Namlub wrote: » Meh, the thing that bothers me is about the whole extra points thing is that it's such a lazy way to make it look there's this new generation of maths and science orientated students when it's not actually making anyone better at maths or solving the problems that have turned people off it in the first place.
Dwellingdweller wrote: » Kinda, but not really, I'm suggesting to scrap maths class and be allocated time to watch khanacademy videos and study them themselves. Then, if they feel like they need someone to help them, they can be assigned a tutor who will help them (lol, wtf am I talking about, this is just me thinking out loud). As lots of people say they end up hating maths because of the way it's taught. That happened to me, my teacher for the j.c was a tit and I messed it up badly for the junior thusly, but last summer I would watch a khanacademy video every day and do like 1-2 hours of examples, and my maths is at a good standard now (high B, A OL) nothing amazing, just a good standard. Thing is, with a video you can pause, rewind, replay bits where you might got lost with a teacher (or where a teacher might get impatient), and you can really get what you're trying to learn. Plus it's free. This country doesn't have money to be throwing away on inefficient teachers. btw I'm really not trying to turn this into a discussion about politics but its one of the reasons I think khanacademy is so good. :P He says it himself, some teachers are píssed off by khanacademy because it endangers their jobs.
Dwellingdweller wrote: » Enjoy! It's really good, I used it to revise Physics (the dude has 3 degrees, engineering, compsci, pure maths... all from MIT. ) all this year. He's great at explaining stuff like.
Togepi wrote: » A friend of mine is doing loads of maths modules in college and he was saying to me recently - why do we spend eight years in national school learning how to add, subtract, divide and multiply, when all of that is just done on a calculator from first year of secondary school onwards? Surely we'd be better off leaning some basic algebra and geometry in national school so that we'd have a slightly higher level of maths leaving primary school!
Dwellingdweller wrote: » Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea! The thing I concern myself with though is - is it worth it? Economically like. But I suppose ya kinda have to prioritise quality of education too. I can see how it'd seem lazy too for a teacher just to play videos of stuff all the time :P But it kinda makes sense when you think about it, all that time teachers spend drawing stuff on whiteboards/blackboards is just removed from the equation with videos, saves so much time/energy. Would your chem and bio classes do better than classes that do it the traditional way do you think?
leaveiton wrote: » No matter how much maths teachers will argue that topics like geometry are used in everyday life, it's the basics like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division that we come into contact with most frequently. IMO, it's better to give children a good foundation with these rather than teaching them to rely on a calculator from an early age. I dunno about other primary schools either but I remember doing very basic algebra (is x+ 3 = 5 then what is x type stuff) in about 5th/6th class. We also did a bit of geometry, again just basic stuff like the area of a circle and whatnot.
Togepi wrote: » Exactly! Primary school maths is a joke, I'm fairly certain it's the reason we've got such a poor level of maths in this country! All I did in maths back then was race against the previously mentioned friend to see who could get through three or four pages of sums quicker. :P We were clearly under so much pressure with the complexity of the work. :rolleyes: Some of us even did extra maths for a while to give us more of a challenge. There was still no algebra or anything like that. :cool:
Togepi wrote: » Exactly! Primary school maths is a joke, I'm fairly certain it's the reason we've got such a poor level of maths in this country! Iall I did in maths back then was race against the previously mentioned friend to see who could get through three or four pages of sums quicker. :P We were clearly under so much pressure with the complexity of the work. :rolleyes:
IMO, if your going for a maths/science course then the maths 25 bonus point rule should apply, if your going for an English based course then there could be a bonus for English, same if you wanted to do language course, have a bonus for the language subject their doing. But the thought of someone getting a course in lets say journalism because they get 25 free points for maths is just stupid IMO.
I can kind of see what you're saying. They're never going to do that, but it could help some students I guess. I know I need time to think about concepts to fully understand them, which was why teaching myself worked so well for me. I think it's far easier to take an idea in if you can read over it several times, whereas it might just be said once by a teacher. For the last 2 years I sat in class with a textbook and really focused on understanding what I was doing, whereas if I was listening to the teacher I probably wouldn't have paid as much attention as I should have... I don't know, I think for maths repetition is really important, and in a class situation it isn't always possible to keep going over things until it sinks in for everyone, or the teacher might not explain it in a way that makes sense to everyone. I know that the classroom situation just does NOT work for me for maths, because I always paid attention in applied maths class but none of it makes sense to me at all until I read over it myself. Maybe that's just me though.
finality wrote: » Togepi wrote: » Exactly! Primary school maths is a joke, I'm fairly certain it's the reason we've got such a poor level of maths in this country! All I did in maths back then was race against the previously mentioned friend to see who could get through three or four pages of sums quicker. :P We were clearly under so much pressure with the complexity of the work. :rolleyes: Some of us even did extra maths for a while to give us more of a challenge. There was still no algebra or anything like that. :cool: Primary school maths was the most frustrating thing ever. Ugh being made wait til the rest of the class were finished, I really hate the way that some students are held back so that everyone is at the same level. There's absolutely no individualism in our education system. Not to mention that my sixth class consisted of computers, PE and poker. I'm not exaggerating, our teacher was the principal and would spend maybe half the day in the classroom with us, if that. We did not do Irish once in sixth class.
finality wrote: » Primary school maths was the most frustrating thing ever. Ugh being made wait til the rest of the class were finished, I really hate the way that some students are held back so that everyone is at the same level. There's absolutely no individualism in our education system. Not to mention that my sixth class consisted of computers, PE and poker. I'm not exaggerating, our teacher was the principal and would spend maybe half the day in the classroom with us, if that. We did not do Irish once in sixth class.
leaveiton wrote: » I know with some teachers it wouldn't be laziness but for my maths teacher it definitely is, the woman doesn't understand things herself but that's for another day One thing that often annoys me with the videos is they'll have slightly different ways of explaining things, makes it a tiny bit off-putting I couldn't really say about the last bit, there's only one chem class in the school and all the bio classes are quite similar. It does really help with understanding, though. I remember my chem teacher showing us a brilliant video to do with equilibrium, with just a guy using water and buckets to explain. Didn't understand the chapter before that, but seeing a simple, visual example like that really helped.
Historykitten wrote: » I never had a 6th class cause my teacher became the new principal and he thought he could handle it :L so we never had class And primary school is so darn slow, I think any child could have mastered simple algebra and differentiation and other stuff in primary school :O
finality wrote: » Historykitten wrote: » I never had a 6th class cause my teacher became the new principal and he thought he could handle it :L so we never had class And primary school is so darn slow, I think any child could have mastered simple algebra and differentiation and other stuff in primary school :O I wish I could've skipped a year or two of primary school.
Siobhnk wrote: » Differentiation in primary school? :O is it not hard to get most of them to listen to multiplication? I know a few students might be able to handle it, but if you look at the bigger picture most of these would come from stable backgrounds where education is a priority etc. Try to roll that out nationwide and it's not feasible. These children are only 12 at most, it's hard enough to try to get a 16 year old to understand differentiation. And if the primary school students don't understand multiplication and have a solid background in algebra, they won't understand differentiation.
Dwellingdweller wrote: » Definitely, adding and multiplying and all that stuff doesn't teach you anything.
Siobhnk wrote: » That said I agree with them being pushed a little bit harder with the introduction of BASIC algebra in 5th/6th class. Emphasis on the basic.
finality wrote: » Why isn't Oscar Wilde on the leaving cert course? God, I love Oscar Wilde
finality wrote: » I just woke up half an hour ago and looked at my watch and thought "Crap! I slept all day?" Why did I wake up so early, I didn't get to sleep til 4am
