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Globalization and the Singapore Curriculum pp 187–202Cite as

Enacting Teach Less, Learn More in Mathematics Classrooms: The Case of Productive Failure

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Abstract

One component of Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) is the sustained reflection on the part of teachers on the “why,” “what,” and “how,” or the goals, content, and method respectively, of teaching. This chapter examines the three questions in the context of mathematical education. We argue that there are two goals of mathematical education: to develop students’ mathematical problem solving skills and to develop their mathematical way of thinking. Mathematical problem solving skills comprise the mathematical concepts, strategies and procedures while thinking mathematically consists of inventing and adapting representations, collaborating and critiquing peers and persisting in problem solving. Based on the goals and the content of mathematical education above, we derived three principles for designing learning environments. Learning environments should (a) activate students’ prior knowledge structures, (b) allow students to engage in activities that mirror actual mathematical practice, and (c) allow teachers to build on students’ prior knowledge structures. We present a learning design, Productive Failure, that embodies these principles and report findings from two sets of quasi-experimental studies. We end by discussing our findings, and deriving implications for initiatives such as TLLM.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Manu Kapur & Huey Woon Lee

Authors
  1. Manu Kapur
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  2. Huey Woon Lee
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Correspondence to Manu Kapur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Zongyi Deng

  2. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    S Gopinathan

  3. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Christine Kim-Eng Lee

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Kapur, M., Lee, H.W. (2013). Enacting Teach Less, Learn More in Mathematics Classrooms: The Case of Productive Failure. In: Deng, Z., Gopinathan, S., Lee, CE. (eds) Globalization and the Singapore Curriculum. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-57-4_11

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