SINGAPORE – Some parents and children may think that mathematics is a difficult subject and that ability in it is innate. But such a myth can be dispelled by providing opportunities for students to experience bite-size success, says a maths expert.
Dr Cynthia Seto, a principal consultant for mathematics at Marshall Cavendish Education, says “everyone can learn mathematics and effort to learn is more important than intelligence”.
Dr Seto will be speaking at The Straits Times (ST) Smart Parenting PSLE Prep Forum on April 12, which will take place at the SPH News Centre Auditorium from 10am to 12.30pm. It costs $15 for ST subscribers and $35 for SPH Media account holders.
She will share strategies that parents can use to guide their Primary 6 child to revise for the PSLE mathematics examination.
The forum will also have a plenary session helmed by Mr Ong Kong Hong, divisional director for curriculum planning and development division 1 at the Ministry of Education (MOE). It will be moderated by ST’s senior education correspondent Sandra Davie.
Mr Ong will share tips on how parents can support their child for the examination and how he or she can thrive in secondary school. There will also be a question-and-answer segment.
He says MOE provides multiple pathways for students to develop their strengths and pursue their interests. One example is full subject-based banding (Full SBB) in secondary schools, in which students can take subjects according to their abilities and interests.
“We have seen positive outcomes from Full SBB, such as students having a wider and more diverse network of friends, and taking greater ownership of their learning.”
Through the forum, he hopes to share with parents that the PSLE is just one of many milestones to understand how much their child has learnt and to gauge his or her learning needs for the next step of the education journey.
“In the lead up to the PSLE, I encourage parents to find out more about the diverse programmes offered by our secondary schools that can support and develop their child’s strengths and learning needs,” he says.
While the PSLE Prep Forum aims to help parents better understand how to help their child, there will be a PSLE English workshop that runs concurrently, for Primary 6 pupils to learn to make use of current affairs news articles to write compositions.
This 90-minute masterclass will be conducted by Mrs Soo Kim Bee, a former MOE gifted education senior specialist and master teacher at the English Language Institute of Singapore.
Mrs Soo says making a child go through assessment books may not be effective in helping him or her score during exams as they tend to only test pupils on a specific exam format.
“While it may help some pupils scrape through a specific written PSLE exam, it would not help them gain greater mastery in the long term,” she says, adding that a better way to improve in a language is to read.
During the class, Mrs Soo will teach pupils how to carefully read news articles for their content and vocabulary. Pupils will learn how news stories can be a rich resource to improve their language skills.
Book it/PSLE Prep Forum
Where: SPH News Centre Auditorium, 1000 Toa Payoh North
When: April 12, 10am to 12.30pm
Admission: $15 for subscribers of The Straits Times, $35 for SPH Media account holders. Sign up at str.sg/psle2025 by April 6 or scan the QR code below
Info: For inquiries, e-mail [email protected]
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