Commentary on science, math, education, and aerospace.
Problems in Mathematics Education
Tags education, mathematics
When a calculus student can't do long division, or precalculus students think that graphing rational functions is the hardest math they've ever learned, you know something is wrong. The way we teach mathematics is broken. The level of rigor in courses has decreased dramatically [d(rigor)/dt<0].
A majority of students, it seems, have little interest in mathematics. They fail to learn the basics of mathematics; even 9th grade Algebra I. But rather than attempting to promote interest, to promote understanding, the current system simply waters down the curriculum and passes anyone. The result of that is that students are put into higher difficulty classes without the tools to succeed. This promotes even more distaste towards mathematics and hurts the student rather than helps them.
Calculators have made the situation worse. Now, many teachers simply teach students how to plug expressions into the calculator for the answer to magically appear. They do not teach the concepts, the why--in high school education our concept of proof has sunk to the level of the ancient Egyptians: you will find it so.
In 9th grade, when I was taking Algebra II, I ran a little experiment. Every day I would put up the infamous a=b proof that 2=1 and challenge my fellow classmates, older than I, to explain the fallacy. The only thing I would ever change is the end statement. It took weeks for them to catch on; it took another week to catch on that the same mistake applied regardless of the end statement.
Teachers need to stress the basics, the fundamentals of mathematics to students. To pass a course, a student must demonstrate competence in it. Otherwise, by passing them we only sabotage their future. I have seen capable students do poorly in class because of prior classes in which teachers simply used calculators and did not teach concepts. This is not to say that calculators are bad, but rather that calculator usage should not come at the expense of basic understanding.
NOTE: If the categories were working, this entry would be filed under STEM Education. But since categories=0, it's uncategorized.
A majority of students, it seems, have little interest in mathematics. They fail to learn the basics of mathematics; even 9th grade Algebra I. But rather than attempting to promote interest, to promote understanding, the current system simply waters down the curriculum and passes anyone. The result of that is that students are put into higher difficulty classes without the tools to succeed. This promotes even more distaste towards mathematics and hurts the student rather than helps them.
Calculators have made the situation worse. Now, many teachers simply teach students how to plug expressions into the calculator for the answer to magically appear. They do not teach the concepts, the why--in high school education our concept of proof has sunk to the level of the ancient Egyptians: you will find it so.
In 9th grade, when I was taking Algebra II, I ran a little experiment. Every day I would put up the infamous a=b proof that 2=1 and challenge my fellow classmates, older than I, to explain the fallacy. The only thing I would ever change is the end statement. It took weeks for them to catch on; it took another week to catch on that the same mistake applied regardless of the end statement.
Teachers need to stress the basics, the fundamentals of mathematics to students. To pass a course, a student must demonstrate competence in it. Otherwise, by passing them we only sabotage their future. I have seen capable students do poorly in class because of prior classes in which teachers simply used calculators and did not teach concepts. This is not to say that calculators are bad, but rather that calculator usage should not come at the expense of basic understanding.
NOTE: If the categories were working, this entry would be filed under STEM Education. But since categories=0, it's uncategorized.
Total Comments 3
Comments
-
Amen brutha.Posted Feb10-10 at 07:35 PM by Jebus_Chris 
-
Part of the problem is the way the EOC tests are, at least, here. The teachers want their students to do good on the EOC (on which they can use calculators), so they teach them the magic of calculators, rather than the theory behind why division by zero is evil.
They're getting rid of the EOCs for Geometry and Alg II here, in NC. Not sure if it will help. Now that they don't have someone hplding their feet to the fire, the math teachers are likely to turn them into two new discrete maths. (I don't know about where you go/went to school, but here, high school discrete math is basically nap time. Not to bash its awesomeness, I love discrete math, but it really does attract all the slackers who need a fourth math.)Posted Mar15-11 at 09:23 PM by TylerH 
-
"Many teachers simply teach students how to plug expressions into the calculator for the answer to magically appear"
Why not! They have the Chinese to make and program those machines for them in the "very" near future.Posted Mar21-13 at 06:53 AM by Bachelier
