Jeff Bezos Uses ‘Singaporean Math’ To Make His Kids Smarter
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Jeff Bezos teaches his kids math with a strategy that’s made Chinese and Singaporean students the best in the world — but it’s unusual in the US
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- Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos use an approach called Singapore math to teach their kids mathematics.
- It’s used predominantly in South Asia.
- Singaporean students outperformed those from all other countries on a math exam in 2015.
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO and richest person in the world, has amassed his wealth by being creative and trying unorthodox ways of solving problems.
It seems he and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, use the same approach for their children’s education.
“We tried all sorts of things . Mandarin lessons, the Singapore math program, and lots of clubs and sports with other neighborhood kids,” MacKenzie Bezos told Vogue.
Learning a second language has been found to have educational benefits, and team activities help create well-adjusted kids. But what exactly is the Singapore math program?
Singapore math, also known as the “mastery approach,” is a method of teaching mathematics that’s most prevalent in Shanghai, China, and Singapore.
Under the mastery approach, students learn a specific concept before moving on to more complex ideas, in a rigidly linear progression, Alexei Vernitski, a senior lecturer at the University of Essex, wrote in The Conversation.
In Shanghai schools that use the method, students aren’t grouped by their perceived intellectual abilities. Instead, all students perform the same work at the same time before mastering the concept and advancing to the next one together.
By contrast, US schools teach math using the “mindset approach,” which aims to teach students a more intuitive understanding of math concepts by starting with a broader concept before breaking down a problem into the specific steps for solving.
For example, “a mindset-approach teacher can introduce addition via joining two heaps of cardboard counters (or other props) together, explore properties of addition via activities, and only then break the process of adding numbers into procedural steps,” Vernitski wrote.
A 2015 study of 140 schools in the UK by the UCL Institute of Education and Cambridge University found that the mastery approach improved the speed at which students learned math skills.
And on the 2015 PISA — a worldwide exam that tests 15-year-olds’ math, science, and reading skills — Singapore was the top-performing country in each subject.
Jeff Bezos Uses ‘Singaporean Math’ To Make His Kids Smarter
The Singapore math program may sound exotic to U.S. parents; however, it’s been slowly gaining traction in the States ever since it arrived in the 1990s.
When it comes to his children’s education, Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, has spared no expense.
“We tried all sorts of things,” said McKenzie Bezos in a parenting tell-all Vogue, “including off-season travel, kitchen-science experiments, chicken incubation, Mandarin lessons, the Singapore math program, and lots of clubs and sports with other neighborhood kids.”
While learning Mandarin and conducting science experiments seems like a no-brainer for those who want to enrich the minds of their children, the Singapore math program may not be a familiar concept to U.S. parents; however, it’s been slowly gaining traction in the States ever since it arrived in the 1990s. And for the 40 states that have implemented the program, they’re seeing instant improvement in test scores — backed by scientific research.
“Across the board in every case, all of these students were able to make substantial gains,” said math curriculum coordinator Kevin Mahoney. He emphasized that the program wasn’t something esoteric that only Asian children could comprehend, either. “It’s not something that is radically different,” Mahoney said. “It sounds exotic, but it’s just elementary mathematics taught in a powerful and potent way.”
Sometimes referred to as the “mastery approach”, Singapore math is a widely used method of teaching mathematics in Singapore and Shanghai, China. With this method, children learn a specific concept together, as a class, before moving onto more complex ideas in a linear fashion. Compare this to the American method, also known as the “mindset approach”, wherein students are taught math on a broader, more abstract level before breaking it down to the details.
But it’s more than just a different structure to the classroom — it’s the method in which they learn how to solve mathematical equations as well. Oak Hall School in Gainesville, Florida believed in the program so much that they created an entire video demonstrating its benefits.
“We wanted to find a program that we thought made a lot of sense to [the students],” said Michelle Mills, math coordinator at Oak Hall School. “After looking at a lot of different programs, we chose Singapore math.”
Singapore math students are taught mastery of a concept; that is, they don’t learn something just to pass a test, like many American programs force children to do. Instead of working through an equation to reach an answer, students learn how an equation works from all angles. It promotes mastery over route memorization, meaning the concept is completely understood before moving onto the next one.
And it’s working — studies show that the mastery approach to learning improved the speed at which children acquired math skills; additionally, when it comes to worldwide exams that test students on their math, reading, and science skills, Singapore comes out on top.
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