The Algo Club

In today’s mathematics education, situational problems are strongly emphasized. Many students struggle with this type of problems because students lack mathematical thinking, reasoning, analytical and communication skills. The Algo Club programme enables students to build and utilize necessary tools, strategies, skills and understanding through fun, engaging, and exciting activities, which results in students experiencing success and becoming confident when learning mathematics.

The Algo Club programme is a 90-minute weekly after-school math programme for Grade 1-6 students, delivered at elementary schools and other locations. It is designed to develop mathematical thinking, reasoning, analytical, and communication skills through stimulating, exciting, fun, engaging, and cooperative activities.

The Algo Club programme was originally developed in Japan, and for the past 10 years has successfully has proven to enhance students’ understanding of numeracy, mathematical thinking, reasoning, analytical, and communication skills through mathematical games, puzzles, and other engaging and fun activities. This approach fits well with the Ministry’s strong focus on numeracy and mathematical literacy, especially in the primary grades.

The Algo Club programme has three classes, arranged by grade level and language.

Primary Class (Grade 1-3)

In the Primary Class, we focus on cultivating student’s interest in and curiosity about mathematics through highly engaging and very intellectual stimulating activities. Through those activities, students will practice and learn habits of thinking and analyzing problems. They will improve their focus, attention, and concentration skills through these activities. It is crucial to develop these important skills and abilities in these formative years, and the Primary Class Algo Club programme delivers it.

Junior Class (Grade 4-6)

In the Junior Class, we build on the fundamental understanding of mathematics and continue to develop, practice, and enforce habits of thinking and analyzing problems. Learners extend and apply those habits to a wider variety of and more complex problems and situations. All students will benefit from developing these analytical skills through the use of these learning experiences, and in turn, develop interest in and curiosity about mathematics

The Algo Club in Japanese Class (Grade 1-3, at selected locations)

In the Algo Club in Japanese Class, we directly deliver the Algo Club curriculum in Japanese. Instruction in the class addresses learners who speak Japanese as a second language, and slight and proper accommodations and modifications are made to meet their language needs.

How is the Algo Club programme different from others?

Many mathematics programmes tend to emphasize rote memorisation of facts and procedures. While these programmes work for a certain kind of students, many other students start seeing mathematics as the same boring computations. The focus of the Algo Club is not only to teach mathematical concepts and formulas, but also to develop students’ mathematical thinking, reasoning, analytical, and communication skills. The Algo Club programme implements a unique approach that emphasizes communication, cooperative learning, and reflection. These exercise and cultivate parts of the brain which are not always used in typical classroom math classes. As a result, the programme can be very beneficial to all types of students, enabling them to develop knowledge and skills which can be applied both inside and outside of school, and allowing them opportunities to experience success and build confidence through the development of their talents and curiosity.

Learning Through Play

The Algo Club makes the most of the fact that children give great attention to playing games. This is an important part of children’s growth, both socially and academically. Therefore, the programme aims to foster thinking and communication skills through healthy competition between classmates, and through teammates encouraging each other.

In addition, a unique aspect of the programme involves focusing on student’s manners and self-discipline. The Algo Club programme is particularly designed to develop these skills through a variety of instructional techniques and learning activities in the programme. Students learn both by observation of the modeling provided by the facilitators, and by interaction with the facilitators and classmates. This programme is delivered with an emphasis on cooperative, team-based learning, while still giving individual attention through small class size.

Plus223 Education provides highly qualified facilitators who navigate children through stimulating learning experiences that are designed to increase their knowledge and skills through games and puzzles. At the end of each class, students are asked to reflect on their learning and performance in class. This reflection time is very important for the learners, as they organize their thoughts and review what they learned, how they did, and how to improve as well.

Meeting Today’s Needs in Mathematics Education

In past years, mathematics education involved primarily computation and memorization. Students memorized number facts, length conversions, and names for geometric figures. They learned the processes for subtracting multi-digit numbers, long division, and finding common denominators. Recent reforms in education have changed the face of mathematics teaching and learning. Students are now expected to be active learners, and solve relevant problems that focus on real-world situations. To be successful in such learning, students must develop skills that are more complex than mere computation and procedures. In today’s classrooms, students must successfully exhibit mathematical thinking, reasoning and analytical skills, and communications abilities. The Algo Club does just that!