Dr Foo Kum Fong

Profile

Mdm Foo Kum Fong has been a teacher for 30 years. Since 2007, she has served as Master Teacher in Mathematics in the East Zone. In this capacity, Mdm Foo provides leadership in the teaching and learning of Mathematics across schools in the zone.

She also served as editor of Maths Buzz, a publication of the Association of Mathematics Educators since Oct 2003 to May 2009. Between 2003 and 2006, Mdm Foo took a secondment at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NIE) as a teaching fellow in the Pre-Service Teacher Training programme. Within the zone, Mdm Foo has initiated closer working relationships between the East Zone’s Centre for Excellence in Mathematics, the Maths Department of the National University of Singapore and various divisions within the Ministry of Education. In this way she leveraged her experience as a Curriculum Planning Officer at MOE (2000-2002) and her years teaching at NIE to build strong network learning communities amongst teachers from different schools.

Mdm Foo has a number of published journal articles and has participated in international Mathematics Conferences. In 2008, she gave a lesson demonstration at Huamao Foreign Language School (Secondary) upon the invitation of Ningbo University, People’s Republic of China. In 2009, she presented at the Zhengzhou Roundtable a request by the Zhengzhou City Education Bureau, a lesson using the Teaching for Understanding Framework by Harvard Graduate School of Education. As a recipient of the Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching in 2009, Mdm Foo leveraged her learning experience in the Peabody College, University of Vanderbilt from Aug to Dec 2009 to guide her study on how open-ended tasks can engage students in constructive thinking in the context of mathematical problem solving. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Education with NIE under the MOE Post Graduate Scholarship.

Professional Involvement and Contributions

Publications, Conferences, Workshops, etc.

Wong, L. F. & Foo, K. F. (2015). A fair game. In J. W. Lott & In C. J. Lott (Eds.), Mathematics lessons learned from across the world: Grades 7-12 (pp.71-78). Reston, VA: NCTM.
Presented and submitted a paper titled: Teaching Through Inquiry: A Case-Based Approach to ECE 2015, The European Conference on Education in Brighton, United Kingdom, 1-5 Jul 2015.
Presented as part of a team from MOE and AST, a symposium on “Fostering Mathematical Reasoning and Communication” at the Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference 2013, 3 -5 June 2013, NIE
Presented as part of a team from MOE and NIE at the 12th International Congress in Mathematics Education (ICME 12) which was held in Seoul, Korea from 8 – 15 July 2012 on the mathematics education in Singapore.
Presented a paper with Mr Thong Chee Hing, Educational Technology Division, MOE at the 12th International Congress in Mathematics Education (ICME 12) which was held in Seoul, Korea from 8 – 15 July 2012 on Learning and teaching to solve word problems through Mathematics Playspace (MaPS)
Delivered a keynote speech and breakout sessions at the international symposium, ‘21st Century Transformers: Teachers and Leaders Improving Instructional Practice’ organized by Kentucky Department of Education, Kentucky Leadership Academy and Kentucky Association of School Administrators on 20 June – 22 June.
Presented in a poster presentation at EARCOME 5, Tokyo, Japan from 18 Aug – 22 Aug on ‘The Impact of a Mobile Sharing Platform on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics’.
Ng J. D., & Foo K.F. (2009). Chapter 6 Singapore master teachers in mathematics. In K. Y. Wong; P.Y.Lee, B. Kaur, P. Y. Foong & S. F. Ng (Eds). Mathematics education: The Singapore journey (pp 150 -168). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
Foo, K.F. (2008). So you want to be a master teacher? ASCD Review, 14, pp 53-56, ASCD, Singapore
Foo K. F., Lee H. P., & Daipi M. N. (2008). Building a professional learning community through east zone through lesson study. Proceedings of APERA Conference: Educational Research for Innovation & Quality in Education: Policy & Pedagogical Engagements across Contexts Web.
Foo K. F. (2007). Chapter 8 Teaching of decimals. In P. Y. Lee (Ed.) Teaching Primary School Mathematics: A Resource Book (pp. 155-181). Singapore: Mcgraw-Hill Education; ISBN-10: 0071268480

Awards

Gold Innergy (HQ) Awards 2013 for the project: “Mathematics PlaySpace (MaPS): Fun to Use, Motivate to Solve”, a collaborative effort among AST: MTT Foo Kum Fong, ETD, Mr Thong Chee Hing and Ms Lye Sze Yee and two teachers from Yuhua Pri: Mdm Lim Ai Hua Lim and Mr Md Noor Faisal Abdul.