Problem Solving in the Singapore School Mathematics Curriculum

Abstract

Problem solving has been the heart of the Singapore school mathematics curriculum since the early 1990s after being adopted as the goal of school mathematics education. Since its adoption, it has captured the interest of many Singapore educators and researchers. It appears that problem solving will continue to be a very active research area since there is great interest in the very high level of performance of Singapore students in international comparative studies such as TIMSS and PISA. This chapter begins with a re-categorization of the research work done to date on problem solving in Singapore using the Singapore mathematics curriculum framework by integrating two classifications done by Foong in 2009 and Chan in 2014, respectively, and including work done since 2011 that was not reported in either survey. The earlier research focused on addressing the readiness of students for mathematical problem solving (MPS) from the perspective of the Singapore mathematics curriculum framework; the later research tended to emphasize the enactment of MPS in the Singapore mathematics classroom and teacher education. This chapter gives more detail to this later research with an emphasis on the enactment of Polya’s stages in solving structured problems.