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Why are we so bad at Maths?
http://news.sky.com/h...news/article/16180719
Well what they are talking about is simple Arithmetic really, but why are we such a nation of dingbats when it comes to rithmetic? Is it because of trendy teaching over the last generation negelecting the famous 3'R's?
Well what they are talking about is simple Arithmetic really, but why are we such a nation of dingbats when it comes to rithmetic? Is it because of trendy teaching over the last generation negelecting the famous 3'R's?
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I don't agree Old Geezer, that bad teaching is the only reason. There is a saying in education " If the child does well he's clever, if he does't he's got a bad Teacher ". As sunny_dave says we rely too much on machines and therefore the incentive isn't there to learn maths.
I bought £25 worth of petrol recently and gave the assistant 2 twenty pound notes. She entered this amount in to the till and then Said" according to this I have to give you £150 in change". What really worried me was, she then Said "is that right ?".
I bought £25 worth of petrol recently and gave the assistant 2 twenty pound notes. She entered this amount in to the till and then Said" according to this I have to give you £150 in change". What really worried me was, she then Said "is that right ?".
As a secondary school maths teacher I think a major problem is with students who just don't want to learn/do work in most subjects. However, I think the problem is a little worse for maths in that students do not see why the skills are needed and many of their parents pass on a negative attitude about maths- many take pride in saying "I was rubbish at maths".
Students have 4 or 5 maths lessons a week and weaker students may have additional lessons in basic numeracy. For those students who don't want to learn you could give them 30 hours of maths a week but it would make no difference. We try to use computers to make it more interesting but within a minute they are playing on games they somehow manage to find.
Sadly, although we give opportunities to practise the skills daily many students leave school at 16 unable to multiply and divide simple numbers or not knowing how many centimetres in a metre, and it's largely because for some reason they just don't care.
It's the attitude to learning that is the main issue we need to address. I also think though, that we need to find more ways of helping them learn numeracy skills through other means rather than labelling it "maths"- for example get them to set up little businesses or get them to help in organising the finance for school trips etc
Students have 4 or 5 maths lessons a week and weaker students may have additional lessons in basic numeracy. For those students who don't want to learn you could give them 30 hours of maths a week but it would make no difference. We try to use computers to make it more interesting but within a minute they are playing on games they somehow manage to find.
Sadly, although we give opportunities to practise the skills daily many students leave school at 16 unable to multiply and divide simple numbers or not knowing how many centimetres in a metre, and it's largely because for some reason they just don't care.
It's the attitude to learning that is the main issue we need to address. I also think though, that we need to find more ways of helping them learn numeracy skills through other means rather than labelling it "maths"- for example get them to set up little businesses or get them to help in organising the finance for school trips etc
There have always been variations in intelligence, there have always been parents that fail to teach skills, the thing that is supposed to correct any external problems at produce at least a basic level of understanding is the teaching. It's what we, as a society, pay the education tax for.
It seems to me that if the general level of ability is falling, which is what this is suggesting, there is only one place that can be failing to keep the standards high regardless of the external environment. IMO that would include teaching the ability to know the general magnitude one expects the answer to be.
It seems to me that if the general level of ability is falling, which is what this is suggesting, there is only one place that can be failing to keep the standards high regardless of the external environment. IMO that would include teaching the ability to know the general magnitude one expects the answer to be.
Hi O_G, I'm not saying teachers are perfect (although we are constantly assessed against OFSTED criteria, have to achieve results targets and have to follow the national curriculum).
However the biggest challenge I face as a teacher is with students who are just not interested. They turn up with no pen or equipment, they never listen or do any work. I'd love to know how we can force them to work if the usual deterrents of ringing home or giving detentions don't work.
I am sure this problem has got worse over the years. I think it reflects the generally fall in respect for teachers and rules. I don't know how we can deal with it but I'm not sure what more teachers can do. Ideas would be welcomed!
However the biggest challenge I face as a teacher is with students who are just not interested. They turn up with no pen or equipment, they never listen or do any work. I'd love to know how we can force them to work if the usual deterrents of ringing home or giving detentions don't work.
I am sure this problem has got worse over the years. I think it reflects the generally fall in respect for teachers and rules. I don't know how we can deal with it but I'm not sure what more teachers can do. Ideas would be welcomed!
Lots of factors contribute.
During the '60s, 70s, and 80s teachers were not allowed to teach anything by rote, hence "tables" were out as was poetry, historical dates etc. People forget that teachers are subject to trendy whims from on high, do you seriously think that they agreed with these policies? I once heard a Head berate a supply teacher for having a class chant tables. She was his wife!
Parents have a strange attitude towards Maths, it's quite normal to hear a mother decrying her own abilty with Maths and saying her children are obviously going to be "thick", the same people are purple with apoplexy if their child's reading fell behind. How often do you hear parents comparing reading book levels? How often do they compare Maths book level?
Children are often unwilling to make an effort to learn, I used to tell them it's not measles, you don't catch it, you have to actively engage in trying to learn. So much is done for them yet hear is someone expecting them to try.
Calculators are of use only so far, I personally would not allow them in Primary school, and only in Senior schools from Year 9 when they replace the old slide rule or log tables.
One of the best feelings in life is when the penny drops for a struggling pupil and that then leads to greater confidence.
During the '60s, 70s, and 80s teachers were not allowed to teach anything by rote, hence "tables" were out as was poetry, historical dates etc. People forget that teachers are subject to trendy whims from on high, do you seriously think that they agreed with these policies? I once heard a Head berate a supply teacher for having a class chant tables. She was his wife!
Parents have a strange attitude towards Maths, it's quite normal to hear a mother decrying her own abilty with Maths and saying her children are obviously going to be "thick", the same people are purple with apoplexy if their child's reading fell behind. How often do you hear parents comparing reading book levels? How often do they compare Maths book level?
Children are often unwilling to make an effort to learn, I used to tell them it's not measles, you don't catch it, you have to actively engage in trying to learn. So much is done for them yet hear is someone expecting them to try.
Calculators are of use only so far, I personally would not allow them in Primary school, and only in Senior schools from Year 9 when they replace the old slide rule or log tables.
One of the best feelings in life is when the penny drops for a struggling pupil and that then leads to greater confidence.
I'm rather skeptical of the idea that mathematical skill is an innate/genetic ability. Personally, I don't mind admitting that I'm generally not very good at it, but I think the reason is that throughout my school years (just like in the sciences), nobody taught me what was awe-inspiring or beautiful about maths in the same way that they did with history or literature. The primary justification in my education was that I needed to learn maths to get by in everyday life - so I only really tried to get the most basic/functional grasp of it because that seemed like all it really was to me.
It wasn't until much much later that I learned about how, say, Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth to incredible accuracy using nothing but mathematics and some sticks in the ground thousands of years ago. A feat which I personally find incredibly beautiful and genuinely inspiring as a human achievement. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, I think the idea that you can only find beauty, culture, or civilisation in the humanities subjects, which are set against the hard-nosed, 'factual' sciences is a false division - and one which is pervasive in education. Each area contains both features and appeals, and the failure to realise that causes something of a divergence between 'arty' students and 'scientific' students which there's not really much reason for.
Those are my thoughts, anyway.
It wasn't until much much later that I learned about how, say, Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth to incredible accuracy using nothing but mathematics and some sticks in the ground thousands of years ago. A feat which I personally find incredibly beautiful and genuinely inspiring as a human achievement. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, I think the idea that you can only find beauty, culture, or civilisation in the humanities subjects, which are set against the hard-nosed, 'factual' sciences is a false division - and one which is pervasive in education. Each area contains both features and appeals, and the failure to realise that causes something of a divergence between 'arty' students and 'scientific' students which there's not really much reason for.
Those are my thoughts, anyway.
There is another saying in teaching,"for every person wishing to teach, there are thirty wishing not to be taught". An exaggeration I know but factor and zebo are right, a lot of children are just not interested in learning. I know a lad who openly boasts that the only reason he goes to school is so he can create as much confusion as possible and it only need one child to disrupt a class to the detriment of everybody.
If the students are uninterested then that is a problem, accept that totally, but ultimately one the education system has to overcome. It may not be individual teachers getting it wrong, it may be the system, but something is failing to break down that difficulty.
I wish I had an answer but I don't. One needs to get the attention somehow and foster a desire to learn. My suspicion is that reduced discipline over the years as a reaction to excessive discipline in the past, is probably part of the issue.
I wish I had an answer but I don't. One needs to get the attention somehow and foster a desire to learn. My suspicion is that reduced discipline over the years as a reaction to excessive discipline in the past, is probably part of the issue.
I always thought I was bad at maths until one day in a workshop as part of my ITU course we had to do calculations of fluid requirements for burn patients... and the senior tutor pointed out to the whole group I was going it on a bit of paper without a calculator and what was more important I was the only one who seemed able to...and I was getting the right answers When the lady concerned was one of my patients some years later I told her what a life changing moment that had been as it made me rethink a whole lot of my skill levels.
I agree with a lot of what is being said here.
I was taught maths in the traditional sense; tables by rote, etc. (this was nearly 50 years ago!). I became 'turned on' by the beuaty of maths just after learning my 9 times table, and it was all go from there (9 is a magic number).
Another change, beside calculators and the lack of understanding of logs and slide rules (which gives a sense of scale to answers that a calculator does not) is that within the GCSE system, there is no longer any pure maths; it is all applied - for example question don't ask what is the highest interger answer of 200 divided by 21, they ask how many 21p stamps can you buy for £2. GCSEs have got easier in order for successive governments to continually claim improvements in results; as the tests have dumbed down, so has the teaching.
Lastly, the whole world is based around maths - it is the basic bulding block. When doing her exams, my daughter asked what is the use of calculus. My answer? "When did you last cross the road?"
I was taught maths in the traditional sense; tables by rote, etc. (this was nearly 50 years ago!). I became 'turned on' by the beuaty of maths just after learning my 9 times table, and it was all go from there (9 is a magic number).
Another change, beside calculators and the lack of understanding of logs and slide rules (which gives a sense of scale to answers that a calculator does not) is that within the GCSE system, there is no longer any pure maths; it is all applied - for example question don't ask what is the highest interger answer of 200 divided by 21, they ask how many 21p stamps can you buy for £2. GCSEs have got easier in order for successive governments to continually claim improvements in results; as the tests have dumbed down, so has the teaching.
Lastly, the whole world is based around maths - it is the basic bulding block. When doing her exams, my daughter asked what is the use of calculus. My answer? "When did you last cross the road?"
My youngest daughter at 9 struggles with Maths. I try and help her but she is taught a variety of methods to arrive at one solution. It's great that a variety is taught as kids learn to think more laterally I think, but the problem is that at 9 she struggles to grasp 4 different methods.
I voiced this query with her tutor and I told him that when she asks her maths teacher, the teacher will simply repeat the method and when she asks again the teacher becomes frustrated.....if a child does not understand and can not explain it back to you using different numbers, that child is not comprehending what is being taught.
I found this also from my own experience.....and all that happens is that you are put into a lower maths group, instead of being taught properly and from my own experience, kids in lower groups don't bother because the teacher can't be bothered to spend their energy teaching kids who they perceive as 'not getting maths.' ............And that's wrong.
I voiced this query with her tutor and I told him that when she asks her maths teacher, the teacher will simply repeat the method and when she asks again the teacher becomes frustrated.....if a child does not understand and can not explain it back to you using different numbers, that child is not comprehending what is being taught.
I found this also from my own experience.....and all that happens is that you are put into a lower maths group, instead of being taught properly and from my own experience, kids in lower groups don't bother because the teacher can't be bothered to spend their energy teaching kids who they perceive as 'not getting maths.' ............And that's wrong.
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