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Why do you think so many people are bad at maths?

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xXNovaxX:
Just a thought :smiley6600:. You hear so many times, whether in the news, real life experience, newspapers etc that we are falling behind in maths. You only have to look at schools! I've moved schools several times, and in each school (public/though not limited to), sooo many people achieve C's and D's. In our recent tests we had 1/3 yes 33% of year 12 maths students FAIL a SAC, and the highest in the class was a 65% i think it was, and also those that passed got like 40% or around 45%

In other schools we experienced 2-3 math teacher changes a year, some students balmed the teachers inabilty to speak english clearly (though surely this cannot be the main issue), others citing "not qualified", and some blaming "unable to teach". Its difficult to ssay that "people are bad at maths because they dont study", this cant be true for Maths isn't the only subject where people don't complete homeowkr. :crazy2:

What i think the issue is...

* students doing poor at maths now, and grow up to teach maths as teachers at a poor level
* teachers not giving any homework in maths and checking (in every subejct we get homeowkr, and have it marked, in maths everyone bludges and doesn't do it knowing it wont be looked at)
* some textbooks use very poor/limited examples, maths is a subject which needs a lot more in dpeth information and detail/diagrams/examples than  say English or msuic, or art. This causes confusion and an inability to approach problems/excersies in OTHER textbooks
Any thoughts woiuld be interetsing ;D

TrueTears:
Australian maths education does not focus on the basics and fundamentals enough, also they "leap" around too much, they never do anything in order. Look at Chinese maths education, they consolidate the basics of everything and do everything in a specific order.

xXNovaxX:

--- Quote from: TrueTears on August 14, 2009, 06:50:06 pm ---Australian maths education does not focus on the basics and fundamentals enough, also they "leap" around too much, they never do anything in order. Look at Chinese maths education, they consolidate the basics of everything and do everything in a specific order.


--- End quote ---
WOW! You read my mind :P, you are very correct! In moving schools i noticed each one taught soo many different strands and types of maths, and im spekaing of in year 7-10! They kept "leaping", and about the basics, you're right as well, i also think its ineffectivness in teaching, like in primary school we spent hours and hours a week doing maths, the basic of shapes etc, and each student was put in a group according to skill and given work appropriate to their needs, we also got given a 10 minute multiplication test, which we did every 2-3 days, and in 1 term, i improved in my speed by about 1/2 how i was before, other schools rely on rote-learning i.e. memorising timetables.

And about the Chinese system, i agree, it is also very common in japanese, European and some middle eastern schools. I remember my cousin in grade 1 or 2 i think it was learning times tables and fractions already, and understanding it.
Thanks for your comments, anyone else?

TrueTears:
Yeah and also the standard of education here is way lower than schools in China, I'm talking primarily about primary schools. Here you learn to cut paper and learn the art of cutting out shapes and colour in shapes in primary school. In China, you already start doing year 7 - 9 things in primary school.

NE2000:
The way primary school runs is to blame

Fun...yes
Stress-free...yes
Encouraging you to embark upon a path of academic excellence and seeing maths as something that is fascinating...not really

Too much repetition as well.

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