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The Forum > Article Comments > Degenerate maths and the mystery of the disappearing report > Comments

Degenerate maths and the mystery of the disappearing report : Comments

By John Ridd, published 17/2/2010

It is a fact that Australian students are extremely weak at maths compared to those in many other countries.

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Thank you for this interesting article. I am in WA, and I tremble for the upcoming mathematics education of my pre-primary children.
Posted by floatinglili, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 2:51:50 PM
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WTF?
Fact 1: Twenty years ago Maths assessment for Year 11 and 12 students consisted of a mid-semester test and an end-semester test.

Fact 2: Now that assessment typically consists of a mid-semester test, an end-semester test and an assignment of some sort.

Fact 3 If a student does significantly better on the assignment than a test that result will be deemed unreliable by most Maths review panellists.

Fact 4: Despite the use of descriptors to arrive at a student’s rating percentages are still widely used by most schools.

Fact 5: Topics such as differentiation are still taught in much the same manner today as they were 20 years ago.

Opinion: Maths like Football (soccer) is a world game. Teaching Maths the way it was taught 20 (or 30 or 40 or 50) years ago is akin to sending the Qld State of Origin Rugby League side off to represent Australia in the football world cup.
Posted by WTF?, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 6:58:48 PM
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“even a pile of horse droppings has one turd at the top”.

Now I don’t think it appropriate to call a male student a “turd”. Within the highly feminist and extremely sordid education system, I cannot remember a teacher or university lecturer ever saying one good thing about male students (or about the male gender for that matter), and therein is a major part of the problem, “How to correctly motivate the students”

Illiteracy and innumeracy are both national problems.

“ If compulsory education was a product offered in the commercial world, and the results were as they are presently reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics*(“of those aged 15 to 19 years, 52% attained skill scores lower than Level 3 on the prose scale”) the trade Practices Commission and Consumer Affairs bodies would declare the product as not being of merchantable standard and allow the goods to be returned and demand that a full refund be issued.”

http://www.tasmaniatogether.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/77671/2009_05_21_Adult_Literacy_-_Small_Business_Council.pdf

All teachers seem to want more and more “government spending”, which is actually taxpayer funding.

To give teachers more money, the public has to increase its productivity, so more tax can be forwarded to government, who then give the teachers more money.

Now it becomes very difficult for the public to increase its productivity, with such a high level of illiteracy and innumeracy within the public, something teachers should consider next time they ask for a pay rise (but more than likely they won’t even think about it).
Posted by vanna, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 9:26:13 PM
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I seem to recall reading what you wrote in "Maths" (where you urged us to read about what was happening)
I am sure it was on the WWW.PLATOWA site but that was about Outcomes Based Education surely you are not using OBE crap in Qnsland ?
Posted by ShazBaz001, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 10:32:39 PM
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There's no shame in being beaten by Hungary at maths.
Posted by Mark Duffett, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 10:59:27 PM
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In 1960’s London, the homework concept mystified my father. He never experienced it in 1930’s Dublin. He asked “So what work do you actually do in the classroom?” His school had been a place of discipline, in a community where a schoolteacher’s status approached a priest’s.

My early 1960’s Primary School was run along similar lines. Discipline was foremost and homework was infrequent and manageable. The teachers would MAKE you respect them. Pupils’ families represented many different cultures, but all left Fenstanton able to read and write properly. Neither ADHD nor food labelling laws existed. Ask a shopkeeper for orange juice, he would offer a bottle of dilutable cordial.

My Secondary School (High School) was a vast boys-only institution where discipline conducive to concentration was sporadic. For my first 15 months, I expected some Government taskforce to take control and manage the place properly. Staff turnover was exorbitant and two hippy teachers told us correct spelling didn’t matter. Such is the origin of Outcomes Based Education, wherein all must have prizes.

Yet I too have been top turd in the pile. I have never been to Innisfail. At Tulse Hill School in 1968 when I was 12, my new Mathematics teacher was our author Dr. John Ridd. I cannot help wondering if he can identify me, so here is a clue. I consistently scored higher than Henry Idowu and Bharat Nanavati, and I twice pointed out errors on the blackboard, eliciting a correct, non-hippy response. He is the best teacher I ever had.

Vanna’s comment about motivation is interesting, though I am sure Dr. Ridd’s turd jibe intended illustration not insult. Motivation can arise or dissipate for many reasons, especially in formative years.
Posted by PJC, Thursday, 4 March 2010 1:20:48 AM
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