intended for a wide audience.
Introducing students to such literature can be quite taxing, however,
especially if students do not realize that this species of literature exists
and can be most enjoyable to read. School libraries are sometimes
focused sharply on the direct needs of school courses, such as textbooks
and problem books, and it is not unusual to find school libraries with
very few mathematical materials in them intended for reading. Yet if
students are not introduced to the literature about mathematics when at
school, they are unlikely to engage in reading it after they leave school:
unlike literature and even science, it is very unusual for students to
receive gifts of mathematics books; there are very few publicly available
magazines about mathematics and it is unusual to see mathematical
writing in newspapers or mathematical argument and representations in
film and television. So the only opportunity they have to find out about
the world of written mathematics and mathematical argument may be
whilst at school. A systematic way of encouraging students to read is
worthy of being sought, and may have life-long benefits.
An exception to these discouraging observations is that it is possible
to do better. As Merow (2015) described, the Argentinian mathematics
professor and journalist, Adrián Paenza was recently awarded a
prestigious prize from the International Mathematical Union for his work
in popularizing mathematics in Latin America and Europe through
newspapers, television programs and children’s books. The newly
established Leelavati Prize for mathematical outreach is awarded every
four years from 2010, recognizing at the highest levels the importance of
mathematics being provided in an appealing form for a wide audience.
Perhaps ironically, the online world may be a better source for
students to encounter pleasurable reading, at least at first. There are a
number of free online magazines, columns and blogs related to
mathematics, some of which will appeal to school students, while others
are intended for a more sophisticated audience, although not necessarily
an audience with professional qualifications in mathematics. Many of
these are collated for convenience by Kissane (2015), and include regular
mathematical columns sponsored by the Mathematical Association of
72 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

America, mathematical blogs gathered by the American Mathematical

Society, a poster series entitled Mathematical Moments, a fortnightly
Australian publication Maths by Email for middle school students, a
regular Indian magazine At Right Angles for school students, Plus
magazine for senior school students in the UK, along with many other
examples of various kinds. There is now a range of materials online to
suit a range of backgrounds and tastes, from primary school students to
the educated general public. Introducing students to this world while they
are at school may help them to improve the balance in their life long after
they leave school, with mathematics regarded as a source of pleasure and
interest, in addition to being ‘useful’ for many practical purposes.

6 Conclusion

Mathematics in school is often targeted carefully at the official

curriculum, recognizing the close link between school courses and
further studies in mathematics, unsurprisingly. However, curricula
change very slowly and need to be actualized and interpreted by
mathematics teachers; preparing students for the rest of their lives in the
21st century should not be left to chance. In this chapter, we have drawn
attention to four other domains of 21st century living that the
mathematics curriculum needs to serve, with assistance from teachers.
These include the productive worker, the careful consumer, the informed
citizen and the balanced person. The productive worker needs to use their
mathematics education in fresh ways related to the workplace, and
probably unanticipated in school. The careful consumer needs to bring to
bear their mathematical knowledge to make decisions about housing,
shopping, health, recreational activities, and insurance, among other
aspects of modern life. The informed citizen needs to navigate the
complex world of current events, presented in various forms, many of
which involve persuasion but most of which require the development and
refinement of numerate behavior for optimal interpretation; indeed,
tomorrow’s citizens may need to be both producers and consumers of
information. The balanced person is able to make use of their
mathematics education, and is unafraid to engage with new materials to
 Mathematics in 21st Century Life 73

enrich their personal life and understand their world from a range of
perspectives.
Balancing all of these 21st century needs is a difficult task, not
easily achieved, but requiring conscious attention from both curriculum
developers and the mathematics teachers responsible for implementing
the curriculum and ensuring that it addresses the needs.

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 Chapter 5

Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for

Developing 21st Century Skills

Berinderjeet KAUR WONG Lai Fong Divya BHARDWAJ

To help students in Singapore thrive in a fast-changing world, the

Ministry of Education has identified competencies that have
become increasingly important in the 21st Century. The outcomes
of which include a confident person, a self-directed learner, an
active contributor and a concerned citizen. In the US, the P21
Framework for 21st century learning has stressed that no 21st
century skills implementation can be successful without developing
core academic subject knowledge and understanding among all
students. In this chapter, we present two key elements that are
necessary for developing 21st century competencies in mathematics
classrooms in Singapore. The first is the use of knowledge-building
mathematical tasks and the second is teaching for metacognition.
Both these elements must be used in tandem to create classroom
discourse that must culminate in students actively engaging in
critical thinking, problem solving, working collaboratively and
articulating their thoughts and creating knowledge through their
explorations.

1 Introduction

To help students in Singapore thrive in a fast-changing world, the

Ministry of Education has identified competencies that have become
increasingly important in the 21st Century. The outcomes of the
78 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

competencies are:
 a confident person who has a strong sense of right and wrong, is
adaptable and resilient, knows himself, is discerning in judgment,
thinks independently and critically, and communicates
effectively;
 a self-directed learner who questions, reflects, perseveres and
takes responsibility for his own learning;
 an active contributor who is able to work effectively in teams, is
innovative, exercises initiative, takes calculated risks and strives
for excellence; and
 a concerned citizen who is rooted to Singapore, has a strong
sense of civic responsibility, is informed about Singapore and the
world, and takes an active part in bettering the lives of others
around him. (Ministry of Education, 2010)

In the United States, the P21 Framework for 21st century learning
(Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009) has stressed that no 21st
century skills implementation can be successful without developing core
academic subject knowledge and understanding among all students. The
P21 framework emphasises that students who can think critically and
communicate effectively must build on a base of core academic subject
knowledge. Therefore core academic subjects, such as mathematics, are a
bedrock component of the P21 Framework as all 21st century skills can
and should be taught in the context of core academic subjects. The
framework notes that 21st century skills outcomes such as critical
thinkers, problem solvers, good communicators, good collaborators,
information and technology literate, flexible and adaptable, innovative
and creative, globally competent and financially literate individuals are a
consequence of teaching, learning and assessment in core academic
subjects such as mathematics.
The framework for school mathematics in Singapore has
mathematical problem solving as its primary goal and the five
components, i.e., concepts, skills, processes, attitudes and metacognition,
guide teachers in achieving the goal (Ministry of Education, 2012). The
outcomes of both the Programme for International Student Assessment
(PISA) of 2009 (OECD, 2010) and 2012 (OECD, 2013) and the Trends
 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 79

in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) of 2011

(Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Arora, 2012; Kaur, Areepattamannil, & Boey,
2013), and 2007 (Mullis, Martin, & Foy, 2008; Kaur, Boey,
Areepattamannil, & Chen, 2012) for Singapore show that the majority of
Singapore students are very good in applying their knowledge in routine
situations and this is definitely a consequence of what teachers do and
use during their mathematics lessons. For students in Singapore to scale
greater heights teachers need to nurture metacognitive learners who are
active and confident in constructing mathematical knowledge. A
significant finding from the CORE 2 research at NIE led by Hogan is
that amongst the secondary three and primary five mathematics lessons
that were studied teachers appeared to engage students in doing
performative tasks (77.3% for secondary 3 and 63.7% for primary 5)
more often than knowledge building tasks (22.7% for secondary 3 and
36.3% for primary 5) (Hogan, Towndrow, Chan, Kwek, & Rahim, 2013).
A performative task mainly entails the use of lower order thinking skills
such as recall, comprehension and application of knowledge while a
knowledge building task calls for higher order thinking skills such as
synthesis, evaluation and creation of knowledge.
Hattie (2009), drawing on 50,000 research articles and related
achievement of 240 million students, notes that the greatest source of
variance in the learning equation comes from teachers. Therefore it is
important for teachers in Singapore who are desirous of improving
student learning in mathematics and also developing 21st century
competencies, to place emphasis on the use of knowledge building tasks
and also metacognition in their mathematics lessons.

2 Mathematical Tasks

As part of an on-going professional development project, Teaching for

Metacognition, that involves forty secondary mathematics teachers from
seven secondary schools in Singapore, teachers were surveyed about
their use of performative tasks and knowledge-building tasks in their
mathematics lessons. Figure 1 shows the survey item and Table 1 shows
the responses of the teachers.
80 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Mathematical Tasks
The following are examples of performative and knowledge building
tasks.
Topic: Scales and Maps
Performative task Knowledge-building task
The scale of map A is 1: 40 000 The scale of map A is 1: 40 000
A rectangular field is 3 cm by 2 A rectangular field is 3 cm by 2 cm
cm on the map. Find the actual on the map. Find the actual area of
area of the field in km2. the field in km2.

If the area of the field is now If the field is now represented on

represented on map B with scale map B with scale 1: 20 000, without
1: 20 000, what is the area on the computing any area, explain how
map. will the size of the field be different
on map B.

Topic: Quadratic graphs and graphical solutions of simple quadratic

equations
Performative task Knowledge-building task
Draw the graph of y = x2 – 2x – 3 Draw the graph of y = x2 – 2x – 3
for – 2 ≤ x ≤ 4. for – 2 ≤ x ≤ 4.
Hence solve the equation Using your graph determine the
x2 – 2x – 3 = – 2 graphically. number of solutions the equation
x2 – 2x – 3 = a has.

How often do you use How often do you use

performative tasks? knowledge-building tasks?
In ten consecutive lessons you In ten consecutive lessons you
would have used them would have used them
Please tick the appropriate Please tick the appropriate
response √ response √
In all the lessons In all the lessons
In 7 - 9 of the lessons In 7 - 9 of the lessons
In 5 - 6 of the lessons In 5 - 6 of the lessons
In 2 - 4 of the lessons In 2 - 4 of the lessons
In 0 - 1 of the lessons In 0 - 1 of the lessons
Figure 1. Pre-intervention survey item on mathematical tasks used by teachers
 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 81

Table 1
Responses of teachers to survey item on mathematical tasks

How often do you use performative How often do you use

tasks? knowledge-building tasks?
In ten consecutive lessons you would In ten consecutive lessons you would
have used them have used them
N (%) N(%)
In all the lessons 20 (50.0) In all the lessons 0 (0.0)
In 7 - 9 of the lessons 18 (45.0) In 7 - 9 of the lessons 1 (2.5)
In 5 - 6 of the lessons 2 (5.0) In 5 - 6 of the lessons 4 (10.0)
In 2 - 4 of the lessons 0 (0.0) In 2 - 4 of the lessons 19 (47.5)
In 0 - 1 of the lessons 0 (0.0) In 0 - 1 of the lessons 16 (40.0)

From Table 1, it is apparent that teachers were using significantly more

performative tasks compared to knowledge building tasks during their
lessons. This may have been a consequence of several factors, such as
i) the lack of knowledge building tasks commonly found in textbooks
used by the teachers; ii) inability to craft knowledge building tasks using
textbook tasks that focus on direct application of knowledge and lastly
iii) the push to develop procedural fluency after the introduction of
concepts so as to perform routine tasks with ease during tests.
During the first two meetings of the project teachers were engaged
in crafting mathematical tasks workshops. They worked in groups and
crafted knowledge building tasks. Typical textbook type performative
tasks were provided by the facilitators of the workshops to illuminate a
focus of the content knowledge for designing the knowledge building
tasks. Figures 2 and 3 show some of the knowledge building tasks
crafted by the teachers.
The performative task in Figure 2 shows that the content focus is
percentages. This task merely seeks the computation of a percentage and
the ability to do it correctly does not provide evidence that the student
has acquired any depth of knowledge about percentages. Such a task is
also not sufficiently rich to engage students in any classroom discourse
that would facilitate the nurturing of 21st century skills, such as critical
thinking by making assumptions and presenting cases to support the
argument drafted. However, tasks 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 shown in Figure 2,
82 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

provide students with opportunities to work collaboratively, engage in

critical thinking and problem solving and articulate their reasoning to
support their solutions based on assumptions they may have adopted.
Similarly, the performative task in Figure 3 shows that the content focus
is quadratic equations and the ability to solve the equation 2x2 – 5x + 2 =
0 does not provide us with information about the depth of students’
understanding of quadratic equations. However, tasks 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4
provide both the students and teachers with a wider scope of knowledge
work that may be carried out during mathematics lessons.

Performative task

30% of A is 18.
Find A.

Knowledge building tasks

Task 1.1 Task 1.3
Yingying makes a proposal about Two shops are having end of
an exchange of monthly savings. season sales. Their advertisements
“I will give you 100% of what I are as follows:
have and all I ask for is 10% of
Shop A Shop B
what you have.”
Buy Two Get 30% off all
Will you accept Yingying’s
One Free !* items!
proposal?
Task 1.2
*Free item will
Sally writes the following two
be the cheapest
statements.
among the three
Statement 1:
If A is 20% more than B, then B is Explain clearly which shop offers a
20% less than A. greater percentage savings? State
Statement 2: the assumptions you have made in
If A is 80% of B, then B is 120% arriving at your answer.
of A.
Do you agree with the statements
Sally wrote?
Figure 2. Percentage - Knowledge building tasks created by teachers
 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 83

Performative task

Solve 2x2 – 5x + 2 = 0

Knowledge building tasks

Task 2.1 Task 2.3
Consider 2x + ax + 2 = 0
2
Does every quadratic equation
What are the possible values of a have 2 solutions? Explain your
such that this equation can be answer/s with examples.
solved by factorisation?

Task 2.2 Task 2.4

2
2x – 5x + a = 0 has real solutions. If x=2 and x=3 are the solutions of
What are the possible values of a? a quadratic equation, what is the
quadratic equation? Is there only
one possible equation?

Figure 3. Quadratic Equations - Knowledge building tasks created by teachers

3 Teachers’ Perceptions about Metacognition

The school mathematics framework in Singapore clarifies metacognition

as follows:
Metacognition, or “thinking about thinking”, refers to the awareness
of, and the ability to control one's thinking processes, in particular the
selection and use of problem-solving strategies. It includes
monitoring of one's own thinking, and self-regulation of learning. To
develop metacognitive awareness and strategies, and know when and
how to use the strategies, students should have opportunities to solve
non-routine and open-ended problems, to discuss their solutions, to
think aloud and reflect on what they are doing, and to keep track of
how things are going and make changes when necessary. (Ministry of
Education, 2012, p. 17)
84 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The pre-intervention survey of the Teaching for Metacognition project

sought perceptions of teachers about their understanding of
metacognition and teaching for metacognition. The survey item is shown
in Figure 4. All the forty teachers responded to the item. The responses
are analysed and presented in the following sub-sections.

Our mathematics syllabus states that metacognition is “thinking about

thinking”?
a) What does metacognition mean to you? What is your understanding of
metacognition?
b) Do you engage your students in metacognition during mathematics
lessons? Yes / No.
If Yes, how do you engage your students in metacognition during
mathematics lessons? Give an example of what you do.

Figure 4. Survey item on teachers understanding of metacognition

3.1 What does metacognition mean to you? What is your understanding

of metacognition?

Some samples of the teachers’ responses to the first sub-item of the

survey about their understanding of metacognition are as follows. To
anonymise the teachers’ names, codes are given as per the first alphabet
of the respective teacher’s school name and the teacher number, out of
the total forty teachers participating in the project.

A-2 Metacognition is an internal process in which we engage in an

inner dialogue to justify our algorithms, reasons / evaluate
different strategies to be used. Through metacognition, it allows
one to understand deeper and also helps us reflect and improve.

D-16 Reflection on what is taught & learnt during lessons. Asking why I
made the mistake. Being aware of what I know and what I don’t
know.

N-19 Metacognition describes the process or activities when one reflects

 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 85

on own’s thinking, keeping track, making “deliberate” effort in

organising one’s thought when engaging in certain thinking
activities. The individual should be able to (or at least) organise
their thought process and have the ability and awareness to
monitor or critique/reflect on their thinking.

O-26 Metacognition is higher–order thinking that enables

understanding and analysis of the cognitive processes. It means
setting or crafting activities to engage students in their learning.

The qualitative responses were analysed using content analysis. The

responses to each question were first scanned through for common
themes, following which codes were generated and the data coded.
Inevitably “a progressive process of sorting and defining and defining
and sorting” (Glesne, 1999, p. 135) led to the establishment of the list of
codes. The codes belong to two main themes: monitoring of one’s own
thinking and self-regulation of learning. Table 2, shows the list of codes
and their frequencies.

Table 2
Codes and respective frequencies about what is metacognition

No. Code Frequency

N (%)
1 Monitoring of one’s own thinking
(“thinking about thinking”)
1a Ability to control one’s own thinking processes 2 (5.0)
1b Thinking aloud 2 (5.0)
1c Higher order thinking / Engaging in cognitive processes 24 (60.0)
during problem solving / Application of concepts taught
1d Making connections 2 (5.0)
2 Self-regulation of learning

2a Creating awareness of thinking 9 (22.5)

2b Guided or self-evaluation / cross examine own thinking 6 (15.0)
process (what ifs)
2c Reflect and improve / Critique own answers and thoughts 8 (20)
86 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

For the first theme, monitoring of one’s own thinking, the elaborations of
the four codes are as follows:

 Ability to control one’s own thinking processes: This is the

process of rationalising and reasoning one’s thoughts, so as to
critically analyse and ascertain the validity of thought (s).
 Thinking aloud (Articulation): This occurs when one expresses
his or her thoughts aloud. When working with peers on complex
tasks, this facilitates the sharing of ideas. When solving
problems, one may ask him or herself questions such as: “What
is my problem?”; “How can I do it?”; “Am I using my plan?”;
and “How did I do?”
 Higher order thinking/ Engaging in cognitive processes during
problem solving: This occurs during problem solving when
existing (prior) knowledge is applied to an unfamiliar situation to
gain new knowledge. It is the ability to analyse one’s own
problem-solving strategies (e.g. what strategies to be used,
thinking of the steps in deriving the answer, application of
concepts taught).
 Making connections: This involves making connections between
mathematical concepts and between mathematical concepts and
procedures; and making linkages among mathematical ideas,
between mathematics and other subjects and between
mathematics and everyday life.

For the second theme, self-regulation of learning, the elaborations of the

three codes are as follows:

 Creating awareness of thinking: This occurs when one checks

the reasonableness of an answer, seek alternative ways of solving
the same problem, abandon an unproductive problem-solving
strategy and adopt a more productive one; Is aware of what one
knows and also what one does know.
 Guided or self-evaluation / cross-examine own thinking process
(what ifs): This occurs when one uses, for example, checklists to
 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 87

evaluate one’s thinking processes. Over time, self-evaluation

becomes a habit and will increasingly be applied more
independently.
 Reflect and improve / critique own answers and thoughts: This
occurs when one reflects on one’s own work and improves on it.
One may be guided in critiquing one’s work by the following
questions - “What exactly are you doing?”, “Why are you doing
it?” and “How does it help you?”. Gradually, it becomes a matter
of practice for oneself to self-question and improve his or her
problem-solving skills and operation on a metacognitive level.

From Table 2, it is apparent that teachers in the project had some

knowledge about metacognition but their understanding was not
comprehensive. Most of them generally tended to associate
metacognition with higher order thinking and problem-solving. Only a
few of them associated metacognition with awareness of thinking and
reflection and critiquing of one’s own thoughts.

3.2 Do you engage your students in metacognition during mathematics

lessons? Yes / No. If Yes, how do you engage your students in
metacognition during mathematics lessons? Give an example of
what you do.

Thirty-two of the teachers claimed that they engaged their students in

metacognition during mathematics lessons. All of the thirty two gave
examples of how they did so. The following are some samples of their
responses.

A-3 I will ask students to go to the board to present their answers and
explain to the class. They can use this chance to articulate their
thoughts and open themselves up for feedback from their peers. I
will then ask him / her to clarify some points and explain to the
class how is the working or answer was derived.

N-21 I request them to reflect on their approach to their solution. I

88 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

engage them to explain why they perform a step. When they have
to explain, they have to start “examining” their own thinking
before they can articulate their thoughts.

C-36 I often pose questions that do not have a definite answer or even
questions that often have no/multiple solution, e.g., (2/x) -1 = 0.
Instead of asking students to think about what values of x satisfy
the equation, I say “solve the equation for x”. This way I do not
trigger the students to think first, as it would mean I am
intervening with their independent metacognition process. Only if
there are students who are unable to appreciate the value of the
question I would then intervene and ask a second question, “what
values of x will make the LHS = 0”

Y-43 Asking students to explain why they feel that their solutions should
be presented in the way they presented. Get them to present in an
alternative way to check if they understand their own thought
process.

The qualitative responses were analysed using content analysis. Table 3

shows the codes that were arrived at and their respective frequencies.
From Table 3, it is apparent that teachers engaged their students in
activities that were metacognitive in nature based on their conceptions of
what metacognition is as shown in Table 2. Most of the teachers engaged
their students in problem solving and the use of higher order thinking
skills to solve mathematical tasks.

4 Developing 21st Century Skills in Mathematics Classrooms

The forty teachers who are involved in the Teaching for Metacognition
project are engaged in activities that support the development of 21st
century skills and ultimately 21st century competencies in their
mathematics classrooms. They are crafting knowledge-building tasks,
and enacting them in their lessons such that students are engaged in
metacognitive strategies. At the start of the project, as shown by the data
 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 89

in Tables 2 and 3, it was apparent that their knowledge of how to develop

a culture of metacognition in their classrooms was limited. Therefore, the
project engaged the teachers in enlarging their knowledge about how
they can engage their students in metacognition. They were introduced to
ten learning strategies which are adopted from Thinking about Thinking:

Table 3
Codes and respective frequencies of how teachers engage their students in metacognition

No. Description of Codes Frequency

N (%)
1 Monitoring of one’s own thinking
a Expose students to thinking skills and heuristics to solve 27 (67.5)
problems / Identifying patterns / Breaking down of
problems into simpler parts to solve / Apply what they have
learnt / Comparing different methods / Providing counter
examples / Deriving formulas / Highlight theory behind
application.
b Encourage students to think aloud the strategies and 2 (5.0)
methods to solve problems.
c Provide students with problems that require planning 3 (7.5)
(before solving) and evaluation (after solving).
2 Self-regulation of learning
a Encourage students to seek alternative ways of solving the 2 (5.0)
same problem.
b Encourage students to check the appropriateness and 3 (7.5)
reasonableness of the answer / justify their answers.
c Facilitate group / whole class discussions for students to 4 (10.0)
explain different methods used in solving problems.
d Facilitate group / individual presentation for students to 2 (5.0)
explain their solutions.
e Encourage students to ask questions and clarify their 5 (12.5)
thoughts during whole class instruction.
f To reflect on their work / Engage students in peer 6 (15.0)
assessment / Feedback.
90 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Metacognition, Session 9 in The Learning Classroom: Theory into

Practice (Darling-Hammond, Austin, Cheung, & Martin, 2001). The
strategies and accompanying examples of activities that illuminate the
learning strategies are:

1. Predicting outcomes
Students are asked to predict who will be the winner when a game is
played before they actually play the game to investigate the outcome of
the game. Students are asked to compare the outcome of the game with
their initial prediction. If the outcome is different from their prediction,
they will look back at their initial thoughts or possible assumptions /
misconceptions made; if the outcome is similar to their prediction, they
will think about the conditions / information on which they based their
prediction.

2. Evaluating work
Students are asked to review their performance in tests or graded
assignments. Students are to identify what their misconception(s)/error(s)
is/are when they have not answered a question correctly and also to
reflect on and determine how they can avoid making the same
misconception/error in future.

3. Questioning by the teacher

The teacher asks students as they work “Do you understand what you are
supposed to do?”, “What is the information / condition given in the
question that prompt you to take this step?” Teacher asks students when
they give an answer – “How do you know you are right/wrong?”, “Can
you justify your answer?”, “Is there a better or a more elegant way of
obtaining the answer?”

4. Self-assessing
One way of self-assessing is through journaling. Students are asked to
write journals based on prompts given by the teacher or simply write
freely about their thoughts and feelings about their learning of (a topic
in) mathematics. As they write they are able to self-assess their
learning.
 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 91

5. Self-questioning
Students ask themselves a series of questions while they work. Students
can use questions to check their understanding and to help them solve a
problem. They can ask themselves a series of questions such as “What
is the question asking for?”, “What are the conditions given in the
question?”, “What are the possible heuristics I may use to solve this
problem?” When they ask questions while they work, students will be
able to direct and clarify their thinking.

6. Selecting strategies
Students are asked to decide which of two or more strategies is best, for
example, the method of substitution or the method of elimination for a
given pair of simultaneous equations. When students decide which
strategy is useful for a given task, they will have to understand the
problem in order to justify the choice of the strategy.

7. Using directed or selective thinking

Students are required to identify a series of triangles needed to solve a
trigonometric problem; or students are required to draw a roadmap of
steps required to prove a geometrical relationship. This process helps
students to understand the problem, identify the given information and
plan the next/series of step(s) to take.

8. Using discourse
Students first work on a problem individually before coming together in
a pair/group to compare their answers. In the pair/group, each student
is to explain how he/she obtains the solution and will have to justify and
convince the other(s) of the correct solution. This process helps students
to concretise their thinking as they are able to hear their own thinking
“visibly”. It also helps students to hear others’ thinking and either
identify gaps in their own thoughts or learn alternative ways of
explaining the same concept.

9. Critiquing
Students are asked to present their solution on the board and the rest of
the class will provide (constructive) feedback about the work. This
92 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

process allows students (who are giving feedback) to practice reading

and understanding a piece of mathematical work, compare the solution
presented with their own to evaluate how is one solution “better” than
the other. It also allows students (who are receiving feedback) to
identify the gaps in their solution and to improve their own thinking
process.

10. Revising
Students are shown a better/more efficient/more elegant approach (as
compared to their own approach) to solve a problem. After learning the
alternative approach, students will then make revision to their workings.
This process allows students to take note of why the alternative approach
is better, to check their use of heuristics, and to identify their learning
gaps.

5 Conclusion

In this chapter we have introduced the idea of knowledge-building tasks

and also illustrated how teachers may craft such tasks using typical
textbook questions as their starting point. We have also illustrated with
examples how teachers may engage students in metacognition through
ten distinct approaches that we have adopted from Darling-Hammond et
al. (2001). We hope teachers will be inspired to create a metacognitive
culture in their mathematics classrooms, so that their students will
develop 21st century skills and have the necessary competencies for
work and life in the global arena.

Acknowledgement

This chapter is based on the Teaching for Metacognition project that is

funded by the Academies Fund of the Ministry of Education (AFD 02/14
BK). The authors acknowledge the contributions of the teachers in the
project that forms part of the content of the chapter.
 Mathematics Subject Mastery – A Must for Developing 21st Century Skills 93

References

Darling-Hammond, L., Austin, K., Cheung, M., & Martin, D. (2001). Thinking about
Thinking: Metacognition. In Darling-Hammond, LD., Austin, K., Orcutt, S., & Rosso,
J. (Eds.) The Learning classroom: Theory into practice (pp 156-172). A telecourse for
teacher education and professional development. Stanford University school of
Education.
Glesne, C. (1999). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (2nd Ed.). New
York: Longman.
Hattie, J.A.C. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to
achievement. London: Routledge.
Hogan, D., Towndrow, P., Chan, M., Kwek, D., & Rahim, R.A. (2013). CRPP Core 2
research program: Core 2 interim final report. Singapore: National Institute of
Education.
Kaur, B., Boey, K.L., Areepattamannil, S., & Chen Q. (2012). Singapore’s Perspective:
Highlights of TIMSS 2007. Singapore: Centre for International Comparative Studies,
National Institute of Education.
Kaur, B., Areepattamannil, S., & Boey, K.L. (2013). Singapore’s Perspective: Highlights
of TIMSS 2011. Singapore: Centre for International Comparative Studies, National
Institute of Education.
Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., & Foy, P. (2008). TIMSS 2007: International Mathematics
Report. Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Centre, Boston
College.
Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Foy, P., & Arora, A. (2012). TIMSS 2011: International
Mathematics Report. Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Centre,
Boston College.
Ministry of Education, Singapore (2010). MOE to enhance learning of 21st century
competencies and strengthen art, music and physical education. Retrieved 5
September, 2015 from www.moe.gov.sg
Ministry of Education, Singapore (2012). O-Level, N(A) Level, N(T) level mathematics
teaching and learning syllabuses. Singapore: Author.
OECD (2010). PISA 2009 Results: What students know and can do: Student performance
in reading, mathematics and science (Volume 1). OECD Publishing.
OECD (2013). PISA 2012 Results: What students know and can do: Student performance
in mathematics, reading and science (Volume 1). OECD Publishing.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2009). Assessment: A 21st century skills
implementation guide. Tucson, AZ: Author.
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 Chapter 6

Teaching in the 21st Century Mathematics

Classroom: Metacognitive Questioning

Cynthia SETO

The Singapore Mathematics Curriculum postulates that

metacognition is one of the five key competencies for successful
problem solving. Metacognitive behaviours, which involve an
awareness of, monitoring of and regulating of cognitive resources
during problem solving, supports the development of 21st century
competencies. For students to be aware of their cognitive processes
and effectively monitor and regulate these processes in learning
mathematics, teachers need to provide explicit guidance and model
these processes in their classrooms. This chapter focuses on the use
of questions to provide opportunities for students to think aloud
through an articulation of their problem-solving processes, thus
making their thinking visible and creating a greater level of
awareness of their cognitive processes. This helps students to better
monitor their own cognitive activities during problem solving, and
to regulate their problem solving processes. It aims to provide
teachers with greater understanding of metacognitive behaviours
and build teachers’ confidence to develop students to be
metacognitive learners.

1 Introduction

To prepare our students to be future-ready, the Ministry of Education has

identified competencies that are increasingly important in the 21st
Century. The development of 21st Century Competencies will help our
96 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

students to embody the Desired Outcomes of Education (Ministry of

Education, 2010). One of these outcomes of education is to develop each
student to be a self-directed learner who questions, reflects, perseveres
and takes responsibility for his/her own learning. These attributes are
aligned to the description of metacognition in the Singapore Mathematics
Curriculum Framework as shown on Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Singapore Mathematics Curriculum Framework

The framework specifically states that metacognition is basically

“thinking about thinking” (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 12). It refers
to the awareness of, and the ability to control one’s thinking processes, in
particular the selection and use of problem-solving strategies. This
includes monitoring of one’s one thinking, and self-regulation of
learning. The development of mathematical problem solving ability
requires a good understanding of mathematical concepts, proficiency in
mathematical skills and processes, a positive attitude towards
mathematics and an awareness of one’s thinking processes.
The processes refer to the mental processes involved in
comprehending and gaining mathematical concepts. These cognitive
processes include thinking, reasoning, communicating and applying
mathematical ideas. Metacognition is the knowledge and understanding
 Metacognitive Questioning 97

of our cognitive processes and abilities and those of others. It also

includes regulation of these processes. In other words, metacognition is
the knowledge we hold about our own thinking, and the thinking of other
people.

2 Metacognition in Problem Solving

Metacognition plays an essential role in mathematical problem solving

and it has been recognised as one of the most relevant predictors of
accomplishing complex learning tasks (Dignath & Buttner, 2008; Van
der Stel & Veenman, 2010). Developing students’ abilities in
mathematical problem solving is the central focus of the Singapore
mathematics curriculum and metacognition is one of the key factors in
facilitating success in problem solving. Hence, it is important that
teachers empower their students to be aware of their own problem
solving process, take control of this process, and seek help whenever
necessary.
How do teachers promote such metacognitive awareness and
behaviours in their classrooms? Lee (2009) highlighted four
instructional strategies that have been found to be effective in helping
students to be more aware of their thinking process. They are
mathematical log writing, effective questioning techniques, identification
of structural properties of problem, and pair/group problem solving. He
also conceptualised the Problem Wheel (Lee, 2008, p. 65) as a basis for
questioning. The interactivity of the various components as shown in
Figure 2 reflects the dynamics involved in solving word problems. It
also serves as a bridge for students to make an effective connection
between the understood information and the mathematical knowledge
they have acquired in order to translate information in a word problem
into mathematical concept.
Based on Polya’s four-stage model (Polya, 1957) in problem
solving, the Problem Wheel facilitates students to understand the word
problem and in coming out with a plan to find the solution to the
problem. The four stages in the Polya’s Model are: understanding the
problem (identifying the givens, wanted and conditions), devising a plan
98 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

(making connections to existing knowledge), carrying out the plan

(checking each step), and looking back (checking the solution and
looking for alternative methods). The Problem Wheel seeks to make the
processes of ‘understanding’ and ‘devising a plan’ even more explicit
through the use of picture or diagram to represent the problem as well as
identifying the topic and formula. As such, the Problem Wheel guides
teachers to focus students’ attention to better understand and make sense
of a given problem (Lee, Yeo, & Hong, 2014). The purpose and
examples of question prompts for each of the component in the Problem
Wheel are presented in Table 1.

Figure 2. The Problem Wheel

When teaching students to solve word problems, teachers can use

the question prompts in Table 1 to think aloud so as to model the
problem solving process for students. When teachers verbalise their
thoughts during problem solving, students can see how the mind
responds to thinking through difficult information and constructing
meaning from the problem situation. In this way, teachers demonstrate
practical ways of approaching a word problem and make the thinking
processes that underlie mathematical problem solving visible to students.
By verbalising their inner speech as they think through a problem,
teachers model how expert thinkers solve a problem.
 Metacognitive Questioning 99

Table 1
Purpose and examples of question prompts in the Problem Wheel

Component Purpose Examples of Question Prompts

Given Raise awareness of given What is the problem about?

information provided within What information is given in the
the context of the problem problem?

Find Encourage self-directed question What are you supposed to find?

on the information that needs to What unknown information can I
be found find?

Picture Serve as a self-regulatory What pictures or diagram can you

function to develop relationship draw to represent the problem?
between the known(s) and the How do you draw the diagram?
unknown(s)

Topic Act as a bridge between the Which topics are relevant to this
problem and the content learnt problem?

Formula (e) Act as a bridge between the Which is the most appropriate
problem and students’ ability to formula(e) to solve this problem?
select appropriate mathematical What equation can I write to link
skills and knowledge to solve the the known and unknown?
problem

Teachers need to provide students with opportunities to practise the

technique of thinking aloud, either in pairs, small groups or individually.
Thinking aloud with teachers and with one another encourages students
to gradually internalise this dialogue which is the means by which they
direct their own behaviours and problem solving process (Tinzmann
et al., 1990). Students with metacognitive skills have the ability to use
prior knowledge to plan a strategy for approaching a word problem, use
the appropriate strategies to problem solve, reflect on and check their
solutions, and self-correct their approach as needed. Flavell (1976), who
coined the term ‘metacognition’, offers the following example:

I am engaging in metacognition if I notice that I am having more

trouble learning A than B; if it strikes me that I should double check
C before accepting it as fact. (p. 232)
100 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

3 Metacognitive Questioning in the Classroom

Metacognitive strategies can be taught to students to improve their

learning (Dignath & Buttner, 2008). This is further supported by
Schoenfeld (1992) who found that successful mathematics learners are
metacognitively active. According to Mevarech and Kramarski (2014),
modelling through thinking aloud is one of the best ways to make
students aware of the strategies. They also highlighted the need to ask
self-directed questions which serve two purposes: first, it encourages
students to articulate their problem solving strategies, and second, it
fosters reflections on these activities. Empowering students to
spontaneously ask themselves questions might lead them to think about
their thinking, and regulate and monitor their own cognitive processes.
And, a teacher needs to show students how to ask self-directed questions
and provide students with opportunities to practice them. This chapter
presents two vignettes to illustrate how teachers can model and provide
explicit guidance for students to embody metacognitive questioning in
their mathematics classrooms.
The first vignette narrates a Primary 5 Mathematics lesson for a
class of low progress learners. It describes a teacher, Mr Tan, who used
the think aloud strategy to model the use of questions to solve the word
problem below.

1 4
Alice needs m of ribbon to tie a present. Vivian needs m of
3 9
ribbon to tie her present. How much ribbon do they need altogether?

After reading the question once, Mr Tan directed his students’ attention
to the given information in the word problem. To do this, he used the
think aloud strategy to ask himself the following questions and answered
them accordingly:

 How many people are there? (There are 2 people.)

 What are their names? (They are Alice and Vivian.)
 What are they are going to do? (Each of them is going to tie a
present with ribbon.)
 Metacognitive Questioning 101

1
 How much ribbon does Alice need? (Alice needs m.)
3
4
 How much ribbon does Vivian need? (Vivian needs m.)
9

Having identified the given information from the word problem, Mr

Tan then asked himself what he was supposed to find. He pointed to
“How much ribbon do they need altogether?” and read the question to
himself. Following that, he self-questioned the meaning of “altogether”
and articulated that it referred to the total length of the ribbon needed by
Alice and Vivian. As such, it was the ‘whole’ that he needed to find and
the parts are the length of ribbon needed by Alice and Vivian. At this
point, he also highlighted the 13 m of ribbon and 94 m of ribbon. A model
was drawn to represent this information and an addition equation was
also formulated.
After modelling metacognitive questioning, Mr Tan arranged his
students in pairs to practice how they could ask themselves questions
to understand the problem and devise a plan to solve the problem. A set
of questions based on the components in the Problem Wheel were given
to students to scaffold the practice of self-questioning to solve this
problem.

3 1
Winston and Derek drank l of milk altogether. Winston drank l
4 3
of milk. How much milk did Derek drink?

The excerpt below shows that metacognitive questioning by the

students A and B helped them make sense of the part-whole concept in
the word problem to develop a plan.

A …they got two people. Who are they? They are Winston and Derek
102 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

B …so, ok, good. They drank 3 l of milk altogether. Together is

4
what? The meaning is about the total amount. So 3 l is …
4
So this one (pointing to Winston) drank 1 l. So …
3

A So, ask to find how much did Derek drink?

B Basically, either this (pointing to 3 l ) plus this (pointing to 1 l ) or

4 3
this (pointing to l ) plus this (pointing to 3 l ).
1
3 4

A Draw model…so Derek, you don’t know…put question mark. And

then put 3 …
4

B Cannot be here…. 3 must be here (show on Diagram)…for the 2

4
people. Yes, correct. How do you do?

A So, 1 plus 3
3 4

B So, cannot be, can, meh….this (pointing to the model for Winston) and
this (pointing to the model for Derek) is 3 . What is 3 ? They drink
4 4
together.

A Subtract … 3 subtract 1 .
4 3

In translating their understanding into a model drawing as shown in

Figure 3, they monitored their understanding through questioning and
articulating their thoughts. It is going through this process which led
them to refine their thinking to finally formulate a subtraction equation to
solve the problem.
 Metacognitive Questioning 103

Figure 3. Model drawn by student A

In the second vignette, Miss Lim provided sentence starters during

partner talk to empower students to use questions and express their
thought processes more effectively. Like Mr Tan in the first vignette,
Miss Lim also used the think aloud strategy to explicate the four stages
in Polya’s Model for solving mathematics problems. In her lessons, her
students practiced self-questioning either in small-groups or individually
during problem solving. While her students are proficient in asking
themselves questions during problem solving, Miss Lim noticed that they
had the tendency to focus only on the computation or simply browsing
through their solutions during the ‘looking back’ stage of Polya’s Model.
Therefore, she included an activity for her students to verbalise their
thinking processes as they checked their solutions. And, to facilitate this
process, Miss Lim displayed sentence starters on the wall as shown in
Figure 4.

Figure 4. Wall display of sentence starters

104 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The following excerpt is a conversation between two students as

they checked each other’s solution during the ‘looking back’ phase of
Polya’s Model. They had individually solved a Primary 5 Geometry
question (Figure 5) and then worked in pairs to check each other’s
solution or look for an alternative method.

Figure 5. Student Q pointing to the angles on a straight line

The transcript below shows students using the sentence starters and
the components in Problem Wheel as they revisited their solutions. They
were puzzled as to why they had different answers although their
computations were correct.

P Why different answers? Cannot be. Calculation correct. Yours

…one more step… you find angle x first. Then 180 subtract 55
and subtract 60 and got 65.

Q What is given in the problem? 60 and 125. What we need to find?
Find angle c. You take 180 to minus 125 to find c. You got 55.
So you are saying that 125 plus angle c equal 180.

P Because, they (inaudible)….angles on a straight line. So you are

saying that you cannot take 180 to minus 125 to find c.

Q 180 is always on a straight line. You have 60 and you have 125.
You want to find angle c. Must write angle x here and find x.
 Metacognitive Questioning 105

P No, no. I disagree because angle c plus 125 are… are on a straight
line.

Q I disagree…not c …because you need another angle…angle x.

P Hmmm….They must be side by side…you mean…then counted.

Q You see the textbook (pointing to a page on the math textbook).

Angles on a straight line. The angles must be next to it…have to be
together …like this (shown in Figure 5) ...then the sum of angles on
a straight line is 180.

This excerpt illustrates that with explicit guidance through the

Problem Wheel and the sentence starters, students are able to regulate
their own cognitive processes; student P self-corrected her
misconceptions while student Q reaffirmed her understanding about the
sum of angles on a straight line. In providing students with opportunities
to articulate their problem solving strategies to each other, Miss Lim
aimed to equip every student to be metacognitive in checking their own
solutions.

4 Conclusion

Questions facilitate students to think aloud to reflect and be aware of

one’s own knowledge – what one does and does not know – and one’s
ability to understand, control, and manipulate one’s thinking processes.
This includes knowing where and how to use particular strategies for
problem solving. To promote metacognition in our mathematics
classrooms, teachers need to provide tasks at an appropriate level of
difficulty. This means the task has to be challenging enough so that
students need to apply metacognitive strategies, such as self-questioning,
to monitor success but not so challenging that students become
overwhelmed or frustrated. Teachers need to prompt students to think
about what they are doing during problem solving.
Improving metacognitive skills is not a “magic bullet” to solve
problems faced by our diverse range of learners in our classrooms. Nor
106 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

is it a quick fix. Helping our students to become more metacognitively

aware is a deliberate process. However, it is an essential approach to
learning how to learn. It is also one of the toolkits of strategies that will
be of relevance not only in school but also in preparing for a productive
life in the 21st century.

Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to the teachers and there students, whose lessons
are illustrated in this chapter, for their contribution.

References

Dignath, C., & Buttner, G. (2008). Components of fostering self-regulated learning

among students. A meta-analysis on intervention studies at primary and secondary
school level. Metacognition and Learning, 3, 231–264.
Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.),
The nature of intelligence (pp. 231–236). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Lee, N. H. (2008). Enhancing mathematical learning and achievement of secondary one
normal (academic) studies using metacognitive strategies. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore.
Lee, N. H. (2009). Teaching this thing called “metacognition”. Retrieved 17 May, 2015
from http://singteach.nie.edu.sg/issue20-mathed/
Lee, N. H., Yeo, D. J. S., & Hong, S. E. (2014). A metacognitive-based instruction for
primay four students to approach non-routine mathematical word problems. ZDM –
The International Journal of Mathematics Education, 46, 465–480.
Mevarech, Z., & Kramarski, B. (2014). Critical maths for innovative societies: The role
of metacognitive pedagogies. OECD Publishing.
Ministry of Education (2007). Primary mathematics teaching and learning syllabus.
Singapore: Author.
 Metacognitive Questioning 107

Ministry of Education, Singapore (2010). MOE to enhance learning of 21st century

competencies and strengthen art, music and physical education. Retrieved 31
December, 2015 from www.moe.gov.sg
Polya, G. (1957). How to solve it (2nd ed.). New York: Doubleday & Company.
Schoenfeld, A. H. (1992). Learning to think mathematically: Problem solving,
metacognition, and sense-making in mathematics. In D. A. Grouws (ed.), Handbook
of research on mathematics teaching (pp. 334–370). New York: MacMillan
Publishing.
Tinzmann, M. B., Jones, B. F., Fennimore, T. F., Bakker, J., Fine, C., & Pierce, J. (1990).
What is the collaborative classroom? NCREL: Oak Brook.
Van der Stel, M., & Veenman, M. V. J. (2010). Development of metacognitive
skilfulness: a longitudinal study. Learning and Individual Differences, 20, 220–224.
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 Chapter 7

Listening and Responding to Children’s

Reflective Thinking: Two Case Studies on the
Use of the National Assessment in Japan

Keiko HINO

In the mathematics classroom, teachers play a crucial role in

deepening children’s understanding and promoting thinking. As an
important part of 21st century competencies, this chapter focuses on
the development of reflective thinking in children, reports on two
teacher education case studies, and discusses methods for improving
teachers’ abilities to listen and respond to children’s often
underdeveloped reflective thought. The case studies report on how
national assessment results and resources were used to provide
teachers with the opportunity to anticipate, compare, and investigate
children’s reflective thinking, and to guide lesson design to assist
children to hone their reflective thinking skills. These case studies
highlight the importance of raising teacher awareness and
understanding the use of children’s reflective thinking in the
mathematics lesson.

1 Introduction

To prepare children for their future and work in a rapidly changing

society, 21st century competencies have been identified and widely
discussed. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) (2005) defined these key competencies as the
psychosocial prerequisites for a successful life and a properly
functioning society in the emerging technologically driven, diverse and
110 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

globalized world. The three broad key competency categories were

identified as; “using tools interactively,” “interacting in heterogeneous
groups,” and “acting autonomously.” Underlying this framework is the
requirement to promote reflective thought and action (called
reflectiveness), which requires the subject to become the object of its
own thought processes and implies metacognitive skills (thinking about
thinking) and creative abilities, and taking a critical stance (OECD, 2005,
p. 9). In the Assessment and Teaching of Twenty-First Century Skills
Project, 21st century skills were defined (Griffin, McGaw, & Care, 2012)
to include problem-solving/decision-making, creative thinking, critical
thinking, learning how to learn, communication/collaboration,
information and ICT literacy; all of these are basic skills for living in this
globalized society.
Many countries are now defining their essential future competencies,
developing complementary objectives, and implementing 21st century
educational policies. In Japan, the current Mathematics Course of Study
emphasizes the development of mathematical activities for all school
levels to foster basic knowledge and skills (through spiral sequencing),
and to promote thinking/decision-making/communication abilities so as
to motivate children’s interest in learning mathematics (see MEXT,
2008, pp. 1–5). In 2013, the National Institute for Educational Policy
Research (NIER) proposed a framework of 21st century skills (tentatively
named), which consists of three classes; thinking abilities at the center,
basic literacy as the scaffold, and practice skills as the director (NIER,
2013). One of the major issues in the curriculum revision that is currently
underway is how these 21st century competency aspects can be
incorporated into the Course of Study for each subject (MEXT, 2014).
To foster mathematics competencies or skills, it is assumed in this
chapter that teachers play the most crucial role. Teachers need to first
understand these competencies by investigating the essential inherent
values, and then designing mathematics lessons that promote their use.
However, this is not an easy task, as teachers are most often concerned
with teaching mathematics as knowledge rather than promoting thinking
abilities through the teaching of concepts. This chapter focuses on
reflective thinking as an important part of 21st century competencies or
skills, and through an examination of two teacher education case studies,
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 111

discusses the ways of stimulating teacher abilities to listen and respond

to children’s often underdeveloped reflective thinking.

2 Perspectives

2.1 Reflective thinking and the teacher’s mathematical knowledge

Reflective thinking has been recognized as crucial for successful

mathematical problem-solving and a deeper understanding of the
content. “Reflection is a particular way of thinking and cannot be
equated with mere haphazard ‘mulling’ over something” (Rodgers, 2002,
p. 849, cited by Kaur, 2013, p. 4). It is metacognitive in nature and
involves an awareness of, and the ability to control one’s own thinking.
In his famous book How to solve it, G. Polya proposed four problem-
solving phases. The fourth phase, in particular is, looking back, and is
related to the act of reflection as it involves a reconsideration and
reexamination of the results and the path that led to those results, thus
requiring the problem solvers to question themselves by answering
reflective questions such as; “Can you check the result?” “Can you check
the argument?” “Can you derive the result differently or see it at a
glance?” “Can you use the result, or the method, for some other
problem?” (Polya, 1985, pp. 14–16). These questions imply that to think
reflectively, it is necessary to critically examine the obtained solution,
draw on self-knowledge for further inquiry, and construct arguments,
alternatives, or suggestions.
In a review of the knowledge needed to teach mathematics, Beswick
(2013) stated that teachers needed all aspects of teacher knowledge to
nurture reflective thinking in learners. From an analysis of three teaching
and learning episodes, Beswick summarized those aspects of teacher
knowledge and beliefs that were particularly relevant (pp. 74–76).
Teachers need to have the following knowledge and belief related tenets:

 the mathematical knowledge to choose appropriate, challenging

yet accessible tasks and to convert them into effective lessons;
112 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

 general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content

knowledge particular to mathematics to enable the provision of
suitable materials that inform the teachers of in-the-moment
decisions on interactions and promote teacher-student discourse
to support the students’ thinking; and
 a belief that mathematics is about sense making, so as to
stimulate interest in their students’ thinking and beliefs about
their capability to learn mathematics, as well as the teachers’
own beliefs in the importance of their role as a facilitator of
knowledge and thinking skills.

In this chapter, special attention is paid to the development of the

teachers’ abilities to listen to and interpret children’s thinking and to
respond to the children to ensure deeper, more complex understanding
(c.f., Davis, 1997; Crespo, 2000). In terms of teacher’s content
knowledge for teaching (Ball, Thames, & Phelps, 2008), these abilities
relate to the teacher’s knowledge of content and students and knowledge
of content and teaching. They can also relate to specialized content
knowledge because “evaluating the plausibility of student claims” is
regarded as one everyday task of teaching that requires that knowledge.
In the Japanese approach to developing expertize in mathematics
teaching, there is a consistent focus on the development of the children’s
thinking abilities. Takahashi (2011) argued that anticipating children’s
responses is especially essential for planning neriage (extensive
discussion); “Because the discussion will change based on how students
solve the problem, anticipating all the solution methods, including
possible misunderstandings, helps teachers prepare to handle the
discussion flexibly” (p. 212). To develop the teachers’ abilities to listen
and respond to children’s reflective thinking, this chapter reports on two
case studies in which the results of a national assessment are used.

2.2 National Assessment of Academic Ability

In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and

Technology (MEXT) has conducted the National Assessment of
Academic Ability (NAAA) since 2007 on children in the sixth year of
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 113

primary school and the third year of lower secondary school. The NAAA
is conducted in concert with the implementation of the current Course of
Study and was aimed at the realization of the Plan-Do-Check-Action
(PDCA) cycle. Mathematics is one of school subjects chosen to be
assessed. The assessment is carried out by using two problem Sets.
Problem Set A concerns “knowledge,” and assesses the basic academic
knowledge and skills needed for learning in later grade levels and
knowledge indispensable for everyday life. Problem Set B concerns
“application” and assesses the ability to utilize knowledge and skills to
solve various problems that include everyday life problems. Children are
assessed on their ability to develop plans to solve problems, to carry out
these plans, and to evaluate and improve the plans. Thus, the
“application” ability relates to the 21st century competencies.
Specifically, Problem Set B for mathematics targets the following four
abilities (NIER, 2015a):

 Observe the object and accurately understand it by paying

attention to number, quantity, or figure.
 Classify and arrange the given information and/or choose
relevant information properly.
 Think logically and/or reflectively.
 Interpret the phenomenon mathematically and/or express one’s
own thinking mathematically.

One of the features of the NAAA is the ways of analyzing and

reporting the results. In addition to the basic statistical data such as mean
percentage of correct answers, the children’s responses to the
mathematics problems are analyzed using anticipated types of response.
This analysis is conducted against each problem item. Table 1 shows the
anticipated types of responses together with distribution of children’s
responses to a problem (Figure 1).
Another feature is that on the basis of an examination of the
tendencies in children’s responses, both their difficulties and the areas
that require teachers’ attention are highlighted. Regarding the problem in
Figure 1, the analyses are followed by suggestions to teachers as to the
teaching of these numerical relationships in the calculation of decimal
114 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

numbers. They include activities through the use of diagrams or number

line representation, and learning to transpose ● with a simple number so
that the children are able to construct clues by themselves to approach
these types of problems (NIER, 2008, pp. 188–189). Further, to
distribute the results and feedback to teachers, the NIER publishes, both
in print and online, examples of effective trials at schools that have used
the NAAA results to improve teaching practice as well as examples of
mathematics lesson ideas using the NAAA problem items (e.g., NIER,
2015b).

Problem Set A 3, 2008 (translated by the author)

In the mathematical expressions listed below, ● expresses the same

number, and is not 0.
Choose the mathematical expressions from 1 to 4 below which are larger
than the number that ● expresses.
1 ●×1.2

2 ●×0.7

3 ●÷1.3

4 ●÷0.8

Figure 1. An example of problems in Problem Set A

Table 1
Ddistribution of actual responses for Item A 3, 2008

Item number Type of response Percentage of Correct

response (%) answer
3 1 Choose 1 and 4 45.3 ◎
2 Choose 1 2.9
3 Choose 4 1.8
4 Choose 1 and 2 4.4
5 Choose 1 and 3 12.0
9 Other responses 23.9
0 Non-response 9.7
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 115

3 Using the NAAA with Prospective Teachers

The first case study focused on 45 second-year students at Utsunomiya

University. Most students were non-mathematics majors who had not yet
experienced student teaching (student teaching is allocated in the third
and fourth years in the curriculum). At the last meeting of elementary
mathematics methods course in July 2015, taught by the author, these
students were given a NAAA problem from Problem Set B. In this
section, the prospective teachers’ listening and responding to children’s
real thinking and their learning from the activities are described.

3.1 Prospective teachers’ anticipation of children’s responses

First, the 45 students were asked to solve all three items for the Vaulting
Horse problem. Figure 2 shows problem item (2). Problem items (1) and
(3) are multiple-choice items, and almost all students successfully chose
the correct answers. However, for item (2), 32 correctly selected 2 and
wrote a satisfactory reason (71%), and four students selected 1.
Then, the students anticipated the percentage of correct answers for
each item. Here again, there was a notable discrepancy in (2) between the
averages for their anticipated percentages (42%), and the actual
percentages for the correct answers (27%) reported in NIER (2012).
They were surprised to learn a much lower percentage of correct answers
with respect to this item.
The students further anticipated the children’s mistakes and
unsatisfactory responses to item (2). The main anticipated responses
included “addition miscalculation”, “writing the reason only using words
(or mathematical expressions)” and “no response”. Twenty-one students
(47%) also anticipated that children would ignore the vaulting horse
layers and choose lengths so that they would add up to 70. Indeed, this
was one of the typical mistakes the children actually made (NIER, 2012,
pp. 236–237). However, there was almost no anticipation of
unsatisfactory responses such as, “we cannot reach 70 cm by adding
layers to the medium vaulting horse,” which was also a typical response
given by the children.
116 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

At Yukari’s school, there are two types of vaulting horse, small and
medium. The top layer of the small vaulting horse is 30 cm high, and each
layer second through the eighth is 10 cm in height. For the medium vaulting
horse, the top layer is 35 cm high and each layer second through fourth is 15
cm in height. For each layer fifth through eighth, the height is 10 cm.

Small Vaulting Horse (8 layers) Medium Vaulting Horse (8 layers)

(2) Yukari’s teacher asked her and her friends to make the small and
medium vaulting horses the same height. First they put 5 layers on the
small vaulting horse they often used for practice. The height was 70 cm.

Small Vaulting Horse (5 layers)

Next, they wanted to set up the medium vaulting horse so that the height
was also 70 cm. Is it possible to set up the medium vaulting horse at a height
of 70 cm? Select the correct answer from 1 or 2 below and write the number.
Also, explain why you chose that answer using words and numbers.

1 It is possible to set up the medium vaulting horse at a height of 70 cm.

2 It is not possible to set up the medium vaulting horse at a height of 70 cm.

Figure 2. Vaulting Horse, Problem Set B 2 (2), 2012 (translated by Project IMPULS
(IMPULS, 2015))
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 117

3.2 Prospective teachers’ lesson ideas using this problem item

The students were then asked to think about how to teach a lesson using
item (2) to foster the children’s ability to make decisions using relevant
information and to express their reasoning. At first, they thought about
important teaching points by themselves, after which they formed small
groups and shared their ideas. Then, the groups presented their ideas
using magnetic boards. Finally, an example of the lesson idea for item
(2) (NIER, 2012, pp. 238–239) was distributed and explained.
In this part of the activity, the most impressive observation was the
students’ attention to the use of concrete materials in the lesson. When
the students individually thought about the important teaching points, 30
students wrote about the use of concrete materials, such as, “prepare an
actual vaulting horse”, “prepare a model of a vaulting horse” or “go to
the gym and look at a vaulting horse”. Twenty-four students wrote only
about the use of concrete materials. Thirteen wrote about the ways of
developing the lesson, but their attention was more on the teachers’
explanations than on the children’s thinking. During the presentation of
ideas, the content written on the magnetic boards also showed a strong
attention to the use of concrete materials. One group drew a model of a
vaulting horse made of paper that could be manipulated during the lesson.
The example of an idea for the lesson prepared by NIER had two
tasks, as shown below, and included selected interactions between the
teacher and the children and an example of blackboard writing (NIER,
2012, pp. 238–239).

 Task 1: Can we make the medium vaulting horse 70 cm high?

 Task 2: Let’s write down in your notebook the reason we cannot
make the height of the medium vaulting horse 70 cm.

In Task 1, the selected interaction between the teacher and the

children began with one child saying, “We can make 70 cm using the
first, second, fifth, and sixth layers.” The interaction continued using a
picture of the vaulting horse and ended with the conclusion that they
could not achieve the 70 cm as the fifth layer could not be put on the
118 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

second layer because of the gap between them. This task can be seen to
be consistent with the students’ attention to the use of concrete materials.
Importantly, besides Task 1, the example included Task 2, which
asked the children to think about the reason they were unable to achieve
the height of 70 cm. It also included examples of the children’s reasons.
Selected interactions demonstrated the teacher’s key questions; as in the
following:

Let’s look into your friend’s reason in their notebook and discuss
“which part is easy to understand” and “which part does not look
like enough for the explanation”.

We do not need to write everything. Then let’s think together about

an explanation that is easy to understand by writing only the
necessary information.

The example of blackboard writing showed memos on “what we should

write in order to explain what we cannot” and an explanation that the
class constructed together.

3.3 Their reflections

Finally, the students wrote their reflections on the teaching of the lesson
using item (2). Seventeen students again wrote about the use of the
concrete materials (11 students wrote only about the concrete materials),
but a greater number of students (27) wrote about ways to develop the
lesson. Many of these reflections included words such as “thinking”,
“discussing” or “sharing”. There were five reflections that explicitly
stated their lack of attention to the variety of unsatisfactory (or vague)
reasons and ways of building on such variety in the children’s thinking
(see below):

I tended to try to narrow the gap and lead the children to the correct
response. But I thought it is also important to show children the
inadequate explanations and ask them how to change them so that
everyone can understand the message.
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 119

I can easily think of going to the gym or making a model in the

introductory part of the lesson. To me it is easier to conceive how to
raise the children’s interest. But in the main part of the lesson or in
the concluding part of the lesson, I am not familiar with what I
should do in order for the children to absorb the ability that I want
to foster.

3.4 Summary

Problem item (2) requires that the decision as to why it is not possible to
set the medium vaulting horse at a height of 70 cm be explained logically
in a written form. Writing an explanation of an impossible result is often
unfamiliar to children. This type of exercise demands reflective thinking
and the children need to examine their own reasoning and construct an
argument by checking the adequacy of their thinking.
Prospective teachers found that the use of the NAAA results and
resources was effective in developing their abilities to carefully and
critically listen and respond to the children’s thinking. However, they
tended to think that the explanation writing was not so difficult, and was
therefore surprised at the much lower percentage of satisfactory
explanations. Further, the children’s typical responses, which showed
their underdeveloped reflective thinking skills, made the teachers listen
more critically to the way the children were seeking to solve the
problems and the reasons for their consequent difficulties. The
prospective teachers also tended to pay more attention to the concrete
materials so as to avoid any misunderstandings when responding to the
children’s thoughts. Yet, while using the concrete materials as a basis
can be effective, it does not allow for the children’s reasoning to be
highlighted as the focus of the lesson. Using an example of NIER lesson
ideas, the prospective teachers were able to understand why and how the
children’s reasoning should be included as a main part of the lesson.

4 Using the NAAA with Practicing Teachers

The second case study focused on three teachers who have 15 to 20 years
of teaching experience. Mr Takahashi is a lower secondary school
120 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

teacher while Ms Hirose and Mr Nagashima are primary school teachers.

The teachers participated in the six-month-long professional
development program at Utsunomiya University from October 2013 to
March 2014. During the program, the teachers intensively used NAAA
problem items to explore their research theme of fostering the children’s
ability to utilize knowledge and skills to solve problems. All the teachers’
activities were collaborative. The author was also involved in the
activities, mainly through regular meetings. In this section, the teachers’
explorations using the NAAA problem items were described.

4.1 Teachers’ assessment of their children using the Park problem

The teachers began by collecting data on their children’s current abilities

to utilize knowledge and skills using NAAA problem items and
additional questions. One of the problems was the Park problem (NIER,
2007, p. 171). When a path to the shop was given, item (1) asked
children to draw a path of equal distance going back to Hiroshi’s house.
Item (2) asked them to choose the longer of the two paths given. Item (3)
asked them to compare the areas of the two parks (see Figure 3).
The percentages of correct answers are shown in Table 2. The
teachers obtained further information on their children’s utilization of the
knowledge on how to calculate the area of a parallelogram from the
result of the additional questions with respect to the item (3) (Table 3).
The teachers found that the percentage of correct answers for item
(3) was much lower than for the other items (Table 2). This was because
many of their children (54.2%) made mistakes by choosing the slanted
side (instead of the height) to calculate the area of the Central Park
(parallelogram) (Table 3). This result was consistent with the one
reported (NIER, 2007, pp. 175–176). Furthermore, 62.5% of the children
were found to be able to write the formula for the area of the
parallelogram. It was also found that of the 54.2% of children who chose
the slanted side, 30.8% did not write any reason on their worksheet (“no
response”). From these observations, the teachers summarized the
children’s difficulties as follows:
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 121

 To understand the relationship between lines (parallel and

perpendicular) and the height of the parallelogram.
 To understand the formula for the area of a parallelogram.
 To accurately understand the required information from the
problem statement and the map.
 To choose the necessary information from the excess
information shown on the map.
 To connect the information they chose from the map with their
learned knowledge.

(3) There is a park, named East Park, near Hiroshi’s house. Which is larger,
the area of Central Park or the area of East Park? Write your answer. Also
explain the reason using words, mathematical expressions, and so on.

Hiroshi’s house
Insert Figure

East Park

Central
Park
Shop

○ Roads ア，イ，ウ are parallel.

○ Roads オ，カ，キ are parallel.
○ Each of the Roads ア，イ，ウ is perpendicular to Road エ.
○ Each of the Roads ア，イ，ウ is perpendicular to Road ク.
○ Each of the Roads ア，イ，ウ is perpendicular to Road ケ.
○ Each of the Roads ア，イ，ウ is perpendicular to Road コ.
(Note: the first four conditions are given at the beginning of the Park problem.)

Figure 3. Park, Problem Set B 5 (3), 2007 (translated by the author)

122 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Table 2
Percentage of correct answers for the Park problem (Hirose, Nagashima, & Takahashi,
2014, p. 41)

Percentage of correct answers

(Total number of children)
Item
Their children Tochigi prefecture National
(23) (18 thousands) (1.1million)
(1) 95.8 73.0 71.2
(2) 83.3 79.0 79.2
(3) 12.5 13.8 17.9

Table 3
Percentage of the children’s reasoning for finding the area of Central Park (Hirose et al.,
2014, p. 42)

Children’s reasoning for finding area of Central Park Percentage

Choose height correctly and calculate the area of the 12.5
parallelogram
Choose the slanted side as the height of the parallelogram 54.2
Miscalculation 4.2
Recall the wrong formula for the parallelogram 4.2
Calculate a different area 8.3
Calculate the circumference using addition 4.2
Use visual information 4.2
No response 8.3

4.2 Lesson study using item (3) of the Park problem

The observations regarding the children’s responses to item (3)

especially puzzled the teachers. Therefore, they decided to conduct a
research lesson in a sixth grade classroom by modifying item (3) of the
Park problem.
To develop the lesson plan, they developed some conjectures:

 We may need some devices to assist the children in

understanding the task, in choosing the necessary information,
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 123

and gaining perspective by linking the chosen information and

the knowledge they have.
 The children may vary in their confidence in their knowledge
and understanding.
 It would be important to modify and reflect on their own
thinking and answers when they solve the problems.

About one month was spent on developing the lesson plan. The final
lesson plan is shown in Figure 4 (Hirose et al., 2014, p. 52). The research
lesson was conducted on February 7 with the 23 children who had been
assessed. The lesson was video recorded and a post-lesson discussion
was also conducted. To examine the lesson effect, the teachers collected
the children’s data prior, during, and after the lesson. Several children
were chosen as focus students and their activities were recorded during
the lesson using voice recorders and field memos.

Notice in teaching (* indicate

Situation Learning activity Minute connections with research theme) Evaluation

Grasp/ 1 Grasp the task 5 * Show a figure that does not contain
Foresee “Which of the all information necessary to solve the task.
geometrical - Make sure that A is parallelogram and B
figures is larger?” is rectangle.

* Make them discuss/think about which

seems larger to raise their motivation.
- Present the task and through discussion,
help them understand that they need to
calculate the area to solve the task.

Solve 2 Solve the task. 7 * Distribute worksheet that contains

necessary information. Children think
individually.
- For those who had difficulty, give advice
during between-desk instruction.

3 Conduct a 3 * Purpose of questionnaire is so that

questionnaire. children reflect on their own thinking
during the activity.
124 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Cultivate 4 Discuss the 10 * Present two methods for the calculation

height. of the parallelogram.
(1)Small group - Let them discuss in groups the reason for
discussion the calculation of each method.
(2)Whole-class
discussion 10 * Children present what they discussed.
Prepare the manipulatives for use when
necessary.
- Through presentations and small group
discussions, make sure of the height of the
parallelogram.

Cultivate 5 Summarize the 10 * Encourage children to reflect and think Mathematical

lesson about the area of the parallelogram, the thinking
height of which is sticking out of the base, Worksheet
by solving the task again and summarizing Observation
observations about the height.
- Let them write their reflections on the
worksheet

The figure used in Learning activity 1

Two methods for calculation of the parallelogram presented to children in Learning

activity 4

６×９＝５４ ６×１０＝６０
Base Base

Figure 4. A lesson plan using item (3), Park problem (translated by the author)
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 125

Table 4 shows the percentage of correct answers for item (3) during
and after the lesson. The percentage during the lesson was much higher
than 12.5 (Table 2), which may be partly because the task was modified
in the lesson, or because the children had some familiarity with the task.
After the lesson, the percentage of correct answers had increased further.
During the lesson, the teacher conducted a questionnaire with the
children (see Learning activity 3 in Figure 4). Here, the children were
asked “what they were careful about when solving the task” and had to
circle all the relevant items from a list of six items (Table 5). The same
questionnaire was conducted again after the lesson when they had solved
the task.

Table 4
Percentage of correct answers for item (3) during and after the lesson

Time Percentage of correct answer

During the lesson 56.5
Three days after the lesson (item (3)) 70.8
One week after the lesson (modified version of (3)) 75.0

Table 5
Item and number of children who circled the item

After the lesson

Item During the lesson Modified version
Item (3)
of item (3)
Figure 15 24 24
Problem statement 4 0 2
Calculation 16 12 8
Answer 8 5 7
Unit of measure 4 3 4
Other 1 0 0

Table 5 shows the items in the list and the number of children who
circled each item. It is interesting to note that during the lesson, the items
“figure” and “calculation” were the two major objects that the children
were careful about. A further classification of the children regarding the
items “figure” and “problem statement” revealed that there was a strong
126 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

bias toward the relationship between the number of children who

obtained the correct answer and the number of children who replied that
they were careful about the figure and/or problem statements. Indeed, 11
of the 15 children and 3 of the 4 children who circled “figure” and
“problem statement” respectively were the children who had the correct
answers. On the other hand, many of the children who made mistakes
circled the items “calculation” and “answer”. Therefore, it could be
conjectured that the children who made the mistake of choosing the
slanted side tended to pay attention to the calculation but not to the map
or the problem statement.
After the lesson, the number of children who circled “figure”
increased greatly. Classroom observations of the children also showed
that the children were talking about the superficial attention to the map
with respect to the solution “6 × 10 = 60”. For example, there were
utterances among children during the small group discussion, “[someone
who wrote 6 × 10 = 60 was] not looking at the figure carefully. He just
made a guess” or “the person only looks at the very narrow area of the
figure.” From these data, it can be speculated that during the discussion
about and the summary of the lesson, the children learned that they
needed to pay careful attention to the figures so as to find the relevant
information.

4.3 The three teachers’ reflections

The teachers’ final report (Hirose et al., 2014) contained their

observations and reflections on the activities they were engaged in over
the six-month period. First, the teachers felt that there were different
stages in a child’s state of knowledge (Table 6) and that these stages
could be used to examine the research lesson effect (Hirose et al., 2014,
p. 106). They further pointed out the importance of monitoring one’s
thinking and distinguished distinct stages. These descriptions indicated
that they had a better perspective on a child’s ability to utilize knowledge
and skills; that is, the extent to which the child was conscious of the
selection and the connections to their knowledge in the task they faced.
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 127

Second, the teachers felt that to improve a state of knowledge stage,

it was effective to narrow the discussion focus and clarify the reasons for
the decision making in the lesson (Hirose et al., 2014, p. 107). However,
narrowing the discussion topic in small groups or in the whole class
appeared to be a challenge for the teachers. Initially, they attempted to
equally foster many aspects of the children’s ability to utilize their
knowledge and skills using five situations (see Figure 4) in one lesson.
During the meeting, the rationale and purpose of setting all these
situations were discussed. We finally agreed to focus on the “cultivating”
situation, because this had the possibility of fostering the ability to
evaluate and modify a student’s own method. Many students had
demonstrated difficulty in this ability; therefore, this situation was
stressed in the final flow of the lesson.

Table 6
State of knowledge stages (Hirose et al., 2014, p. 106, translated by the author)

State of
Descriptions
Knowledge
K-stage 4 To solve the task, the student can think by connecting different
knowledge or choosing the necessary knowledge and can explain the
thinking process to others.
K-stage 3 To solve the task, there remains some vagueness on connecting the
different knowledge or choosing the necessary knowledge. They are
unable to explain the thinking process to others but can solve the task
on their own.
K-stage 2 To solve the task, there remains some vagueness on connecting the
different knowledge or choosing the necessary knowledge. They are
able to solve the task on their own sometimes.
K-stage 1 To solve the task, there remains some vagueness on connecting the
different knowledge or choosing the necessary knowledge. They are
unable to solve the task.

4.4 Summary

For the three practicing teachers, Problem Set B had many well-designed
problems that targeted an ability to utilize knowledge and skills to solve
the problems, which was the teachers’ main research theme as their
lesson studies were focused on one problem item from Problem Set B.
128 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

This item requires children to arrange the given information and to

properly choose the relevant information. Therefore, it is necessary for
the children to regulate their thinking by repeatedly checking whether the
information they are choosing is relevant to the task at hand. The
teachers were surprised at the low national average results; however,
they were more surprised at the similarly low results of the children in
their own classes.
The teachers’ explorations could be seen to be an endeavor to listen
more critically to the children’s actual (underdeveloped) reflective
thoughts and to respond to the children so as to assist them in deepening
their understanding. Through the activities related to their research theme,
the teachers gained a perspective as to how to develop the children’s
ability to think reflectively. Further, as they had the opportunity to
conduct a lesson which focused on reflection, they were given the
opportunity to re-conceptualize the lesson (see Hino & Makino, 2015, to
read more about these teachers).

5 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking

These two teacher education case studies illustrate the teachers’ struggles
in listening and responding to the children’s often underdeveloped
reflective thinking. In these case studies, listening and responding to the
children’s thinking were provided in the lesson design context because
lesson design was considered fundamental to the development of the
expertise required in both teacher preparation and professional
development programs.
The relationship between the 21st century competencies which are
generic in nature and the academic abilities that are more specific to each
school subject has been discussed (e.g., MEXT, 2014; Shimizu, 2015). In
this regard, the abilities related to “application” in the NAAA can be said
to be the indicators that identify some of the competencies to be fostered
in mathematics, of which reflective thinking is an essential part.
Nevertheless, the case studies demonstrated that the teachers were less
conscious of children’s reflective thinking. In the case studies, one of the
main problems highlighted was that the teachers tended to think that the
 Listening and Responding to Children’s Reflective Thinking 129

children could solve the problems and explain their thinking with less
difficulty. This finding implies that many teachers may overlook or
ignore the children’s reflective thinking while teaching mathematics. It
was seen that this situation could be worse when teachers only followed
the textbook exercises. To raise teacher awareness of children’s thought
processes, it is critical to develop mathematical problems that pay special
attention to the targeting of reflective thinking skills. In the same line of
thought, strategies for modifying textbook problems to incorporate
higher-level cognitive demand are important for teachers (e.g., Kaur &
Yeap, 2009a, 2009b).
To adequately respond to children’s reflective thinking, it is
important to elicit, attend to and make this thinking the object of the
discussion (Cobb, Boufi, McClain, & Whitenack, 1997). However, the
prospective teachers who were studied in this chapter tended to
concentrate on devising scaffolds to circumvent the children’s erroneous
thinking, which suggests that the teachers’ ways of listening and
responding to the children’s thinking were essentially evaluative (Davis,
1997). Further, the prospective teachers tended to anticipate the
children’s thinking based on their own experience in solving the same
problems, which could be seen to be a feature of the initial teacher
training (Takahashi, 2011). In this regard, the lesson ideas generated
from the NAAA problems were effective as they provided the
prospective teachers with the opportunity to recognize different ways to
organize lessons to respond to the children’s underdeveloped thinking by
comparing them with their own methods.
Three practicing teachers conducted a lesson study in which listening
and responding to children’s reflective thinking was the center of the
inquiry. However, this was not an easy task. When designing the lesson,
teachers had difficulty in the design of the neriage, where negotiated,
participatory and interactive actions (hermeneutic listening, Davis, 1997)
were required. The teachers fully recognized the importance of neriage;
however, they struggled with how to orchestrate the children’s reflective
thinking to assist them in honing their thinking in the last activity, which
required a highlighting and summarizing of the major points (refer to
Stigler & Hiebert, 1999, for the sequence of five activities in the
structured problem solving). From these results, it appears that richer
130 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

image of mathematics lessons are needed so that teachers can

successfully foster children’s reflective thinking.

6 Conclusion

It has been noted that Japanese lessons reflect certain societal values, one
of which is self-reflectivity (e.g., Lewis, 1996; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999;
Shimizu, 2009). Being based on such a value, the problem solving
approaches in Japan include a powerful methodology for enhancing
reflection (Hino, 2013). However, it is not sufficient to just follow the
structured problem-solving activities. To successfully foster children’s
reflective thinking, teachers must pay attention to the children’s real and
often underdeveloped reflective thinking. Therefore, alongside having
the knowledge of all aspects of teaching mathematics, teachers must also
recognize the value of promoting reflective thinking and must have
positive beliefs about the children’s reflective thinking. Obviously, this
requires teachers to be flexible while developing their lesson plans.
Furthermore, this chapter has demonstrated that teacher abilities in
listening and responding to children’s reflective thinking can develop if
they have the opportunity to study these ideas more closely.
Collaborative research between teachers and teacher educators can offer
invaluable information for both parties to develop expertise in fostering
children’s 21st competencies in the mathematics classroom.

References

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 Chapter 8

Using Open-Ended Tasks to Foster 21st

Century Learners at the Primary Level

YEO Kai Kow Joseph

There are many possible solution approaches and strategies to solve

an open-ended task. The implementation of open-ended tasks in the
classroom provides opportunities to develop our pupils’ 21st
century competencies. This chapter therefore reviews the concept
of open-ended tasks, discusses research studies related to open-
ended tasks, deliberates two types of open-ended tasks and
examines the issues in implementing open-ended tasks. Two types
of open-ended tasks are highlighted so that teachers might trial in
their mathematics lessons to develop pupils’ decision making,
thinking and reasoning process.

1 Introduction

The need to acquire 21st century skills is of international concern and

interest. Innovation and new habits of thinking are critical for students to
thrive in an increasingly diverse and complex setting. Access to and
user-friendliness of new technology have facilitated individuals to push
boundaries, and it thus comes as no surprise that today’s students are
able to “solve problems that involve multifaceted solutions, encounter
issues that tests their values, and face challenges that are not documented
in manuals and textbooks” (Liu & Tan, 2015, p. 336). Moreover, it is
important that 21st century learners acquire an understanding of
mathematical concepts, competency with thinking skills, and a positive
attitude in learning. Learning mathematics is about connecting ideas to
134 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

each other, seeking insights into those ideas, and solving problems that
involve multiple steps and approaches. The mathematics curriculum in
Singapore is consistent with 21st century reform-based visions of
schooling around the world, such as the NCTM standards (NCTM 2000).
The newest mathematics syllabus in Singapore (Ministry of Education,
2012), which was released in 2012 and implemented in 2013, continued
to maintain mathematical problem solving as the central focus and listed
three aims for the Primary Mathematics Syllabus. The three aims are to
enable all pupils to:

 acquire mathematical concepts and skills for everyday use and

continuous learning in mathematics;
 develop thinking, reasoning, communication, application and
metacognitive skills through a mathematical approach to problem
solving;
 build confidence and foster interest in mathematics. (p. 8)

The primary mathematics curriculum aims are to meet the demands

of the 21st century for all pupils. To meet these demands, mathematics
teachers need to be aware that 21st century skills are not a discrete set of
skills to be taught over a short period of time or a set of skills for older
pupils. It must be part of primary school pupils’ daily mathematical
lessons that slowly grows and develops over time. In addition, we need
to educate pupils to have a robust mathematical knowledge while at the
same time teaching them 21st century life skills which include the
abilities to be synthesisers of information, good decision makers, good
communicators and creative learners.
Mathematics educators, including school teachers, are now
beginning to pay attention to the kind of tasks they give to their pupils.
The Singapore mathematics curriculum has advocated that problems
should cover a wide range of situations from routine mathematical
problems to problems in unfamiliar context and open-ended tasks that
apply the relevant mathematics knowledge and thinking processes
(Ministry of Education, 2000). Success in problem solving is related to
pupils’ disposition and monitoring of their own thinking processes. It is
an effective problem-solving experience if pupils make their own
 Using Open-Ended Tasks at the Primary Level 135

decisions on how to solve open-ended tasks rather than to follow taught

procedures. To solve open-ended tasks pupils must observe, relate,
question, reason and infer as well as employ various forms of
representations. This chapter therefore reviews the concept of open-
ended tasks, discusses research studies related to open-ended tasks,
illustrates two types of open-ended tasks and examines the issues in
implementing open-ended tasks.

2 Review of Literature

This section explains what constitutes an open-ended task and the

benefits of using open-ended task in the classroom. In addition, research
studies on pupils’ solving open-ended tasks are reviewed.

2.1 Open-ended tasks

Although there are various views of open-ended tasks to be used in the

school mathematics instruction, we can still identify some basic
characteristics of open-ended tasks. Open-ended tasks “have more than
one answer and/or can be solved in a variety of ways” (Moon &
Schulman 1995, p. 25). Hancock (1995) also agreed that open-ended
tasks could be considered to have more than a single correct solution and
that they offer pupils multiple approaches to the problems by placing
little constraints on the pupils’ methods of solution. Similarly, Takahashi
(2000) also shared that there are two types of open-ended tasks:
problems with only one solution but diverse approaches and problems
with multiple correct answers. In addition to producing a solution, pupils
must also explain their solution process and justify their answer. In the
earlier 1970s, Shimada with other researchers provided an incomplete
problem which does not define clearly what the question asks for,
therefore allowing many possible solutions (Becker & Shimada, 1997).
Shimada and his research teams identified such a problem as an open-
ended problem, and the approach adopted was called “open approach” or
“the open-ended approach”. Open-ended approach teaching has been
used in Japan since the 1970s in order to stimulate higher-order thinking
136 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

in mathematics (Becker & Shimada, 1997; Nohda, 1986). The idea of

the open-ended approach in teaching mathematics is to encourage pupils
to use their natural ways of mathematical thinking and to apply their
previously acquired knowledge to the process of solving open-ended
tasks (Kwon, Park, & Park, 2006). The open-ended approach was also a
pedagogical strategy that intended to foster creative mathematics actions
that arouse the pupils’ curiosity when solving the problems.
Christiansen and Walther (1986) believed that open-ended tasks
offer ideal conditions for cognitive development in which new
knowledge is generated and ideas of earlier attained knowledge are
applied and assessed. Effective uses of open-ended tasks are believed to
foster higher-order thinking and promote, produce, and provide fodder
for pondering (Dyer & Moynihan, 2000). According to De Lange
(1995), a task that is open for pupils’ process and solution is a way of
motivating pupils’ high quality thinking. Caroll (1999) added that short,
open-ended tasks create an opportunity for the mathematics teachers to
have quick checks into their pupils’ thinking and conceptual
understanding. They are no more time-consuming to correct than the
exercises that teachers usually give. In the same vein, Kwon, Park and
Park (2006) also reported that divergent thinking in mathematics could
be accomplished through an open-ended approach because open-ended
tasks show numerous explanations and the ways pupils solve the tasks
based on their own choice and range of abilities. Furthermore, Sullivan
and Lilburn (2005) explained that open-ended tasks are exemplars of
good questions in that they advance significantly beyond the surface.
The openness of good questions offers many teaching moments for
classroom teachers because of their potential for pupils at different stages
of development to respond at their own level (Sullivan, Clarke, &
Wallbridge, 1991). Osana, Lacroix, Tucker and Desrosiers (2006)
expressed that the use of open-ended tasks favours pupils’ involvement
in class activities and encourage them to explore and investigate. They
also revealed that the use of open-ended tasks increase the pupils’
motivation to generalise, look for models and links, communicate,
discuss and identify alternatives. To summarise, open-ended tasks are
those that require pupils to think more intensely and to provide a solution
which involves more than remembering a fact or repeating a skill. There
 Using Open-Ended Tasks at the Primary Level 137

are many possible solution approaches and strategies to solve an

open-ended task. The focus of open-ended tasks offer opportunities for
pupils to reveal their decision making process, mathematical thinking,
reasoning process as well as problem solving and communication skills.

2.2 Research studies on open-ended tasks

Earlier research studies by Sullivan and Clark (1992) studied the quality
of responses given by the pupils to open-ended but content specific
questions. They found that pupils were able to give multiple correct
responses to such questions. Pehkonen (1995) conducted an experiment
to explain the effects of open-ended tasks on the pupils’ motivation
towards Mathematics. The results showed that the experiment using
open-ended tasks have significant positive effects on the pupils’
motivation towards Mathematics. Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen (1996)
explored how pupils responded to realistic problems when incomplete
information was given. The pupils were required to make their
assumptions on the missing information. Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen
concluded that the use of open-ended approach provided the teacher with
substantial evidence on how the pupils managed the problem-solving
process. In international research studies on U.S. and Asian students’
mathematical problem solving using open-ended tasks, it was found that
there was a noticeable difference between U.S. and Asian students’
solution representations (Becker, Sawada, & Shimizu, 1999; Cai, 1995;
Cai, 2000; Silver, Leung, & Cai, 1995). The studies showed that Asian
students inclined to use symbolic representations (e.g., arithmetic or
algebraic symbols) while U.S. students inclined to show visual
representations (e.g. diagrams). Klavir and Hershkovitz (2008) showed
that creative mathematical thinking could be nurtured by providing open-
ended tasks as an assessment tool for both teachers and students.
Local studies on the use of open-ended tasks in mathematics lessons
too revealed positive outcomes. Seoh (2002) explored how an Open-
ended Approach (OEA) mathematics programme was used to develop
critical thinking skill in mathematics of 52 pupils from Secondary 5
(17 year-olds) normal academic stream in Singapore. The study,
138 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

implemented for eight weeks, comprised eight problem-solving lessons

that integrated the use of open-ended tasks and ‘working in pairs’ to
encourage the pupils to think and reason critically. It was found that the
OEA programme enhanced the pupils’ critical thinking skill in
mathematics. After the implementation of the OEA, the pupils’ ego of
wanting to outperform their classmates had reduced. They were more
willing to engage in cooperative learning with their classmates and more
willing to help their fellow weaker classmates to improve their
mathematics performance together. In addition, their avoidance towards
solving mathematical problems had improved. They were keen to work
on their mathematics and did not avoid work associated with
mathematics. On the whole, the pupil who underwent the study gave
positive feedbacks towards the Open-ended Approach programme.

3 Types of Open-Ended Tasks

The brief review of literature in the previous section has provided a

sense of what open-ended tasks can be intended for. With the
introduction of the 2013 Mathematics syllabus in Singapore, it is
appropriate to revisit open-ended tasks in terms of their relevance and
applicability to the teaching of primary mathematics. While the
Singapore revised mathematics syllabus (Ministry of Education, 2012)
continues to emphasise learning experiences in the classroom, there is
now an even greater emphasis on the development of pupils’ 21st
century skills such as decision making and communication. Anecdotal
evidence from many experienced mathematics teachers suggests the
development of pupils’ 21st century skills is best if the focus is
consistent and happens regularly during mathematics lesson. Moreover,
mathematics teachers need to have a well-developed and meaningful
understanding of open-ended tasks themselves and also pedagogical
practices that provide learning experiences for pupils to explore and
construct multiple solutions for open-ended tasks. Selecting appropriate
open-ended tasks depends on the instructional objectives of the lesson.
Despite the benefits of open-ended tasks, it is a challenge to
formulate different types of open-ended tasks. For this reason, the tasks
 Using Open-Ended Tasks at the Primary Level 139

with the following two features will also be regarded as open-ended tasks
in this chapter. First, the initial point of the task is rather clear but the
solutions for its objectives can vary. Second, they are tasks in which
pupils can show higher-order thinking skills and employ divergent
thinking in the search of their own solutions. The focus of this chapter
will be on short open-ended tasks that teachers can adapt from closed
questions found in textbook and workbook exercises. Teachers can use
short, open-ended tasks for their role in teaching through problem
solving that emphasises learning mathematical concepts and skills
through a problem situation. The following section exemplifies open-
ended tasks that make assumptions on the missing information and open-
ended tasks that discuss a concept, algorithm or error as two possible
categories that can be incorporated in the teaching and learning of
mathematics at the primary level.

3.1 Open-ended tasks that make assumptions on the missing

information

This type of open-ended task requires pupils’ own contribution to the

process such as making assumptions on the missing information. In
addition, pupils also need to solve the problem where there is no known
solution beforehand and not all data are given. The content specific
open-ended tasks in this category can be illustrated by means of some
examples below.

 Draw a triangle. Write a number in the centre of the triangle.

Write three numbers in the corners of the triangle that add up to
the number in the centre. Now challenge yourself by choosing
greater numbers.
 List five 3-digit numbers that have the digit 7 in the tens place.
 Draw a rectangle where the area of the rectangle is 24cm2.
 Write five decimals between 10 and 20.
 Find the dimensions of 2 different boxes so that each has a
volume of 150cm3.
140 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The open-ended task 1 (see Figure 1) aims to stimulate Primary 1

pupils’ high-level thinking processes and mathematical creativity. In
open-ended task 1, pupils, in addition to applying addition and
subtraction algorithms, were also required to solve problems where there
are no known or fixed procedures and not all information is given. It
would require pupils’ own contributions, such as making assumptions on
the missing data. As the numbers of green balls or yellow balls to be
taken out from the box are not provided, pupils have to think about and
decide the number for each colour of the balls. There is no cue word for
pupils to figure out which operation to use, as in a one-step word
problem.

Open-Ended Task 1 (Primary 1)

There are 6 green balls and 6 yellow balls in a box.
I take out any 7 balls from the box.
How many of them are green balls?
How many of them are yellow balls?
Explain clearly using pictures, numbers and words.
Figure 1. Open-ended task 1

From the curriculum perspectives, this open-ended task 1 has been

designed specifically for the following cognitive demands:

 Pupils identify missing information essential to the open-ended

task.
 Pupils make their own assumptions about the missing
information: number of green balls and yellow balls to be taken
out.
 Pupils access relevant mathematical concepts of addition and
subtraction of one-digit and two-digit whole numbers.
 Pupils work out the number bonds and operations.
 Pupils must communicate their mathematical reasoning in words
and pictures.
 Pupils show their creativity in using possible heuristics and
solutions.
 Using Open-Ended Tasks at the Primary Level 141

Figure 2 and Figure 3 show the responses of two primary 1 pupils.

The uses of verbal, symbolic and pictorial mathematical representations
were manifested in these children’s work when they were given the
opportunity to be creative in an open-ended situation such as this.

Figure 2. Pupil A’s responses to open-ended task 1

Figure 3. Pupil B’s responses to open-ended task 1

3.2 Open-ended tasks to discuss a Concept, Algorithm or Error

In a traditional classroom, primary school pupils have little opportunity

to discuss and justify the mathematical process involved in their
mathematical solutions. Sometimes they may not be able to explain their
thinking. Although they may perform certain computations, they do not
know how to discuss how they solve them or why they work. Even if the
teacher insists that the pupils discuss and justify, they may simply mimic
what the teacher has said in class. The content specific open-ended tasks
in this category can be illustrated by means of some examples below.
142 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

 You cannot remember what is 9 x 7 but you remembered that

5 x 7 is 35. Explain how could you use this fact to work out
9 x 7?
 Peter is helping his sister to round off 8.29 to the nearest tenth.
She wants to know why Peter changes 2 to 3 and drop the 9.
How can Peter explain this to his sister?
 Mary has a calculator that seems to work fine except that it will
not let her enter 2. How can Mary use her calculator to find the
product of 45 and 27?
1 1
 If you want a bigger piece of cake, would you take or of
3 4
the cake? Explain your reasoning using words and pictures.

Open-ended task (see Figure 4) was converted from a standard

closed problem on adding of like fractions into an open-ended situation
for primary 2 pupils to discuss and justify their responses. The responses
from the primary 2 pupils to such an open-ended task provided the
teacher a deeper insight into the pupils’ real understanding of addition of
like fractions than if he had given them the closed question. Performing
the calculations for open-ended task 2 is easy and accessible to the vast
majority of primary 2 pupils. This whole process of reasoning involves
the flexibility in thinking about numerator and denominator. This also
creates an opportunity for pupils to explore and appreciate fractions as
part of whole.

Open-Ended Task 2 (Primary 2)

1 2 3
John wrote   .
6 6 12
Explain clearly using words and picture to show John’s answer
cannot be correct.

Figure 4. Open-ended task 2

 Using Open-Ended Tasks at the Primary Level 143

From the curriculum perspectives, this open-ended task 2 has been

designed specifically for the following cognitive demands:

 Pupils identify the error showed in the task.

 Pupils access relevant mathematical concept to correct the error.
 Pupils must communicate their mathematical reasoning in words
and pictures.
 Pupils show their creativity in using possible diagrams and
solutions.

Figure 5 shows a good but not the best response. Pupil A is able to
correct and show some form of mathematical reasoning but the
generalisation is not explained adequately. Pupil A’s response is
partially correct as it is shown in the last two lines how three-sixths of
the circle is shaded. Pupil B’s responses (shown in Figure 6) would have
been scored as correct in the closed question. However, it appears pupil
B lacks the reasoning and communication skills as the justification is
unclear. Their explanations show that both would need remedial
assistance on the concept of addition of like fractions and how to
represent them. Open-ended task to discuss errors could be a good
platform for the teacher to engage pupils in extending their thinking and
reasoning as there are several ways of justifying it.

Figure 5. Pupil A’s responses to open-ended task 2

144 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Figure 6. Pupil B’s responses to open-ended task 2

These two different types of open-ended tasks exemplify how

teachers and pupils could benefit from implementing open-ended tasks in
the primary mathematics classroom. The two types of open-ended tasks
are just a first step towards developing pupils’ 21st century skills in the
classroom to meaningful ones where the emphasis is on the process
(reasoning, thinking and decision making) rather than the product (final
answer).

4 Issues in Implementing Open-Ended Tasks in the Classroom

Like all forms of problem-solving activities, open-ended tasks may cause

more impairment if implemented thoughtlessly and unsystematically.
The following are issues for teachers to heed and avoid. First, teachers
may remove challenging features of the open-ended tasks during the
implementation phase, thus creating lower and less sustained levels of
work, thinking and reasoning by pupils. Giving open-ended tasks will not
automatically result in pupils’ engagement in reasoning and thinking
process. Some pupils perceive that open-ended tasks as vague,
uncertain, or both and the teacher may feel that there is a need to reduce
their complexity so as to lessen the pupils’ anxiety towards such tasks.
Reduction in complexity can happen in numerous ways, including
through pupils’ successfully pressuring the teacher to provide clear steps
to work out the task or the teacher explains and shows the challenging
 Using Open-Ended Tasks at the Primary Level 145

aspects of the task. If these are accomplished for the pupils, the
cognitive demands of the open-ended task are weakened and pupils’
thinking processes becomes directed into more predictable and
instrumental understanding.
Second, the classroom-based shift that moves away from meaning
and understanding towards the completeness or correctness of answers
should not be the priority when attempting open-ended task. Teachers
need to be mindful that the anticipated outcome of the open-ended task is
not just showed through the solution. It is also the cognitive processes
involved in reaching the solution. Teachers must have a paradigm shift
towards a more process-based approach.
Third, open-ended tasks may decline into predetermined method
and answer if too little time is allocated for the pupils to attempt. In
such scenarios, pupils may be deprived of the time needed to truly
engage with the mathematics content as well as to explore and involve in
mathematical thinking.
Fourth, the success of open-ended tasks is the consideration of the
relationship between pupils and task. Teachers must know their pupils
well in order to make right choices regarding the motivational appeal,
difficulty level and degree of task explicitness. Nohda (1986) indicated
that even pupils with a lower motivation level could be involved in
solving open-ended tasks. Appealing to pupils’ natural ways of thinking
lies at the heart of the “open approach” as pupils will produce different
solutions and then share their thinking with the rest of the class. This is
to move pupils into the correct cognitive and affective space so that
thinking and reasoning can emerge and progress can be made on the task.
Finally, if instructional procedures at the implementation phase to
solve open-ended task are not articulated to the pupils, classroom
management issues may surface. Pupils may be engaged in off-task
activities. This suggests that teachers are struggling with keeping pupils
under control in addition to keeping them focused on the mathematics.
Anthony and Walshaw (2009), for example, in a research synthesis,
concluded that “in the mathematics classroom, it is through tasks, more
than in any other way, that opportunities to learn are made available to
the students” (p. 96). The issues discussed have implications on the roles
of the teacher. Not only must the teacher choose and appropriately set up
146 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

worthwhile open-ended tasks but the teacher must also proactively and
consistently support pupils’ cognitive activity without reducing the
difficulty and cognitive demands of the open-ended task.

5 Concluding Remarks

In the traditional approach, there has been a tendency for pupils to view
mathematics as simply practicing one-step, two-step or many-step
procedures to find answers to routine problems. On the contrary, open-
ended tasks if presented on a regular basis would impart in them that
understanding and explanation are critical aspects of mathematics. Using
open-ended tasks effectively in the classroom requires effective
facilitation on the part of the teacher. This is a different approach to
teaching from what most teachers have experienced, and it requires time
and practice to learn. Ultimately, the decision to use open-ended tasks in
the mathematics lessons is up to the teacher. It is hoped that teachers
will bear in mind the appropriate use of open-ended tasks by relating it to
their pedagogical goals and their pupils’ abilities.

References

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Becker, J. P., Sawada, T., & Shimizu, Y. (1999). Some findings of the U.S.-Japan cross-
cultural research on students’ problem-solving behaviors. In G. Kaiser, E. Luna, & I.
Huntley (Eds.), International comparisons in mathematics education (pp. 121–139).
London: Falmer Press.
Becker, J. P., & Shimada, S. (Eds.) (1997). The open-ended approach: A new proposal
for teaching mathematics. Reston, VA, National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics.
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Cai, J. (1995). A cognitive analysis of U.S. and Chinese students’ mathematical

performance on tasks involving computation, simple problem solving, and complex
problem solving. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph
Series 7. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Cai, J. (2000). Mathematical thinking involved in U.S. and Chinese students’ solving
process-constrained and process-open problems. Mathematical Thinking and
Learning, 2, 309–340.
Carroll, W. M. (1999). Using short questions to develop and assess reasoning. In L.V.
Stiff, & R. Curcio (Eds.) Developing mathematical reasoning in grades K-12, 1999
Yearbook (pp. 247- 255). Reston, Va.: NCTM.
Christiansen, B., & Walther, G. (1986). Task and activity. In B. Christiansen, A.G.
Howson, & M. Otte (Eds.) Perspectives on mathematics education (pp. 243-307).
Holland: D. Reidel.
De Lange, J. (1995). Assessment: No change without problems. In T. A. Romberg (Ed.)
Reform in school mathematics and authentic assessment (pp. 87-173). New York:
Suny Press.
Dyer, M., & Moynihan, C. (2000). Open-ended question in elementary mathematics
instruction & assessment. Eye on Education.
Hancock, C.L. (1995). Enhancing mathematics learning with open-ended questions. The
Mathematics Teacher, 88(6), 496-499.
Klavir, R., & Hershkovitz, S. (2008). Teaching and evaluating ‘open-ended’ problems.
International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, 20(5), 23.
Kwon, O., Park, J., & Park, J. (2006). Cultivating divergent thinking in mathematics
through an open-ended approach. Asia Pacific Education Review, 7(1), 51–61.
Liu, W. C., & Tan, O. S. (2015). Teacher effectiveness: Beyond results and
accountability. In O. S. Tan & W. C. Liu (Eds.), Teacher effectiveness: Capacity
building in a complex learning era (pp. 335–345). Singapore: Cengage Learning
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Ministry of Education (2000). Mathematics syllabus: Primary. Singapore: Curriculum
Planning and Development Division.
Ministry of Education (2012). Primary mathematics: Teaching and learning syllabus.
Singapore: Curriculum Planning and Development Division.
Moon, J., & Schulman, L. (1995). Finding the connections: Linking assessment,
instruction, and curriculum in elementary mathematics. Portsmouth, N.H:
Heinemann.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000). The principles and standards for
school mathematics. Reston, VA: Author.
Nohda, N. (1986). A study of “open-approach” method in school mathematics. Tsukuba
Journal of Educational Study in Mathematics, 5,119–131.
Osana, H., Lacroix, G., Tucker, B. J., & Desrosiers, C. (2006). The role of content
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Pehkonen, E. (1995). Using open-ended problem in mathematics. Zentralblatt fur

Didaktik der Mathematik, 27(2), 67-71.
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Sullivan, P., & Lilburn, P. (2005). Open-ended maths activities: Using ‘good’ questions
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 Chapter 9

Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics

Classroom

KOAY Phong Lee

Learning is a social endeavor. Hence, talking with teachers and

fellow students about ideas is fundamental to student construction
of mathematical knowledge and achievement. Many teachers
acknowledge the value of mathematics talk but have found the
implementation of productive mathematics talk to be challenging. In
this article, a rich task is used to illustrate how talk moves can be
employed to engage students in discourse.

1 Communication

The fast changing world propelled by increasing globalization and

technological advancements has led both educators and business leaders
to reexamine the aim of education and identify the competencies required
for school leavers so that they would lead a meaningful life in the 21st
century. These competencies, particularly communication skills, are
critical to the advancement of Singapore, a nation with scarce natural
resources. Singapore is a business hub and Singaporeans need to be able
to communicate clearly and effectively with their counterparts elsewhere
while negotiating business deals and setting up business ventures.
Another important sector in the Singapore economy is the service sector.
It is essential for people working in this sector to be able to communicate
effectively with customers and clients. Hence, communication is one of
the 21st century competencies identified by the Singapore Ministry of
Education as necessary for all students. The other competencies include
150 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills; critical and

inventive thinking, collaboration and information skills (MOE, 2010).
Communication is the exchange of thoughts or knowledge between
two or more people through speech, visual representations, signals,
writing, or behavior. It is also about the understanding of the intentions
underlying the information conveyed. Hence, effective communication is
about how we convey information so that it is received and understood in
exactly the way we intended. It is a skill that every student should
demonstrate in all subjects including mathematics.
In the current Singapore mathematics syllabus documents,
communication refers to “the ability to use mathematical language to
express mathematical ideas and arguments precisely, concisely and
logically. It helps students develop their understanding of mathematics
and sharpen their mathematical thinking.” (MOE, 2012, p. 17). Teachers
are expected to include the use of discourse in their classrooms to
provide a more engaging, student-centred learning environment that
focuses on sense-making and problem solving. They are encouraged to
provide opportunities for all students not only to do mathematics, but
also to talk and write about mathematics. Students are expected to use
appropriate mathematical language, notations, symbols and conventions
to explain fluently, clearly and precisely, their mathematical reasoning
and thinking. Moreover, they are to analyze and evaluate their friends’
thinking and strategies, and reflect on their own learning. Even if the
views expressed are different from their own, students should listen with
empathy and try to understand what their friends are saying. Hopefully,
students would then become confident problem solvers who are able to
work collaboratively, and also independently, think critically and
communicate effectively.
Communication skills in a mathematics classroom include writing
skills, listening skills, talking skills, non-verbal communication skills and
thinking skills (Figure 1). In order to have productive talk, we need to
listen to what others are saying and responding, organize, process and
expand on our thoughts before verbalizing them. Often, we also use
writing (including drawing) and non-verbal communication (e.g. tone,
gesture, posture and facial expression) to put our ideas across. This
 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics Classroom 151

article addresses the use of classroom talk to promote mathematics

learning as talking about ideas is fundamental to learning.

Listening

Writing Talking

Thinking Non-verbal

Figure 1. Communication skills (mathematics)

2 Purpose of Mathematics Talk

In many mathematics classrooms in Singapore, teachers are often the

main source of the mathematics ideas and are responsible for the student
learning. They dominate the classroom talk and are usually the sole
questioners. The questions can broadly be categorized as performative,
procedural and conceptual. The student contribution in the class
discussion is often limited to answering of questions addressed to them
and when asked, sharing of their solutions, describing or stating a
sequence of procedures they have used to solve a problem, with little or
no response from the other students (Hogan, Rahim, Chan, Kwek, &
Towndrow, 2012; Hogan, 2014).
Mathematics talk in the classroom has other benefits besides
imparting knowledge and assessment. In a classroom where students
have opportunities to develop and express their ideas and initiate
questions, solve problems, explain and justify their solutions, they are
actively constructing their mathematical knowledge and thinking like
mathematicians, engaging in verbal conjecture, defending and modifying
152 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

their thoughts. Such discussions of mathematical ideas foster reasoning

and help students develop mathematical understanding (NCTM 2000).
Moreover, mathematics talk makes student mathematical thinking
visible, letting teachers gain insight into student thought and
misconceptions. In a productive classroom discourse, the feedback is on
an ongoing basis as the teacher helps the students clarify, extend and
improve their ideas. This provides opportunities for students to
contribute and learn about other ways of thinking.
Students also benefit from the social aspect of student talk in the
classroom. Participating in the classroom talk develops students’
confidence in talking in front of their classmates, voicing their thoughts
and engaging in productive and intellectual discussion. Classroom talk
also improves students’ listening skills and encourages students to value
their classmates’ contribution. The students learn how to listen and how
to respond to their peers (Wagganer, 2015). For children, classroom talk
helps them develop communication skills such as looking at the person
they are talking with, taking turns when communicating and knowing
how to compromise and solve verbal conflicts (Seefeldt, 2004).

3 Features of Effective Mathematics Talk

Communication in the mathematics classroom occurs when students

represent, argue, exchange, explain and defend their ideas. Mathematics
talk can occur as whole class discussion, small group discussion, partner
talk or student presentation. It is shaped by the tasks given, language
choices in the classroom and the classroom environment.
For productive classroom talk, the teacher must first establish a
warm and non-competitive learning environment where students listen
attentively to and respect one another. Students feel free and are not
afraid to voice their thoughts knowing that their ideas will be considered
and not be ridiculed. In addition, the talk is not dominated by a handful
of students (Clark, Jacobs, Pittman, & Borko, 2005; Michaels,
O’Connor, Hall, & Resnick, 2013).
According to the Cockcroft report (1982, para. 306), “language
plays an essential part in the formulation and expression of mathematical
 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics Classroom 153

ideas” and there is a need to “extend and refine the use of mathematical
language in the classroom.” The language of mathematics is complex. It
involves mathematical notations and rules as well as the vocabulary. The
use of correct language of mathematics helps students to construct
correct mathematical concepts and communicate them properly and
effectively. Often students are able to read word problems in English text
but are not able to transform them into mathematical equations or
sentences if they have not fully understood the language of mathematics
as shown in the case below (Figure 2). The child was able to identify key
words such as ‘fewer than’ and ‘less than’ and knew that the two unequal
sets were being compared. This knowledge did not necessarily lead to the
translation to the correct mathematical equation.

Figure 2. Sample of student’s work

In the follow-up discussion with the student, the teacher may ask if
Peter has fewer picture cards than Ali, then who has more cards, Peter or
Ali? Such questions devoid of numbers would lead students to focus on
the relationship rather than on which operation to use to compute the
answer.
154 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Communication in mathematics, whether written or verbal, centres

upon the proper, correct and effective use of the language of
mathematics. In the classroom, in order to participate in mathematics
talk, students must understand and use the language of mathematics, and
the teachers must explicitly teach the language, use it themselves and
require their students to do so. For example, when talking about the
product of two numbers, the students may say that the product of two
numbers is greater than the factors and may forget to add that it is true
only with whole numbers greater than one. As the teachers press for
clarification and explanation, they model the thought processes by
probing and questioning while using appropriate language. Gradually,
students can be expected to develop such habits of mind in pair or group
discussions. With frequent practice, students will become more confident
and precise in their mathematics talk.
Effective communication occurs only if both the students and the
teachers listen when someone is talking. For the students, they listen
patiently and consider the views of the others, wait for their turn to
contribute and build on their friends’ ideas. They must disagree
respectfully, and direct their challenges at the ideas and not the
individual students. For the teachers, they listen and orchestrate the
mathematics talk in the whole class discussion, listening to students’
group discussions, and gathering valuable information for making
instructional decisions.
Not all classroom talk is productive. Productive mathematics talk
must be accountable to the learning community, to accurate and
appropriate knowledge, as well as to rigorous thinking. Hence, what
students are talking about and how they talk in class do matter. For talk
to be accountable, it would not be spontaneous, but students have to be
attentive, accurate and precise in their observations or support their
claims by sound reasoning and evidence. The evidence has to be
examined critically, accurately and sufficiently (Michaels et al., 2013).
 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics Classroom 155

4 Getting Students to Talk in the Mathematics Classroom

It is not easy to get students to talk productively in the mathematics

classroom. To organize mathematics talk, teachers must first remember
that the main purpose of mathematics talk is to build knowledge and all
students must be given opportunity to participate fully in the construction
of knowledge through mathematics talk. Research studies have suggested
various strategies to promote classroom talk. They include:

 Establishing of recurring, predictable routines with specific talk

formats (Michaels et al., 2013).
 Setting up a supportive environment (Clark et al., 2005).
 Use of rich task (Clark et al., 2005).
 Use of talk moves to orchestra the discourse (Chapin, O’Connor,
& Anderson, 2003).
 Engaging the art of questioning.

Routines set up by teachers regarding how to participate in

mathematics talk in a specific talk format will facilitate classroom
discourse. For example, when the students are told to ‘partner talk for 5
seconds’, they can immediately turn to their partner and discuss the point
for the time given. They are aware what topics they are not supposed to
talk about and that they are expected to share their view with the class
after partner talk. Once students are aware of the routine, they can focus
their attention on what is being discussed. For example, ideas have to be
explained clearly and disagreements have to be resolved satisfactorily.
Or teachers may establish routines when conducting recurring whole
class discussions. For example, students are to raise their hands up before
they talk, take turns to talk and know how long they are supposed to talk.
They learn how to have empathy and direct their disagreement
appropriately. Teachers may provide a list of prompts to students who
are not familiar with whole class discussion protocol. Such a list provides
support to students to engage in thinking during mathematics talk.
A respectful and supportive environment is essential to productive
mathematics talk. An eager young student who had something to
contribute in the middle of discussion and is told by the teacher to keep
156 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

quiet and not to interrupt would be reluctant to participate further in class

discussion. A shy and sensitive student who finds it difficult to articulate
his or her idea in front of the class would need encouragement and
prompts. Students would be reluctant to participate in productive
mathematics talk if they are silenced or are afraid that they will be
laughed at or made to feel stupid. On the other hand, there are also
students who tend to dominate class/group discussion while others may
just keep quiet even if they have good ideas. A supportive environment
helps every student develop their social skills and socializing
intelligence. It is a learning environment where students respect and trust
each other, are willing to take risks and criticisms, knowing that the
comments given by the teacher and their classmates are directed at the
ideas and not at them. They believe that it is their right to be heard,
obligation to be attentive and participate in the mathematics talk.
Students would participate in productive mathematics talk if there
are clear objectives for the lesson and rich instructional tasks to
accomplish the objectives. Different tasks will work best with different
talk formats. A rich task with high cognitive demand would be able to
sustain an extended class or group discussion. Besides considering how
to select and launch the task, teachers also have to plan carefully,
anticipate what is likely to happen, what directions student talk may take,
how to orchestrate the discussion, what support to give and how to
achieve the lesson objectives.
The Magic V (NRICH, 2008) shown in Figure 3 is an example of a
rich task that allows students to practise addition of three single-digit
numbers, apply problem solving skills and develop their number sense
and mathematical thinking. It involves big ideas and students can make
conjectures and be engaged in complex thinking. Classroom talk
carefully orchestrated by teachers will lead students to apply their
number sense to find the solutions instead of adopting the trial and error
approach.
 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics Classroom 157

Figure 3. The Magic V (NRICH, 2008)

The teacher may begin with the whole class discussion by showing
the following four arrangements (Figure 4) and getting the class to
compare, identify the variant and the invariant features among the
arrangements.

5 4 5 4 1 5 1 2
3 2 2 3 2 4 3 4
1 1 3 5
Arrangement A B C D
Figure 4. Introduction to the Magic V task

Students may talk about similarities such as “the same set of 5 numbers 1
to 5 is used in each arrangement”, “there are 3 odd numbers and two
even numbers”, “the number at the vertex of V is always an odd
number.” They may mention differences such as “arrangements A and
D have the three odd numbers on one side while B and C has an even
number on each arm”, “in arrangements A, C and D, the sum of the
numbers at each arm is different but in B, the sums of the numbers at the
two arms are the same.”
The teacher can then revoice the last observation and direct students
to ‘partner talk’ and look for other arrangements that give the same total
for each arm of V. As the students work to find the arrangements,
158 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

question may arise whether the following arrangements (Figure 5) are the
same.

5 4 2 3 4 2 3 5
2 3 5 4 3 5 4 2
1 1 1 1

Figure 5. Some possible solutions to Magic V task

The teacher could then interrupt and get the whole class back for
discussion. Those students who agree and those who disagree that
these arrangements are the same should be encouraged to give reasons to
justify their views. It may be useful to provide students sentence starters
to guide the class discussion, making sure they use correct and precise
language to communicate their thinking. For example, terms like
‘commutative property for addition’ may be used to justify that all
arrangements in Figure 5 could be considered the same because 5 + 2 + 1
= 2 + 5 +1 and 4 + 3 + 1 = 3 + 4 +1.
After all the valid observations are shared and explained, the class
should reach a consensus on the issue and the talk format may then
return to partner talk as students turn to their partners to discuss the
possible solutions. The partner talk is then followed by class discussion
while hypotheses are made and evaluated. The possible solutions for the
task are shown in Figure 6.

3 5 2 5 3 4
4 2 4 1 2 1
1 3 5

Figure 6. The three solutions to the Magic V task

Students may think that since the smallest number is odd, all the
possible solutions would have an odd number at the vertex of V. The
teacher can then get students to think by asking:
 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics Classroom 159

What happens if we use the digits 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 instead? Are the

strategies used previously still applicable? What happens if the
smallest number is even, say we have 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6? What happens
if we use 7 consecutive numbers? Can we form a V shape using even
number of digits? What happens if we use 8 digits to form a different
configuration, like these (see Figure 7)? How are these two
configurations different? How would you best describe them? Why?
What is alike and what is different about the method of solution for
the Magic V and the solution for these two configurations? Is there a
pattern? Explain.

Questions like these encourage productive mathematics talk. Magic V is

a task with clear instructional goals and allows students to exit at
different points according to their interest and ability.

4
5
2 7 4 2
8 3 1 3
1 6 8 6
5 7

Figure 7. A ‘rhombus’ and ‘kite’ configuration

Whichever talk formats the students are engaged in, partner talk,
whole class discussion or presentation, teacher can use talk moves to
orchestra the discourse. Chapin et al. (2003) identify five moves teachers
can use in mathematics talk to help students learn. They are:

 revoicing,
 asking students to restate someone else’s reasoning,
 asking students to apply their own reasoning to someone else’s
reasoning,
 prompting students for further participation, and
 using wait time.
160 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Revoicing involves three basic components. First a student says

something, and then the teacher helps students to clarify their own
reasoning by repeating what the student has said before asking the
student to verify whether the revoicing is correct. Hence, the purpose of
the teacher’s talk move is to provide more ‘thinking space’ for other
students to follow the mathematical talk in the classroom. The dialogue
below illustrates an instance of revoice during the class discussion on the
Magic V task.

Student: “In arrangement B, 5 and 2 and 1 is 8 ... 4 and 3 and 1 is

also 8.”
The teacher may proceed to write 5 + 2 + 1 = 8 and 4 + 3 + 1 = 8
on the board and revoice: “Are you saying that the sum of the
numbers on the two sides are the same?”
Student: “Yeah....... when we add, we get the sum... both sums are
eight.”

Through revoicing, the teacher helps the student use appropriate

language to verbalize their thoughts, making them visible to other
students. So when students are contributing their ideas, the role of the
teacher is to be a good listener and figure out how to align the student’s
contribution to the instructional goal.
It is another student and not the teacher, who repeats or rephrases
what their classmate has said in the talk move “asking students to restate
someone else’s reasoning”. Consequently, the students in the class have
another rendition of the first student’s response that they may find easier
to follow. In this talk move, it is better to ask someone sitting on the
opposite side of the classroom to carry out the restating. This move also
ensures all students are attentive and can hear what has been said, giving
the first contributor the idea that his contribution is valued.
The third move “asking students to apply their own reasoning to
someone else’s reasoning” is also referred to as “reflective toss” (van
Zee & Minstrell, 1997) or “challenging student” (Michaels et al., 2013).
Here the teacher is not just asking what one student thinks about the
other student’s contribution, but is also pressing for reasoning, why a
claim is supported or disputed. In the Magic V task, a student may claim
 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics Classroom 161

that there are only three possible solutions (see Figure 6). The teacher
can then ask another student’s view about the claim and the reasoning
behind the claim.
Classroom participation can be further increased when the teacher
asks students for further commentary on the on-going discussion. Here
students build on the ideas of their classmates. Consequently, the
discussion grows in breadth as well as in depth. For example, in the
Magic V task, some students may wonder about the context of the
problem change? What happens if

 there are seven instead of five numbers?

 the smallest of the five consecutive numbers is even instead of
odd?
 there is an even number of consecutive numbers?
 there are eight numbers arranged in the ‘rhombus’ or ‘kite’
configuration, do we still have only three possible solutions?

In order for students to reason rigorously and formulate their

response, be it an answer or a question, time is needed. The 3 – 5 seconds
of ‘wait-time’ permits students to think something through, frame a
response and communicate their thoughts. Research has shown that
increasing ‘wait-time’ would lead to longer and more rigorous student
response and improve the quality of mathematics talk. There are two
main kinds of wait-time: Wait-time after the teacher poses a question
gives students opportunity to think and generate their response; wait-time
after a student has responded gives other students a chance to understand
their friend’s line of thinking. Many teachers feel uncomfortable when a
question is followed by silence. They tend to accept the first answer or
call on the first student who raises a hand. There is no time given for the
slower students to think about an answer to the question.
The teacher’s questions and management of students’ responses are
as important as the wait-time in promoting mathematics talk. The
Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM, 1991)
identify five types of questions that can be used to stimulate student talk.
They include questions that help students
162 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

 work together to make sense of mathematics;

 to rely more on themselves to determine whether something is
mathematically correct;
 to learn to reason mathematically;
 to learn to conjecture, invent and solve problems; and
 to connect mathematics, its ideas and its application.

The questions posed can be redirecting questions when student responses

are unsatisfactory or incomplete, or probing questions to elicit more
complete responses from the students and reinforce learning.

5 Conclusion

Mathematics talk is not limited to students answering the teacher’s

questions and taking turns to show and share their solutions. It is an
instructional discourse with the teacher at the helm but with as much
student-to-student talk as possible. There are multiple benefits for
productive mathematics talk in class. However, building a mathematics
talk community that engages all students is a gradual process, and both
the teacher and students must have a paradigm shift regarding teaching
and learning in the 21st century. The shift is from a teacher-questions
students-answer environment to a more vibrant student-student
interaction that leads to productive mathematics talk and mathematical
knowledge construction. Teachers have to relinquish their roles as the
sole questioner and the assessor of learning in class. They should share
the role of questioner with the students instead, and have students take
greater responsibility for their own learning. They should also explicitly
teach the students the acceptable social behaviors necessary for engaging
in productive mathematics talk.
 Productive Talk in the Primary Mathematics Classroom 163

References

Chapin, S.H., O’Connor, C., & Anderson, N.C. (2003). Classroom Discussions: Using
Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades 1-6. CA: Math Solutions Publications.
Clark, K.K., Jacobs, J., Pittman, M.E., & Borko, H. (2005). Strategies for building
mathematical communication in the middle school classroom: modeled in
professional development, implemented in the classroom. Current Issues in Middle
Level Education, 11(2), 1-12.
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 Chapter 10

Justification in Singapore Secondary

Mathematics

CHUA Boon Liang

Justification is a key process skill that students require in the

learning of mathematics. Researchers in the mathematics education
community have always shown an interest in how students reason
and express justifications. With growing interest in mathematical
reasoning and justification beyond mathematical proof, the
importance of justification tasks therefore grows. This chapter
begins with a discussion of justification and its importance,
followed by a description of the types of justification tasks that
mathematics students are commonly asked to do as well as the
demand of each type of task. The chapter continues by examining
the performance of 22 Grade 9 Singapore students and 50
mathematics teachers in two justification tasks. Students appear to
struggle with the tasks whilst teachers seem capable of doing such
tasks although many did not cite the right reason in one of the tasks.
When asked to score student justifications, the majority of teachers
were accurate in their assessment, indicating they were capable of
recognising an acceptable justification. Teaching strategies for
promoting mathematical justification in the classroom based on
these findings are then suggested.

1 Introduction

Given the emphasis on 21st century competencies (21cc), greater

demands are being placed on students to reason, explain and justify in
166 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

the learning of mathematics. Mathematical reasoning refers to the ability

to analyse mathematical situations and construct logical arguments
(Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2012). The articulation of the
mathematical ideas or arguments to explain a mathematical situation or
to convince others of its validity is part of what is called mathematical
justification. Clearly, both mathematical reasoning and justification are
essential and inseparable components of any mathematical activity.
Reasoning as a didactic device in the learning of mathematics cannot
avoid some degree of justification because getting students to justify is
one powerful means to gain an insightful perception of their thinking and
reasoning. When students are able to analyse, reason and communicate
ideas clearly as they perform the mathematical activity, they are
considered mathematically literate. Mathematical literacy is crucial for
the development of two 21cc as identified by the Ministry of Education,
Singapore (MOE): critical thinking and communication skills (Ministry
of Education, Singapore, 2010).
Mathematical reasoning and justification are, however, not new
process skills. For years, they have been included under the Processes
component in the Singapore Mathematics Framework. Amongst the
many key processes highlighted in this component are reasoning,
communication and connections (Ministry of Education, Singapore,
2012). Communication in mathematics refers to the ability to use the
language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas and arguments
precisely, concisely and logically. Mathematical justification, which is
described in greater detail in the next section, thus falls under
communication in the framework. So mathematical reasoning and
justification should have been encouraged in all mathematics lessons in
Singapore although the extent of them being practised is not clear and
may vary across different classes. Further, not only do secondary school
mathematics teachers seem to perceive justification tasks in GCE O level
and N level examinations as higher-order thinking questions meant for
the more able students, students also tend to dodge such questions in
tests and examinations. The teachers’ perceptions of justification tasks,
together with the students’ attitude towards such tasks, therefore make
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 167

mathematical justification even more worthwhile to investigate. This

chapter therefore sets out to examine (i) the way Singapore secondary
school students and mathematics teachers express justifications, and (ii)
mathematics teachers’ assessment of the students’ justifications. It is
structured along the following strands of work:

 a perspective of what justification is and why it is important for

the learning of mathematics,
 a view of justification tasks and what they demand from
students,
 an overview of the responses produced by a group of Singapore
secondary school students and mathematics teachers to two
justification tasks and of how mathematics teachers have
assessed the students’ justifications.

2 What is Justification?

The topic of justification is frequently linked to the topic of proof in the

literature. According to Simon and Blume (1996), mathematical
justification is the process of “establishing validity [and] developing an
argument that builds from the community’s taken-as-shared knowledge”
(p. 28). The notion of justification as a means of determining and
explaining the truth of a mathematical conjecture or assertion resonates
strongly with many other researchers. For instance, Balacheff (1988)
described justification as “the basis of the validation of the conjecture”
(Balacheff, 1988, p. 225) – a view supported by Huang (2005) and
Thomas (1997) as well. To Harel and Sowder (1998, 2007), validation as
one form of justification was not just about ascertaining the truth of the
conjecture or assertion, but also about persuading others whether or not
it is true. Whilst the process of ascertaining the truth involves removing
one’s own doubts, the process of persuading is one’s attempt to remove
others’ doubts (Ellis, 2007). What both processes of validation do share
in common is the role of conviction.
168 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The types of responses expected of students in the justification

process depend on at least two factors: the cognitive abilities of students
and the nature of the task. For secondary school students, particularly
those in the lower grades, a justification does not need to measure up to a
formal proof. This is because providing a theoretical argument for a
mathematical result is sometimes not required in the light of their
cognitive level until they reach higher level of study (Hoyles & Healy,
1999). Take, for instance, the justification task asking lower secondary
school students why 2 − 1 is an odd number for any positive integer .
An acceptable justification could simply state: with being any positive
integer, forming two groups of , which can be expressed as 2 in
notation, thus generates an even number, therefore subtracting one from
it will result in an odd number.
Not all justification tasks require a theoretical argument, however.
Some lend themselves well to experiential justification, which is mainly
supported by specific examples and illustrations. Consider asking
students to justify why the rule × = is true for any positive
integer a, m and n. The students rely on intuitive reasoning using several
numerical examples in the justification: for instance, 2 × 2 =
(2 × 2 × 2) × (2 × 2 × 2 × 2) = 2 = 2 , 3 × 3 = (3 × 3) ×
(3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3) = 3 = 3 , and 4 × 4 = (4 × 4 × 4 × 4 ×
4) × (4 × 4 × 4) = 4 = 4 , so the rule works for any positive
integer a, m and n. What students are usually expected to do when asked
to justify a mathematical result is to explain to others why it is true. Such
a justification does not involve any theorems and is therefore deemed a
less formal argument than a typical mathematical deductive proof
(Becker & Rivera, 2009). But it is this type of justification that is valued
because it “explains rather than simply convinces” (Lannin, 2005, p.
235). Unlike a proof-related justification which is normally expected to
be presented in the written form, the explanatory type can take the form
of an oral justification as well.
A justification does not always have to be an explanation of why a
mathematical result is true. As Becker and Rivera (2009) pointed out, a
justification can be an elaboration of how a mathematical result is
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 169

obtained. In the topic of pattern generalisation, for instance, students can

be asked to show clearly how they established a rule for the pattern.
What they have to do then is to illuminate the method used to construct
the rule.
To sum up, justification is the process of making a statement in
response to a few different types of requests: (1) conviction, which is
concerned with establishing the truth of a mathematical result, (2)
explanation, which is concerned with conveying insight into why a
mathematical result is true, and (3) elaboration, which is concerned with
illustrating the method used to obtain a mathematical result. The
justification can be verbalised or written down, and formal or informal.

3 Importance of Justification

What benefits does engaging in mathematical justification bring to

learning? First and foremost, Mathematics as a discipline calls for
students to be able to examine and evaluate the validity of facts,
articulate their reasons for employing a certain method to solve a
mathematical task, and substantiate any arguments put forth. So
justification, alongside mathematical reasoning, is a crucial process skill
that enables students to carry out all those activities. Through the
activities, students acquire and apply mathematical knowledge and skills.
The mathematical knowledge that students acquire enables them to
understand and make sense of the world because mathematical
understanding lays the foundation of economic, scientific and
technological progress. With mathematics all around us and
underpinning much of our daily lives, it is therefore of fundamental
importance to ensure that the students have good grounding in
mathematics and relevant skills to evaluate and justify mathematical
situations that they encounter in life in the future.
Justification helps to scaffold students’ thinking and reasoning when
teachers guide students to analyse, interpret and critique their own work,
as well as those of others in class. As the students express justification,
any misconceptions that they may have and their lines of thoughts
become visible. Probing students’ understanding and encouraging them
170 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

to justify their thinking also lead to a deepening of their understanding of

mathematical concepts and processes. As well, the students are engaged
in active construction of mathematical knowledge when they internalise
and consolidate their thinking and understanding of concepts.
Justification is also a useful tool for helping students to develop and
hone their critical thinking skills, which are highlighted as a key
competency in the 21cc framework developed recently by MOE
(Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2010). Critical thinking skills entail
considering mathematical situations from various perspectives,
evaluating and analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the different
perspectives, and justifying the validity of the mathematical situations.
Engaging students actively in justification pushes them to be discerning
in judgment, helps to sharpen their critical thinking skills, and promotes
effective and precise communication of ideas. All of these are critical
attributes of a confident person in the 21st century that MOE aims to
develop in students (Ministry of Education. Singapore, 2010).
Presenting mathematical justifications orally or in writing involves
processes that are fundamental to learning. As students attempt to
explain mathematical concepts and justify procedures, they need to
clarify, organise and consolidate their thinking and understanding of
concepts and procedures. For effective communication to take place, not
only do the students have to organise their ideas in a systematic and
logical way, equally important, they also have to articulate them in a
precise manner as well. As pointed out previously, communication skills
are identified as one of the crucial 21cc because effective and precise
communication allows the receiver to fully understand what the speaker
or writer has conveyed. This then reduces any ambiguity and
misunderstanding, thereby enabling people to work effectively in the
global landscape of the 21st century. Thus student participation in
justification allows them to cultivate and develop those crucial processes
and should therefore be encouraged in mathematics teaching.
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 171

4 Justification Tasks

Two roles of justification are gleaned from the literature review:

elaboration and validation. Thus justification tasks can be described as
questions asking students to elaborate, explain, and validate a
mathematical result. These tasks are integral to mathematics teaching and
are prevalent in the GCE O level and N level examinations. Figure 1
below presents an example of a justification task on the topic of number
patterns that illustrates those two roles of justification.

The first five terms of a sequence are given below. Each term in this
sequence is found by adding the same number to the previous term.
5, 12, 19, 26, 33, …
(a) Peter produced the expression 33 + 7( − 5) for the nth term of the
sequence. Explain how he might have obtained this expression.
(b) Explain why 139 is not a term of this sequence.

Figure 1. A justification task on number patterns

The justification task in Figure 1 comprises two part questions. Part

(a) provides an algebraic expression 33 + 7( − 5) and requires students
to elaborate how it is derived. In part (b), the term 139 is given and made
known to the students that it does not belong to the sequence. The
students are then required to provide supporting evidence to show why
that is so.
The nature of justification tasks is however not necessarily limited to
asking students to validate and elaborate a mathematical result. Two
other types of questions will be illustrated using the number pattern task
in Figure 1. The first type involves making a prediction with inference
from facts: for instance, explain whether 110 is a term of the sequence.
Although this task and part (b) in Figure 1 look alike, there is a subtle
distinction between them in terms of the task nature. In the present task,
it is not clear whether 110 follows the same number pattern, unlike the
situation in part (b). So students will have to decide and then draw a
conclusion with supporting evidence to say if 110 belongs to the same
number sequence formed by 5, 12, 19, 26 and 33. The other type asks for
172 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

an interpretation of a mathematical result: for instance, explain what the

coefficient of in 7 − 2 represents in the sequence. Such a task expects
students to give the significance of the object in question: that is, the
coefficient of in the example.
To sum up, justification tasks can be classified into four categories:
elaboration, interpretation, prediction and validation. With different
nature of the task in each category, the demand of each type of task is
therefore not the same. Table 1 provides an overview of the four types of
justification tasks and what each type requires students to do.

Table 1
Nature and demand of justification tasks

Nature of justification Examples What students are expected to

tasks do
Elaboration Explain how… Describe / show clearly the
method or strategy used to obtain
the mathematical result

Interpretation Explain what… Give the meaning of the

mathematical result

Prediction Explain whether… Make decision about the

Explain which… mathematical claim and provide
evidence to support or refute the
claim

Validation Explain why… Give reason or evidence to

support the mathematical claim

Examples are now provided to illustrate each of the four types of

justification tasks. Part (a) in Figure 1 above is an Elaboration task on
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 173

number patterns. A Stone’s Throw in Figure 2a is an algebra task

belonging to the Interpretation type of justification task.

A stone was thrown from the top of a vertical tower. Its position during
the flight is represented by the equation
= 50 + 21 − ,
where metres is the height of the stone above the ground and metres is
its horizontal distance from the foot of the tower.
Explain what the positive solution of the equation 0 = 50 + 21 −
represents.

Figure 2a. A Stone’s Throw task

Mr. Right Triangle in Figure 2b is a geometry task of the Validation type

whilst Cybertime task in Figure 2c belongs to the Prediction type.

In triangle ABC, AB = 15 cm, BC = 8 cm and AC = 17 cm.

B
15
8
A
17 C
Explain why angle ABC is a right angle.

Figure 2b. Mr. Right Triangle task

The time (in hours) that 18 children spent on the internet in a certain week
are shown below.

21 24 26 68 22 19
23 25 21 23 25 21
51 22 23 25 26 21

Explain which of the three averages is the most suitable for these data.

Figure 2c. Cybertime task

174 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The remaining section reports on (i) secondary school students and

mathematics teachers’ justifications to two justification tasks which
formed part of a written test developed for the current project, and (ii) the
teachers’ assessment of the students’ justifications. The research
questions that are addressed in this chapter are provided below:

(1) How do secondary school students in Singapore perform in

justification tasks?
(2) How do mathematics teachers in Singapore perform in
justification tasks?
(3) How do mathematics teachers in Singapore assess students’
justifications?

5 A Research Study on Mathematical Justification

The research study involved the collection of empirical data from

secondary school students and mathematics teachers through a written
test. This section details the profiles of the participating students and
mathematics teachers, the test instrument and the research method.

5.1 Subjects

The subjects in this study were 22 ninth graders (Secondary Three

students) from the same class in the Express course in one secondary
school, and 54 mathematics teachers and curriculum specialists from 32
different secondary schools and MOE. Both the student and teacher
samples were obtained from convenience sampling. There were 14 girls
and eight boys in the student sample. These students were 15 years old
and did not take Additional Mathematics, a more challenging O-level
subject, as they were considered to be academically less able in the
school’s Year 9 cohort. Regarding the teachers, they attended an in-
service workshop on mathematical justification conducted by the
researcher in June 2015. Thirty percent of them taught mathematics for
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 175

less than 5 years, another 40% for at least five to less than 15 years, and
the remaining 30% for 15 years or more.

5.2 Test instrument

A paper-and-pencil test was designed to assess students and mathematics

teachers’ ability to justify. The student version of the test consists of five
justification tasks covering the following strands in the Singapore
mathematics curriculum: Number, Algebra, Geometry and Statistics. Of
the five tasks, two were algebra tasks and there was one for each of the
remaining three strands. These tasks were adapted from past year
questions in the GCE O level and N level examinations. Each task carries
one mark, following the same amount normally allocated in the GCE
examinations. The teacher version had the same justification tasks,
except that one of the two algebra tasks was dropped and that the test
now contained a second section that was designed to investigate how the
teachers assess students’ justifications. This chapter discusses the
students and teachers’ responses to only two of the tasks, A Stone’s
Throw (see Figure 2a) and Mr. Right Triangle (see Figure 2b).
The first section of the test in the teacher version served not only to
examine the teachers’ justifications to the four tasks but also to
familiarise them with these tasks to better prepare them to understand the
tasks that they had to do later in the second section. The second section
comprised the four justification tasks that the teachers had earlier
attempted, each accompanied by two authentic student solutions selected
from the ninth graders’ responses. With each task worth only a mark, the
teachers had to score each student solution, awarding either one mark for
a correct response or zero for an incorrect response. Figures 3a and 3b
below show the two student solutions for A Stone’s Throw and for Mr.
Right Triangle respectively.
176 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Student solution 1:

Student solution 2:

Figure 3a. Student solutions for A Stone’s Throw

5.3 Procedures

This study used a survey design to gather quantitative data through a

written test administered to 22 ninth graders in April 2015 and to 54
mathematics teachers in June 2015 during a two-hour in-service
workshop. The students were given 45 minutes to complete all five
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 177

justification tasks in the test whereas the teachers had to complete all
four justification tasks and the marking of eight student solutions in 30
minutes. Prior to participating in this study, the students had learnt all the
concepts tested in the test.

Student solution 3:

Student solution 4:

Figure 3b. Student solutions for Mr. Right Triangle

178 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

All the students’ test scripts were collected and immediately, in the order
they were collected, coded F1 to F14 and M1 to M8, where F denotes
female student and M denotes male student. Subsequently, all the
students’ responses were analysed carefully and then scored
dichotomously, with every correct answer given one point and zero for
every wrong answer. Similarly, the teachers’ test scripts were coded T1
to T54 after all were collected. However, four scripts were rejected due
to incomplete scoring of the students’ justifications in the second section
of the test, leaving 50 scripts for data analysis. The teachers’ responses to
the justification tasks were then analysed and scored using the same
dichotomous system as the students’. Both the students and teachers’
justifications were scored again two days later by the researcher and all
test items achieved 100% consistency. As for the teachers’ assessment of
students’ justifications, a frequency count was done for each given
student solution to determine the number of teachers who awarded it one
point and zero.

5.4 Results and discussion

This section addresses the three research questions by reporting what has
been found from the analyses of data.

(1) How do secondary school students in Singapore perform in

justification tasks?

A correct response to the justification tasks requires a certain level of

clarity and precision in the way a mathematical result is interpreted or
the reasoning is presented. For A Stone’s Throw task, by asking what the
positive solution of 0 = 50 + 21 − represents, the intent of the task
is to probe students’ understanding of not only what the value
representing the positive solution measures, but also the special
significance of the value 0 in the equation. Consequently, a correct
justification must contain two key components: (1) that the value
measures the horizontal distance from the tower, and (2) that the value is
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 179

measured at the instance when the stone hit the ground. For Mr. Right
Triangle task, a correct justification must check that the condition 8 +
15 = 17 is satisfied followed by citing the converse of Pythagoras
theorem as a warrant for drawing the conclusion that angle ABC is a
right angle.
Table 2 shows the frequency of correct answer by students and
teachers for each of the two justification tasks, and the frequency of each
score obtained by the students and teachers for the two tasks combined.
Clearly, two students answered A Stone’s Throw correctly and none for
Mr. Right Triangle.

Table 2
Performance of students and teachers in two justification tasks

A Stone’s Mr. Right Total score for both tasks

Throw Triangle
Correct (%) Correct (%) 0 1 2
Students 2 (9%) 0 (0%) 20 (91%) 2 (9%) -
(n = 22)
Teachers 42 (84%) 14 (28%) 6 (12%) 34 (68%) 10 (20%)
(n = 50)

In A Stone’s Throw, the response “the horizontal distance of the

stone from the foot of the tower” occurred twice and was initially
considered as incorrect because it was a mere repetition of the definition1
of x described in the question. After much deliberation, this response was
accepted because the phrase “from the foot of the tower” pointed towards
the fact that the stone had hit the ground. Incorrect student responses
include the following: the stone is lying on the ground (e.g., see Student
solution 1 in Figure 3a), the horizontal height of the stone above ground,
the position of the stone after landing (e.g., see Student solution 2 in
Figure 3a), the area that the stone will land, and the gradient of the
equation. Student solution 1 was considered wrong despite being

1The definition of x was taken from the original O-level question. On reflection, it would
have been better to define x as “the horizontal distance from the tower”.
180 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

accompanied by a somewhat reasonably labelled diagram because the

written part did not correspond with the diagram and capture clearly
what the positive value measures. By describing the stone as lying on the
ground, the response showed the circumstance the stone is in instead of
interpreting the measurement represented by the value. Likewise in
Student solution 2, it is linguistically incorrect to refer to the positive
value as “the position of the stone”. By “position”, the response focused
on a static point rather than the distance between two points which is
what the value represents. The appearance of these erroneous responses
indicates that many students did not appreciate the significance of the
positive solution of the given equation. Only a small number of students
had the right idea but failed to express it precisely.
In Mr. Right Triangle, five students nearly produced a correct
response. They checked that 8 + 15 and 17 are equal but provided
either no warrant or the wrong warrant – Pythagoras’ theorem instead of
its converse (e.g., see Student solutions 3 and 4 in Figure 3b). Their
responses thus did not score.
Another five students assumed Pythagoras’ theorem to be true at the
very outset and immediately established 8 + 15 = 17 without
verifying its validity (e.g., see Solution by M4 in Figure 4). Such
responses also did not gain the mark. Further, a few students even drew
the conclusion simply by visual inspection of the angle ABC in the given
figure (e.g., see Solution by F6 in Figure 4). The occurrence of these
unacceptable responses indicates that many students did not understand
what they were required to produce in their justifications when deducing
their conclusions.

(2) How do mathematics teachers in Singapore perform in

justification tasks?

Table 2 indicates that a significant majority of mathematics teachers

were successful in answering A Stone’s Throw with a success rate of
84%, but in Mr. Right Triangle, the percentage dipped to 28%. Over
four-fifths of the teachers (88%) answered at least one task correctly.
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 181

Solution by M4

Solution by F6

Figure 4. Incorrect student solutions for Mr. Right Triangle

A Stone’s Throw was straightforward for the mathematics teachers

given its familiar context, with only eight teachers (16%) failing to gain
the mark here. The erroneous responses produced by the eight
unsuccessful teachers include: when the stone is next at ground level, the
maximum height of the throw, the stone reached the ground, and time
taken for the stone to touch the ground. The evidence suggests that the
majority of mathematics teachers recognised what the positive solution
of the equation 0 = 50 + 21 − represented and were able to express
it clearly and precisely.
Mr. Right Triangle proved more challenging and only a small
proportion of mathematics teachers were successful in giving a clear and
complete justification. This finding was not surprising because personal
interactions with other in-service teachers not involved in this study have
revealed their inexperience with the justification approach in questions of
this type. However, on closer examination of the unsuccessful teachers’
responses, it was discovered that of the 36 incorrect responses, 24 of
them showed the wrong warrant (e.g., see Solution by T50 in Figure 5).
182 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Solution by T50

Solution by T47

Solution by T39

Figure 5. Incorrect teacher solutions for Mr Right Triangle

 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 183

Four were regarded insufficient without any warrant being cited as

supporting evidence (e.g., see Solution by T47 in Figure 5), and another
three were incomplete without drawing any conclusion (e.g., see Solution
by T39 in Figure 5). These results indicate that a significant number of
teachers did understand what was required to deduce their conclusions:
that is, to check that the condition 8 + 15 = 17 holds before
substantiating the claim with the converse of Pythagoras’ theorem. But
the compelling evidence of nearly half of the teachers citing the wrong
warrant in their responses pointed to a possible misconception amongst
them: that the Pythagoras’ theorem and its converse might have been
regarded as essentially the same – an observation similarly noted by
Wong (2015).

(3) How do mathematics teachers in Singapore assess students’

justifications?

The participating mathematics teachers were asked to individually

score authentic student solutions using a dichotomous scoring scale with
1 point for a correct response and zero for an incorrect response. The
distribution of their scores for each of the four student solutions related
to the two justification tasks discussed in this chapter is presented in
Table 3.

Table 3
Distribution of teachers’ scores for each student solution

A Stone’s Throw Mr. Right Triangle

SS 1 SS 2 SS 3 SS 4
Score 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
Number of teachers 40 10 38 12 31 19 21 29
SS: Student solution

In A Stone’s Throw, the distributions of teachers’ scores were consistent

for both Student solutions 1 and 2, with 80% of the teachers judging the
solutions as incorrect. This result corresponds well with the finding
184 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

above that many mathematics teachers understood what the positive

solution of 0 = 50 + 21 − referred to. This is why a large number
of teachers were able to spot the mistake in each student solution.
On the other hand, there was variation in the distribution of teachers’
scores between Student solutions 3 and 4 in Mr. Right Triangle. Sixty
percent of the teachers gave zero to Student solution 3 but the
corresponding percentage of teachers for Student solution 4 dropped to
40%. The analysis indicates that a considerable number of teachers were
capable of recognising that Student solution 3, despite the correct
validation of the condition, was clearly flawed because the wrong
warrant was cited. When the warrant was not provided in a similar
solution such as Student solution 4, the solution received one mark from
more teachers. This finding demonstrates on one hand that the teachers
are more lenient and likely to accept the response as correct when it is
not, but on the other hand, it uncovers the possibility that the teachers are
not familiar with the rigour of justification of this nature.

6 Strategies for Promoting Justification

Several practical teaching strategies for teachers who want to promote

mathematical justification in the classroom emerge from the present
study.

Strategy 1.
Introduce the different types of justification tasks available to students.
Make clear to them what each type is asking for and what they are
expected to produce for their justifications.

Strategy 2.
Guide students to carry out a task analysis to identify what needs to be
done for the justification task. To illustrate an example, consider Mr.
Right Triangle. Teachers can ask the following questions:

 Circle the key word that tells you what you need to do.
 What does this word instruct you to do?
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 185

 Underline the mathematical claim that you need to substantiate.

 Establish the givens: What information about triangle ABC are
you given?
 Establish the goal: What do you need to show?
 What mathematical concept/theorem relates the givens and the
goal?
 Which one do we apply: Pythagoras’ theorem or the converse of
Pythagoras’ theorem?
 (after the justification is completed) Can you substantiate the
claim in a different way?

Strategy 3.
Show students good examples of what a clear and precise justification to
a task will look like and explain how it addresses the specific demands of
the task. A clear and precise justification includes all steps and relevant
information organised in a logical manner. Use diagrams to present ideas
clearly where possible, and accompany them with a brief written
description. Non-examples can sometimes be used for illustration.
Consider, for instance, the response “distance from the foot of the tower”
for A Stone’s Throw. Point out that this response lacks precision because
it does not suggest the stone has hit the ground. Moreover, it lacks clarity
because it does not specify the direction in which the distance is
measured and the object whose distance is being measured.

Strategy 4.
Encourage students to make their verbal or written justifications simple
and clear using correct mathematical language and symbols. To foster
precise communication, advise them to keep their sentences short.

Strategy 5.
Select different students’ responses for classroom discussion to highlight
what is acceptable and what needs to be revised. The use of authentic
student responses convinces students that the errors are not fabricated.
186 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

7 Conclusion

The justification process appears to be fraught with difficulties, with

many students and even some mathematics teachers failing to navigate
this process successfully. Getting students to construct good justification
takes time especially when they have not much experience doing it in
class. It is therefore important that teachers remain patient and continue
to probe their students for justifications. Given time and sufficient
practice, students will become more confident in articulating their
thinking and reasoning, and be able to produce good justifications.

References

Balacheff, N. (1988). Aspects of proof in pupils' practice of school mathematics. In D.

Pimm (Ed.), Mathematics, Teachers and Children (pp. 216 - 230). London: Hodder
and Stoughton.
Becker, J. R., & Rivera, F. D. (2009). Justification schemes of middle school students in
the context of generalisation of linear patterns. In M. Tzekaki, M. Kaldrimidou, & H.
Sakonidis (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Conference of the International Group for
the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 5, pp. 9-16). Thessaloniki, Greece:
PME.
Ellis, A. B. (2007). Connections between generalising and justifying: Students' reasoning
with linear relationships. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 38(3), 194
- 229.
Harel, G., & Sowder, L. (1998). Students' proof schemes. In E. Dubinsky, A. Schoenfeld,
& J. Kaput (Eds.), Research on collegiate mathematics education (Vol. III, pp. 234 -
283). Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society.
Harel, G., & Sowder, L. (2007). Towards comprehensive perspectives on the learning and
teaching of proof. In F. K. Lester, Jr. (Ed.), Second handbook of research on
mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 805 - 842). Charlotte, NC: Information Age
Publishing.
Hoyles, C., & Healy, L. (1999). Students' views of proof. Mathematics in School, May,
19 - 21.
 Justification in Singapore Secondary Mathematics 187

Huang, R. (2005). Verification or proof: Justification of Pythagoras' theorem in Chinese

mathematics classrooms. In H. L. Chick, & J. L. Vincent (Eds.), Proceedings of the
29th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics
Education (Vol. 3, pp. 161-168). Melbourne, Australia.
Lannin, J. K. (2005). Generalising and justification: The challenge of introducing
algebraic reasoning through patterning activities. Mathematics Thinking and
Learning, 7(3), 231 - 258.
Ministry of Education, Singapore (2010). MOE to enhance learning of 21st century
competencies and strengthen art, music and physical education. Retrieved 2
November, 2015 from www.moe.gov.sg
Ministry of Education, (Singapore. (2012). O-Level Mathematics Teaching and Learning
Syllabus. Singapore: Curriculum Planning and Development Division.
Simon, M. A., & Blume, G. W. (1996). Justification in the mathematics classroom: A
study of prospective elementary teachers. Journal of Mathematical Behaviour, 15, 3 -
31.
Thomas, S. N. (1997). Practical reasoning in natural language. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Wong, K. Y. (2015). Effective mathematics lessons through an eclectic Singapore
approach. Singapore: World Scientific.
May 2, 2013 14:6 BC: 8831 - Probability and Statistical Theory PST˙ws

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 Chapter 11

Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics:

Teachers’ Perceptions

Lay Keow NG Jaguthsing DINDYAL

As part of a study examining how teachers in Singapore select and

use mathematical examples, 121 teachers from 24 secondary
schools responded to three open-ended questions about the use of
examples in the teaching of Mathematics. This paper reports
findings from a questionnaire that was used in the selection of
teacher participants for the main research. All the teachers involved
have at least five consecutive years of mathematics teaching
experience, with a mean of 12 years, and have had some experience
teaching at the upper secondary level. The results showed that
students’ abilities and the difficulty level of the examples were
among the topmost considerations teachers have when introducing
mathematical ideas or when selecting homework tasks. There were
also noticeable variations in teachers’ example choice for different
instructional purposes. In addition, this paper also reports on
teachers’ perceptions of a “good” example and revealed a
connection between teachers’ knowledge and their examples.

1 Introduction

In line with nurturing 21st century competencies, the Ministry of

Education (MOE) has proposed the idea of “Enabling Teachers” so that
amongst others, teachers will have more opportunities to develop
themselves professionally (see http://moe.gov.sg). For mathematics
teachers, one way to achieve this goal is to identify what the teachers
190 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

value when they make important decisions in selecting examples for

instructional purposes, following which, appropriate professional
development (PD) courses can be organized for them. The use of
examples by teachers in the teaching of mathematics is a well-established
practice. Examples are omnipresent not only in the modern-day
classrooms but are also discernible in historical records like the Egyptian
papyri or the Babylonian tablets. Despite the routine and widespread use
of examples for instruction, the selecting and crafting of examples
involves the contemplation of many complex and often conflicting
factors, which sometimes have to be decided by the teachers on the spot.
Thereafter, the enactment of the chosen examples requires careful
orchestration and tailoring in order to accurately shape students’
understanding and to reduce ambiguity to the least.
While researchers have attended to the roles of sub-categories of
examples, research into how teachers integrate examples into their
teaching remains scarce (Zodik & Zaslavsky, 2008). Related studies have
only begun about ten years back at different parts of the world and till
date, it remains unexplored in Singapore. Research has also shown that
the use of examples or exemplification in short, is neither arbitrary nor
straightforward, where both prospective teachers (Huntley, 2013) and
experienced teachers (Zodik & Zaslavsky, 2008) face problems, hence
summoning the need for research in this area.
Literature has also revealed a strong connection between teachers’
knowledge and their provision of examples in teaching. Rowland,
Huckstep and Thwaites (2005) found that teachers’ ability in selecting
suitable mathematical examples was strongly related to their
mathematics content knowledge for teaching. Also, Chick (2010)
stressed that the capacity of teachers in crafting effective examples relies
heavily on their pedagogical content knowledge too. Likewise,
experienced mathematics teachers were often able to pre-empt pitfalls
and hence preferred examples that can lead students away from forming
misconceptions (Bills & Bills, 2005).
While acknowledging the fact that the teachers’ knowledge
influences their use of examples, this paper focuses on the following
three questions.
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 191

(1) How do secondary mathematics teachers choose examples for

introducing new mathematical ideas?
(2) How do secondary mathematics teachers select homework
task(s)?
(3) What are the characteristics of a “good” mathematical example
in secondary teachers’ perceptions?

2 Mathematical Examples

The use of examples by teachers in the teaching of mathematics are so

entrenched in Mathematics education, that Bills and Watson (2008, p.
77) claimed that “any theory of learning which does not deal with how
learners and teachers act with, and on, examples is likely to be
incomplete as far as mathematics is concerned”. The significance of
examples is also summarized in what Watson and Mason (2002, p. 39)
wrote, “learning mathematics can be seen as a process of generalizing
from specific examples”. Examples are therefore paramount in
mathematical teaching and learning.
The definition of examples used by researchers although not
completely identical, generally refers to an example as an illustration of a
larger class. This broad definition can include geometrical figures,
demonstrations of solving problems, tasks, worked examples, as long as
the mathematical object is offered or perceived as an example of
something. In this study, a task can be an exercise, problem or
assessment, assigned to students for completion during or beyond
curriculum time. The same task may differ in operation and learning
outcomes, depending on the intentions of the author, the aims and
knowledge of the teacher, the goals, knowledge, and experiences of the
students, and on the learning environment. As stressed by Cai (1997, p.
9), “the use of a variety of mathematical tasks can capture a range of
students’ mathematical performance”. The role of teachers therefore lies
in planning and setting appropriate tasks.
Example selection is however not merely choosing or implementing
good examples, it entails leveraging on coherent example sets that are
purposefully sequenced and varied in order to gradually build students’
192 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

understanding to attain instructional goals. The variation theory (see

Marton & Booth, 1997) posits that learning means to experience an
object of learning in a novel or different way. In order to experience, one
needs to be able to discern the critical aspects of the object of learning,
which can be brought to the learner’s awareness through planned
variation. Adapting the notion of variation into exemplification, Watson
and Mason (2006) claimed that “the starting point of making sense of
any data is the discernment of variations within it” (p. 92). They
proposed to systematically change certain aspects of a task while keeping
others invariant, to help learners better perceive the mathematical
structure. They warned that if too many attributes are changing at the
same time, it will be impossible for the learner to abstract the essential
features, reducing a series of meaningful examples into mere
disconnected and unstructured isolated examples.
In addition, Skemp (1971) advised educators to reduce the ‘noise’ in
examples or the peripheral attributes of the concept during concept
formation so as to draw learners’ attention to the key characteristics of
the concept. When strengthening the conceptual understanding, Skemp
(1971) proposed educators to increase the noise in examples so as to
heighten learners’ ability in pinpointing the key properties which are now
made more obscure. Non-examples have also been proposed by
researchers in the teaching of mathematical concepts to prevent over-
generalization of the concepts (Petty & Jansson, 1987).
Empirical findings from work with teachers have also revealed
principles that guide teachers in making their example choices. One
common approach was the use of simple first examples (Bills & Bills,
2005; Zodik & Zaslavsky, 2008) in the development of a mathematical
argument or in the understanding of a procedure, which includes keeping
the numbers small and ordering examples in increasing complexity.
Nevertheless, the advice of “keeping things simple” must not be taken at
face value as the subsequent message to provide systematic variation and
more complicated examples so that learners would not under-generalize
is equally important. On the contrary, randomness is sometimes deemed
by some teachers as a valid option in “conveying the idea of generality”
(Zodik & Zaslavsky, 2008, p. 175), for example, through the use of
randomly selected coefficients. However, studies have also forewarned
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 193

that randomly generated examples may be ineffective and might even be

misleading.
To scaffold students’ learning, teachers have also proposed using
examples that build on students’ prior knowledge and are ordered in
increasing complexity (Bills & Bills, 2005) and keeping unnecessary
work to a minimum (Zodik & Zaslavsky, 2008). Sometimes, teachers
tend to craft and use examples that allow them to attend to common
errors and misconceptions to alert their students (Zodik & Zaslavsky,
2008) or to include uncommon cases to increase students’ exposure.

3 Teacher Knowledge

Before focusing our attention on the relationship between teachers’

knowledge and their exemplification behavior, it is worthwhile to
examine teachers’ knowledge. This study uses the definition by Ball,
Thames and Phelps (2008, p. 399), whereby teacher knowledge is
described as the mathematical knowledge “entailed by teaching”. In
other words, teacher knowledge is required to perform the task of
teaching mathematics to students. In particular, content knowledge and
pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) have been surfaced to directly
influence teachers’ exemplification abilities.
Content knowledge relates to the amount and organization of subject
matter knowledge in one’s mind. It comprises of substantive knowledge
or knowledge of facts, concepts, principles, definitions, theorems, rules
and structures (Shulman, 1986). Beyond that, content knowledge also
consists of syntactic knowledge which involves understanding the rules
of proof and the methods of enquiry into the domain. Therefore, “the
teacher need not only understand that something is so; the teacher must
further understand why it is so” (p. 9). Although it is not within the scope
of this paper to investigate the impact of teachers’ content knowledge on
their example use, it is important to keep in mind the connection between
the two.
Shulman (1986, p. 8) described PCK as the “blending of content and
pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics, problems, or
issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and
194 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

abilities of learners, and presented for instruction”. It is the knowledge

that allows one to frame and communicate mathematics in a manner to
make learning easier for the learner. Since the publication of Shulman’s
seminal paper, PCK has generated much interest in the research
community and researchers have subsequently refined, developed and
tested fine-grained conceptualizations of PCK. Leikin and Zazkis (2010,
p. 454) extended Shulman’s PCK to include the “awareness of the
cognitive, social and affective characteristics of a mathematics
classroom”. In the Teacher Education and Development Study in
Mathematics (TEDS-M), the term mathematics pedagogical content
knowledge (MPCK) which relates to the PCK for mathematics teaching
(Tatto et al., 2012) was used. Three sub-domains were identified:
curricular knowledge, planning for teaching and learning, and enacting
teaching and learning.
Building on Shulman’s work, Ball et al. (2008) developed a
framework that divides teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching
into subject matter knowledge and PCK, and this is used to frame the
current study. Under the label of subject matter knowledge, Ball and her
colleagues identified common content knowledge (CCK), specialized
content knowledge (SCK) and horizon content knowledge (HCK). CCK
relates to mathematical knowledge and skills used in a wide variety of
settings, not unique to teaching, whereas SCK refers to those unique to
teaching. HCK is defined as “an awareness of the large mathematical
landscape in which the present experience and instruction is situated”
(Ball & Bass, 2009).
Ball et al. (2008) sub-divided PCK into knowledge of content and
students (KCS), knowledge of content and teaching (KCT), and
knowledge of content and curriculum (KCC). KCS includes an
awareness of topics that students will find easy or difficult and their
common conceptions and misconceptions. KCT comprises of knowledge
on the sequencing of examples and the use of appropriate
representations. Finally, KCC encompasses knowledge of educational
goals, assessments, and the sequencing of topics across grade levels.
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 195

4 Teacher Knowledge and Mathematical Examples

A closer scan of the literature on mathematical examples highlights the

close connection between teachers’ examples and their knowledge. In
particular, content knowledge and PCK were pinpointed to directly
influence teachers’ exemplification abilities.
Rowland et al. (2005) observed how content knowledge and PCK
guided the instructional decisions and actions of prospective elementary
teachers in their UK classrooms during school placement. Through the
video analysis of the teacher trainees’ lessons, Rowland and his fellow
researchers developed the Knowledge Quartet framework as a tool for
thinking how subject knowledge plays out in the classroom. Of the four
units of the Knowledge Quartet framework, transformation or
knowledge-in-action was tightly linked to teachers’ example choice,
which was significantly prevalent in the trainees’ lessons. Variables,
sequencing, representations, and learning objectives were also identified
to be related to teachers’ awareness in exemplification (Rowland, 2008).
Noticing the lack of research between teachers’ PCK and their
exemplification practices, Chick and her colleagues studied the
instructional practices of Australian elementary teachers and were
successful in locating moments where aspects of PCK were enacted
through the teachers’ examples. Chick (2007) noted that most of the
examples that the teachers used were planned and selected based on the
examples’ structures and qualities. The selection process was much
guided by the teachers’ PCK, especially on what affordances they
perceived the examples could offer. Even when teachers have to come up
with an example on the spot, their ability to do so is greatly influenced
by their PCK (Chick & Pierce, 2008). A distinction was made too,
between selecting examples and using them as “even well-chosen
examples are not necessarily easy to implement effectively in the
classroom” (Chick & Pierce, 2008, p. 321).
Similarly, Zodik and Zaslavsky (2008) who carried out an in-depth
study that specifically addressed mathematics teachers’ use of examples
surfaced many novel findings, establishing exemplification as a rich
research domain where much remains unexplored. For instance, they
reported that the ratio of spontaneous examples to planned examples
196 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

were almost equal, hence emphasizing the importance of teachers’

knowledge in crafting instructional examples during lesson delivery. In
both cases, whether the examples were planned or otherwise, the amount
of deliberation that went into creating or selecting and implementing
each example underscored the complexity in exemplification. From their
interviews with and lesson observations of five experienced secondary
teachers, they concluded that content knowledge, PCK, and knowledge
of students’ learning, a sub-category of PCK, were fundamental in
shaping teachers’ examples.
In the area of mathematical tasks, Sullivan, Clarke, Clarke and
O’Shea (2009) examined how the enactment of the same task varied in
the classrooms of three teachers and the findings asserted the notion that
execution of tasks is shaped by the instructional goals and knowledge of
the teachers. Thus, the ability to convert tasks into effective lessons relies
on teachers’ PCK and literature has again revealed teachers’ knowledge
as the crux of their exemplification abilities.

5 Metholodogy

This study examined the exemplification practices of secondary

mathematics teachers in Singapore. As the research aim is to examine the
interconnectedness between teachers’ knowledge and their examples, it
makes more sense to survey experienced teachers for two reasons. First,
teachers who have taught mathematics for a substantial number of years
would have rehearsed and refined their exemplification skills countless
times in their classrooms. They would therefore have a wider repertoire
of inter-related mathematical examples that can easily be brought to the
fore, backed by pedagogical causes. In contrast, beginning teachers are
likely to have a heavier reliance on stipulated curriculum materials while
they are still grappling with issues both within and beyond the
classrooms. Hence, a purposeful sample of experienced mathematics
teachers was imperative. As the main study was set up in the form of
multi-case studies, a questionnaire was constructed to locate the key
participants.
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 197

Participants were to be chosen from teachers who had taught

mathematics for at least five consecutive years and had some experience
in teaching at the upper secondary level. Approval was then sought from
the Ministry of Education (Singapore) and thereafter from the schools’
principals before the questionnaire was pilot-tested with 16 teachers from
two schools who met the criteria, and subsequently refined. An
information sheet and a consent form were attached to each questionnaire
to inform participants of the objectives of the teacher questionnaire and
to seek their consent. There were also written instructions on the
questionnaire that appealed to teachers to refrain from discussing
the contents of their questionnaire with anyone to ensure its validity. The
open-ended questions in the questionnaire were general about the
teaching of mathematics and were not tied to any specific content
domain in mathematics.
A total of 128 teachers from 24 secondary schools responded to the
questionnaire, with a good spread of teachers from five to seven schools
in each of the four zones of Singapore. Seven of the returns were deemed
invalid as three of the teachers had only lower secondary (grade 7 and
grade 8) teaching experience and four had taught for less than five years.
The remaining 121 teachers had a mean of 12 years of teaching
experience and 89 of them had experience in teaching Additional
Mathematics, an advanced level of mathematics that is offered to more
mathematically-inclined students in upper secondary. Of these 121
teachers, 44 teachers taught one other subject and the rest, nearly two-
thirds of the teachers taught mathematics only. All respondents had a
first degree and a teaching qualification. 25 of the teachers had a
master’s degree of which 19 were masters in mathematics or
mathematics education. The gender composition was almost 50:50 (57
females). 119 indicated their age group and the age distribution is shown
in Table 1.
198 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Table 1
Age group of 119 teacher respondents

Age Under 30 30 – 39 40 – 49 50 – 59 60+

Number of teachers 7 58 32 17 5

The purpose of this questionnaire was to explore the teachers’

opinions on mathematical examples, their mathematical knowledge of
teaching, and their mathematical beliefs. For this paper, the focus is on
the three open-ended questions that surveyed the teachers’
exemplification practices. The first question read “list down two factors
you consider when selecting examples to introduce a new
concept/procedure/rule/principle”. Research has shown that teachers like
to begin with a simple or familiar first example and order examples in
increasing degree of difficulty (Rowland et al., 2005). Teachers also
reported to be conscious of the importance to reduce the ‘noise’ in
examples so as to focus learners’ attention on the critical aspects (Skemp,
1971). Hence, the objective of this question was to elicit teachers’
decisions in selecting their first examples in order to focus on those
teachers who can better justify their choice of mathematical examples.
The second question asked teachers to list down two factors they
considered when selecting homework tasks. Homework is a common
feature in the teaching of mathematics in Singapore schools. Hiebert et
al. (1996) proposed that teachers look for three essential characteristics
in tasks. Tasks that can offer situations that students will perceive as
problematic and second, tasks that provide platforms for students to think
about important mathematics. Third, tasks should also connect to some
part of the students’ knowledge so that they are attainable by students.
The researchers added that “the teacher will need to take an active role in
selecting and presenting tasks” (p. 16). Hence, it is worthwhile to
investigate how teachers decide on homework tasks.
Finally, teachers were asked to write down three characteristics of
what they think a “good” example would have, since teachers’ examples
are picked from a pool of countless possibilities, where some are simply
more appropriate than others. Zaslavsky and Lavie (2005, p. 2) defined a
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 199

good example as one “that conveys to the target audience the essence of
what it is meant to exemplify or explain”. First, good examples must be
transparent, one that aims to accentuate the critical features while making
the irrelevant attributes as subtle as possible, so as to allow learners’
attention to be drawn to the underlying structure. Second, good examples
should foster generalization, such that the learners can see “the generality
embodied in the example” (Mason & Pimm, 1984, p. 286). The third
example trait is such that these examples should aid in explaining and
resolving mathematical subtleties. Thus, the third question was to elicit
what teachers in Singapore believed that a good example would entail.

6 Results and Discussion

The data collected for this study focused on teachers’ responses to the
three questions. Teachers’ responses for each question were categorized
and 13 category codes were created to facilitate the analysis and
discussion both within and between the questions. Table 2 presents the
percentage category frequencies for each question, ordered in decreasing
frequencies for question one.

6.1 How do secondary mathematics teachers choose examples for

introducing new mathematical ideas?

A total of 235 teachers’ considerations, when they teach new

mathematical ideas, were gathered in which the first three categories
emerged more often. From Table 2, Student Abilities (SA) was reported
as the major concern teachers have when introducing new content (60
counts). SA consisted of responses on students’ abilities, prior
knowledge, and the need to scaffold students’ learning. The comments
included “must suit students’ ability”, “pitched to students’ current level
of understanding”, or simply “ability appropriate”. When making
example choices, these teachers pay special attention to students’ “pre-
requisite knowledge” so as to “link to prior knowledge” or “build on
concepts that they have already learnt”. Some teachers, like the mentors
in Bills and Bills’ (2005) study, also advocated instructional scaffolding
200 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Table 2
Categories of 121 teachers’ exemplification considerations

Category Category Description Teach Select Good

Code Mathematics Homework Example
Idea (%) (%) (%)
SA Students’ Abilities 25.5 17.4 13.1
DL Difficulty Level 21.3 23.0 16.1
FC Familiar Context 18.3 – 8.36
LO Learning Objectives 8.09 8.12 5.97
EC Exemplify Content 8.09 – 10.7
VE Variety of Examples 6.81 19.2 10.1
CE Clarity of Examples 5.11 – 15.8
TI Thinking and Interesting 3.82 – 9.25
CM Common Misconceptions 2.13 0.855 4.18
CH Classwork and Homework 0.851 5.98 –
NE Number of Examples – 9.83 –
RL Reinforce Learning – 8.94 4.78
AU Assess Understanding – 6.41 1.49

via examples like “easy ones first, then progressively more challenging
ones” or “try to start with numerical examples then go into algebra to
generalize the learning”. This deliberation in the sequencing examples
was also observed in the elementary teacher trainees in Rowland’s
(2008) study.
The second most common category was Difficulty Level (DL) which
pertains to whether the examples should be easy or hard (50 counts).
Note that for the second and third research questions, there were teachers
who preferred to include challenging examples to stretch their students,
but, this was not the case when teachers teach new mathematical ideas.
Slightly over three-fifths proposed to use an example that is “basic”,
“straight-forward and easy to understand” so that it “does not confuse
students” and this resembles the key theme in another study which was to
keep things simple (Bills & Bills, 2005). The rest echoed that they would
take into account the “level of difficulty” of the first examples. A related
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 201

category with 43 counts was to use Familiar Context (FC) that students
can easily relate to by linking to the “personal experience of students” or
“relating to their daily lives if possible”. Examples that were “authentic”
or offer “real-world situations” were also raised.
Of the participating teachers, 19 touched on the “relevance of the
example” or if it is “linked to concept”, whether the examples could
“address the instructional objectives” and prepare students for
examinations (LO). Of which, three explicitly stated that assessment
guided their example decisions, such that they will seek examples with
“relevance to O Level exam questions”. This factor was also cited by
Rowland (2008) in his study. Teachers were equally mindful when
selecting the first few examples that could exemplify a new content (EC)
clearly, with “not too many variation” but “should convey the essentials
of concepts involved”. Some of the comments included “examples must
clearly demonstrate only the concept/procedure/rule/principle”, present
the “general principle, not special case”, and are able to “highlight the
key points”. This is somewhat reflective of teachers’ intent to reduce the
noise (Skemp, 1971) of an example or to use transparent examples
(Zaslavsky & Lavie, 2005).
There were 16 comments on using different examples, Variety of
Examples (VE), when presenting a new mathematical idea or to “choose
a variety of standard versus non-standard examples” or those that “show
the application of the new concept”. Again, this is coincident with what
literature has suggested to provide students with varied experiences in
order for them to attend to what has changed and what has remained the
same (Rowland, 2008).
There were 12 teachers who wrote about the Clarity of Examples
(CE) and that examples should be clear, “should not be overly tedious to
solve” nor “be clouded by other concepts or difficult algebraic
manipulation”. Examples should involve “small numbers, positive
integers if possible” or “numbers that are not intimidating”. This partially
reflected the approach by teachers in another research to draw attention
to relevant features (Zodik & Zaslavsky, 2008).
Arousing interest and stimulating thought processes, Thinking and
Interesting (TI) were also raised (9 counts). Fewer (5 counts) attended to
the need to address Common Misconceptions (CM) where one added to
202 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

“highlight non-examples to check on understanding”. Only two teachers

mentioned that they will select examples that “can help them (students)
to solve questions given for homework later” (Classwork and
Homework-CH). Since the teaching of a new mathematical idea was the
focus of this question, it was logical that the following categories:
Number of Examples (NE), Reinforce Learning (RL), and Assess
Understanding (AU), were not part of the teachers’ considerations.
In summary, the top three categories, SA, DL, and FC, which made
up more than 60% of the teachers’ considerations, were closely related.
The key theme that threaded through these three categories was to
present students with an easy (DL) or familiar (FC) example when
introducing a new mathematical idea, so that the example is within
students’ reach (SA). In a way, this key theme encompassed one of the
guiding principles teachers in Zodik and Zaslavsky’s (2008) study
exhibited, which was to begin with a simple or familiar case, or that in
another study, “keeping things simple” (Bills & Bills, 2005).

6.2 How do secondary mathematics teachers select homework task(s)?

Homework tasks included exercises, problems and other assessment

items given to students. There were 234 written factors that surfaced as
responses for this question form the teachers. The top three categories,
DL, VE, and SA were frequently cited by many of the respondents.
Similar to teachers’ choice of the first few examples, when they plan
homework, DL (54 counts) and SA (41 counts) were important too. What
differs in DL when planning homework tasks as compared to teaching
new mathematical ideas, was that teachers preferred a “mixture of easy
and difficult” examples and more were more prone to choose complex
over simple homework tasks or to include “1 or 2 higher-order questions
to challenge students”. “Tasks should be reasonable within ability of
students” so that “students can manage the homework”. Hiebert et al.
(1996, p. 16) considered SA as vital too as teachers should select and
scaffold tasks that “students can see the relevance of the ideas and skills
they already possess”.
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 203

A strategic approach by many (45 counts) was to provide students

with varied examples (VE), as a limited range of examples might lead to
an incomplete or erroneous understanding. “Direct application of
concepts, challenging questions, and integrated mathematics and real-life
situations” should be tasked for a “comprehensive coverage of exercise”.
In addition, teachers tend to “expose students to different ways of
questioning” or to “involve the same concept in different contexts”. VE
was thus viewed more crucial when choosing homework tasks than first
examples.
The next three codes, NE (23 counts), RL (21 counts), and LO (19
counts) had comparable ratings. Some teachers carefully considered the
“time taken to complete homework questions” by reminding themselves
to give “manageable number of questions” (NE). Hence although some
studies which have looked into Singapore classrooms have observed that
teachers tend to assign students with a large number of practice tasks
(Kaur, 2010), this study showed that teachers do take into account the
amount of time students spent on their homework. However, this
category was absent in the teachers’ exemplification deliberations when
they introduced new concepts or when they identified good examples.
Some teachers were concerned whether homework could “reinforce
classroom teaching” (RL) and help students “to acquire proficiency”.
The “purpose of the homework task” (LO) to cover the school’s “scheme
of work” or to “prepare students for examinations” was also raised. This
corresponded with part of the findings in another study where it was
reported that teachers in Singapore sometimes select practice questions
which were likely to be tested (Fang, Ho, Lioe, Wong, & Tiong, 2009).
15 teachers suggested that the role of the homework is “to assess
students’ understanding” (AU) and that “tasks should give feedback on
students’ learning” or “aids students in consolidating their learning”.
Slightly fewer (14 counts) shared that their homework selection was
based on the classwork and that for the homework they “will give
questions similar to the work done in class” or “similar to teaching
examples”. Lastly, only two stated that they would include “questions
that can surface common mistakes or misconceptions” (CM).
It was noticeable that FC, EC, CE, and TI were not factored in when
teachers set homework tasks. Since homework served mainly for
204 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

students to develop their skills and to apply the concepts learnt, teachers
reported that they tended to expose students to different types of
problems. Thus, categories like EC and CE which were more relevant to
the forming of mathematical understanding were not part of teachers’
guiding principles in setting homework tasks. A sharp contrast was
evident too in the use of familiar context (FC), which although was the
third top guiding principle when introducing new mathematical ideas,
was deemed unnecessary by experienced teachers when choosing
homework tasks. What was more conspicuous were the absence of
references to higher order thinking and interesting contexts in the
homework tasks, as these are deemed fundamental in the Singapore
mathematics curriculum framework (Ministry of Education, 2012).
To summarize, when choosing homework tasks, teachers pay most
attention to the difficulty level of tasks (DL), offer varied tasks to
students (VE) and ensure that the tasks suits their students’ ability level
(SA). An assortment of examples with varying difficulty level is dished
out for homework where the routine ones are meant for practice
(Rowland, Thwaites, & Huckstep, 2003; Watson & Mason, 2004) and
the demanding ones are to extend learning (Hiebert et al., 1996).
Similarly, besides varying the difficulty level, ensuring a diversified
array of examples is also essential to increase student’ example space
and to provide them with a fuller experience. This study also surfaced
what the teachers valued in homework tasks, which is not just to
reinforce and facilitate students’ learning, but also to prepare students for
assessment.

6.3 What are the characteristics of a “good” mathematical example in

secondary teachers’ perceptions?

The respondents gave 335 written descriptions of their concept of good

examples. Likewise, when teachers look for critical attributes in
examples, DL (54 counts) and SA (44 counts) were pivotal. Interestingly,
over 75% were more likely to pick an “easy to understand”, “basic” or
“direct” example over one that “can stretch their thinking”. For teachers
who were more concerned with their students’ abilities (SA), they felt
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 205

that a good example should be “pitched at the right level for the class”
and be able to “link with prior knowledge”. Slightly more than half in
this category identified with the scaffolding function of examples where
a good example set should progress “from direct to more complicated” or
in the form “concrete-pictorial-abstract”. Unlike the previous two
questions, there were five teachers who favored the use of “illustrations
and diagrams” to “assist in the conceptualization”, which Rowland et al.
(2005) found to be tied to teachers’ exemplification practices.
A substantial number of teachers (53 counts) described good
examples as “clear” (CE), “concise” with “no ambiguity” and “well-
crafted”, where they “test students on the concept but not on the
English”. “Ease in calculation” and having “no complicated equations”
reflected the keep unnecessary work to a minimum strategy, discussed
earlier in Zodik and Zaslavsky (2008). This category, although highly
regarded by teachers in choosing good examples was nonetheless
missing from teachers’ list of homework task characteristics and also not
ranked high in their selection of first examples.
Teachers (36 counts) also characterized those that are
“representative”, able to “highlight the salient points” (EC) and enable
one “to generalize ideas or rules” as good examples. Hence, good
examples are transparent and promote generalization (Zaslavsky &
Lavie, 2005). Others (34 counts) deemed it a necessity for examples to
be “varied” (VE) to provide “sufficient coverage”, to “link concepts
together”, and to allow the “application of concepts across topics”.
Another desirable attribute of an example is if it is “able to provoke
thinking”, “involve inference”, “arouse students’ interest” or “able to
spark discussion” (TI). Of this type, 31 counts were identified and we
can draw a parallel between TI and what Hiebert et al. (1996, p. 18)
meant by tasks that problematized the subject, so that they will “pique
the interests of students and engage them in mathematics”. Following
next, is teachers’ preference (28 counts) for examples “related to
everyday experiences of students” (FC) or “has real-life application”.
Twenty teachers indicated that a good example “delivers the lesson
objectives” (LO) and some felt that it should be “similar to the
examination syllabus type of questions”. Lesser (16 counts) highlighted
examples that “reinforce concepts or skills taught in class” (RL) to
206 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

“allow students to understand the concept better”. 14 felt that good

examples offer “opportunities to sieve out misconceptions in students”
(CM) so as to attend to students’ errors (Zodik & Zaslavsky, 2008).
There were only five comments on choosing examples that can “provide
good feedback about students’ understanding” (AU). Finally, it is self-
explanatory that categories like CH and NE are absent from teachers’
conception of good examples.
The responses about DL are reflective of teachers’ considerations at
different stages of instruction, easy at first, and thereafter harder ones to
deepen students’ understanding. In the discussion for a good example,
clarity of the example was highly regarded so as to allow “one to see the
general through the particular” (Mason & Pimm, 1984). This is also
consistent with researchers’ recommendation of “transparent” examples
to convey the essence of what the example meant to exemplify or explain
(Zaslavsky & Lavie, 2005). Overall, DL and SA remained pivotal when
teachers selected examples (across the three RQs).

6.4 Teacher knowledge

The three questions discussed in this paper were not based on any
specific mathematical content. However, another section of the
questionnaire examined teachers’ mathematical knowledge. The data
here suggested that there were obvious connections between teachers’
PCK and their use of examples, namely KCS, KCT and KCC.
When teachers present new content, KCS is exhibited in how they
considered students’ prior knowledge (SA) and the difficulty level (DL)
of the topic. As such the teachers try to choose ability-appropriate
examples that students can relate to (FC) and find interesting (TI) to
make learning more manageable and meaningful for the students.
Furthermore, knowledge of students’ conceptions and misconceptions
(CM) means that teachers prefer examples “that should not be clouded
by other concepts or difficult algebra manipulation” (CE) so as not to
confuse their students (Ball et al., 2008). Each of the above-mentioned
categories requires teachers’ knowledge of how students learn the
mathematical content or KCS in short.
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 207

Teachers’ example choice is influenced by their KCT too. They

select examples that are able to exemplify the mathematical idea (EC)
and also provide students with sufficient contact with the mathematical
content through varied examples (VE). Teachers’ KCT guide them in the
sequencing of homework tasks in “ascending difficulty” (SA) in order to
scaffold students’ learning. In addition, teachers tend to pick those tasks
that are able to reinforce what has been taught (RL) or by relating
homework tasks to what have been covered in class (CM), in order to
help students retain knowledge and gain fluency in their mathematical
competency (Rowland, 2008). Challenging tasks (DL) are also utilized to
bring students deeper into the topic.
Finally, teachers’ knowledge of the curriculum (KCC) sensitize them
to those examples that are able to address and deliver learning objectives
stipulated in the mathematics syllabus, as well as prepare students for
assessment (LO) by making available to them examples that are similar
to those tested in examinations. At the same time, teachers leverage on
examples that “provide good feedback about students’ understanding”
(AU) in order to improve students’ learning.

7 Conclusion

Mathematics is one of the key content areas for the 21st century
(Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2016) and mathematics teachers
have the important responsibility of educating the next generation of
learners in schools. In addition, one of the claims by MOE underpinning
the 21st century competencies is that: “Knowledge and skills must be
underpinned by values” (MOE, 2010). The teachers in this study did not
bring up the idea of “values” as one of the criteria useful for selecting
examples for instruction. However, we should be careful in concluding
that our teachers are not considering values in their teaching. This study
provides baseline data about what mathematics teachers value when they
select examples for instruction and this information can be useful for
organizing PD courses for teachers.
Teachers will continue to use examples in teaching their students,
for whom examples may be a primary means for learning mathematical
208 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

concepts. The use of certain examples for teaching a particular topic may
not be universal, which implies that the survey of the teachers from
Singapore who participated in this study may be very context-specific.
Moreover, “the choice of an example for teaching is often a trade-off
between one limitation and another” (Zaslavsky, 2014, p. 29).
It is important to be aware of the limitations in using questionnaire
findings to study teachers’ pedagogical practices since what is written
may not be translated in actual lessons. Also, we have to be mindful of
the fact that what is written by the teachers may not necessarily translate
into actual classroom practice. Nevertheless, this study brings us some
insights into the exemplification perceptions of experienced mathematics
teachers in Singapore. Teachers are most concerned over students’
abilities and the difficulty level of examples when choosing examples.
However, when selecting examples for different purposes, the
considerations differ to some extent. For instance, when introducing new
content, teachers favored examples that connect with students’
experiences whereas for homework, they are more concerned with
providing students with varied exposure. Example selection by
Singapore teachers seem to be guided by instructional considerations and
point to a connection between teacher knowledge and instructional
examples.
Finally, this research reveals the potential direction for further
research into the reasons teachers considered as critical factors in their
choice of examples and points to a connection between teacher
knowledge and beliefs about what constitutes effective teaching and
learning of mathematics through the use of mathematical examples.
 Examples in the Teaching of Mathematics: Teachers’ Perceptions 209

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 Chapter 12

On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom:

Motivation and Cognitive Load

Weng Kin HO Puay San CHAN

In the turn of the 21st century, there has been growing evidence that
suggest the possibility of replacing traditional transmissive lecture
or direct teacher instruction with active in-class activities and pre-
or post-class work via the so-called ‘flipped classroom pedagogy’.
By a modification of the theoretical framework proposed by Jacob
Lowell Bishop and Matthew Verleger in 2013, we describe an
authentic implementation of flipped classroom for teaching
Mathematics to a selected group of junior college Year 2 students
(12th grade) in Singapore. The effectiveness of our implementation
is then analysed through five of the six testable propositions put
forward by Lakmal Abeysekera and Phillip Dawson in 2015.

1 Introduction

In the opening years of the 21st century, teaching approaches that

advertise the success of the use of flipped classroom have attracted
an increasing amount of attention. Common to most of these
implementations is the movement of the information-transmission
component of traditional in-person lecture or teaching time (referred to
as traditional classroom subsequently) out of class time. Prior to coming
for class, students are typically given resources that scope what would
have been covered in the lecture, alongside with exercises or activities
intended for independent completion as pre-class activities. Classroom
time is then spent on in-class activities including quizzes to measure
214 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

students’ basic level of mastery of the content knowledge acquired prior

the in-class sessions, as well as group discussions centred about problem
solving and applications of concepts acquired earlier. Lage, Platt and
Trelia (2000) pioneered the idea of ‘inverted classroom’. But the first
scholarly use of the word ‘flipped’ classroom appeared in Strayer’s
(2007) doctoral dissertation on the topic. Since then, there has never
been a universally agreed definition. Lage et al.’s definition that
“inverting the classroom means that events that have traditionally taken
place inside the classroom now takes place outside the classroom and
vice-versa” (Lage et al., 2000, p. 32) has become obsolete as current
research in flipped classroom is moving away from a mere label of re-
ordering classroom and at-home activities.

1.1 Definition of flipped classroom adopted in this chapter

As ‘flipping’ entails the inversion of expectations in traditional lecture
(Berrett, 2012), we exploited the use of computer technology and the
Internet (e.g., video-recorded lecture available online) to move the
information-transmission component of a traditional lesson out of class
time and replaced by a spectrum of scaffolding activities designed to
motivate independent learning. Thus, our working definition of flipped
classroom can be seen as an educational method comprising two sub-
systems: interactive learning system inside the classroom, and a direct
computer-based instruction outside the classroom. We emphasise that
video technology is harnessed here because pedagogical theories of
grounded image (Ho, Leong & Ho, 2015) have informed us that students
are better able to discuss, with specific reference to particular juncture of
the video-recorded lectures, the content knowledge transmitted with their
peers and teachers. Consequently, in this chapter, we restrict our
definition of ‘flipped classroom’ to rule out implementations which do
not deploy videos as the channel for out-of-class lecture transmission.
As our definition follows closely to that of Bishop and Verleger (2013),
the theoretical framework we adopt takes into consideration their
perspectives. We shall elaborate on this theoretical framework in
Section 2.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 215

1.2 Flipped classroom in Singapore schools

In this past decade, there had been an emphasis for major shifts in
classroom processes: (1) from lower-order thinking to higher-order
thinking, (2) from analogue to digital, (3) from teacher-centred to
student-centred learning, and (4) from isolation to collaboration on the
part of the teachers’ effort. As a result, an increasing number of teachers
in Singapore schools have started experimenting flipped classroom to
teach different subjects. Many of these attempts were carried out at
small scale and at an exploratory stage. In comparison, a larger number
of flipped classroom implementations took place in university settings in
Singapore. Though there were emerging but isolated pockets of news
articles reporting on the success of this approach when used in Singapore
classrooms, there remains a paucity of formal research done in analysing
the usefulness of flipped classroom in Singapore schools, and
particularly in mathematics classrooms.
The authors speculate that the ‘flipped classroom’ educational
approach may well continue for the next few years, so that developing an
understanding of its relevance to mathematics teaching, in particular,
seems to be a sensible research motivation. The principal purpose of this
chapter is to fill a gap in the literature concerning the use of flipped
classroom, together with its theoretical underpinnings, and its
effectiveness in the context of Singapore, with particular emphasis in the
content domain of mathematics. The authors set out to evaluate the
effectiveness of an authentic implementation of flipped classroom in a
Singapore junior college using testable propositions proposed by
Abeysekera and Dawson (2015).

1.3 Critical analysis through Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and

Cognitive Load Theory (CLT)
Abeysekera and Dawson (2015) recommended a critical analysis of the
flipped classroom approach informed by two sound pedagogical theories:
Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Cognitive Load Theory (CLT).
216 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

SDT proposes that the basic cognitive needs for competence,

knowledge and relatedness are universally applicable in learning.
Students must feel competent to master the disciplinarity of the subject
(e.g., content knowledge, skills, behaviours) that are required to be
successful in a given social context (Ryan and Deci, 2000a). Based on
SDT, it was suggested that flipped classroom might improve student
motivation if it creates a sense of competence, autonomy and relatedness
(Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015, p. 4). Such motivation can be of an
intrinsic (i.e., those actions that individual engage in as they are
inherently interesting and enjoyable) or an extrinsic nature (i.e.,
individuals engaging in actions because they lead to separable outcomes
which are defined to be favourable outcomes distinct from inherent
enjoyment).
CLT hinges on the notion of ‘working memory’ used by a learner
when learning or problem solving (Miller 1956). It was reported therein
that working memory consists of 7  2 chunks. Thus, CLT informs
classroom practitioners to be aware that because human working
memory is subjected to certain kinds of load and thus overloading may in
fact retard learning. Based on CLT, it was proposed that the flipped
classroom approaches provide further facilities to distribute the cognitive
load in such a way to make learning efficient (Abeysekera & Dawson,
2015, p. 8).
Through the lens of SDT and CLT, six propositions were put forth,
(Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015) concerning the potential of flipped
classroom in enhancing learner’s motivation and managing learner’s
cognitive workload. These propositions are crafted in such a way that
they are testable empirically by both quantitative and qualitative means.
This paper can be regarded as an implementation to test these
propositions. In Section 4, we elaborate on these propositions and
explain how we design our study to test some of these propositions in our
implementation.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 217

2 Theoretical Framework for Flipped Classroom Pedagogy

Existing works on student-centred learning supported by learning

theories that began with Piaget (1967) and Vygotsky (1978) already
justified that classroom time must be spent in engaging students with
meaningful learning activities. Because classroom time is at its
premium, lectures and direct teaching when moved outside class can
create this much needed time. Foot and Howe (1998) explained how
constructivism and collaborative learning evolved from Piaget’s theory
of cognitive conflict, and co-operative learning stemmed from
Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. It is noteworthy to point out
Kolb’s theory of experiential learning (Kolb & Kolb, 2012). Kolb
established a theoretical model that consists of a universal learning cycle
and two embedded dimensions: perception and processing – four
learning styles are determined by all possible permutations of these two
dimensions. Difference in learning styles therefore justify differentiated
learning activities which are not possible to implement in traditional
lecture-style setting.
However, we cautioned that merely moving from a traditional
lecture to presenting the same lecture online is unlikely to result in better
learning. To factor in the differences in learning pace and working
memory (Clark, Nguyen & Sweller, 2005), we propose that students
have flexibility in managing their cognitive workload. This can be done
by pausing, rewinding, fast-forwarding or skipping parts of a video
lecture to manage their own learning.
Bishop and Verleger (2013) modelled flipped classroom to be a
system consisting of somewhat disjoint parts: interactive group learning
activities inside the classroom, and direct computer-based individual
instruction outside the classroom. Informed by SDT and CLT, our
standpoint deviates from Bishop and Verleger (2013) in that flipped
classroom pedagogy is far from being a disjoint sum of in-class human
interaction and out-class computer-assisted learning. In order that
flipped classroom be made effective, the teacher plays an important role
in connecting these two aspects. More precisely, the teacher must
purposefully design pre-class activities and post-class activities,
frequently making changes that respond to the learning processes that
218 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

take place either online or in-class. Figure 1 depicts the strong interplay
between the interactive classroom activities and the explicit instruction
methods assisted by media/computer technology which summarises the
essence of flipped pedagogy.

Student-centred learning theories

Interactive classroom activities Pre-class activities

Require Human Assisted through Video/Computer Technology

Teacher-centred learning theories

Post-class activities Explicit Instruction Methods

Figure 1. Theoretical framework for flipped classroom

3 Constructing the Flipped Classroom Package

The second author is a lecturer at a certain junior college (JC) in

Singapore. JC students (JC1 are 11th graders; JC2 12th graders) who
take mathematics as an ‘A’-level subject are trained for two years in this
subject and sit for a General Certificate Examination (Cambridge-
Singapore syndicate) at the end of the final year. Mathematics is one of
the core subjects required for entry to university. We classify JC
education as tertiary education. Students from this JC were of mixed
abilities and competencies in mathematics, with weaker students
characterised by lack of interest, motivation and confidence in
mathematics.

3.1 Flipped classroom for Mathematics at junior college

In the junior college, lessons are traditionally conducted via a lecture-

tutorial system. JC2 students1 would learn the contents of a new topic
during the lecture, which is conducted thrice per week, 50-minutes per

1 JC1 students had only two lectures per week, each lecture lasted 50 minutes.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 219

lecture. Students would then duly complete tutorial exercises and clarify
all their doubts with their tutors during the weekly tutorial lessons,
comprising of three 50-minutes sessions.
During the lecture, it has been observed that many students who are
stronger in the subject found the lecture pace rather slow. While the more
motivated ones would do self-reading of the lecture notes and attempt the
tutorial questions, the less-proactive fast learners would resort to sleeping
or chatting during the lectures. On the other hand, students who are much
weaker in the subject had problem coping with the pace of the lecturer.
Not only did they fail to copy the necessary information to fill out the
blanks in the lecture notes, they had problem grasping the new concepts
taught, and thus faced much difficulty in attempting the tutorial
questions.
There was thus a pressing need to explore an alternative pedagogy
that would promote active learning, as well as to nurture self-motivated
and independent learners so as to maximise learning during curriculum
time.

3.2 Description of the flipped classroom package

Using a flipped-classroom approach and an adaptation of Team-Based

Learning2 (Haidet et al. 2012), three classes of students, totaling to 633,
with varied learning abilities were taken out of the lectures to create time
for group discussions. They were grouped into heterogeneous teams of 6
to 7 students in terms of their mathematics ability, gender and class.
The timetable of these classes was specially designed to
accommodate two 100-minutes lessons per week (over 18 weeks, or

2 We shall use the acronym TBL to stand for Team Based Learning. In a nutshell, the
students in a class are formed into pre-assigned teams/groups according to the academic
abilities and personalities. There was permanence in team-formation as the students
remained in their assigned teams for two school terms (about 6 months).

3 The flipped classroom started with 68 students in January but in the process 5 students
downgraded the subject from H2 to H1 level, and thus dropped out of the flipped
classroom.
220 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

equivalently two school terms) for mathematics, spanning from January

to May. The sequence of learning activities is as follows:

(i) Pre-class reading: Students of these three classes were expected

to self-learn the contents by reading the notes and filling out the
blanks via any of the following options.
(a) Referring to the PowerPoint Slides.
(b) Referring to video-recording of the lectures.
(c) Google for additional information to clarify their doubts.

(ii) In-class activities:

(a) Individual Readiness Assurance Test (iRAT) was
conducted at the beginning of the lessons when a new topic
(or subtopic) is being introduced via online software which
allows the teacher to obtain immediate feedback on the
performance of all students. The area of weakness in
content-understanding for each student, as well as the class
as a whole, could be surfaced instantly. The students,
however, would not get to know the results of the test
immediately after taking the iRAT.
(b) Group Readiness Assurance Test (gRAT) would follow
immediately at the end of iRAT, using the same set of
multiple-choice questions. Each team would discuss the
questions, focusing on the justification of their choice of
answer. Online software is used to allow each team to
obtain immediate feedback on their selected answer. If the
answer given was incorrect, the team had to re-deliberate
their choice until a correct choice is made before moving
on to the next question.
(c) Class discussion – At the end of the gRAT, the teacher
would facilitate the discussion of the MCQs to ensure that
all students have gained basic understanding of the
concepts learnt.
(d) Applications of Concepts learnt – The class would proceed
to solve challenging problem(s) by applying the concepts
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 221

learnt as a team and present the solutions or answers using

mini-white boards or flash cards.
(e) Exit assessment – Conducted towards the end of a lesson to
check each student’s mastery of concepts and its
applications. Feedback on the performance of the
assessment would be addressed during the following
lesson. Sometimes, due to time constraint, this exit
assessment might be given as timed assignment to be
submitted on the following day of the lesson.

(iii) Preparation for the next lesson – Students would attempt

selected tutorial questions given in their lecture notes in
preparation for discussion during subsequent lessons.

3.3 Design considerations of flipped classroom package

It is important to point out to the reader at this juncture that there were
two groups of students: the control group (the rest of the classes other
than the three chosen classes) underwent the traditional lecture-tutorial
system, and the experimental group (the three chosen classes described
in the preceding subsection) which underwent the flipped classroom
system. The flipped classroom implementation must cover the same set
of topics/subtopics as the traditional classroom implementation, which
has been determined at the beginning of the year in the scheme of work
as planned by the Mathematics Department of the participating JC. Pure
mathematics topics include Vectors, Functions and Complex Numbers,
while Statistics topics include Permutation and Combination, Probability,
Binomial, Poisson and Normal Distributions, Sampling Theory,
Hypothesis Testing, Correlation and Regression.

(i) PowerPoint slides – Every student of the cohort has a copy of

the lecture notes with some of the solutions to the examples left
blank. While students remaining in the lecture group would fill
out the notes during lecture, students in the flipped-classroom
experimental group were supported by specially designed
222 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

PowerPoint slides. The slides provided solutions to the

examples with additional explanatory notes to aid
understanding. In addition, there were pointers to highlight
important concepts/common errors that require special
attention of the students.

(ii) Video-recording of lectures – As the main lecture group was

normally one or two lessons ahead of the flipped-classroom
lesson pace in introducing a new topic (but their tutorial lessons
were slower than the experimental group), the lectures were
recorded using Camtasia and made available online. Students
have the option of viewing the whole or part of the video to
learn the contents of the topics. This allows the weaker students
to have multiple viewings of the parts that they have problem
with.

(iii) Readiness Assurance Test – For each introduction of a new

topic or subtopic, students would begin the lesson with a
readiness assurance test to ensure that they have done the pre-
class learning. This is in the format of multiple-choice
questions (MCQs). Each test comprises of about 5 to 10
questions that test the basic mastery of concepts and its simple
application. At most one third of the MCQs may be set at the
lowest cognitive level of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1965),
the knowledge recalling stage. The remaining questions would
range from the comprehension, application to analysis stage of
the taxonomy. The crafting of the MCQs need to be carefully
planned to ensure its comprehensiveness in meeting all the
learning objectives of the lesson. The distractors provided in
each MCQ should be purposeful in surfacing a cognitive
misconception/error in learning. The test consists of two parts,
the Individual and the Group Readiness Assurance Test (iRAT
& gRAT).
(a) iRAT – Conducted approximately at the pace of one
minute per question.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 223

(b) gRAT – using the same set of MCQs, its duration ranges
from 10 to 20 minutes depending on the number of
questions and the level of difficulties of the questions.
Figure 2 below shows an example of an iRAT/gRAT MCQ test
item. Notice the non-routine element intended in the use of the
xz-plane in the item.

The plane P is parallel to the xz-plane, and it passes through the point A(1,2,3). The Cartesian
equation of P is:
(A) x + y + z = 6 (B) x = 1 (C) y = 2 (D) z = 3
Figure 2. Sample MCQ item in iRAT/gRAT

(iv) Class discussion – To be facilitated by the teacher, exercising

“no-hands-up” rule4. Pre-planned questions were posted to
students who were pre-identified through the iRAT results.
Good questioning techniques and facilitation skills are
imperative here in guiding and prompting students through the
discussion. The focus would be on getting students to
 Justify their choice of the correct answer
 Explain why the answer should not be his/her initial choice
(The teacher needs to be tactful and not reveal the fact that
the student being asked had given a wrong initial response.
However, in reality, most students would “confess” that the
wrong answer was his/her initial choice.)
 Share the group’s points of discussion.
This practice allows the teacher to ensure that all students have
gained basic understanding of the required concepts in the new
topic.

4 The “no-hands-up” policy is an Assessment-for-Learning questioning technique

commonly used by teachers in Singapore classrooms, where the teacher asks a question
to the whole class, and after giving sufficient wait time, the teacher selects any pupil to
answer the question. The rationale behind this is that when children self-select
themselves to contribute, the same set of children keep answering every time, depriving
others a chance. (William, 2014)
224 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

(v) Application questions – This may include the tutorial questions

of each chapter or other challenging questions to allow higher-
order thinking in its application of concepts learnt. These
questions are targeted at the higher cognitive level in Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956), ranging from the application to
evaluation stage. The questions must be challenging enough so
that it would trigger intense team discussions. Each team would
present their findings at the end of their discussion.

(vi) Exit Assessment – Consists of one or two questions similar to

the application questions to assess students’ learning of the
lesson. Its duration is about 5 to 10 minutes. With prior notice
of the exit assessment given at the start of the lesson, students
generally tend to be more attentive in class and were engaged
in the team discussions.

4 The Study

The aforementioned design of the flipped classroom package not only

was aimed to address the motivational issues (lack of motivation to study
mathematics and erosion of confidence as incompetency aggregated over
time) experienced by students in this JC, as informed by SDT, but also to
address issues concerning cognitive load of JC students (in general, a
typical JC student manages with at least 3 subjects, but no more than 4,
taken at the H2 level), as informed by CLT. We want to investigate the
effectiveness of flipped classroom as an alternative teaching technique
by testing some of the following propositions postulated by Abeysekera
and Dawson (2015):

Proposition 1:
Learning environments created by the flipped classroom approach are
likely to satisfy student needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness
and thus, entice greater levels of intrinsic motivation.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 225

Proposition 2/3/4:
Learning environments created by the flipped classroom approach are
likely to satisfy students’ need for autonomy/competence/relatedness and
thus, entice greater levels of extrinsic motivation.

Proposition 5:
Student self-pacing of pre-recorded lectures may reduce cognitive load
and help learning in a flipped classroom environment.

Proposition 6:
Flipped classroom approaches may provide more opportunities to tailor
instruction to the expertise of students, enabling more appropriate
management of the cognitive load.

4.1 Intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation

According to SDT, intrinsic motivation is enhanced only when social
contexts that simultaneously support feelings of competence, autonomy
(Ryan & Deci, 2000a) and relatedness (Van Nuland, Taris, Bockaets, &
Martens, 2012). In order for students to experience intrinsic motivation
they must find engaging in a given learning activity inherently satisfying.
According to Ryan and Deci (2000b), intrinsic motivation only takes
place when learning activities are novel, challenging or supplies an
aesthetic value for students. Notably, research informs us that

“the freedom to be intrinsically motivated is found to decline as

students move up from primary to tertiary education. Only a
minority of students enrolled in contemporary higher education
institutions are found to be intrinsically motivated. The vast
majority are found to comprise students who are driven by extrinsic
motivations due to increasing social demands from their personal
and work lives.” (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015, p. 5)
226 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

For this reason5, we assume that the majority of the JC students in this
study are driven by extrinsic motivation. As a result, we have chosen not
to address Proposition 1 in this chapter. However, we caution that
extrinsic motivation does not equate to non-autonomy. The theoretical
framework of SDT allows for differentiation in the degree of relative
autonomy present in extrinsically motivated behaviour (Ryan & Deci,
2000a, 2000b). To illustrate this point, a student may complete the pre-
class online activity because she understands that by doing so, she better
prepares herself for the final year examination. Another student, wanting
to conform to the school rules, also completes the same work. Both
students are driven by extrinsic motivation; the first is of free choice
while the second is in compliance with an external authority, and hence
their difference in relative autonomy. Based on SDT, the flipped
classroom approach can create learning environments that help students
integrate certain associated values with the course as their own values via
a process that is to be interpreted as a continuum. This means that on one
end of the continuum, a student may begin with a state of unwillingness
or merely going through motions (e.g., attend in-class activities because
of compliance with school rules). At the other end of the continuum lies
intrinsic motivation. So extrinsically motivated behaviours fall between
these two ends and change according to the degree of autonomy of
integration. Although intrinsic motivation is usually not experienced by
tertiary students, SDT asserts that a form of extrinsic motivation that is
characterised by a high relative autonomy, integrated regulation, is
possible if the learning environment is designed to encourage it. When a
student is in the state of integrated regulation, he has identified values
associated with the given course and fully assimilated them to his self
(Ryan & Deci, 2000a, 2000b).

5 Apart from this justification, the assumption that we made here is supported by

additional confidential information regarding the students of this participating JC, which
cannot be disclosed herein.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 227

4.2 Autonomy, competence and relatedness

There are three attributes associated to a learner’s feeling when he or she
engages in learning: autonomy, competence and relatedness. We briefly
define each of these attributes as used in our ensuing discourse.

 Autonomy: The student feels in control and independent.

 Competence: The student feels competent to master the
knowledge, skills and behaviours necessary to be successful in a
given social context.
 Relatedness: The student gets a sense of belonging to a social
group in a given context.

5 Method and Analysis

We designed a set of questions in the form of a summative survey to be

participated by all students (a total of 63) who have agreed to be
involved in this study. 56 students responded to the survey questions.
Each question is crafted to measure the efficacy of the flipped classroom
approach pertaining to the respective propositions (i.e., Propositions 2 to
6) in the mathematics classroom.
In Singapore, it is commonplace that mathematically weak students
seek external help from private tutors. A majority 83% of those students
who participated in the survey realised that they took ownership of their
own learning without relying on private tutors. In contrast to past
practice of not trying the tutorial questions before lesson, almost all
(98%) students exercised their autonomy in choosing to attempt the
designated tutorial questions before the TBL lessons. The statistics in
Table 1 also indicates that these JC2 students (12th grade) were more
likely to engage in learning, e.g., asked more questions as compared to
the normal tutorial lessons. This willingness to engage was a phenomenal
change because they were less engaged in the usual tutorial system and
waited for the teachers to give them ‘model answers’.
228 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Table 1
Survey questions designed to test Proposition 2
Learning environments created by the flipped classroom approach are likely to satisfy
students’ need for autonomy and thus, entice greater levels of extrinsic motivation.
S/No. Question SA, A, D, SD*
1 Pre-class activities
1Q5 I did the pre-class learning by 4%, 13%, 29%, 54%
(e) Having tuition (external help)
1 Tutorial questions
1Q7 (a) I attempted the designated tutorial questions 41%, 57%, 2%, 0%
before the TBL lessons.
4 During the TBL lesson
4Q2 (b) I was engaged in learning throughout the 25%, 66%, 9%, 0%
lesson
4Q4 (d) I asked more questions as compared to 38%, 36%, 21%, 5%
normal tutorial lessons.
*SA: Strongly agree, A: Agree, D: Disagree, SD: Strongly disagree

Of the participating students, 87% read the lecture notes to prepare for
the TBL lessons as part of their pre-class activities (Table 2A, 1Q1).
Because of this positive change, it was observed that the success rate of
completing the designated questions was high (86% reported that they
could do most of the questions). The students were most likely to be
extrinsically motivated to read and prepare for the TBL lessons because
they wanted to do well for the iRAT. The statistics in Table 2A also
indicated that TBL discussions helped clarify their doubts and deepen
their conceptual understanding. Notice that 87% of the students (Table
2A, 2Q3) did not just want the correct answer to the MCQs; rather their
discussion led them to justify why an answer was correct. Also, the
lecture notes were more thoroughly read by 85% of the students because
of their discussion during TBL (Table 2B, 4Q8). Overall, these students
gained confidence in mathematics.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 229

Table 2A
Survey questions designed to test Proposition 3
Learning environments created by the flipped classroom approach are likely to satisfy
students’ need for competence and thus, entice greater levels of extrinsic motivation.
S/No. Question SA, A, D, SD
1 Pre-class activities
1Q1 I did the pre-class learning by 55%, 32%, 9%, 4%
(a) Reading the lecture notes
1 Tutorial questions
1Q8 (b) I am able to do most of the designated 20%, 66%, 14%, 0%
tutorial questions before each lesson.
2 Individual/Group Readiness Assurance Test
2Q1 In general, the RAT (individual and group) 59%, 38%, 3%, 0%
help me gain a better understanding of basic
concepts
During the gRAT,
2Q3 (b) most of the time, we discussed the rationale 30%, 57%, 13%, 0%
for the choice of each option.
2Q5 (d) I manage to clarify my doubts with my 43%, 55%, 2%, 0%
teammates.
2Q6 (e) I gained a deeper understanding of the
concepts involved through group discussion. 46%, 45%, 9%, 0%

Table 2B
Survey questions designed to test Proposition 3
Learning environments created by the flipped classroom approach are likely to satisfy
students’ need for competence and thus, entice greater levels of extrinsic motivation.
S/No. Question SA, A, D, SD
3 The discussion as a class
3Q3 (c) further strengthened my own understanding 46%, 50%, 4%, 0%
of concepts.
4 During the TBL lesson
4Q3 (c) I was able to follow the lessons and 27%, 57%, 16%, 0%
understand the contents discussed.
4Q7 (a) I gain a better understanding of the contents 48%, 41%, 11%, 0%
compared to lecture/tutorial lessons.
4 On the whole, with TBL lesson
4Q8 (b) I read my notes much more thoroughly than 46%, 39%, 13%, 2%
before.
230 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Having integrated the academic value of seeking to ‘know the truth’

in mathematics, 82% of the participating students were no longer
satisfied with just the correct answer but they engaged in critical thinking
while evaluating, defending or debating and defending viewpoints (Table
3, 2Q2). The sense of belonging to the community where mathematical
discussions were encouraged motivated the participating students to
participate in the discussion. In particular, a safe and respectful
environment created for discussion during the TBL benefited the
students as indicated by 93% who found that other groups contributed
viewpoints which were missed out by their own group (Table 3, 3Q2).
Because flipped classroom in this setting allowed the students to hear
and be heard, the level of peer-to-peer relatedness these students
experienced was increased.

Table 3
Survey questions designed to test Proposition 4
Learning environments created by the flipped classroom approach are likely to satisfy
students’ need for relatedness and thus, entice greater levels of extrinsic motivation.
S/No. Question SA, A, D, SD
2 Individual/Group Readiness Assurance Test
2Q2 (a) most of the time, my group was only 2%, 16%, 57%, 25%
interested in what the correct answer is.
2Q4 (c) we critically evaluate each other’s 38%, 48%, 14%, 0%
viewpoint/suggestions.
2Q7 (f) I had the opportunity to explain the 43%, 55%, 2%, 0%
concepts involved to my teammates.
3 The discussion as a class
3Q1 (a) helped to clarify doubts that my group had. 39%, 57%, 4%, 0%
3Q2 (b) revealed viewpoints of other groups that 39%, 54%, 5%, 2%
my group had omitted in our discussion.
4 During the TBL lesson,
4Q1 (a) My team worked well together 45%, 45%, 10%, 0%
4Q5 (e) I have the opportunity to explain my 27%, 50%, 21%, 2%
understanding of concepts to others.
4Q6 (f) I get to listen to useful ideas or viewpoints 46%, 48%, 6%, 0%
of others which I have not thought of.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 231

About 39% of the participating students did not watch the LT1 lecture
video. Instead, they read the PowerPoint slides (Table 4, 1Q3). The LT1
lecture videos were video recordings of the traditional lecture attended
by the non-participating group. The participating students whose
cognitive load for video watching could not exceed thirty minutes felt
that the recorded video lectures were too slow-paced. Furthermore, the
statistics in Table 4 indicates that the participating students were not
motivated enough to access other resources (1Q4).

Table 4
Survey questions designed to test Proposition 5
Student self-pacing of pre-recorded lectures may reduce cognitive load and help learning
in a flipped classroom environment.
S/No. Question SA, A, D, SD
1 Pre-class activities
1Q3 (c) Watching the LT1 lecture video 18%, 43%, 32%, 7%
1Q4 (d) Referring to other resources e.g., 4%, 25%, 46%, 25%
relevant websites, textbooks

It did not seem significantly more time-efficient for the participating

students to handle the pre-class readings as compared to the traditional
lecture-tutorial system. About 61% felt that they spent less time doing
tutorial questions for TBL lessons compared to the lecture-tutorial
system (Table 5, 1Q9). The design of the flipped classroom
implemented here did not seem to provide significantly more
opportunities to tailor instruction to the expertise of the students. In fact,
watching videos could take up much more time for the out-class
activities, and may add strain to cognitive load.
232 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Table 5
Survey questions designed to test Proposition 6
Flipped classroom approaches may provide more opportunities to tailor instruction to the
expertise of students, enabling more appropriate management of the cognitive load.
S/No. Question
1 Pre-class activities
1Q6 The amount of time I spent in doing pre-class [Very much shorter/slightly
readings as compared to that spent by shorter/ the same/slightly
attending lectures and doing post-lecture longer/very much longer]
readings are: 27%, 18%, 13%, 21%, 21%
1 Tutorial questions
1Q9 (c) The amount of time spent doing tutorials SA, A, D, SD
for TBL lessons is shorter than that in 21%, 40%, 25%, 14%
lecture/tutorial system.

6 Findings

In this section, we report our findings from this present study of the
efficacy of flipped classroom in teaching tertiary mathematics at the JC
level. We do so by making evidence-based inference from three sources:
(1) statistical analysis of the survey response (2) qualitative analysis of
the free-response comments given by students in the survey, as well as
(3) the comments given in selected students’ interviews. Our analysis
addresses each of the following aspects.

6.1 Autonomy
The participating students formed new habits of independently
attempting the designated tutorial questions before the TBL lessons. In
their process of answering these questions, the students either followed
the recorded video lectures or the PowerPoint slides that explained the
key notions via specifically designed examples. As the students viewed
the electronically transmitted information, they actively filled in the
blanks in the lecture notes.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 233

Apart from wanting to score better in their iRAT, it was evident that the
participating students felt that the flipped classroom approach had
empowered them with the ability to learn mathematics independently:

Student 3: “TBL allow me to learn the chapter by myself [emphasis added] and
I’m able to remember more things better since I’ve learnt a lot of things myself
instead of just going to lecture and listening and just absorbing the things that I
have learnt.”
Student 4: “moreover, given that now i learn the topic myself [emphasis
added]…”

Because of the perceived autonomy in learning, there was an overall

increase of engagement in the lesson. The feeling of getting ‘engaged’
becomes a fuel for perseverance as the students progressed through the
different topics.

Student 6: “… overall, I feel more engaged in the lesson and at the same time,
ignited my passion in studying hard for the subject.”

Student 23 revealed in the interview that:

“Without the lecture, we have to study the topic on our own. … Whenever I got my
pre-class reading done, I learn a lot in the lesson.”

Participating students have departed from reliance on external help, for

example employing private tutors or making prolonged consultation
appointments with their mathematics teachers at school.

6.2 Competence
Competence can be displayed in various aspects of learning like
mastering the studying skills, content-specific skills, problem-solving
skills, communication skills, and so on. We observed that a majority of
the students had studied their lecture notes more carefully, and made
useful annotations on them, as exemplified in Student 24’s sharing:
234 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

“To better prepare for the TBL lessons, we can watch the videoed lecture and go
through the PowerPoint slides, and do annotations.”

This practice increased the likelihood of solving the designated tutorial

problems, a truly phenomenal change as contrasted with their past
practice. We classified the motivation to gain genuine understanding as
mastery of content knowledge. The Readiness Assurance Tests asserted
positive pressure on the students because they created the needed
platform for ensuing discussions, helping the students gain better
understanding of the concepts. The structure of the pre-class activities
provided scaffolding for the students, and aided in their resource
management:

Student 1: “For me, I felt that it has helped to manage my time better [emphasis
added] since a higher level of commitment is required in this form of learning.”

As the students progressed towards integrated regulation, an

increased sense of competence was also gained by sharing knowledge
with students who did not participate in this method of learning:

Student 5: “… my friends from other classes often do not know how to answer.
When I share it with them and it really make me feel that TBL is much better, rather
than going to lectures and just listening.”

Integrated regulation is characterised by a change in the student’s belief

system. In the past, the students did not believe in the rationale of
practising mathematics when they studied at home. Now, the
participating students are not only making sure everyone in the group
had obtained the correct answers but the group strived to know how this
answer was arrived at, as shown in Student 20’s interview response:

“During the gRAT session, when we discussed the questions we ensured that all the
members got their questions right. Not only did we ensure that all the members got
the correct answer, but we also made sure we knew why the other three options
were wrong.”
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 235

From the students’ responses, it was clear that as the students felt they
have achieved competence in various skills, their motivation to study
mathematics had progressed from the state of “merely going through
motion” to that of genuine pursuit of knowledge, as shown in Student
20’s interview response:

“For some people who prefer the lecture-tutorial system, it is because they just
wanted to get the work done – which is not really something that I want. For me,
learning is not just getting the work done, it is really about knowing your stuff.”

6.3 Relatedness
The participating students critically evaluate each other’s viewpoints and
suggestions during their discussions. These discussions create
opportunities for people to hear and to be heard, and hence satisfying this
particular need of the individual.

Student 7: “I find my group very helpful in answering each other's doubts

[emphasis added] and they are also very caring [emphasis added] by not allowing
anyone to be left behind.”

An increased sense of relatedness among students and with the

facilitating teacher emerged along time. As a result, there was a marked
changed of practice in the classroom in that active discussions became a
natural occurrence rather than an awkward enforcement on the part of the
teacher. Meaningful group discussions also resulted in greater
engagement and heightened attentiveness among the students, as Student
20 revealed:

“Not only did we clarify our doubts, but we also reinforced our own understanding
by helping one another. When other raised doubts that I had not thought of, it
instigates my curiosity which makes me more attentive in the session … it is a very
engaging method of learning as opposed to the conventional lecture-tutorial
system.”
236 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Another student, Student 23, pointed out TBL discussions were centred
about purposefully crafted questions and scenarios, and these increased
the students’ attentiveness during the discussions and hence brought
about greater engagement:

“Sometimes, in a [traditional] tutorial setting, we tend to zoom off because like a

teacher is explaining the rest are listening, and sometimes the teacher will ask you
questions and you answer. But this is not completely engaging. But then in a TBL
lesson, the teacher gives you a scenario or maybe ask you a question to test your
understanding, and you are forced to discuss with your friends. But when you are
discussing with a friend, you are forced to stay attentive. That actually is
beneficial.”

We observed from the survey that students grew in confidence and

comfort, indicating that the teams had generally worked well.

Student 8: “TBL lessons really bring students from different classes together,
cultivating group and teamwork [emphasis added].”

However, we are also alerted about certain risks involved when the
discussions could go the wrong direction:

Student 10: “Some of my teammates need to speak up more [emphasis added] and
share whatever beneficial knowledge that can help us strengthen our foundation for
topics.”
Student 2: “… a member in my TBL group has said condescending things to me
before which really affected my learning and confidence [emphasis added].”

Relatedness with the group is a double-edged sword that cuts both ways:
either it encourages the student to engage deeper in meaningful
discussions or repels the student from engaging because of other
psychological effects. Students 24 and 20’s comments shed some insight
with regards to the preceding remark:

Student 24: “Basically, if you don’t understand, you will look foolish pretending to
explain something.”
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 237

Student 20: “Personally, I feel that TBL benefits me more as a person who needs to
voice out my innermost doubts no matter how stupid they are. Because it is better
to be a fool now than to be a fool in the exams, right?”

6.4 Cognitive load and its management

From the survey response, there was no clear indication that the flipped
classroom approach implemented in our study had taken sufficient
consideration of the students’ cognitive load involved in the learning,
particularly in the pre-class activities. Indeed, there were several
complaints about the efficiency (not the effectiveness) of viewing the
videoed lectures and the PowerPoint slides prior to the TBL sessions.

Student 11: “… the ppt slides were really helpful in my understanding of concepts
but the workload can be quite too much [emphasis added] at times.”
Student 9: “It's effective but the time (spent) is just too much [emphasis added].”

Student 23 shared her difficulties in coping with a high cognitive load

when it came to preparing her lessons:

“If I don’t watch the lecture, I will have to take much longer to study a concept. So
it was hard for me because I have external commitment for the first semester.
Whenever I got my pre-class reading done, I learn a lot in the lesson. But when I
did not manage to get things done, it was quite hard to stay on par with
everybody.”

7 Implications and Conclusions

This chapter can be seen as responding to calling from Abeysekera and

Dawson (2015) to test the efficacy of the flipped classroom approach via
six testable propositions pertaining to motivational matters and cognitive
load. By and large, our implementation showed positive effects in most
aspects of extrinsic motivation afforded by the features put in place in
our implementation.
238 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

While we are very encouraged by several phenomenal

transformations concerning learner’s motivation in mathematics in our
implementation of flipped classroom approach that relied heavily on
TBL, we must stay conscious of many potential risks, disadvantages or
even dangers that are present.
In this study, we want to raise to the reader’s attention that the
design of the flipped classroom activities, both out-of-class or in-class,
must be crafted with due consideration of the cognitive load of the
students. Teachers who fore-load the lecture content as pre-class
activities have a common tendency of making compact all that are
needed to be covered in lectures and packing them as videoed lecture or
reading materials. Students do need time and energy to ‘unpack’ these
materials and to assimilate and/or accommodate them to their existing
knowledge paradigm.
Perhaps, it is instructive to return to our theoretical framework for
guidance in this matter. The role of the teacher is to continuously
respond to the changes that are taking place in the class by designing
just-in-time post-class activities (or pre-class activities prior to the next
lesson) that address those changes or demands. Instead of anticipating
too far ahead in the process of lesson planning, it is perhaps wiser to take
the counter-intuitive approach of “wait-and-observe” so that a more
responsive stance is possible.
Another important aspect that demands further study is the efficacy
of group discussions. The effectiveness of group discussions in the TBL
setting deserves a more careful study because the extent to which an
individual finds group discussion beneficial depends on several social
factors. Indeed some of these factors may well tie in with the culture or
subculture of the group in question. Students who may have concerns of
feeling humiliated may not find it comfortable to ask ‘stupid questions’
when there, in fact, is a need to ask such clarifying questions.
 On the Efficacy of Flipped Classroom: Motivation and Cognitive Load 239

Acknowledgement
We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to those JC2 students
who agreed to participate in this study, and the participating JC, given
that the JC2 students were sitting for the ‘A’ level examinations – a high-
stake state examination.

References

Abeysekera, L., & Dawson, P. (2015). Motivation and cognitive load in flipped
classroom: definition, rationale and a call for research. Higher Education Research
& Development, 34(1), 1-14.
Berrett, D. (2012). How ‘flipping’ the classroom can improve the traditional lecture. The
Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(8), 853-874.
Bishop, J. L. & Verleger, M. A. (2013). The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the
Research. The 120th American Society for Engineering Education Annual
Conference & Exposition, June 23-26.
Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive
Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc.
Clarke, R. C., Nguyen, F., & Sweller, J. (2005). Efficiency in learning: Evidence-based
guidelines to manage cognitive load. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Foot, H. & Howe, C. (1998). The psychoeducational basis of peer-assisted learning. In
Topping K. J., & Ehly, S. W. (Ed.), Peer-Assisted Learning, 27-43. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Haidet, P., Levine, R., Parmelle, D., Crow, S., Kennedy, F., Kelly, P. A., Perkowski, L.,
Michaelsen, L., & Richards, B. (2012). Perspective: Guidelines for Reporting
Team-Based Learning Activities in the Medical and Health Sciences Education
Literature. Academic Medicine, 87(3), p. 292-299.
Ho, W. K., Leong, Y. H, & Ho, F. H. (2015). The Impact of Online Video Suite on the
Singapore Pre-service Teacher’ Buying-in to Innovative Teaching of Factorisation
via Algecards. In Ng, S. F. (Ed.), Cases of Mathematics Professional Development
in East Asia Countries – Using Video to Support Grounded Analysis, 157-178.
Singapore: Springer.
240 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Kolb, A., & Kolb, D. (2012). Experiential Learning Theory. In Seel, N. M. (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, 1215-1219. US: Springer.
Lage, M., Platt, G., & Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the classroom: A gateway to creating
an inclusive learning environment. Journal of Economic Education, 3(1), 30-43.
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our
capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81-97.
Piaget, J. (1967). Six psychological studies. New York: Random House.
Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000a). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and
new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67.
Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000b). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic
motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-
78.
Strayer, J. (2007). The effects of the flipped classroom on the learning environment: A
comparison of learning activity in a traditional classroom and a flip classroom that
used an intelligent tutoring system. Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University,
Columbus.
Van Nuland, H., Taris, T., Bockaets, M., & Martens, R. (2012). Testing the hierarchical
SDT model: The case of performance-oriented classrooms. European Journal of
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Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
 Chapter 13

Use of Comics and Storytelling in Teaching

Mathematics

TOH Tin Lam CHENG Lu Pien

JIANG Heng LIM Kam Ming

The use of comics and storytelling in education has gained

significant attention from researchers and educators worldwide over
the past two decades. In this chapter, we describe an alternative
package of teaching lower secondary mathematics topic on
percentage and discuss how the use of comics in a storytelling
setting, and with some help of technology, can be used in the
mathematics classroom. This combination of comics and
storytelling is an approach which can be used in teaching
mathematics, especially to students who are less motivated and do
not have high mathematical self-concept. The objectives and
principles of designing the package as an alternative approach to the
usual textbook material are discussed.

1 Introduction

It is generally agreed that modern education programs are more theory-

based than skill-based (Glass, 2003). Thus it is not surprising to observe
that modern education programs tend to favor the audio learners over the
visual and kinesthetic learners (Amir & Subramaniam, 2007), who are
usually associated with the less academically inclined students.
According to Myron and Keith (2007), teachers will be more
successful in delivering classroom lessons if they are more mindful of
242 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

the different learning styles and needs of their students and hence able to
cater to the different learning needs of the individuals. We believe this is
especially important if teachers are working with groups of students who
are less motivated in the particular subject and who have low academic
self-concept.
In an earlier survey conducted by Toh and Lui (2014), it was found
that some Singapore teachers have already used cartoons, comics and
storytelling to entice students who have low mathematics self-concept
and who are less academically motivated to learn mathematics.
However, there seems to be a lack of concerted effort among Singapore
teachers to develop such material for school mathematics curriculum and
researchers to study the impact of using this alternative approach in
mathematics education in Singapore on students’ mathematics self-
concept and motivation to learn the subject.
This chapter reports the authors’ work in developing an alternative
package of teaching lower secondary mathematics topic of percentage
using comics in the context of storytelling, the principles the authors
adopted in designing the package and how this package could be
executed in a secondary school mathematics classroom. Based on similar
studies done overseas, the authors believe that this approach will likely
have impact on students’ motivation level and their mathematical self-
concept. The research part is still work-in-progress and will be reported
elsewhere in the future.

2 Use of Cartoons and Comics in Mathematics Classrooms

Cartoons are generally understood as two-dimensional visual art which

are usually non-realistic or semi-realistic reflection of the real world,
which are designed to create humor. Comics are media which convey
ideas through visual images or series of images – these series of visual
images are usually made up of cartoons. In this chapter, occasionally we
use the two terms “cartoons” and “comics” interchangeably, bearing in
mind that we are mainly interested in the use of visual images (which are
usually humorous or exaggerated) to convey mathematical ideas.
 Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 243

School age children are generally attracted to cartoons and comics

(Wright & Sherman, 2006). Students are generally comfortable in
combining information in both visual and textual forms when reading
comics. If comics are used in classroom teaching, they could logically
provide opportunities for skill-building, creativity and reading for
content (Urbani, 1978). The use of cartoons not only adds humor to
learning, but also demonstrates the “human” side of the academic
subject. Thus, the “enmity” between comics and school is gradually
being dissolved as teachers are beginning to view comics as potential
educational tools, as a way to motivate students in learning the various
academic subjects (Cleaver, 2008). It is generally agreed that the use of
comics can also be used to improve students’ academic literacy (Tilley,
2008).
Undeniably, reading comics may not reach the level of complexity
of reading texts in the real-world. However, “compared to reading ‘real’
books, reading comics appears to be a simple task and compared to
reading no books, reading comics might be preferable” (Tilley, 2008).
With the increasing use of graphics in the society nowadays and the
challenge the society is facing in representing large amounts of
information in visual and graphic forms, it is crucial that students are
exposed to alternative ways of representing and interpreting information
using graphics instead of heavily worded statements (Lowrie, 2012).
Samples of how comics can be used to bring across abstract
mathematical concepts in a visual form, using cartoons as a powerful
tool, are described in Toh (2009). In this way, the use of comics could be
perceived as inducting students at a young age into the world of graphic
representation in a casual and interesting way.

2.1 What Research has shown about Cartoons and Comics

There are several studies that described the impact of the use of cartoons
and comics in teaching, both mathematics and other subjects. The use of
cartoons and comics in the teaching of a topic in Chemistry at a
secondary school had several positive outcomes: increased teacher-
student and student-student interactions, increased students’ interest, and
244 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

higher levels of student participation in class (Lallbeeharry & Narod,

2014). In addition, the use of cartoons and comics as a teaching tool
appeared to be useful in helping teachers to pinpoint students’ problems
and misconceptions about the topic, and in turn help improve students’
understanding of the Chemistry topic and performance. Use of concept
cartoons representing different viewpoints and correct and incorrect
statements both facilitated students’ engagement in argumentation and
thinking. Lallbeeharry and Narod (2014) suggested that the use of
cartoons is useful as a teaching tool that can be incorporated into a
variety of classroom strategies such as group work and demonstration.
The study by Sengul and Dereli (2010) in Turkey on a group of 7th
grade students shows that teaching mathematics with cartoons and
comics lessened the students’ mathematical anxiety. Similar studies by
Sexton (2010) in Australia and Cho (2012) in the United States show
further that 7th grade students preferred learning in the similar mode to
the traditional mode of instruction. The use of cartoons and comics
increased the students’ motivation and interest in learning mathematics
and decreased their mathematical anxiety.
Cartoons and comics are especially instrumental in arousing
students’ curiosity about the real world, especially if these can ride on
the affordances of technology. There are two broad categories of the
concept of curiosity: 1) sensory curiosity and 2) cognitive curiosity.
Sensory curiosity which involves variation of sensory stimuli such as
light, sound or other forms of stimuli may be best implemented through
the use of multimedia technology (Liu, Toprac, & Yuen, 2009).
Educators may also leverage on students’ cognitive curiosity which is
aroused when learners discover gaps in their knowledge base and they
want to explore and learn with the use of technology (Malone &
Lepper, 1987).
Cho, Osborne and Sanders (2015) found that the use of cartoons
with a sample of elementary education pre-service teachers completing
mathematics content courses led to positive outcomes such as increased
enjoyment of the mathematics course and stronger engagement with the
subject area. The use of cartoons also supported problem posing which
 Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 245

has been linked to students’ ability to think about and apply mathematics
to real world situations.

3 Storytelling in Mathematics Classroom

Educators have been using storytelling to teach many academic subjects

(Huber, Caine, Huber, & Steeves, 2013). Historically, mathematical
concepts are discovered or invented when human beings considered
solving real-world problems. However, it appears to many students that
the mathematics in schools involves a communication of “unnatural”
counterintuitive facts – which are usually represented by
decontextualized symbolic mathematical language – and which is totally
irrelevant to the real-world. Thus, it is essential to bridge the gap
between the real-world mathematics and the school mathematics.
Perhaps the use of storytelling in teaching mathematics could hold
promise to bridge this gap.
Recently, mathematics teachers and educators have proposed ways
to teach mathematics through storytelling (see, for example, Tan & Toh,
2013). In fact, some creative mathematics teachers, catering to the
affective aspect of student learning, have used storytelling to make
mathematics more enjoyable and, more importantly, to nurture a learning
environment of imagination, emotion, and thinking. Stories are also used
in mathematics classrooms not only to facilitate students to understand
mathematical concepts, but also to engage them in activities, raise
questions, think and explore various mathematical concepts and ideas
(Schiro, 2004; Zazkis & Liljedahl, 2009).
Egan (2005) suggested that stories have their particular structure and
must be able to appeal to our emotions:

a story is a unit of some particular kind; it has a beginning that sets

up a conflict or expectation, a middle that completes it, and an end
that resolves it. The defining feature of stories, as distinct from other
kinds of narratives – like arguments, histories, scientific reports – is
that they orient our feelings about their contents. (p. 37)
246 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

According to Green (2004), “stories are a powerful structure for

organizing and transmitting information, and for creating meaning in our
lives and environments” (p. 1). Thus, the usefulness of using story in
teaching engages students’ emotions, spark their interest and help them
create meaning connected to their lives.
One might worry that there is a possibility that students might get
distracted in the process of engaging in stories during classroom lessons
and thereby missed out the curriculum content. However, a careful
design of the stories can make the lesson pedagogically sound in the
mathematics classroom. The key principles in selecting appropriate
stories in teaching are discussed in the next subsection.

3.1 Principles in Selecting Appropriate Stories for Teaching

Based on a survey of the mathematics education literature, we have

identified two key principles in selecting and developing appropriate
stories for teaching mathematics in the classroom.
Firstly, the selected stories must be able to “contextually situate(s)
mathematics in ways that are interesting, involving, and relevant to
the reader” (Schiro, 2004, p. 46). One key objective for teaching
mathematics through storytelling is to engage the students to assume the
role of the story’s characters and “think through mathematical problems”
(Schiro 2004, p.46). Thus, the key consideration here is that the students
must be able to associate themselves with the context of the story so that
we can achieve the objective to stir their emotions, intellect and
imagination.
Secondly, the stories need to meaningfully bridge the mathematics
concepts and the students’ lives. Through the stories, meaningful
mathematical tasks can be developed (as in the case of a word problem).
These tasks should be “rich with mathematical possibility and
opportunity, and contain hooks that connect the child’s world with
particular mathematical ideas and ways of thinking” (Ball, 1993, p. 375).
For instance, the teacher Doris Lawson (in Schiro’s study) used a fantasy
story to help her students learn the multi-digit algorithm by having them
 Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 247

“move” between the world of fantasy and the real world to solve the
mathematical problems embedded in the story (Schiro, 2004).

4 Combining Comics and Storytelling

This section reports the authors’ effort in combining the use of comics
and storytelling to develop a mathematics teaching package on the lower
secondary school mathematics topic of percentage. It describes how we
develop the comic strips, the storytelling associated with the comic strips
and the proposed way to deliver the lessons. The teaching package is
made available to readers who wish to try out the teaching package at the
website http://math.nie.edu.sg/tltoh/magical. The material is presented in
the web-based form, in which practice questions are included at the
appropriate juncture in the comic strips. Readers can click on the
“practice” icons to access the practice questions. The teaching package
can be used in both traditional print or web-based version, although the
latter – with a little help from technology – has clearly more advantages
than the former as discussed in the previous sections.

4.1 Comics

In developing the comics storytelling package in teaching the chapter on

percentage in lower secondary school mathematics, the entire chapter is
divided into five stories. Each of these five stories centres on the
encounters of two characters Sam and Sarah in five episodes in their
lives. Some incidents within these five episodes are realistic while others
might be more exaggerated or even humorous. Instead of presenting the
chapter on percentage with the conventional specific instructional
objectives identified for each of the sub-units of the chapter, we classify
the five episodes using titles of the comics (see Figure 1).
248 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Figure 1. The titles of all the comics associated with percentage

Students are considered to have covered all the concepts in the chapter
on percentage if they have read all the five sets of comics and attempted
all the practice questions presented within them.
Each set of comics brings out the various key concepts within the
chapter on percentage which students are required to be familiar with, as
specified in the Singapore Mathematics Curriculum. We will next
illustrate the first set of comics entitled “Let’s go shopping”, which
consists of 18 windows and two practice sets. Each of the comic screens
will be called a “Window” in our subsequent reference, as shown in
Windows 1 to 18.
Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 249

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8
250 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

9 10

11 12

13 14

15 16
 Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 251

17 18

The first set “let’s go shopping” attempts to bring out several concepts
related to percentage through a shopping journey of Sam and Sarah, the
main characters of the entire set of the comics. The following
instructional objectives that are covered in the first set consist of:

 Interpret the use of the term “percentage” or the symbol %; and

 Express a percentage as a fraction.

These concepts or procedures are expressed through the conversation

between the two characters Sam and Sarah, practice questions are
embedded within suitable windows and opportunities to provide recall of
pre-requisites are provided within the various sections of the comics.
This will be elaborated in the next sub-section through our illustration
with the first set “let’s go shopping”.

4.2 Story associated with the Comic

The set of comic strips is accompanied by a story describing the journey

of Sam and Sarah. The story associated with “let’s go shopping” is
described below:

Sam and Sarah are good friends. During the Great Singapore Sales
they went down to the largest shopping centre in Singapore. They
saw a young lady - a shopaholic - carrying many bags. (Windows 1
and 2)
252 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Sam was rather puzzled why the symbol % appears everywhere.

Sarah said that % stands for percent. So she further said that 30%
means 30 out of 100. (Windows 3 and 4)

Sam and Sarah continued their shopping journey. See that? The
shop indicated that 50% sold! (Windows 5 and 6)

So 50% means 50 out of 100. Can it be expressed as a fraction? Yes

50 50 1
it should be . Sarah explained that can be expressed as .
100 100 2
(Windows 7 and 8)

Sam and Sarah continued their shopping and came across a hair
salon. The salon offered 50% discount! They saw a young boy
coming out of the salon and only got half of his hair cut. Do you
know why? (Windows 9 to 12)

They were hungry after a long day of shopping. Outside a pizza

shop, Sam and Sarah saw that pizzas were sold at 40% of the usual
price. This sounds like a good deal. He thought that he could have
the whole pizza by paying 40% of the price! But see, what did he
2
get? He was so disappointed that he only got of the pizza. Do
5
you know why? (Windows 13 to 18).

The story begins with a visual image to get students to appreciate the use
of percentage in the real world. Visual symbols of the percentage sign
(%) are used in the context of a shopping centre. A brief discussion
serving as a recap of percentage as “out of 100” is next introduced
(Windows 4 to 8). A humorous way of introducing the conversion of an
1
“easy percentage” of 50% as was introduced through the haircut
2
incident (Windows 9 to 12). A more in-depth thought provoking incident
2
of engaging students to think of how 40% is equivalent to is presented
5
next (Windows 13 to 18). At Window 18, the teacher could facilitate
students to discuss how percentages can be converted to fractions (in
 Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 253

their simplest forms), demonstrate with examples and explanations and

get their students to practice the appropriate questions provided within
the package.

4.3 Support for teaching

The students have been introduced to the elementary concept of

percentage at the upper primary level. The chapter on percentage (on
which the comics and storytelling material was designed and described in
this chapter) taught at the lower secondary level serves to build on the
students’ fundamental concepts learnt at the primary level. Thus, the
support provided within the teaching package includes opportunities for
students to recall the meaning of percentage (Figure 2) and practise some
elementary questions on percentage (Figure 3) before they move on to
the comic strips.

Figure 2. A recap station on the meaning of percentage (%)

At Window 2, students are given the opportunity to recall the meaning of

percentage. A “recall” button is designed below Window 2. Upon
clicking this button, Figure 2 appears. This screen serves to facilitate
students to recall the meaning of percentage. In addition, students can
appreciate the historical meaning of the word “percentage” and how the
symbol (%) was derived. Students are given further opportunity to
answer some elementary questions about percentage if they are ready to
proceed, as indicated by the question “Are You Ready?”
An example of the practice questions corresponding to key learning
objectives of the chapter on percentage is shown in Figure 3.
254 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Figure 3. Practice questions associated with converting percentage to fraction

Window 16 presents the idea of associating a percentage with a fraction

2
(in this case, 40% with ). Teachers at this juncture will alert the
5
students about how percentages can be mathematically converted to
fractions. In the web-based version of this comic, a “practice” button
appears below Window 16. After clicking this button, the students will
access the practice questions. They are required to practice at least four
questions on converting percentages to fractions. Students can access
more practice questions as a consolidation at Windows 18. Similarly, a
“practice” button is designed below Window 18 for this purpose.
The advantages of using the web-based platform over the traditional
printed version are that (1) the numbers in the questions can be
randomized so that the students have the opportunity to practice different
questions each time they access the website; and (2) the system can be
programmed such that students are given immediate feedback, especially
in the event that the answers provided by the students are incorrect.

4.4 Trialling with the comics storytelling package

The authors first developed one story that described the entire chapter of
percentage. Comic strips were developed to tell the story with practice
questions introduced at the appropriate junctures of the story. This
inaugural set of comics was shared during several seminars with school
 Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 255

mathematics teachers for their suggestions. The suggestions given by the

teachers are:

 It is not advisable to use one long story to cover the entire topic
on percentage, as there is a high chance that students may get
bored with the same context for too many lessons. It is desirable
to chunk the entire story into several shorter sets of comic strips
with different story settings in order not for the students to feel
the novelty of the comics so as not to get bored.
 It is encouraged to include some humour into the comic strips to
sustain the students’ interest. The humour should target to
introduce mathematical concepts or ideas in a casual manner.
 If technology is to be used in this comic storytelling approach,
the material should be interactive; students should be given
immediate feedback in their responses to answering questions in
the practice sections.

In our revision of the first draft of comic storytelling package, we

incorporated the above points. The comic strips, whose content is shown
in Figure 1, is a fine-tuning of our first draft based on the authors
working on the teachers’ suggestions.

4.5 Lesson implementation

There are several possible approaches to conduct a lesson using comics

and storytelling as the pedagogy. We shall describe two possible
approaches.
Firstly, the teacher can choose to go through the story as described
in Section 4.2, interjecting questions to elicit students’ responses to the
story. As teachers ask students questions, the students will activate their
schema and thereby they will have the opportunity to assimilate the new
learning into their existing structure. Furthermore, in telling a story, it is
not the mathematical precision that matters; what is even more crucial is
to impress the related mathematical concepts deeply into the mind of the
students.
256 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Secondly, student role play can be used; instead of the teachers

reading the stories verbatim to the students, these stories can be acted,
performed vividly and discussed in the mathematics classroom which
honours various voices and perspectives (Whitin & Whitin, 2000).
Students can get more interested in the content of discussion if they can
associate themselves with the characters of the story and, further, in
thinking about their own strategies and feel more comfortable sharing
their ideas to solve the mathematical problems.

5 Conclusion

This package was originally developed as part of a research project in

helping low attainers learn mathematics. Students will get interested in
the learning processes if they are able to make connections between the
real-world and the related mathematical concepts (Albert and Antos,
2000). The use of cartoons and other visuals also demonstrate to the
students the “human” part of the subject besides its relevance to the real
world.
We believe that appropriate use of cartoons and comics in
storytelling, is able to motivate students in mathematics, especially the
less academically inclined. The use of cartoons and visual
representations will appeal to the visual learners, while the use of
technology to allow the students to navigate through the entire set of
comics will reach out to the kinesthetic students. Although our target
groups of students are those who are not motivated to learn the subject or
those with low academic self-concept, we believe that the same
pedagogy can motivate students to learn mathematics among the general
student population.
From a pragmatic perspective, there will likely be more emphasis on
using graphic stimulus in the curriculum and school practices in aligning
to the increasing use of graphics in the society (Lowrie, 2012). An
additional advantage of using comics in teaching (in addition to
capturing the students’ interest about the topic) is that it nurtures the
development of the skill of interpreting real-world information presented
in graphic form. The use of comics storytelling pedagogy certainly
 Use of Comics & Storytelling in Teaching Mathematics 257

enriches the learning experience of students, although there is currently

little research in this area of combining the effects of comics and
storytelling.
Using comics and storytelling in teaching mathematics facilitates
and builds students’ confidence in learning mathematics. Not only that,
it allows students to be creative in their outlook in learning mathematics
and enjoy learning mathematics. Cartoons and comics have a tendency to
exaggerate the real-world situation while at the same time it is enjoyable
for the students in the process of learning. This provides a good
opportunity for students to develop critical thinking skills and to
appreciate diverse views. Consequently, we are developing the students
to be self-directed learners. We are envisioning that the students will
eventually take ownership of their own learning, and even design their
own comics to convene mathematical ideas – in other words, they
become active contributors to the learning processes. It is clear that
these are critical components of the 21st century competencies.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank our consultant Dr Elena Lui Hah Wah
for her invaluable suggestions on this paper, and all school teachers who
have given precious suggestions and comments in the various phase of
the development of the teaching package. This development-cum-
research work is supported by a development grant from the National
Institute of Education (DEV 7/14 TTL), of which the authors are
eternally grateful.
258 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

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 Chapter 14

Game Theory: An Alternative Mathematical

Experience

Ein-Ya GURA

Few branches of mathematics have been more influential in the

social sciences than game theory. In recent years, it has become an
essential tool for social scientists studying the strategic behavior of
competing individuals, firms, and countries. However, the
mathematical complexity of game theory is often very intimidating
for students who have only a basic understanding of mathematics.
We address this problem here by offering a course in game theory
(specifically one topic) that can be adapted to the classroom to help
students understand the key concepts and ideas of game theory
without the use of formal mathematical notation.

1 Introduction

In the twenty-first century, game theory stands in the forefront of

interdisciplinary research and yet this branch of mathematics is
completely ignored in high-school mathematics curricula. Game theory
undertakes to build mathematical models and draw conclusions from
these models in connection with interactive decision-making situations in
which a group of people not necessarily sharing the same interests are
required to make a decision.
Mathematical modeling is the essence of the teaching of
mathematics and it is recognized as an important process skill in the
mathematics curriculum (MOE, 2012). The problem is that much of the
mathematics taught at school has no connection to real-life situations and
262 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

therefore the mathematical modeling is not very meaningful. Game

theory is a branch of mathematics that is motivated mostly by the social
sciences or, better, by human behavior and therefore constructing
mathematical models for real-life situations is natural to the theory. In
game theory one can ensure that students are able to understand the basic
problem on which they are working. As game theorist and Nobel laureate
Robert Aumann writes

The language of game theory – coalitions, payoffs, markets, votes –

suggests that it is not a branch of mathematics, that it is motivated by
and related to the world around us, and that it should be able to tell
us something about the world. (Aumann, 1985, p. 28)

Yet, despite its tractability, game theory is a branch of mathematics:

“the resistive medium is the mathematical models with its definitions,
axioms, theorems and proofs” (Aumann, 1985, p. 42). As it was said,
game theory is largely absent in the mathematics classroom. To address
this issue, a course in game theory was designed. Our main goal in
designing this course was to make mathematics a subject that can be
discussed and thought about through a basic comprehension of the
problem at hand. We wanted to present material that does not require
mathematical prerequisites and yet involves deep game-theoretic ideas
and some mathematical sophistication.

2 The Course

The course is a collection of a few topics from game theory that are
intended to open a window onto the new and fascinating world of
mathematical applications to the social sciences. It takes a small number
of topics and studies them in depth. It shows the student how a
mathematical model can be constructed for real-life issues. One of the
aims of the course is to acquaint the student with “a different
mathematics,” a mathematics that is not buried under complicated
formulas, yet contains deep mathematical thinking. Another aim is to
show that mathematics can efficiently handle social issues. A third aim is
 Game Theory: An Alternative Mathematical Experience 263

to deepen the mathematical thinking of the person. Details about the

various topics can be found in the book by Gura and Maschler (2008).
In the next section, we will describe one example from the course
which can be adapted to the classroom, namely Mathematical Matching.
The topic of Mathematical Matching is exemplified by the problem of
assigning applicants to institutions of higher learning. Each applicant
ranks the universities in which he is applying according to his scale of
preferences. The universities, in turn, rank the applicants for admission
according to their own scale of preferences. The question is how to effect
the “matching” between the applicants and the universities. The problem
leads to unexpected solutions.

3 Mathematical Matching

In 1962 a paper whose title, “College Admissions and the Stability of

Marriage,” raised eyebrows (Gale & Shapley, 1962). Actually, the paper
dealt with a matter of some urgency. According to Gale (2001) the paper
owes its origin to an article in the New Yorker, dated September 10,
1960, in which the writer describes the difficulties of undergraduate
admissions at Yale University. Then as now, students would apply to
several universities and admissions officers had no way of telling which
applicants were serious about enrolling. The students, who had every
reason to manipulate, would create the impression that each university
was their top choice, while the universities would enroll too many
students, assuming that many of them would not attend. The whole
process became a guessing game. Above all, there was a feeling that
actual enrollments were far from optimal. Having read the article, Gale
and Shapley collaborated. First, they defined a concept of stable
matching, and then proved that the stable matching between students and
universities always exists.
For simplicity, Gale and Shapley started with the unrealistic case in
which there are exactly n universities and n applicants and each
university has exactly one vacancy. A more realistic description of this
case is a matching between men and women—hence the title of their
paper.
264 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

The Matching Problem: Consider a community of men and women

where the number of men equals the number of women.

Objective: Propose a good matching system for the community (the

meaning of “good” will become clear presently). To be able to
propose such a system, we shall need relevant data about the
community. Accordingly, we shall ask every community member to
rank members of the opposite sex in accordance with his or her
preferences for a marriage partner. We shall assume that no men or
women in the community are indifferent to a choice between two or
more members of the opposite sex. This assumption is introduced to
simplify our task.

We illustrate with Example 1: that of four men named Al, Bob, Cal
and Dan, and four women Ann, Beth, Cher and Dot. Their list of
preferences is given in Figure 1. The numbers indicate what rank a man
or a woman occupies in the order of preferences. The left numbers
indicate the men’s preferences and the right numbers indicate the
women’s preferences. For example, according to the men’s ranking of
women, Al ranks Cher first, Dot second, Ann third, and Beth last. And
according to the women’s ranking of men, Cher ranks Bob first, Cal
second, Al third and Dan last.

Ann Beth Cher Dot

Al 3,1 4,1 1,3 2,2

Bob 2,2 3,2 4,1 1,3

Cal 1,3 2,3 3,2 4,1

Dan 3,4 4,4 2,4 1,4

Figure 1. List of preferences in Example 1

 Game Theory: An Alternative Mathematical Experience 265

Now given each individual’s preferences, can we propose a matching

system for the entire community?

Proposal 1:

( Al – Dot, Bob – Ann, Cal – Beth, Dan – Cher )

2x2 2x2 2x3 2x4

The numbers below each couple indicate what rank one member of a
couple assigns to the other member. The number on the left indicates
what rank the man assigns to the woman; the number on the right, what
rank the woman assigns to the man. This is indeed a possible proposal,
but it is not a good one. Cher is displeased, because she is paired off with
her last choice. She can propose to Bob, but she will be turned down
because she is his last choice. She will fare no better with Cal, because
she is his third choice while he is paired off with his second choice. On
the other hand, if Cher proposes to Al, he will be very pleased, because
she is his first choice. Proposal 1 is not a good one because Cher and Al
prefer each other to their actual mates, and one can reasonably assume
that they will reject the matchmaker’s proposal.
Let us consider another proposal where we try to pair each man with
his first choice. Al chooses Cher and Cal chooses Ann. However, both
Bob and Dan would pick Dot. Between the two of them, Dot would
prefer Bob. This leaves Dan to be paired with Beth. We summarize the
situation below.

Proposal 2:

( Al – Cher, Bob – Dot, Cal – Ann, Dan – Beth )

1x3 1x3 1x3 4x4

Now three out of four men are paired off with their first choice. Would
Proposal 2 be accepted or rejected?
266 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Conversely, we can ask if it is possible to pair off all the women with
their first choice. Specifically, both Ann and Beth prefer Al, while Cher’s
first choice is Bob and Dot’s first choice is Cal. We see that if we pair off
Ann with her first choice, Al (since Al prefers Ann to Beth), then Beth
cannot be paired with him too. We cannot pair off Beth with her second
choice, Bob, as he is already paired off with Cher. And Beth’s third
choice, Cal, is already paired off with Dot. Beth is therefore left with her
last choice.

Proposal 3:

( Al – Ann, Dan – Beth, Bob – Cher, Cal – Dot )

3x1 4x4 4x1 4x1

Three of the four women are paired off with their first choice. Will they
accept or reject this matching? Perhaps not since Beth can contest this
matching. For example, she can approach Bob and suggest that they both
reject this matching and form their own pair. In so doing Beth gets her
second choice—better than her fourth choice—and Bob gets his third
choice—better than his fourth choice. Thus, the above matching will be
rejected by both Beth and Bob.
Both Proposal 1 and Proposal 3 were rejected for the same reason
and can be regarded as unstable. We can thus propose that a stable
matching system must satisfy the following requirement: A stable
matching system must be such that under it there cannot be found a man
and a woman who are not paired off with each other but prefer each
other to their actual mates.
Based on the above definition, we can see that Proposal 2 is stable.
As Al, Bob and Cal are already paired with their first choice, they would
not protest. The only man who can do better is Dan, but every woman
other than Beth prefers their current mate to Dan.
It is natural to ask if it is always possible to find a stable matching in
any preference system. The answer is yes and Gale and Shapley (1962)
proposed a procedure for finding a stable matching system. The Gale–
Shapley algorithm is based on three assumptions:
 Game Theory: An Alternative Mathematical Experience 267

 The number of men equals the number of women.

 There is no indifference.
 Every community member has to rank all members of the
opposite sex.

We shall illustrate the algorithm with Example 1. The algorithm

involves a number of stages. In the first stage, each man proposes to the
woman who is his first choice. Each woman with more than one proposal
chooses her favorite and rejects the rest. The chosen man is considered to
be on her waiting list. Specifically, Al proposes to Cher, Bob proposes to
Dot, Cal proposes to Ann and Dan also proposes to Dot. Since Dot has
two proposals, she chooses Bob and rejects Dan. Thus Al, Bob and Cal
are respectively on Cher, Dot and Ann’s waiting lists. This concludes the
first stage. In the next stage, each man who is not on any waiting list
proposes to the most preferred woman whom he had not yet proposed to.
Each woman gets to choose between the new proposals and the one on
waiting list. The chosen one is placed on her waiting list, while all others
are rejected. The process is then repeated until every man is on some
woman’s waiting list. Returning to our example, Dan now proposes to
Cher. Between Dan and her waiting list candidate, Al, Cher would prefer
Al and reject Dan. This ends the second stage. Dan now proposes to his
third choice Ann in stage 3. Again, Ann prefers Cal (currently on her
waiting list) and rejects Dan. Finally in stage 4, Dan proposes to Beth
who places him on her waiting list. We now have a complete matching
which is actually Proposal 2.
The Gale–Shapley algorithm guarantees that a stable matching can
always be found. It is proved by the theorem: The Gale-Shapely
algorithm terminates in a stable matching system. It has been shown that
some preference structures yield more than one stable matching system.
This raises a few questions. For example, is there one stable matching
system that is everyone’s favorite? Assuming that there is no
indifference, the answer is no, because if there are two stable matching
systems, then at least one man is paired off with a different woman in the
second system, and necessarily prefers one system to the other. Another
question is the following. Is there one stable matching system that is the
268 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

men’s favorite? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. The same goes for the
women: there is a stable matching system that is the women’s favorite.
This leads to a definition of an optimal stable matching system for all
men or all women. It can be proved that for every preference structure,
the matching system obtained by the Gale–Shapley algorithm, when the
men propose, is optimal for the men. When the women propose they too
get an optimal matching system. We illustrate with Example 2 (Figure
2). It is clear that when the men propose, the algorithm results in the
stable matching of Eric with Esther and Fritz with Fannie. But when the
women do the proposing, the stable matching would be Eric with Fannie
and Fritz with Esther.

Esther Fannie

Eric 1,2 2,1

Fritz 2,1 1,2

Figure 2. List of preferences in Example 2

Let us now apply the Gale-Shapley algorithm to Example 1 again but

this time with the women proposing. In Stage 1, we have both Ann and
Beth choosing Al, Cher choosing Bob and Dot choosing Cal. Since Al
prefers Ann to Beth, Ann is placed on his waiting list while Beth is
rejected. We represent this stage with the following diagram. The
asterisk (*) indicates Beth is rejected while the other three women are on
waiting lists.

Stage 1: Al Bob Cal Dan

Ann Cher Dot
Beth*

In Stage 2, Beth, the only one not on a waiting list, now proposes to Bob
who is second on her preference list. Between Beth and Cher, Bob
chooses Beth and rejects Cher.
 Game Theory: An Alternative Mathematical Experience 269

Stage 2: Al Bob Cal Dan

Ann Cher* Dot
Beth

In Stage 3, Cher is now the only one not on a waiting list. She proposes
to Cal, who chooses her over Dot.

Stage 3: Al Bob Cal Dan

Ann Beth Dot*
Cher

For Stages 4 and beyond, the choices are represented by the following
diagrams.

Stage 4: Al Bob Cal Dan

Ann* Beth Cher
Dot

Stage 5: Al Bob Cal Dan

Dot Beth* Cher
Ann

Stage 6: Al Bob Cal Dan

Dot Ann Cher*
Beth

Stage 7: Al Bob Cal Dan

Dot* Ann Beth
Cher

Stage 8: Al Bob Cal Dan

Cher Ann* Beth
Dot

Stage 9: Al Bob Cal Dan

Cher Dot Beth*
Ann
270 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Finally in Stage 10, since Beth has been rejected by Al, Bob and Cal, she
proposes to her fourth choice Dan who accepts her on his waiting list.
The algorithm terminates here and we arrive at the stable matching
identical to Proposal 2.

Stage 10: Al Bob Cal Dan

Cher Dot Ann Beth

We see that both the men propose and the women propose version of
the algorithm leads to the same stable matching in Example 1. It can be
proved that this implies the stable matching is unique (Gura & Maschler,
2008).
Gale and Shapley were the first to ask whether their algorithm for
matching men and women was applicable to the college admissions
problem. What they did not know at the time was that the Association of
American Medical Colleges had already for ten years been applying the
Gale–Shapley algorithm to the task of assigning interns to hospitals in
the United States (Roth & Sotomayor, 1990). By a process of trial and
error that spanned over half a century, the Association in 1951 adopted
the procedure that was hospital-optimal. We also note that Shapley and
Roth subsequently shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics science for
contributions to the theory of stable matchings.

4 Conclusion

In this chapter, we described an example in game theory that can be

adapted to the classroom. We started with a real-life problem, and made
some simplifying assumptions to render the problem tenable. Several
possible solutions are discussed, which lead to the definition of a stable
matching. An algorithm for obtaining a stable matching is then
presented. It is hoped that such a discussion would pique the interests of
students in game theory. Those wishing to learn more, including the
proofs of the various claims, can refer to the book by Gura and Maschler
(2008). In the book, the authors went on to show how the three
assumptions of the Gale-Shapley algorithm could be dispensed with and
 Game Theory: An Alternative Mathematical Experience 271

how the algorithm could be adapted to deal with the original admission
problems. The other three chapters in the book consider other real-life
situations where constructing a mathematical model can be relevant and
meaningful.

References

Aumann, R. J. (1985). What is game theory trying to accomplish? In K. Arrow, & S.

Honkapohja (Eds.), Frontiers of Economics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Gale, D., & Shapley, L. S. (1962). College admissions and the stability of marriage.
American Mathematical Monthly, 69, 9-15.
Gale, D. (2001). The two-sided matching problem: origin, development and current
issues. International Game Theory Review, 3, 237-252.
Gura, E-.Y., & Maschler, M. (2008). Insights into Game Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Ministry of Education, Singapore. (2012). O & N(A)-Level Mathematics Teaching and
Learning Syllabus. Singapore: Author.
Roth, A.E., & Sotomayor, M. (1990). A Study in Game-Theoretic Modeling and Analysis.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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 Contributing Authors

Divya BHARDWAJ is a research associate at the Mathematics and

Mathematics Education Academic Group of the National Institute of
Education (NIE), Singapore. Since 2011, she has been involved with
various research projects at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and
Practice and the Mathematics and Mathematics Education Academic
group at NIE. Prior to that, she was a secondary school mathematics
teacher at NPS International School, Singapore. She completed her
Master of Science (Mathematics for Educators) from NIE in 2009 and
the Cambridge International Diploma for Teachers & Trainers in 2010.
Currently, she is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics.

CHAN Puay San graduated from the National University of Singapore

with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mathematics. In 2009, she was
conferred the degree of Master of Education (Curriculum and Teaching)
by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, under the Ministry
of Education Postgraduate Scholarship. A dedicated educator who
believes in bringing out the best in every child, as well as a reflective
practitioner who constantly seeks improvement in teaching pedagogy,
she received the President’s Award for Teachers in 2013. In recognition
of her outstanding contribution and devoted service, she was awarded the
National Day Award Commendation Medal (Pingat Kepujian) in 2015.

CHENG Lu Pien, received her PhD in Mathematics Education from

the University of Georgia (U.S.) in 2006. She is a lecturer with the
Mathematics and Mathematics Education Academic Group at the
National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore. She specialises in mathematics education courses
274 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

for primary school teachers. Her research interests include the

professional development of primary school mathematics teachers, tools
and processes in mathematics education programmes for pre-service
teachers. Her research interests also include children’s thinking in the
mathematics classrooms.

CHUA Boon Liang is an Assistant Professor in mathematics education

at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University
in Singapore. He holds a PhD in Mathematics Education from the
Institute of Education, University College London, UK. His research
interests cover pattern generalisation, mathematical reasoning and
justification, and task design. Given his experience as a classroom
teacher, head of department and teacher educator, he seeks to help
mathematics teachers create a supportive learning environment that
promotes understanding and inspire their students to appreciate the
beauty and power of mathematics. With his belief that students’ attitudes
towards mathematics are shaped by their learning experiences, he hopes
to share his passion of teaching mathematics with the teachers so that
they make not only their teaching more interesting but also learning
mathematics an exciting and enjoyable process for their students. He
feels honoured to have been awarded Excellence in Teaching by the
National Institute of Education in 2009 and 2013.

DINDYAL Jaguthsing is an Associate Professor in the Mathematics &

Mathematics Education Academic Group at the National Institute of
Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He teaches
mathematics education courses to both pre-service and in-service
teachers. He has worked on teacher education projects and currently
has specific interest in teachers’ use of examples in the teaching of
mathematics. His other interests include the teaching and learning of
geometry and algebra, lesson study and students’ reasoning in
mathematics specifically related to their errors and misconceptions.

Ein-Ya GURA is a member of The Federman Center for the Study of

Rationality at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Hebrew
University’s Center for Rationality and Interactive Decision Theory is a
 Contributing Authors 275

unique venture in which faculty, students and guests join forces to

explore the rational basis of decision-making. The range of the Center’s
activities is unparalleled in the world. Whereas most interdisciplinary
centers aim to promote cooperation between researchers in two or three
different fields, the Center for Rationality is a truly multidisciplinary
enterprise, drawing on the talents of outstanding scholars from 13
different departments, in four faculties of the University. Among the
Center’s members are top scholars from the fields of mathematics,
economics, psychology, biology, political science, education, computer
science, philosophy, business, statistics and law. At the core of the
Center’s work is Interactive Decision, or Game Theory. Game theory
models are virtually limitless in the ways they can be applied to the real
world. As part of the Center’s activities Ein-Ya Gura conducts a course
in game theory for high-school students credited by the university. Once
a week the students come to the Center for a 3 hours meeting to study
game theory and to listen to enrichments lectures given by members of
the Center. Before retirement Ein-Ya Gura was the head of the
mathematics department at the Rothberg International School at the
Hebrew University and at the same time she was a senior lecturer of
mathematics.

Keiko HINO is Professor of Mathematics Education at Utsunomiya

University in Japan. She received her M.Ed. from Tsukuba University
and Ph.D. in Education from Southern Illinois University. She began her
career as a Research Assistant at Tsukuba University in 1995. After the
career as Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at Nara
University of Education, she is now working at Utsunomiya University.
Dr. Hino has been Professor since 2010 at Utsunomiya University. Her
major scholarly interests are students’ development of proportional
reasoning and functional thinking through classroom teaching,
international comparative study on teaching and learning mathematics,
and mathematics teachers’ professional development. She has published
authored or co-authored 2 books, 20 book chapters, and over 40 journal
articles and presented at over 40 conferences, including the International
Congress on Mathematics Education, the International Conference of
Psychology of Mathematics Education, the East Asia Regional
276 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Conference on Mathematics Education, and annual meetings of the Japan

Society of Mathematics Education and of Japan Society for Science
Education. She is also involved in activities for improving mathematics
education as an editor of Japanese Primary and Lower Secondary School
Mathematics Textbooks and External-expert for Lesson Study in
Mathematics.

HO Weng Kin received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from The

University of Birmingham (UK) in 2006. His doctoral thesis proposed an
operational domain theory for sequential functional programming
languages. He specializes in programming language semantics and is
dedicated to the study of hybrid semantics and their applications in
computing. Notably, he solved the open problem that questions the
existence of a purely operationally-based proof for the well-known
minimal invariance theorem of (nested) recursive types in Fixed Point
Calculus. His research interests also include domain theory, exact real
arithmetic, category theory, algebra, real analysis and applications of
topology in computation theory, as well as teaching of pre-university and
tertiary mathematics via technologically-based pedagogies.

JIANG Heng is an assistant professor in the National Institute of

Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She obtained
her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Michigan State University
(U.S.) in 2011. Her expertise includes teacher learning; qualitative
research in education; teacher performance assessment; and curriculum
studies. She has published in peer-reviewed academic journals such
Journal of Teacher Education, Intercultural Education, and Frontier of
Education in China; and delivered presentations in international
conferences. Her recent book is “Learning to Teach with Assessment: A
Student Teaching Experience in China” by Springer in 2015.

Berinderjeet KAUR is a Professor of Mathematics Education at the

National Institute of Education in Singapore. Her primary research
interests are in the area of classroom pedagogy of mathematics teachers
and comparative studies in mathematics education. She has been
involved in numerous international studies of Mathematics Education
 Contributing Authors 277

and was the Mathematics Consultant to TIMSS 2011. She is also a

member of the MEG (Mathematics Expert Group) for PISA 2015. As the
President of the Association of Mathematics Educators (AME) from
2004-2010, she has also been actively involved in the professional
development of mathematics teachers in Singapore and is the founding
chairperson of Mathematics Teachers’ Conferences that started in 2005
and the founding editor of the AME Yearbook series that started in 2009.
She was awarded the Public Administration Medal by the President of
Singapore in 2006.

Barry KISSANE is an Emeritus Associate Professor in Mathematics

Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. From
1985 until his recent retirement, he taught primary and secondary
mathematics teacher education students at Murdoch University, except
for a period for which he was Dean of the School of Education and an
earlier period working and studying at the University of Chicago. His
research interests in mathematics education include the use of technology
for teaching and learning mathematics and statistics, numeracy,
curriculum development, popular mathematics and teacher education. He
has written several books and many papers related to the use of
calculators in school mathematics, and published papers on other topics,
including the use of the Internet and the development of numeracy. Barry
has served terms as President of the Mathematical Association of
Western Australia (MAWA) and as President of the Australian
Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT). He has been a member
of editorial panels of various Australian journals for mathematics
teachers for around 30 years, including several years as Editor of The
Australian Mathematics Teacher. A regular contributor to conferences
for mathematics teachers throughout Australasia and elsewhere, he is an
Honorary Life member of both the AAMT and the MAWA.

KOAY Phong Lee is a senior lecturer at the National Institute of

Education in Singapore. Currently she is teaching mathematics education
courses to both pre-service and in-service teachers. She has written
textbooks and developed teaching resources for primary school teachers.
278 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

Her research interests include learning difficulties in mathematics,

mathematical investigations and problem-solving.

NG Lay Keow is a Senior Teacher in Mathematics, Ministry of

Education, Singapore. She holds a master’s degree in Mathematics
Education, from the National Institute of Education, Nanyang
Technological University in Singapore and is currently studying for her
doctoral degree. She has been teaching Mathematics in a Secondary
School for eight years and her work entails mentoring beginning
teachers, building professional capacity and driving research within the
school.

LIM Kam Ming is the Associate Dean for Programme Planning and
Management (Office of Teacher Education) at the National Institute of
Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is
also an Associate Professor with the Psychological Studies Academic
Group at NIE. His research interests include prosocial behaviour, help-
seeking behaviour, locus of control, self-concept and motivation. He was
conferred the Public Administration Medal by the President of the
Republic of Singapore in 2015. He received the Award for Outstanding
Contribution to Psychology in Singapore from the Singapore
Psychological Society in 2005. He is currently the President of the
Educational Research Association of Singapore (2015–2017).

Cynthia SETO is a Principal Master Teacher (Mathematics) at the

Academy of Singapore Teachers, Ministry of Education. She holds a
PhD in mathematics education and her dissertation is on classroom
learning environment. She leads the Mathematics Chapter to deepen
teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and mathematical knowledge
for teaching. Her research interests include metacognition, mathematical
modelling, mentoring and teacher learning communities. She has
published and presented papers at national and international conferences.
With more than thirty years of classroom teaching experience, she has
taught all levels of mathematics from Secondary Two to Primary One.
She has received several innovation awards, such as Microsoft-MOE
Professional Development Award, Hewlett-Packard Innovation in
 Contributing Authors 279

Information Technology Award, for teaching of mathematics using

technology.

Stephen THORNTON is Executive Director of Mathematics by

Inquiry, an Australian government funded project conducted by the
Australian Academy of Science in collaboration with the Australian
Association of Mathematics Teachers. The project produces classroom
and professional resources to promote inquiry approaches to school
mathematics from Foundation to Year 10. Steve has previously lectured
in mathematics teacher education at the University of Oxford, the
University of Canberra and Charles Darwin University. He has wide
experience as a teacher of mathematics, as a researcher in mathematics
education, as leader of a national professional development program for
the Australian Mathematics Trust, and as a consultant and critical friend
to numerous mathematics education projects. Steve is a Life Member of
the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers and has been
awarded a B.H.Neumann medal for excellence in Australian mathematics
education. He has written numerous journal articles and book chapters,
and has presented keynote addresses and workshops at Australian and
international mathematics education conferences. Steve holds B.Sc.
(Hons) and Grad. Dip. T. degrees from the University of Adelaide; and a
Ph. D. from the Australian National University.

TOH Pee Choon received his PhD from the National University of
Singapore in 2007. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the National
Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. A number
theorist by training, he continues to research in both Mathematics and
Mathematics Education. His research interests include problem solving,
the teaching of mathematics at the undergraduate level, as well as the use
of technology in teaching.

TOH Tin Lam is currently the Deputy Head of the Mathematics and
Mathematics Education Academic Group in the National Institute of
Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He obtained
his PhD from the National University of Singapore in 2001. Dr Toh
continues to do research in mathematics as well as mathematics
280 Developing 21st Century Competencies in the Mathematics Classroom

education. He has papers published in international scientific journals in

both areas.

WONG Lai Fong has been a mathematics teacher for over 20 years and
is known for her efforts in engaging students with fresh and creative
strategies in the study of Mathematics. For her exemplary teaching and
conduct she was given the President’s Award for Teachers in 2009. She
sets the tone for teaching the subject in Anderson Secondary School,
being Head of Department (Mathematics) from 2001 to 2009 and
currently a Lead Teacher for Mathematics. She is also an executive
committee member of the Association of Mathematics Educators, and a
member of the Singapore Academy of Teacher’s Math Chapter Core
Team. She was awarded a Post-graduate Scholarship by the Singapore
Ministry of Education to pursue a Master of Education in Mathematics
which she has completed in 2014. Currently, she is involved in several
Networked Learning Communities looking at ways to infuse
mathematical reasoning, metacognitive strategies, and real-life context in
the teaching of mathematics. Lai Fong is also active in the professional
development of mathematics teachers and in recognition of her
significant contribution toward the professional development of
Singapore teachers, she was awarded the Associate of the Academy of
Singapore Teachers in 2015.

YEO Kai Kow Joseph is a Senior Lecturer in the Mathematics and

Mathematics Education Academic Group at the National Institute of
Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. As a teacher
educator, he is involved in training pre-service and in-service
mathematics teachers at primary and secondary levels and has also
conducted numerous professional development courses for teachers in
Singapore and overseas. Before joining the National Institute of
Education in 2000, he held the post of Vice Principal and Head of
Mathematics Department in secondary schools and also served a stint in
the Ministry of Education, Singapore. His research interests include
mathematical problem solving in the primary and secondary levels,
mathematics pedagogical content knowledge of teachers, mathematics
teaching in primary schools and mathematics anxiety.
 Contributing Authors 281

WONG Khoon Yoong has enjoyed working as a mathematics educator

at four universities in four countries over the past four decades. During
this period, he taught courses in mathematics education, provided
consultancy to institutes in several countries, published widely, and
participated in the review of the national mathematics curriculum of
three countries. His latest publication was entitled Effective Mathematics
Lessons through an Eclectic Singapore Approach, the 2015 yearbook of
the Association of Mathematics Educators. Since his retirement from the
National Institute of Education in July 2014, he continues to work as a
part-time consultant for Singapore schools and institutes. He may be
contacted at [email protected].