creative thinking in math | Yan's One Minute Math Blog

Gain that competitive edge, by being a creative Singapore math educator and problem solver!

One Singapore’s problem-solving strategy that is gaining currency among more and more local teachers in Singapore is the Stack Model Method, which has proved to be conceptually more advantageous—a more intuitive and creative strategy—than the bar model method. On a lighter note, let’s look at a dozen benefits one could derive should one fearlessly embrace this visualization problem-solving strategy to solve word problems.

1. As a Form of Therapy

Like bar modeling, getting involved in stack modeling may act as a form of visual therapy, especially among visual learners, and for those who need a diagram or model to make sense of a problem-situation. Indeed, a model drawing is often worth more than a dozen lines of algebraic symbols.

2. A Possible Cure to Dementia

Like Sudoku and crossword puzzles, practicing the science and art of stack modeling may help arrest one’s schizophrenia or dementia, particularly those who fear that their grey matter might play tricks on them in their golden years.

3. Prevention of Visual or Spatial Atrophy

For folks wishing to enhance their visualization skills, stack modeling could potentially turn their worry of short-term visual apathy and long-term visual atrophy into aha! moments of advanced visual literacy.

4. A Disruptive Methodology and Pedagogy

When most Singapore coaches and teachers are no longer excited or thrilled about the Singapore’s model method, what they need is a more powerful and intuitive problem-solving strategy like the stack model method to give them that competitive edge over their peers, all of whom are involved in the business of Singapore math—from training and coaching to consulting and ghostwriting.

5. A Platform for Creative Thinking in Mathematics

Getting acquainted to the stack model method would not only help one to hone one’s visualization skills, but it’ll also refine one’s problem-solving and creative thinking skills. Being mindful that competing stack models could be designed to figure out the answer, the challenge is to come up with the most elegant stack model that could vow even the mathophobics!

6. Look-See Proofs for Kids

Stalk modeling could help remove any “mathematical cataract” from one’s mind’s eye to better “see” how the parts relate to the whole. The way stack models are drawn (up-and-down and sideways) often allows one to see numerical relationships that would otherwise be difficult to visualize if bar models were used instead.

7. The Beauty and Power of Model Diagrams

Even those who are agnostic to the Singapore math curriculum, a “Stack Modeling” lesson could help enliven the beauty and power of model diagrams in creative problem solving. The stack model method could act as a catalyst to “seeing” the connection between parts and whole—normally, the same result would be tediously or boringly derived by analytic or algebraic means, understood only by students in higher grades.

8. A Simple but Not Simplistic Strategy

Like Trial and Error, or Guess and Check, the stack model method shows that Draw a Diagram is a simple, but not simplistic, problem-solving strategy. The stack model reinforces the idea that often “less is more.” The simplicity of a stack model can reveal much hidden information that is often lost in an algebraic argument.

9. A Branded Problem-Solving Strategy

For math educators who might think that Singapore math, or the bar model method, in particular, is a mere fad in mathematics education, the stack model method further disproves that myth. Like bar modeling, stack modeling shows that a simple problem-solving strategy like the “draw a diagram” has what it takes to attaining brand status, especially when we consider the types of challenging word problems that lend themselves to both bar and stack models, and which could also be assigned to a younger audience.

10. Stack Modeling as a Creative Art

To the novice problem solver, stack modeling is a science; to the seasoned problem solver, stack modeling is an art— the challenge is to come up with more than one stack model to arrive at the answer. Remember: Not all stack models are created equal!

11. Earn as You Learn

If you are a mathepreneur, you can easily steal the ideas in The Stack Model Method: An Intuitive and Creative Approach to Solving Word Problems to write a more expensive Singapore math book on the subject. There are dozens of ethically challenged ghost writers and cash-strapped undergrads from China, India, and the Philippines, who can help you professionally plagiarize any types of editable contents! You earn as you learn! Of course, you need to mail them your copy, or buy a new copy for them to do the “creative work” at a fractional cost! Make sure you don’t get caught, though!

12. Green Math à la Singapour

Ecologically speaking, stack modeling, which generally uses less space than bar modeling, could help math educators save millions of ink and square miles of paper [aka trees]. In economic terms, millions of dollars could be saved by the right choice of model drawing. In other words, stack modeling could act as a catalyst to help one play one’s part in reducing one’s carbon footprints!

From Bar to Stack Modeling

With a bit of imagination, I bet you could come up with another dozen benefits of stack modeling. The stack model method is no longer an option, nor should it be treated as a mere visualization strategy to be discussed only during an enrichment math lesson.

The stack method is going to be a problem-solving strategy of choice, as more math educators worldwide invest the time to learn and apply it to solve non-routine questions in elementary math. Be among the first creative problem solvers to embrace the stack model method, as you gain that methodological or pedagogical edge over your fellow math educators!

References

Yan, K. C. (2015). The stack model method: A creative and intuitive approach to solving word problems (Grades 5–6). Singapore: MathPlus Publishing.

Yan, K. C. (2015). The stack model method: A creative and intuitive approach to solving word problems (Grades 3–4). Singapore: MathPlus Publishing.

Based on the average number of questions contained in an assessment (or supplementary) math book these days, it can be estimated that most students in Singapore would have solved some seven thousand math questions by the time they had graduated from elementary school. Indeed, an awful lot, to say the least.

I try to understand why local math writers feel that they’ve to provide such an unhealthy number of these drill-and-kill questions or routines for students to practice. Surely, their publishers are behind this “numerical obscenity,” arguing that many kiasu parents would feel that they’re buying a value-for-money book. Imagine the emotional or psychological harm it could do to a child who barely has any interest in the subject.

Even for those with a fluency with numbers, wouldn’t a thousand (or even half of that number) questions bore them to death? Many would end up getting a distorted picture of what elementary math is all about—imitate-practice-imitate more-practice more.

**The Junk Food of Singapore’s Math Education**

Drill-and-kill math questions are like the junk food of math education. Every now and then, we all visit these fast food outlets, but to grow up on a diet that consists mainly of burgers, French flies, and Coke for most days of the week, that can only be a good recipe for unavoidable obesity and all sorts of preventable diseases that would pop up sooner than later. Likewise, over-exposing students to these math drills would only produce an army of drill-and-kill specialists, who wouldn’t be able to think critically and creatively in mathematics—and later in life.

The Baby [Math] Gift for Singapore’s Jubilee

For Singapore’s Golden Jubilee, when the nation celebrates its 50th year of independence in 2015, other than giving items like a special medallion, a multi-functional shawl, and a set of baby clothes, one of the suggested gifts by the mathematical brethren to be given to Singaporean babies born next year should be a check amounting to not less than a thousand bucks. This would help defray the average cost incurred by parents who would need to buy those elementary math supplementary titles during the child’s formative years—it’s a rite of passage for every child studying in a Singapore government school to expose himself or herself to these drill-and-kill questions. Even if parents are opposed to these math drills, school teachers or tutors might still recommend the child to buy one!

Drill-and-Kill Specialists or Innumerates

Of course, it’s better to produce tens of thousands of drill-and-kill specialists than an army of innumerates. In the short term, this raises the self-esteem of the children, as they feel that they can solve most of these routine questions, by parroting the solutions of the worked examples. We all learn by imitation, but at least the questions need to slowly move from routine to non-routine. We can’t afford to have hundreds of questions that test the same skills or sub-skills almost without end. We need a balanced percent of drills, non-drills, and challenging questions—not a disproportionate unhealthy number of drill-and-kill questions, which would only affect our long-term mathematical health.

The Good Part of Drill-and-Kill

One good thing about these wallet-friendly drill-and-kill math titles is that they can easily replace a lousy or lazy math teacher, or even a mathophobic parent. After all, we can’t expect too much from a mathematical diet that could help sustain (or even strengthen) us for a while. At best, they’re like Kumon Math, which subscribes to the philosophy that more practice and more drill could eventually help the child to become self-motivated, and to raise his or her self-esteem in the short term.

Are You a Disciple of Drill-and-Kill?

If mathematical proficiency is credited to be achieved through practice and more practice, would you buy a few of these math practice titles for your child? Or, as a teacher or tutor, would you recommend one for your student or tutee? Don’t you think that this is a case of “more is less”? Could the child end up being mathematically undernourished when it comes to creative problem solving and higher-order thinking? Or maybe the child could even be numerically constipated by an overdose of these drill-and-kill questions?

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Stack Modeling as Mathematical Art