When bots would select word problems from a question bank, then forward them to ghost editors in Bangalore, before sending the final proof to POD publishers like Amazon Kindle to distribute both printed and e-copies to customers worldwide.
Guesstimate how much the McDonaldization of Singapore math mass market is worth every year, as professional pirates from India, Pakistan, and Nigeria try to cash in.
by Fasters September 10, 2022
When math writers or publishers in Singapore withheld or delayed publishing any new titles during the lockdown, because local bookstores were considered non-essential businesses, and in the living-with-Covid new normal, new foreign titles are being axed for being too dear to be shipped overseas due to rising freight costs and recurring global supply chain disruptions.
No one knows whether the publication of foreign editions of Singapore math textbooks is heading towards a subset industry or not as a result of the covidization of Singapore math.
by Covido April 26, 2022
When math educators fly to the “fine” city of Singapore to attend a pep talk on the bar model method, and to visit a local school and watch a teacher conduct a problem-solving math lesson, before spending the rest of their educational trip on shopping and sightseeing.
When Singapore Math tourism visitors flew back home, they’d excitedly tell their principals or superintendents to embrace the Singapore Math model, by substituting their present dear mile-wide-inch-deep textbooks with wallet-friendly Singapore math titles, often much to the disapproval of their colleagues, who want to “Make US Math Great Again.”
by MathPlus January 04, 2021
When the quality of Singapore math textbooks and supplementary titles took a beating in the last one and a half decades, because both local and foreign math editors were reporting to their oft-clueless bosses, who were recruited under the Singapore-India “Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement” (CECA), many of whom with quasi-zero understanding of the Singapore educational system and the local educational publishing industry.
It’s hard to estimate the reputational and economic costs suffered by publishing houses in the aftermath of the Cecanization of Singapore Math: resignation of editors, frustration of authors, rejection of textbooks, brand dilution, and the like.
by MathPlus July 31, 2021
When exam-smart students have near-zero choice but to regurgitate the model solutions promoted by their teachers or tutors, because there is hardly any time for them to think through most brain-unfriendly questions if they want to score a decent grade, much less question the questions.
With so many topics to cover and so little time to master the concepts, teachers and parents have come to terms that the only way for students to minimize failure and to maximize success is to reluctantly embrace made-in-Singapore math.
by MathPlus November 04, 2020
A trademarked term that may be likened to the mathematical equivalent of illegally parking in a disabled parking space.
Math educators remarked that trademarking "Singapore Math" is a form of "mathematical hijacking"—what else can we expect after Singapore Math®? Singapore Math 2.0™?
by MathPlus March 27, 2017
When fertile or fitting real-life or contextual questions and math tidbits or humor in a math textbook, submitted to Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) for approval, are often rejected for politically incorrect reasons, or because the items could potentially be perceived to be linked to politics, race, religion, or sex.
Items like “Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not divide by zero!” and phrases like “beautiful curves,” “immoral algebra,” and “juicy little theorem” are banned without being given valid reasons—aren’t these rejections part of the sanitization of Singapore math to only publish sterilized or sterile contents to satisfy the mathematical wants of a humorously or prudishly challenged audience or readership?
by MathPlus September 05, 2021