asked a Singapore official about the basis of their math curriculum, she cited a standards framework put out by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics – in the United States. West Virginia’s curriculum takes guidance from the same source, Mr. Paine says. “So the question remains, why is it that they lead the world in student achievement? I think it’s because of their teacher quality,” he says.

While teacher quality is a part of the success that Singapore has experienced, curriculum is another large  part. The Singapore official may have cited the NCTM standards, however it’s clear that Singapore’s Ministry of Education has created a more refined framework document. The NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics runs 402 pages for elementary and secondary while Singapore’s Ministry of Education can cover both primary and secondary in a concise, content-rich 82 pages.

From the NCTM online access for Principles and Standards:

From the MOE primary syllabus (Primary 1 is 1st grade):

As a teacher, which set of 1st grade standards would you prefer to follow?

Click here to view the embedded video.

This 1938 documentary comes from The Travel Film Archive (via  IZ Reloaded). The video…

…gives us a tour of the British colony of Singapore in 1938. It was filmed by Andre de la Varre who in the early 1930′s, went out on his own as “The Screen Traveler” and made theatrical shorts for independent release as well as for many of the major Hollywood Studios.

I originally found the video from a tweet by mySingapore which bills itself as “your one stop community site for everything Singapore.” If you are interested in developing a Professional Learning Network, Twitter is a great place to start – you never know what you’ll learn.

Enjoy!

You can follow me: Cassyt.

(Cross-posted at Math in Singapore 2009)