Math education - Why is US not solving this problem?

[Anonymous]

10:16 - you missed my point. I knew how to teach what the material the kids were required to learn but it was the inherent math thinking and foundation skill building that I didn't feel I was able to get across to the kids since I never learned math in a true math way. I just squeezed through the high school requirements taught by our football coach.

As a 4th grade teacher, Advanced Trig wasn't required of me but if I had "gotten" and understood Trig, I think it would've benefited my math students. Does that make sense?

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering if it is partly because people with inherently strong STEM ability tend to be introverted, socially awkward and gravitate toward isolated research, academia or think tank work rather than teaching? Or jobs that pay a lot more than teaching.

These "introverted" and "socially awkward" individuals will soon inherit the earth form the extroverted, socially nimble empty-headed dCummies driving the economy into the ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People seem to have different approaches to solving problems involving division with fractions. How do you solve a problem like this one? 1 3/4 ÷ 1 /2=
Imagine that you are teaching division with fractions. To make this meaningful for kids, something that many teachers try to do is relate mathematics to other things. Sometimes they try to come up with real-world situations or story-problems to show the application of some particular piece of content. What would you say would be a good story or model for this problem.

The answer is 14/4, right? But I can only do that conceptually - I can't understand how you'd teach that one as a story problem.

it is 1.75x2=3.50

14/4 = 3.50

The easier way to explain it is if you divided 6 by 3, 6/3, you get 2. 6 cakes put into groups of three yields two groups. But if you divide 6 cakes by 1/2, you have to cut them into halves, yielding 12 groups.

[Anonymous]

Kids are more successful in a class if they come in with a level of familiarity of the subject matter.

If parents identify where the math is in their lives already and say it out loud, their children become familiar and more comfortable with math - which leads to greater success in math class.

And the math doesn't have to be hard. I put one scoop of regular coffee in with two scoops of decaf - that's math.

We bought two pizzas because we have three more people visiting tonight - that's math.

If parents just tack on the "that's math" words to three things they do during the day, kids will see that math is everywhere - already. No effort to find it.

We did this with reading - now everyone reads to their kids. All the stinking time! So kids are all about jumping right into a reading class.

We just need to do it with math, now.

Bon Crowder, the math mom in Houston

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are skilled at Math in the US you can get a job making much more money than a teacher. I would love to teach Math and I am great at it but I can't take the pay cut. I quite my Masters in Eduction to take a promotion at work.

I hope to teach Math as a second career. Hopefully my finances can handle the hit.

Crux of the matter is right here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is pretty easy. The US government and most states don't provide any funding for gifted education. If there was any priority at all in our educational system to support and nourish STEM talent then these talented kids could surely do great things. Other countries value and nuture talent and provide a foundation for these children to meet their potential.

Our society for the most part supports this practice and can't put two and two together. Talent can't develop unless it's nurtured. Our most talented students are the ones being left behind in the current system. We have turned our backs as a country on the children who have the potential to make great contributions in the fields of math and science yet we still wonder why we are so far behind. It is maddening to me.

Um, foreigner here. Actually, the US nurtures its gifted children far more than almost any other country, by placing them in separate classes with dedicated curricula from an early age. In many other countries this practice would be frowned upon as unegalitarian. What other countries do though, is that they generally have higher standards from the get go, and children who do not meet them by middle school are generally diverted towards tracks that better match either their intellectual ability or willingness to work hard at academic subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm wondering if it is partly because people with inherently strong STEM ability tend to be introverted, socially awkward and gravitate toward isolated research, academia or think tank work rather than teaching? Or jobs that pay a lot more than teaching.

These "introverted" and "socially awkward" individuals will soon inherit the earth form the extroverted, socially nimble empty-headed dCummies driving the economy into the ground.

Actually, I think they helped drive the economy into the ground. Wall Street hired a lot of these mathematical geniuses to design complicated algorithms to buy and sell stocks in fractions of seconds. The computers didn't know what they were trading, only that whatever it was fit the model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm wondering if it is partly because people with inherently strong STEM ability tend to be introverted, socially awkward and gravitate toward isolated research, academia or think tank work rather than teaching? Or jobs that pay a lot more than teaching.

These "introverted" and "socially awkward" individuals will soon inherit the earth form the extroverted, socially nimble empty-headed dCummies driving the economy into the ground.

If you believe this then it will probably be affirmative action American born students who will inherit the earth. And the irony is that most of them will be unqualified to do the work but will rely on remedial on the job training conducted by much lower paying immigrants good at STEM subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm wondering if it is partly because people with inherently strong STEM ability tend to be introverted, socially awkward and gravitate toward isolated research, academia or think tank work rather than teaching? Or jobs that pay a lot more than teaching.

These "introverted" and "socially awkward" individuals will soon inherit the earth form the extroverted, socially nimble empty-headed dCummies driving the economy into the ground.

Actually, I think they helped drive the economy into the ground. Wall Street hired a lot of these mathematical geniuses to design complicated algorithms to buy and sell stocks in fractions of seconds. The computers didn't know what they were trading, only that whatever it was fit the model.

Doubt there is evidence for this but the full narrative is the extroverted salesmen that sold the securities. Michael Lewis's book the Big Short actually profiles one of these guys who was not conned buy everything must go up and realized very early that the housing crisis was coming. There are some folks who think it t was the fact that so many American's cant actually calculate an interest rate or the impact of an adjustable rate that caused the housing crisis. Many of these folks were sitting ducks for unscrupulous salesmen and mortgage brokers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm wondering if it is partly because people with inherently strong STEM ability tend to be introverted, socially awkward and gravitate toward isolated research, academia or think tank work rather than teaching? Or jobs that pay a lot more than teaching.

These "introverted" and "socially awkward" individuals will soon inherit the earth form the extroverted, socially nimble empty-headed dCummies driving the economy into the ground.

Actually, I think they helped drive the economy into the ground. Wall Street hired a lot of these mathematical geniuses to design complicated algorithms to buy and sell stocks in fractions of seconds. The computers didn't know what they were trading, only that whatever it was fit the model.

Doubt there is evidence for this but the full narrative is the extroverted salesmen that sold the securities. Michael Lewis's book the Big Short actually profiles one of these guys who was not conned buy everything must go up and realized very early that the housing crisis was coming. There are some folks who think it t was the fact that so many American's cant actually calculate an interest rate or the impact of an adjustable rate that caused the housing crisis. Many of these folks were sitting ducks for unscrupulous salesmen and mortgage brokers.

Was it that they couldn't do the calculations or they were easy targets with not much to lose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is pretty easy. The US government and most states don't provide any funding for gifted education. If there was any priority at all in our educational system to support and nourish STEM talent then these talented kids could surely do great things. Other countries value and nuture talent and provide a foundation for these children to meet their potential.

Our society for the most part supports this practice and can't put two and two together. Talent can't develop unless it's nurtured. Our most talented students are the ones being left behind in the current system. We have turned our backs as a country on the children who have the potential to make great contributions in the fields of math and science yet we still wonder why we are so far behind. It is maddening to me.

Um, foreigner here. Actually, the US nurtures its gifted children far more than almost any other country, by placing them in separate classes with dedicated curricula from an early age. In many other countries this practice would be frowned upon as unegalitarian. What other countries do though, is that they generally have higher standards from the get go, and children who do not meet them by middle school are generally diverted towards tracks that better match either their intellectual ability or willingness to work hard at academic subjects.

ITA, I am not a fan of these special programs for the gifted because they seldom can show clear benefit.
The better plan would be to start with better academics for all.

[Anonymous]

If you believe this then it will probably be affirmative action American born students who will inherit the earth. And the irony is that most of them will be unqualified to do the work but will rely on remedial on the job training conducted by much lower paying immigrants good at STEM subjects.

Where have you been? They already did. George W. Bush Gentleman's C minus from Andover, Yale and Harvard. There are a ton of these aging affirmative action babies in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is pretty easy. The US government and most states don't provide any funding for gifted education. If there was any priority at all in our educational system to support and nourish STEM talent then these talented kids could surely do great things. Other countries value and nuture talent and provide a foundation for these children to meet their potential.

Our society for the most part supports this practice and can't put two and two together. Talent can't develop unless it's nurtured. Our most talented students are the ones being left behind in the current system. We have turned our backs as a country on the children who have the potential to make great contributions in the fields of math and science yet we still wonder why we are so far behind. It is maddening to me.

Not true...read the National Science Foundation's research which was linked earlier in the thread.

Um, foreigner here. Actually, the US nurtures its gifted children far more than almost any other country, by placing them in separate classes with dedicated curricula from an early age. In many other countries this practice would be frowned upon as unegalitarian. What other countries do though, is that they generally have higher standards from the get go, and children who do not meet them by middle school are generally diverted towards tracks that better match either their intellectual ability or willingness to work hard at academic subjects.

Not true...read the National Science Foundation's research which was linked earlier in the thread.

[Anonymous]

Not true. The US nurtures sports minded children. This is clear.

[Anonymous]

Here is one study I found that appears to be on target.
http://gradworks.umi.com/3477870.pdf
http://gradworks.umi.com/34/77/3477870.html (abstract)

Sam2