Posted on 12/07/2016 18:23
Once again it's been shown that maths teaching in our schools is dire.
Kids in tbe UK are at least three years behind their far eastern equivalent.
Apparantly it's going to cost us an extra £41million to get our teachers to teach maths in a better way......a way that works.
Why don't they just do it better anyway?
Posted on 14/07/2016 11:09
....
sorry WHAT? but how can you use trig without algebra????? It's impossible!!!!
What is your B times tables btw?
Easily .... a bit of transposition but not algegra as I remember.
B Times table? ...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqZo07Ot-uA It's Billy Connolly so expect a little colourful language
you may be just winding me up but the correct transposition is a key element of alegbra. Assuming you're not here are the steps in using trig with the alebraic bits in bold (this is for a simple right angles triangles
select the known and name the unknown sides
select the correct trig ratio (an alegbraic expression)
use the trig ratio to make an equation by correct substitution
Solve the equation by the correct transposition (unknown side) or solve the equation by using the correct inverse function
Posted on 14/07/2016 13:20
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.
Excellent post. I had poor teaching in maths at school. It was assumed that if someone was numerate they could teach. Wrong! As a result I failed O level maths twice passing at the third attempt. Years later, I then found an interest in applied maths in finance by using computers to do all the boring bits. My interest blossomed, by being self taught. I have since (modestly) published seven books on Financial Mathematics and taught some of the best graduates in the world as a self-employed financial math trainer. How ironic.
It is much more useful to motivate and teach and encourage self motivation, not learning by rote like a robot. It suits some cultures but probably not ours. Move one millimetre away from the knowledge path learned by rote and you have total confusion. People must be taught to use imagination as well as the mechanics.
Peter.
IanH