Message by HOD
Read how Serangoon Secondary's Mathematics Department builds students' problem-solving skills and prepares them for the future through an engaging, well-rounded curriculum.
Message by HOD (Mathematics)
Mathematics is fundamental to the innovations of today and the solutions of tomorrow. It helps to model and understand the real-world contexts to facilitate decision making and problem solving of real-world problems.
In Serangoon Secondary, we emphasise the importance of learning Mathematics. We aim to provide learning experiences for our students to discover their strengths and interests in Mathematics; equip our students with Mathematical Problem-Solving skills, Digital Literacies and Technological skills and 21st Century Competencies to think critically, adaptively and inventively, and communicate effectively to be future-ready learners and contributing citizens.
We believe students have diverse learning needs and inclinations towards Mathematics. We seek to motivate and support our students in enhancing their motivation, strengthening their foundation and levelling up their competencies in Mathematics that will enable them to function effectively in everyday life and to pursue Mathematics in the next stage of education where needed.
The Mathematics Department ensures alignment to and takes reference from the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP), Singapore Mathematics Framework, EdTech Masterplan 2030 and Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes to develop a 4-Year Mathematics Curriculum Roadmap to track the development of Pedagogy, Assessment, Content, Knowledge and Skills throughout the students’ secondary education.
The department places a strong emphasis on students’ motivation to learn Mathematics. We provide learning experiences for them through three phases of their learning – Readiness, Engagement and Mastery. We believe in establishing a Positive Mathematics Classroom Culture through setting clear routines and expectations and building strong teacher-student interaction and rapport. We leverage EdTech (affordances of Students Learning Space (SLS) AI tools such as SLS Math Feedback Assistant (FA-Math), SLS Adaptive Learning Assistant (ALS), Data Assistant and gamification features to customise students’ learning and develop their digital literacy and technological skills. We also develop students’ Computational Thinking skills through tasks involving algorithm design.
To develop students’ 21st Century Competencies, we provide opportunities for students to work independently and collaboratively on tasks relating Mathematics to the real-world context. In addition, through facilitating activity-based and inquiry-based learning in Mathematics, students get to apply their Critical, Adaptive, Inventive Thinking to strengthen their problem-solving skills in Mathematics.
Our Lower Secondary Mathematics curriculum focuses on helping our students discover their interests and strengths through hands-on tasks, EdTech lessons, interactive games and quizzes to develop conceptual understanding, skills, critical, adaptive and inventive thinking and reasoning processes in the key strands of Mathematics (Numbers and Algebra, Geometry and Statistics). In addition, we also support our students to cope with the transition from Primary to Secondary levels of Mathematics through our bridging programmes. Our annual Mathematics Learning Day is a platform for our lower secondary students to celebrate the joy of learning and application of Mathematics in fun and meaningful ways.
Our Upper Secondary Mathematics curriculum continues to strengthen students’ mastery and confidence in acquiring the problem-solving and 21st Century Competencies through learning experiences in tackling routine, non-routine and open-ended tasks. We focus on helping our students make connections of the ideas within Mathematics, between Mathematics and other subjects through applications of Mathematics. Our Mastery Learning Programmes (MLP) helps students consolidate their learning through practice and teachers provide academic support to address students’ learning gaps. We empower our students through self-directed learning and collaborative learning programmes such as Home-Based Learning and Peer Tutoring. For students with aptitude and interest in Mathematics, we provide opportunities for them to appreciate the abstract nature and power of Mathematics through taking part in Mathematics competitions and taking Mathematics at a more demanding level.
Our team of dedicated Mathematics teachers adopt the 3 principles of teaching: understanding, not just recall of facts; building on students’ knowledge; and relating to the real world to support our students through the 3 phases of learning: readiness, engagement, and mastery to facilitate effective student engagement and instruction. We adopt a range of pedagogies such as Differentiated Instruction, Improving Confidence and Numeracy (ICAN) strategies, e-Pedagogies and Computational Thinking to engage our students with different learning needs and support them in developing their problem-solving competencies in Mathematics. We seek to forge strong partnerships with our students’ parents and our community partners to support our students in their journey to appreciate the joy of learning Mathematics and do their best in Mathematics.
Mdm Koh Poh Ling
HOD (Mathematics)