Poor maths again

Look here, Corners, if Ian says it's dire, then dire it must be - he couldn't possibly be wrong could he? But wait .... he hasn't had backing from "north of the border" yet, so maybe there's still room for doubt? 

Anyway, all I can conclude is that the whole thing's gone to hell in a handcart since I retired 6 years ago! 

your totally right, would you like to come back?

Mid table in Europe? My yes, that's really quite an achievement isn't it!

Teachers (and ex teachers) of maths will, of course, try to defend the situation. They will find all the excuses under tbe sun to try to rubbish this report. Presumably they believe that all this extra spending to try to improve standards is unnecessary?

......but given that they have led to this poor state of affairs, they are perhaps understandably defensive.

Incidently, if people were simply able to 'balance their books' and sort out their finances, that would probably be reasonable. But the level of out-of-control debt in this country is dreadful and a reason for national shame. 

Maths results are one thing but I’ll bet that the teachers in these far eastern schools would not show the same compassion and understanding to one of their pupils as this teacher.

See here  

what report are you taking about Ian?

I agree with artyboo. I left school about 37 yrs ago with a B pass O level and not once since have I needed my B times table. Of what use in life is algebra? 

Debt is a very disabling state of affairs and could often be avoided by a better grasp of mathematics.

One cannot simply transpose educational successes from one country or culture to another. For a while Finland was all the rage (no uniform, later school starting age, no league tables or Ofsted pressure, all masters teaching profession and, most tellingly, lowest income inequality in EU ).

Now it's 'mastery' transposed from Far East/ Singaporepore/ China. In Singapore they have a 'Teachers Day' where the country shows its appreciation for their well paid professionals. A 'high quality' text book is central to this type of learning and teaching and all pupils do the same work. In Hong Kong teacher/tutor celebrities earn more than footballers and are packaged and sold like commodities. Many other countries admire the problem solving capabilities of our students and young people. 

Somewhere in all this is the middle and best way; education is subject to whims and fashions and massive accountability pressures. Good and great teachers just do their best for the pupils they have; they mitigate the wildest idealogocal execesses, ensure that the curriculum is engaging, their lessons are high quality and accessible for all the different abilities included in the class and work incredibly hard so that all their pupils make progress.

I would agree with about the algebra not being particulary useful to most people who don't require it in their jobs, but O levels in their day were more of a preparation for higher education and technical jobs and they were used more as a measure of academic and mental ability. 

However thats not to say something should only be studied if its going to be useful, you probably use a lot of the skills learnt using alegbra far more than you realise, in working backwards from an answer, making logical correct steps from one to another, using the the rules of arithemtic in the right order and why they work, every time you do proportion, you're using the skills taught in algebra

One cannot simply transpose educational successes from one country or culture to another. For a while Finland was all the rage (no uniform, later school starting age, no league tables or Ofsted pressure, all masters teaching profession and, most tellingly, lowest income inequality in EU ).

Now it's 'mastery' transposed from Far East/ Singaporepore/ China. In Singapore they have a 'Teachers Day' where the country shows its appreciation for their well paid professionals. A 'high quality' text book is central to this type of learning and teaching and all pupils do the same work. In Hong Kong teacher/tutor celebrities earn more than footballers and are packaged and sold like commodities. Many other countries admire the problem solving capabilities of our students and young people. 

Somewhere in all this is the middle and best way; education is subject to whims and fashions and massive accountability pressures. Good and great teachers just do their best for the pupils they have; they mitigate the wildest idealogocal execesses, ensure that the curriculum is engaging, their lessons are high quality and accessible for all the different abilities included in the class and work incredibly hard so that all their pupils make progress.

yes, spot on

*I can spell 'ideological'! Typo.

And algebra is fun, and is needed for physics.