Singapore Cracked Math Instruction Decades Ago. American Classrooms Are Still Catching Up.

Last updated: July 1, 2026

Your child’s math struggles are more likely about the method they’re being taught than the brain they were born with. That distinction matters enormously — because one of those things a school system is directly responsible for. In early June, nearly 200 teachers from Northern Utah school districts gathered at Utah State University for the third annual Utah LEARNS conference. The event, modeled on the way Singapore trains its teachers to collaborate and share practice, featured hands-on math sessions on a “Problem of the Week” approach and manipulative-based number instruction. Singapore’s math curriculum — built on helping students understand numbers concretely before drilling computation — has produced some of the strongest international math results in the world for decades. Most American elementary classrooms still default to the opposite sequence.

TL;DR

Utah's annual LEARNS conference (nearly 200 teachers, June 2026) teaches a Singapore-inspired "Problem of the Week" math approach with manipulatives, modeled on Fulbright Scholar Nate Justis's observations in Singapore in 2022.
Singapore's Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) math sequence has produced first- or second-place TIMSS international math rankings in every assessment since 1995.
A 2025 peer-reviewed study of 231 students found CPA instruction significantly outperformed abstract-only instruction across all prior achievement levels, with the largest gains for students already behind.
Kids with working-memory differences, slower processing speed, or dyscalculia-type difficulties are most harmed by procedural-first instruction and most helped by CPA.
Parents can ask two questions: Do teachers introduce math concepts with physical objects? Does the program build number sense or drill computation first?

Most American classrooms teach math the way math has always been taught in America. Singapore spent four decades proving there is a more effective sequence. Here is what the research shows and what it means for your child.

Common questions

What is the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) approach to teaching math?

CPA is the instructional sequence at the heart of Singapore math, adopted in the 1980s. Teachers first present math concepts using physical objects — blocks, counters, tiles — then shift to pictures and diagrams, then to abstract symbols and equations. The logic is that understanding what a number represents has to come before a student can manipulate it reliably. Research shows this sequence produces stronger outcomes than leading with abstract notation, particularly for students who are already behind.

How do I find out if my child’s school uses this approach?

Ask your child’s teacher two specific questions: “Do you use physical objects or manipulatives when introducing new math concepts?” and “Does the math program here build conceptual understanding before computation?” A teacher who uses CPA instruction will give clear, specific answers. Vague answers often signal a program that relies primarily on procedural drill. You can also ask which math curriculum the school uses — programs like Math in Focus or Singapore Math are built on the CPA sequence and have been reviewed positively by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse.

My child struggles with math. Could it be dyscalculia?

Persistent math difficulties — trouble with number sense, slow fact recall, difficulty understanding what math operations mean — are worth taking seriously. A screener can help you identify which cognitive skills need more support; it is a starting point that gives you language and direction without requiring a label first. A screener is not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal school accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or if you suspect a vision, hearing, or other underlying factor, a professional evaluation is the appropriate route to those supports.

Can I use Singapore-style math instruction at home?

Yes. The core principle is accessible: use real objects before pictures, pictures before symbols. When your child is stuck on a math concept, reach for something physical first — coins, blocks, dried beans — and build the idea concretely before moving to the worksheet. Singapore Math workbooks (Primary Mathematics series) are widely available for home use. The “Problem of the Week” model Utah teachers are learning works at home too: one open-ended problem, talked through together, builds far more mathematical reasoning than twenty drill problems completed in silence.

Most US math classrooms drill procedures before students understand what numbers mean. Singapore spent 40 years proving that's backwards. Utah teachers are adopting the model. Ask your school which approach they actually use. Tweet Now Follow Learning Success

What happened at Utah’s Singapore-inspired teacher conference

The Utah Learning for Educators and Researchers through Networked Systems (LEARNS) conference, now in its third year, brought together teachers from school districts across Northern Utah for peer-led professional learning at Edith Bowen Laboratory School, a K-6 charter school on the USU Logan campus. The event grew from the experience of principal Nate Justis, who attended teacher collaboration sessions in Singapore as a Fulbright Scholar in 2022 and was struck by how differently Singaporean educators learn from one another. He applied for and received a $50,000 three-year innovation grant from the Utah State Charter School Board to bring that model home. Additional funding came from the newly established USU Collaboratory for Innovation in Teaching and Leadership, supported by the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation in 2026.

Math was a central focus. Teachers worked through sessions on a “Problem of the Week” model — a structured, inquiry-based approach that asks students to reason through a problem before reaching for a procedure. Teachers also practiced using physical manipulatives to build students’ abstract number understanding. First-grade teacher Peri Green, from Box Elder School District, described the sessions as immediately useful: “I signed up for a couple different math sessions, and I love what I’ve learned so far. I’m excited to try some of it with my students.” Hallie Jensen, a first-grade teacher at Family Lyceum in Clearfield, added: “What I love about the LEARNS conference is how applicable everything is. We know the theory, but sometimes teachers just need the application. I feel like that’s what these workshops do. They bring that application, and you get it from master teachers who you know you can trust.”

The week before the main conference, a Best Practices Forum and Leadership Summit at Green River and Grand County High Schools brought together more than 130 additional teachers from Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan school districts in collaboration with the Utah LEARNS Network.

Author Quote "

When it comes to facing the complex challenges of education, collaboration always wins.

What the coverage gets wrong

Most reporting on international math rankings frames the gap between the US and Singapore as a cultural, funding, or class-size story. The evidence points somewhere more specific: the sequence of instruction. A 2025 peer-reviewed study confirmed that students who received Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract teaching significantly outperformed those who received abstract-only instruction across all prior achievement levels. That is not a resource story or a culture story — it is a pedagogy story. Framing the Singapore gap as structural makes it feel unchangeable. The actual lever — what teachers do in the first minutes of a math lesson — is something parents can ask about directly.

What decades of research says about the math sequence that matters

Singapore adopted what educators now call the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) approach in the early 1980s: introduce a math concept with physical objects first, then representations and diagrams, then abstract symbols. The sequence is designed so that students have a physical feel for what a number means before they are asked to manipulate it on paper. Singapore has ranked first or second in fourth-grade and eighth-grade mathematics in every TIMSS international assessment since 1995. The What Works Clearinghouse, the U.S. Department of Education’s evidence-review arm, has rated Singapore Math curricula positively across multiple studies. The approach is not a cultural anomaly or a resource advantage — it is a pedagogical sequence backed by a clear mechanism: understanding supports computation, but computation alone does not produce understanding.

A 2025 peer-reviewed study published in Cogent Education provides the clearest recent evidence. Among 231 students, those who received CPA instruction significantly outperformed students who received abstract-only instruction on both immediate and follow-up tests — across all prior achievement levels. For students already behind in math, the advantage was sharpest: the concrete and representational stages build the number sense that procedural drill alone never reaches. Research on students with dyscalculia-type difficulties specifically points to multi-representation instruction as the approach most likely to build the foundational cognitive architecture math requires.

The system-level problem is not individual teachers — it is the curriculum and professional development infrastructure that trains teachers in procedural instruction and then provides no pathway to update. Most US teachers were prepared in programs that lead with abstract notation and computation drill. A student with slower processing speed, weaker working memory, or less natural number sense runs straight into the gap that sequence creates. “When it comes to facing the complex challenges of education, collaboration always wins,” Justis said in his keynote. Utah’s model is one concrete answer: bring master teachers together to share what the research supports, give them time to practice it, and send them back to classrooms with tools they can use immediately.

Key Takeaways:

Singapore leads math assessments because the sequence is different: Concrete objects before pictures, pictures before symbols — that order builds number understanding that procedural drill alone skips entirely.

The research is clear on struggling learners: A 2025 peer-reviewed study found CPA instruction outperformed abstract-only teaching across all prior achievement levels, with the sharpest benefit for students already behind.

This is a system problem, not a child problem: Most US teachers were prepared in procedural-first programs with no pathway to update. Utah's Singapore-modeled conference is building that pathway one classroom at a time.

What this means for your child’s math struggles today

If your child is hitting a wall in math, the first question is not whether they are “a math person.” It is whether the instruction they are receiving builds understanding or skips straight to procedures. In a classroom where teachers drill facts before students have a feel for what numbers actually represent, a child with weaker working memory or slower processing speed — common in kids who also struggle with reading — gets further and further behind. More drill does not close that gap. Different instruction does.

The tradeoffs are real. CPA instruction takes longer in the short term: students need time with physical objects and visual representations before moving to abstract equations. A school under pressure to cover curriculum and hit test benchmarks sometimes treats this as a luxury. The research says that framing is backwards — the time invested in concrete and pictorial stages is precisely what makes abstract computation stick for kids who need the most support. The Singapore system has had 40 years to prove it.

Two questions give you useful information fast. First: when your child is stuck on a math problem, what are they taught to do? An answer that centers on manipulating objects, drawing it out, or building the concept from scratch is a good sign. An answer that centers on remembering which procedure to apply is worth following up on. Second: does the math program your school uses build number sense systematically before introducing computation? Ask that directly and in writing. The answer tells you a lot about what your child is actually getting — and what you may need to reinforce at home.

Author Quote "

What I love about the LEARNS conference is how applicable everything is. We know the theory, but sometimes teachers just need the application. I feel like that’s what these workshops do.

Parents have the right to know whether their child’s math instruction builds the understanding that makes computation stick, or skips that step and hopes repetition fills the gap. The system that routes kids straight to worksheets before they understand what numbers mean is the one that creates the failure spiral. That system is not inevitable, and Utah’s teachers went and found a better model. The Learning Success All Access program builds the multi-system cognitive foundations — including the visual processing, working memory, and number sense skills — that make math instruction land for kids who need it most.