Mathematical prowess or just a specialised and peculiar skill?

Hi,
I have witnessed the decline in mathematical skills in UK both first-hand through teaching, and as a secondary observation in any well-known retail store where the till-operators do not have the foggiest as to what the total purchase value or resulting change should be (which, in case of an error, can work in favour of the store OR the customer!), and rely entirely on tech to work these figures out. I believe the principal reason is the teaching strategies of maths in UK, whereby students are encouraged to substitute values into equations mechanically without any attempt at understanding the reasons why or the principles of the underlying subject.

I am strongly of the opinion that the culprit to be blamed for this deterioration is the government, like everything else in life. The policy of the schools, initiated ultimately by the govenment, to not encourage competition (lest less able students feel discouraged!!), in my view, did not, on a more general level, do much to help.

Further, the advent of the habit of some ill-nurtured school pupils dictating what teachers do rather than vice versa only added oil to the fire, and is one fuel for the shameful lack of analytical, interpretative and rationale-based knowledge of many youngsters, and one reason why students often find a big "jump" from school to uni.

Taking just one example of a non-British student community, it is interesting to note that a large number of Chinese students are apparently gifted in mental maths and the capacity to visulaize abstract calculative ideas, in spite of the fact that many of them are poor at spoken English. The latter of course, stems partly from the style of teaching English in Chinese schools these days, which is mostly by written communication. Some years ago, the majority of Chinese students in UK were from Malaysia or Hong Kong, and their verbal English was comparatively very good.

Thank you for a very interesting Q.

M

which government do you blame? There's been a dozen or so since the 50s. And what about all the other interest groups. Unions/Educationalists/parents They take none of the responsibility?

I am strongly of the opinion that the culprit to be blamed for this deterioration is the government, like everything else in life.

The policy of the schools, initiated ultimately by the govenment, to not encourage competition (lest less able students feel discouraged!!), in my view, did not, on a more general level, do much to help.

It's easy to point a finger at the government but it cannot be ignored that English schools had much freedom and autonomy how they taught mathematics from KS1 to KS3 before the National Curriculum established a national framework and set of standards.

From the 1960s through to the late 1980s there much diversity in the way primary schools taught mathematics. Some schools were teacher led. Other schools adopted a specific programme with its own books and teaching resources. Other schools made heavy use of BBC and ITV schools programmes.

There is a conflict between prowess in arithmetic vs knowledge of other mathematical topics when it comes to measuring mathematical ability.



Teacher don't like students who are streets ahead of what is expected from their year group in academic subjects. If a 10 year old is proficient at KS4 level mathematics then they are a problem child.