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Leaving Cert Maths Part Duex
Read more about: Education, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour Party
So the “fallout” from the Math’s results continues. With both Fine Gael and Labour coming out with statements blaming the government and that they will bring joined up thinking to the problem etc etc. Problem both Labour and Fine Gael miss one of the biggest problems with Math and indeed Labour miss it in the first line of their press release.
While the overall Leaving Certificate results reflect a high level of effort and commitment on the part of pupils and teachers,
In the comments on my previous post on Leaving Cert Maths Stephen Crowley said
my sister just told me (first year (secondary school) that she has a teacher that if you say you don’t understand that she says that you were not listening. one student in the class said that she didn’t understand and received a letter home to her parents that she was not listening which reminded me of this
This is not unusual. Most of us know or had in school poor Maths teachers. Teachers who didn’t really understand the subject and didn’t care to teach it. We are short of Maths teachers so often people without degree’s in Mathematical subjects teach these subjects. One of the problems is teachers can not be fired even if they are absolutely terrible at their jobs. And we wonder why we still have poor teachers in schools. A teacher is the most fundamental of the education system. You can add all the the use of the internet, investment in science resources, challenge perception, bullshit buzz words that litter this Labour releases like
radical root and branch reform of maths that challenges the way students learn as well as what they learn can hope to have a meaningful impact on students’ experience of that subject. We need to shift the focus of maths away from rote learning and towards transferable skills for everyday life, for third level and for work
but unless the teacher is up to scratch then nothing it going to be done. Of course Labour are so far up the unions ass they will never touch this. And as Fine Gael are linked to Labour they will not do anything. Neither will FF as they are well FF.
So we are probably got a few more decades of 12% failure rate in Maths.
A good maths teacher is worth their weight in gold.
I had a great one for the Inter and got an A. I had a crap one for the Leaving and got a C (he wouldn’t teach the statistics module as it was ‘too hard’!). Thankfully the great one is still there, 20 years later and the crap one is gone. The solution cannot be all stick - there must be carrot too. If maths teachers are singled out for specific testing of ability, both good and bad teachers will be put off teaching maths. Substantial incentives for the good ones could balance this effect. Unfortunately neither approach is likely to be welcomed by the teacher unions.
Measurement of who is a good and who is a bad teacher is tricky but hardly impossible.
Folks the teaching unions wanted benchmarking but opposed paying in demand teachers more, they aren’t the ones to lead the line on this issue. And part of the problem starts at primary too many primary teachers makes kids think that sums are both hard and irrelevant.
http://dansullivan.blogspot.com/2007/08/finally-minister-speaks-out.html
Hi folks,
I am still of the opinion that the solution is more complex than simply changing the curriculum or blaming the teachers. Last week, I gave a lecture to some mature students (people returning to education, etc.). It was ostentibly a maths lecture, but I am a biologist. I lectured about how I use mathematical models in trying to understand the inheritance of disease. The hardest maths I used was to square something. The point was to say _why_ you should be interested in maths and how it can be used in different settings.
It is safe to say that the students (almost all of whom were older than me) were almost dumbfounded to find out that as a geneticist, I would use so much maths. It is also safe to say that they bought the idea completely and I suspect that they found maths to be more useful as a result.
However, trying to get this kind of teaching into a second level situation is not trivial. Waffle about “Root and Branch” change is simply waffle.
Students will do something if they see value and reason in it. The solution is complex, the changes to be made are complex. Beating up teachers or the students themselves is not really going to help.
We need summer schools in Science and Maths. Places where students of all ages get to see and hear the buzz. This needs funding from Science Foundation Ireland (who are already doing this).
We need support measures for existing teachers - the STAR programme is already going a little of the way towards achieving this (http://www.sfi.ie/content/content.asp?section_id=541&language_id=1).
We need industry (who have complained a lot this week about the science/maths results) to be pro-active, taking on transition year students, giving more summer internships, etc.
We need awareness programmes (TV, print media etc) that are a bit sexier and a bit more involved that what we see right now.
Students will do something if they see value and reason in it. The solution is complex, the changes to be made are complex. Beating up teachers or the students themselves is not really going to help.
I would add that there is a consensus that jobs in maths and sciences are not as well paid and nowhere near as ‘glamorous’ as the business/finance sector where maths is needed but of a different kind.
This is an issue for employers, educators and government to move together on and promote the good jobs and make them all round better jobs too.
I would honestly wonder why there hasn’t been an interesting tv show about an engineering or software firm. Frak me RTe would have people believe the likes of “Blue Dolphin” was a software company.