too easy

Inspector

Does any think that maths is getting way too easy in primary school. they don't teach multiplication until 4th class. there still counting apples and colouring numbers in 1st class. i mean how are kids going to survive in secondary school if they can barely multiply when they get there

dudara

It's symptomatic of the general dumbing-down of the sciences and mathematics in education (primary and secondary) in general

Jesus Wept

Inspector wrote:

Does any think that maths is getting way too easy in primary school. they don't teach multiplication until 4th class. there still counting apples and colouring numbers in 1st class. i mean how are kids going to survive in secondary school if they can barely multiply when they get there

2+2 is 4

cast_iron

The-Rigger wrote:

2+2 is 4

You mean

2+2=4

Farouk.Bulsara

dudara wrote:

It's symptomatic of the general dumbing-down of the sciences and mathematics in education (primary and secondary) in general

Let's not forget third level either. A friend of mine, who lectures in chemistry in the National University of Ireland (not saying which one, to protect the guilty), recently gave a maths exam to second and third year BSc chemistry students. The test consisted of simple problems - fractions, ratios, scientific notation, simple algebraic manipulation, etc. I judged the level of difficulty to be somewhere near Junior Certificate level. About 60% of the class failed. This does not bode well for our "knowledge economy".

breadmonkey

Farouk.Bulsara wrote:

Let's not forget third level either. A friend of mine, who lectures in chemistry in the National University of Ireland (not saying which one, to protect the guilty), recently gave a maths exam to second and third year BSc chemistry students. The test consisted of simple problems - fractions, ratios, scientific notation, simple algebraic manipulation, etc. I judged the level of difficulty to be somewhere near Junior Certificate level. About 60% of the class failed. This does not bode well for our "knowledge economy".

I'm 3/4 of the way through an engineering degree and it shocks me how bad some of my class are at maths. There are quite a few who shut down completely when faced with something they aren't totally familiar with.

Girl 1: "Did you have to use integration by parts for that question."
Girl 2: "Yeah I think so."
Girl 1: "I just gave up at that point."

*shudder*

Farouk.Bulsara

breadmonkey wrote:

I'm 3/4 of the way through an engineering degree and it shocks me how bad some of my class are at maths. There are quite a few who shut down completely when faced with something they aren't totally familiar with.

Girl 1: "Did you have to use integration by parts for that question."
Girl 2: "Yeah I think so."
Girl 1: "I just gave up at that point."

*shudder*

Hi breadmonkey,

I have a collection of old maths textbooks - ones that were used by my father and brothers/sisters when they were at secondary school. Books like "Elementary Algebra" (Hall & Knight) or the classic "Calculus Made Easy" (S.P. Thompson). A quick look at any of these textbooks will confirm that standards have declined dramatically since then.

In industry, I am often surprised at the lack of math skills in some computer science and electronic engineering students. I have often seen cases where expensive new hardware and "faster" microprocessors were proposed because the "software" was "too slow". In most cases, a quick inspection of the software would reveal the use of an inappropriate algorithm, and the "fix" would be to simply use a better algorithm, saving perhaps months of effort and tens or hundreds of thousands of euros in costs. This type of optimization is exactly the type of thing that needs to happen in Ireland if we are to take our place in the knowledge economy.

Fred