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from the no-royal-road-to-understanding-students dept.
Oxford researchers are taking part in an international study to film the teaching of quadratic equations for secondary school pupils. The hope is that lessons will be learned on how to bring out the best in pupils learning about mathematics.
Over the next few months, video cameras will appear in secondary schools across England that have chosen to take part in an international study to observe maths lessons focused on quadratic equations. Researchers from the University of Oxford have joined forces with the Education Development Trust to undertake the study in England, which will involve up to 85 schools from different parts of the country. The research team has to enlist 85 teachers and around 1,200 pupils, so they can analyse video footage of different teaching practices and pupils' responses to assess what works best. Schools in Oxfordshire will be among those approached about taking part in the pilot.
The research project is led by Education Development Trust, working with Dr Jenni Ingram and Professor Pam Sammons from the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. They will analyse how pupils' attitudes toward quadratic equations are linked with their progress and results, and observe how teachers' attitudes and methods affect outcomes.
Dr Ingram said: "We believe this study will improve our understanding of the relationships between a range of teaching practices and various student outcomes, including their enjoyment of mathematics, mathematical knowledge and engagement with learning."
Or you could watch Khan Academy.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Tuesday March 28 2017, @08:00PM (3 children)
quadratic stuff is really important in large part because it is the simplest example of nonlinearity.
I'm not arguing that it's not important. I'm arguing that it's irrelevant, unless you happen to be interested in a particular branch of engineering, science or math that deals with these kinds of functions. There is no justification for devoting a disproportionate amount of time to quadratic functions when most of your students can't figure out what 40% of a given number is. Topic should be covered? Yes in a general way, so that people who decide to later specialize in fields that require background have at least seen it before. But to make it a metric for teaching? Shame. In the current day and age bachelors' degrees are considered a mere re-hash of very BASIC high school stuff. Who the hell are we trying to kid? I have a daughter who graduated with very good grades with a degree in publicity and marketing. Her ARITHMETIC skills are appalling. And she's one of the good ones.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 28 2017, @08:39PM
There is no justification for devoting a disproportionate amount of time to quadratic functions when most of your students can't figure out what 40% of a given number is.
What happens if they can figure that out, say because someone is teaching the course effectively? It strikes me that no matter the subject, there isn't much point to a poorly taught class.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:31AM
quadratic stuff is really important in large part because it is the simplest example of nonlinearity.
I'm not arguing that it's not important. I'm arguing that it's irrelevant, unless you happen to be interested in a particular branch of engineering, science or math that deals with these kinds of functions. There is no justification for devoting a disproportionate amount of time to quadratic functions when most of your students can't figure out what 40% of a given number is. Topic should be covered? Yes in a general way, so that people who decide to later specialize in fields that require background have at least seen it before. But to make it a metric for teaching? Shame. In the current day and age bachelors' degrees are considered a mere re-hash of very BASIC high school stuff. Who the hell are we trying to kid? I have a daughter who graduated with very good grades with a degree in publicity and marketing. Her ARITHMETIC skills are appalling. And she's one of the good ones.
Okay, so your point is that since math is taught poorly, we should teach less of it, rather than try to improve the teaching of math?
You're a genius! You should run for your local school board or something.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:00AM
Back in the day, I represented my high school in a state-wide math competition. Now I work in a blue collar factory job. The people I work with aren't exactly math wizards. They're doing great if they can figure out a problem like this: We are scheduled to produce 10 palettes by 2PM. A palette has 30 units. We have two production lines that can each make one unit per minute. Are we on schedule?
Basically, I agree with what you are saying. If high school kids take a class where they are taught the quadratic equation, but after graduation they can't figure out how much to tip their waiter, it was probably a waste of time.