Thursday, February 12, 2009

Division of Decimals & Mixed Numbers

I would like to ask why is it that Singapore primary curriculum does not include division of decimal by a decimal and division with a mixed number divisor or dividend for grades five and six respectively? We have been teaching these to our fifth and sixth graders in the Philippines.
Virgie, a teacher in Manila

The Singapore curriculum attempts to focus on as few ideas as possible so that students develop a strong foundation for mathematics in grade seven and beyond (secondary school). Topics that are not essential will be taught at later grades. For example, while 0.6/3 can be taught as sharing (0.6 is shared equally among three persons), 0.6/0.2 needs to be taught as grouping (How many 0.2s are there in 0.6?). Conceptually, primary students have done both for whole numbers (grade one) and for fractions (2/3 dividied by 4 in grade 5, 2/3 divided by 1/6 in grade six). In the Singapore curriulum, 0.6/3 is taught in grade four. In principle, 0.6/0.2 can be taught in grade six. However, in order not to burden the students with too many things, why not do it a year later? In fact, we are hoping that students are able to extend what they learn in 2/3 divided by 4 to 0.6 divided by 0.2. This is the spirit of Teach Less, Learn More which the Singapore Ministry of Education encourages schools to do in implementing the curriculum. The same explanation goes for division involving mixed numbers.

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