How to Fix Our Math Education

[groovedaddy]

THERE is widespread alarm in the United States about the state of our math education. The anxiety can be traced to the poor performance of American students on various international tests, and it is now embodied in George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, which requires public school students to pass standardized math tests by the year 2014 and punishes their schools or their teachers if they do not.

All this worry, however, is based on the assumption that there is a single established body of mathematical skills that everyone needs to know to be prepared for 21st-century careers. This assumption is wrong. The truth is that different sets of math skills are useful for different careers, and our math education should be changed to reflect this fact.

Today, American high schools offer a sequence of algebra, geometry, more algebra, pre-calculus and calculus (or a “reform” version in which these topics are interwoven). This has been codified by the Common Core State Standards, recently adopted by more than 40 states. This highly abstract curriculum is simply not the best way to prepare a vast majority of high school students for life.

For instance, how often do most adults encounter a situation in which they need to solve a quadratic equation? Do they need to know what constitutes a “group of transformations” or a “complex number”? Of course professional mathematicians, physicists and engineers need to know all this, but most citizens would be better served by studying how mortgages are priced, how computers are programmed and how the statistical results of a medical trial are to be understood.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

[LWolf]

1. I would like to see

math taught through inquiry, with equal focus on concepts and skills, using real-world applications, from the very beginning.

I don't teach math any more, but when I taught primary math, I did just that, and ALL of my students exhibited high levels of numeracy.

[TexasProgresive]

2. I don't think any learning is ever wasted

Learning higher mathematics helps one to learn to think rationally if nothing else. And if we don't expose students to higher math then I suppose we will have to issue more of those special visas or outsource our math needs.

One of my favorite stories is from my brother-in-law. He's a welder who took Trig in HS. He found a little book that was Trig for Welders. Now he had been welding for over 20 years, in reading this book he realized that he had been making use of that "useless" trig all along. He just didn't know it.

If kids show no aptitude for higher math or English lit for that matter then steer them towards what will work for them.

[Jim__]

3. If we changed the curriculum, would our students do better on international tests?

Or, would the international math tests only be taken by a small subset of our students, leading to a higher average, without any real gain in overall math knowledge among US students? My understanding is that one of the reasons we score low on these tests is because a higher percentage of US students take them.

[DrDan]

5. that is bunk

We score lower because we do not have the same level of math competency as other ocuntries. Having more taking the tests would not lower our overall position unless we have more students with less competence.

[Jim__]

11. It's not the number, it's the selection. - n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

4. As a teacher, my epiphany is that math should be taught as pure problem-solving.

You're given formulas, the order in which to follow steps, and often some of the information from which you must extrapolate the "answer".

Geometry is logic. You have to prove your answer is correct via theorums.

If anything, getting students comfortable with solving math problems leads to being able to solve non-math problems in an unemotional way in the future. In other words, life is one problem after another, but with the correct processing of the question, you can solve your own problem (versus having someone else do it for you).

One of the things I worked diligently with my math students was to read, READ, READ the problem and ANSWER THE QUESTION THAT'S GIVEN, not the question you want to anwer.

Math is anything but just about numbers.

[DrDan]

6. I taught math for several years. While what you say might be true at a certain point,

early years must focus on basics - basic operations and properties.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Agreed. The early years gives them the tools to solve problems later.

[DrDan]

9. I taught graduate statistics for years in an MBA program - it was sad to see

how many struggled simply because they did not have the basic concepts at-hand as we worked through real-life problems.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. No two ways about it: Math is a discipline.

I liked the Montessori approach where geometric principles were introduced with counting and application of numbers (e.g., spatial geometry where two and three-dimensional shapes became familiar to four and five year olds). One was a single bead. Ten was a bar of ten beads. One Hundred was a square of ten bars of beads. One Thousand was a cube of ten squares of ten bars of beads.

[exboyfil]

8. Most High Schools let you jump off the

sequence after Algebra I and take programming, consumer math, or statistics instead. I think you can graduate from our High School with just Algebra I (General Math, PreAlgebra, and Algebra I).

To get into our public universities you do need up to Algebra II (Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II). I would argue that, like any liberal education, an understanding of Algebra II concepts should be a prerequisite for pursuing a Bachelors degree. It is doubtful anyone is going to do critical analysis of a piece of literature, but that is still expected when obtaining a Bachelors degree. Someone in a Liberal Arts field may never perform a laboratory experiment outside of a single class in college, but three Science classes are still required (such as Physical Science, Biology, and Chemistry) for entrance into college.

Geometry is the only time Logic is formally taught in High School. A good understanding of Algebra is necessary to understand concepts in fields like Economics.

Our High School only requires three years of Mathematics but four years of English.

I guess I could be convinced that a student should take Statistics or Consumer Math instead of Algebra II, but I would then make the same argument for cutting back on the English requirements as well. The typical college Liberal Arts core is very heavy into verbal skills (English, Social Studies, and Communications), but very light in analytical skills (for example one math course, one physical science course, and one biology course). Many biology courses are more descriptive than analytical as well.

To sum up are Liberal Arts core at our local university - 32 hours for English, Communications, Humanities, Cultures, Fine Arts, Literature, and Social Studies. 10 hours for Math, Life Science, and Physical Science. I don't know, but it seems to me that we may be studying the wrong things.

[CRK7376]

12. As Jimmy Buffet sings....

Math Sucks! At least for me it does. I have never, ever been good with the topic, regardless of help, tutoring, lots and lots of practice. It just never has been a subject I could wrap my head around. Fortunately, my high school senior is a math science whiz and helps both parents and bother and sister with their math issues....If it's not simple add, subtract, multiply and divide, I'm lost. Even then it's sometimes a disaster. Formulas and equations are the stuff of nightmares in my world. Glad others thrive in the world of math, just not me. My strengths are elsewhere.