The Beauty of Mathematics

As I was chatting with Adib's sister, H, and was tinkering with the idea of a mommy's meet up to chat about good parenting on our kids, she mentioned that her brother, Adib is in town, and would be glad to contribute to the Malay community. Carpe Diem! So, the next thing I know, together with a colleague of mine who was a former Mendaki staff, we arranged and managed to get Mendaki's fast response and agreement to have Adib share about the beauty of mathematics with Mendaki tuition kids at Damai Primary School on 23 January 2010.



Adib shared his love for mathematics, and why and how he sees patterns and art in mathematics, all the more making the subject less numeric but more creative should I say. And to top it all, his parents has also kindly agreed to share their parenting tips with parents of the Mendaki tuition kids.



For more photos, click here.

Another genius in our midst

Image from here.

Aren't we inspired that there is another genius in our midst?

At 13 years of age, Muhammad Haikal Abdulllah Zain scored A star for his 'O' Level Physics, Chemistry and Biology that he sat for last year in the International General Certficate in Secondary Education (IGCSE). This gifted education programme boy from Rosyth Primary School and NUS High School of Mathematics and Science has applied to the National University of Singapore to read medicine. He also sat for the 'A' level Maths paper and got an A.

For his PSLE, he scored 274 points out of 300 in the Primary School Leaving Examination. Now it seems that Haikal's younger brother may just follow his footsteps. Muhammad Farhan who is now a primary 6 pupil at Rosyth and similarly a Maths Olympiad like his elder brother, also scored three A stars and one A in the IGCSE exams last year. Now why would he need to take his PSLE this year anyway?

Born to housewife mother, Salha Abdat, 39, and a director of an engineering company father Abdullah Zain, 40, we do not know much else about this family though I sense that his dad is someone familiar in the Malay business community. Now, aren't we all interested on what the parents did to create such geniuses in their children? I hope Berita Harian, Suria and other oganisations will do something - a report, a tv programme, a radio talkshow, a community outreach seminar, a workshop - so as to create this education ripples or revolution in the community. It's too good to miss, and I can only suspect that it has to do with GD and many other strategies. For one, Haikal's interests include chess and computer programming. He also holds a Grade 8 certificate in violin and practises taekwondo, most of which are very pro-GD traits.

Since 'parents' is part of the equation for our children's academic performance, I'm sure we are interested to know what Madam Salha and Mr Abdullah Zain did right in their children's education department. Also, according to the report, Haikal was inspired by Ainan Cawley's ability in scoring a C for Chemistry at 7 years of age, that he felt he can also sit for the exams and get As. Now, that's what "idols" are for. If one boy (Haikal) is inspired by another (Ainan), we need more publicity for all the "idols" in our community, don't we?

Motivation is the product of success

... and it is not the other way around, suggests Glenn Doman of "How smart is your baby?"

If we are successful, we will be motivated to do even better. If we keep failing, we would not even want to do it again.

If we want our children to be motivated, they need to feel successful in whatever they are doing.

Have our Malay children taste enough success in their lives? Or once they start school, that's the beginning of their 'feel like a failure' journey because of the highly publicised fact that 'Malays are a failure at mathematics and/ or academic performance'?

How should parents make their child feel successful?

Does parents especially of low socio-economic status feel that they are already a failure at parenting or that their lives are already so pre-determined to be doomed that they are not motivated to believe that there are better futures?

Why do we often make parents feel like a failure for our underperformance in mathematics?

Because failure begets de-moralisation and de-motivation.

Just some random thoughts this week that are circling in my head.

Professionalizing the teachers

I saw the Malay news last night and read in Berita Harian this morning about the graduation of 24 madrasah teachers who have completed a professional diploma degree in education at NIE. MUIS, or the Islamic Council of Singapore, invested in these asatizahs so they are better equip and better able to teach their students using current pedagogy. As we all know, the madrasahs have to attain a certain standard in the PSLE exams for their students in order to continue its operations, and therefore an important aspect to achieving this is the professional development of its teaching personnel.

There you go, syabas MUIS for the investment! Mr Alami Musa, who is the head of MUIS, believes that pedagogy in the education sector is very dynamic and continually changing, and this professional development has to continually continue. And I totally agree with this.

May I suggest if MUIS could also look into the professional development of its preschool teachers in the mosque-based kindys? I know that MCYS is accountable to this, but I'm sure we want to do more to help our children attain better in education and maths, and one way is to invest in its teaching personnel in the preschools with current early childhood pedagogy especially in the area of mathematics. We have to start earlier and younger, right?

The T & T of things

A aquaintance once told me about what her teacher friend remarked, "I teach 40 kids in school but I neglect my own children."

And the reason given for the above neglect is that "teaching is a demanding job". This is because it is not true teachers only work from 7am - 2pm but definitely longer than that and it is not true that teachers can take on long holidays during the school holidays, they still have to come to school for meetings, plannings and so on.

It seems oxymoron when a teacher who is also a parent cannot even teach her own children. There are many other working parents out there, who are juggling work and parenthood, some with equally demanding careers if not more. If we could readily point fingers at some parents for our children underperformance in education, what can we say about parents who are teachers, and who are supposedly having the skills to teach. Now, the teacher parent says, "it is not the same teaching your own kids and other people's kids." But of course, this is only one example that I came across. Most of my teacher friends have well-educated children.

Are we to blame all parents for our Malay children low performance in mathematics, or at least analyse another possible cause - ie. the missing algebra - teachers and their teaching instruction, the T & T of things.

When I had to choose a primary school for my kid, I met with the principal of my intended school, and his first question is "Is your child able to read?" He went on to say that if your child is not reading by the time he comes to my school, he will struggle.

Now, now, now, what is he hinting at? What is the purpose of going to school, in the first place? Isn't it to give my child an education?

A colleague who is a professor said that "it is to get educated", and I do agree. But in real life and in Singapore's schools, we want children who come to primary one to be school-ready, to be well-prepared and are less forgiving if the child comes to school not knowing his ABCs and 123s.

The role of schools these days is not of educating the child, it seems, but of making the life of teachers easier teaching well-prepared kids and the status of the principals elevated because their students are achieving better all because some parents have fully prepared and educated their children at home, or paying exorbitant fees to private operators for pre-primary preparatory programs. But not all parents can afford the fees. And for some parents, who is like the teacher above, do at times find it a struggle to be working and then coming home and teaching their own kids. Now, if she, an educated parent, because she is a trained teacher but also has problems nurturing her own children, how do you make sense of all other parents especially those who are low income, low education, untrained in teacher training, lack many skills - parenting included, lack know-how to teach their children and/or struggling to make ends meet? Don't these parents find it a bigger struggle to teach their children at home?

Children in Finland attend school only at age 7 but they are ahead in Singapore as the top performing school systems in the world and the reason being, Finland recruit only the top 10% of graduates as compared to 30% in Singapore to become teachers and most have a master qualification (McKinsey,2007). The status of teaching and teacher is equitable to that of a doctor or lawyer and therefore qualified personnel are willing and want to be teachers in Finland.

I believe MOE and NIE are working towards growing a bigger pool of master-qualified teachers in years to come, but I'm more concerned about our preschools - the Malay- and mosque-based typed which I can safely say have very few highly qualified T and T. I do wonder what are the criterias for teacher recruitment and selection in our Malay- and mosque-based kindys as well as the teaching instructions in these schools?

We need quality and qualified teachers/principals in our preschools. We need teachers who think about their teaching - having the right skills and metacognition in teaching the right pedagogy of early childhood maths. And as much as we feel that our Malay children feel lowly and anxious about doing maths, do our preschool teachers also feel the same way when they teach maths? Do our teachers have maths-anxiety when it comes to teaching maths?

I recommend reading Constance Kamii Teachers need more knowledge of how children learn maths and many of her articles about how the young minds process numbers and think about numbers, and how teachers (or parents) should try to understand the way our young process maths and number, and therefore teachers need the skills, knowledge, pedagogy and metacognition of mathematical learning and thinking. And I have to reiterate this, as most community leaders think that maths is about practice, practice, practice but in the early years, it's about logical thinking. And Constance Kamii clearly expound teachers nurturing logical thinking to their students. How is it done? Well, teachers, you need to read to find out!

Solving Maths Problems: The Confidence Factor by Ng Swee Fong believes that teachers' confidence factor in maths will also influence the way they teach mathematics. If teachers themselves express high anxiety in solving maths, they may be doing a disservice to their students. Though the research is with primary teachers, it is applicable to all teachers. If some primary teachers have confidence issues, what's more preschool teachers - trained or untrained in early childhood education? What's more parents - with high education or low - since most of us are not trained teachers in the first place.

Another paper of interest to our community leaders should be the following "Do Chinese and Malay students report different ways of studying mathematics?" and therefore, if there are different ways of studying, should teachers have different ways and strategies of teaching the maths espcially if the Chinese kids get it, and the Malay kids don't. When the Malay kids don't, can we stop to think that perhaps we need to teach another way so that they get it. Again, T and T?

Get it?

Of "idols" and nurturing giftedness

Once upon a time, a parent told me that she thought her child is bad at mathematics, but his cousins, who could not solve the same problems, are in fact worst off than him. In that sense, she said, my child is not so bad after all.

Well, that's not much of a role model to be comparing with. In this family of low-attainers, where bright sparks do not run even in their closest relations, they don't get much inspiration and aspiration to succeed. With no role models to emulate, they don't even think that their children can be smart like other children. To this family, the smarts are the others, it could not be them.

Now, can we nurture a child to be smart, bright and of course, gifted? Or is giftedness a gift from God, and that a child's intelligence is predestined by the time he or she is born?

We all know the old adage that a child is like a white canvas and it is up to the parents to colour it. Colour it right, and you'll get a masterpiece. The problem is not all parents are great painters, but even if we are not great painters, we can create abstract art, isn't it? Abstract art is subjective, it may not be of value to one collector but it could fetch millions for another.


The "idol" number 2 that I'd like to introduce is Natasha Nabila. At the end of 2007's PSLE results, Natasha is a top PSLE scorer. She is also the nation's first student who held such an outstanding score of 294, short of 6 to make it a perfect score in PSLE's 17 year history. Natasha is Malay, and her success has made the Malay community very proud. We should make Natasha a great role model for our children.

Is Natasha naturally gifted or are there some things that her parents have done to nurture her giftedness? Perhaps, Natasha may have the smart genes, but her "A" level parents also gave her a headstart.

When her mother was pregnant with Natasha, she and her husband read fairy tale every night to unborn Natasha.

At 3 months old, her parents bought her an encyclopaedia. Even if Natasha cannot read, I'm sure her parents are reading the encyclopaedia to her.

At 2 years old, Natasha is already reading on her own.

And Natasha also plays the piano and violin and is in her primary school's Scrabble Club. This Gifted Education Programme student cited consistent work and love for reading as secrets of her success. Natasha also has good time management and a supportive home environment. Her mother, Zaharah Othman will switch off the tv when it is time to study, and they have special time dedicate just for reading which is usually before bedtime.

Even if Natasha is naturally gifted, her parents nurture her giftedness such that she achieved unprecedented performance in the PSLE's exams.

My 'idol' number 3 is Ainan Cawley, who at age 6 has taken his Chemistry exams at 'O' level, and is simply a genius at the subject. This child prodigy of mixed Malay and British parentage is unmistakably naturally gifted, but his parents do not simply let him be. They still strive to nurture his natural and exceptional abilities in the sciences and at the same time create the environment and opportunities to further hone his gifts.

Aren't we inspired by these 'idols' in our community? Don't we want to emulate them - the kids and the parents? Don't we want to nurture our own children to giftedness? Don't we want our own 'blood idols'?

Rather than think we can't, or the smarts are the others, we should think we can, and that our children can be one of the smarts. After all, trying something and persevering is better than not doing anything. Even if our child may not be academically gifted, he or she may be gifted in other areas, and we hope that he or she will be brilliant enough to sail smoothly through school and life, with some heardstart from us, parents.

We need "Idols"

... not of the Singapore or American Idol singing sensation type but "idols" or role models of successful Malays that our young children can look up to and emulate. So here is one "idol" or role model I'd like to introduce to inspire our children and our Malay community, and I hope he and his family do not mind the sharing. It is meant for a good cause.

Photo by Michael Clayton-Jones taken from this site.











A Berita Harian commentator mentioned him in his article as "Duta" (ambassador) for maths, but there was no profile of who or what this person pictured above is all about.

At the time the picture was taken in 2005, Adib Surani was only 17 years old but he was the top student in the whole of Victoria, Australia. Adib Surani is Malay, Muslim and hailed from Singapore. The Age, an Australian paper regarded him as a Maths whiz, and that he is one of the top brains in maths in Australia for a child his age. Currently he is an undergrad with the University of Melbourne majoring in pure mathematics.

While in Singapore, Adib attended Raffles Institution. You may think that he is naturally and highly gifted, but I also believe that it is nurture that help him achieve remarkable performance in maths. What little I know about his family is that his parents, pious and God-fearing, also practice Glenn Doman on their children.

Just google Glenn Doman, and you can read about him and his methods of teaching children. In fact, there are various Singapore websites dedicated to parents who practice GD, and other methods on their children.

I was first introduced to Glenn Doman about ten years back when a colleague at that time, Encik AR lend me the book "How to multiply your baby's intelligence" by Glenn Doman. He said it really worked because his wife, late Aunty Z, who is a homemaker, practiced GD on their only son, and their son is a scholar with an Ivy League university.

Another Malay/ Muslim family I met about five years back also practice GD on their children. Their eldest daughter is a PhD holder, and one of their sons at that time was in a gifted education programme with Rosyth School.

There are other methods in teaching our young effectively not only GD, but I am introducing GD because of what I have seen happening to some families like Adib who practices them. GD can be hardwork for the parents but if one perseveres, the rewards though not seen immediately will bear fruits later.

Though I was introduced to GD, I did not persevere and practice it fervently as at the time my first son was born, I was a working mother who work erratic hours and I simply could not do the three times a day flashing of cards, though I made some of the cards myself. However I improvised, and played some flashcard games with my son during the weekends with him. My method was not GD, but sort of GD-like. As parents, we have to get creative in teaching our children since I cannot follow through the strict principles behind GD.

My son is not in the gifted education programme but at primary four, I think he is doing alright in his studies and we keep working with him on his maths and other subjects.

Now, my question is, if GD methods really work, and could potentially benefit some families, why not "Glenn Domanised" some of our education programme for our community? If not all, perhaps our preschools could also use some of GD methods in their curriculum.

We should have workshops and seminars for parents on GD on a large scale. We should purchase or make the materials to be used for our "at risk of failing" families. We should do it now, and we should get parents to prepare even when their child is in the womb.

The revolution has to start now! Just look at Adib. I'm sure we want success stories like him.