Tag Archives: maths

In Australia the Proportion of Students At Year 12 Level Who Study Advanced Or Intermediate Maths is Falling Every Year

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Maths Problems

Maths Problems

Australian schools are presiding over a DUMBING DOWN of our children in the area of Mathematics.

Each year since 1995, more and more Year 12 Mathematics students in Australia opt for studying lower levels of Mathematics than the students of the previous year.

By 2004:

  • Only 34.3% of Year 12 students studied Mathematics at Intermediate or Advanced Levels. In other words, two thirds of our Year 12 students leave school with only rudimentary Maths skills.

  • The proportion of students only studying at Elementary Level had climbed to 46%.

  • And tragically, an incredible19.7% didn’t study Mathematics at all.

For the ten years 1995–2004, the changes in the numbers of students presenting for Year 12 mathematics in Australia can be summarised as follows:

  • The proportion of students taking advanced mathematics dropped from 14.1% of the Year 12 student population in 1995 to 11.7% in 2004.

  • The proportion of students taking intermediate mathematics (but not advanced mathematics) dropped from 27.2% of the Year 12 student population in 1995 to 22.6% in 2004.

  • The proportion of students taking elementary mathematics (but not intermediate or advanced mathematics) rose from approximately 37% of the Year 12 student population in 1995 to approximately 46% in 2004.

(‘Participation in Year 12 mathematics across Australia 1995-2004′ by Frank Barrington for the International Centre of Excellence for Education in Mathematics and the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute).

The Long-Term Impact of Poor Maths Skills

A friend of mine recently completed a Nursing Degree. Of the 185 students who started the course, only 35 completed it. Most of the 150 dropouts left because they didn’t know enough basic fraction and decimal skills to pass their drug calculations test.

And, one of our clients who was studying for a Nursing Degree was the only student in his class to get full marks in his drug calculation test – every other student in the course had to re-sit the exam.

This problem extends into most other degrees which don’t have Mathematics at Year 12 as a pre-requisite. When I studied Psychology many years ago, many students failed the compulsory Statistics subjects because of poor Maths skills. Most degrees at university level include subjects on Statistics.

What This Means For Your Child

Do you want your child to go to university if he/she chooses to?

Do you want your child to get the degree he/she studies for – or to drop out?

If you answered yes to both of these questions, I suggest the following:

  • You make sure that your child is in the top 10% of his/her class in Maths (and Science) right through school. If the school does not give grades then make sure your child is operating well above average and is encountering no difficulties that you can’t fix.
  • Your child’s Maths grades should never get below a B, and should preferably be an A every time.
  • If you don’t know what to do to fix your child’s problem contact us and we will help you fix it.
  • Do not delay doing something about the problem – people do not grow out of Maths problems.

To find out more about Our Mathematics Programs click here.

By Chris Brooks
Principal
High Performance Learning

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Tutoring to Help Your Child Overcome Maths Problems & Get Better Grades

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Maths Can Be the Easiest Subject in School.
Learned the Wrong Way, Maths Will Eventually Become a Nightmare!

Rote Learning Maths Vs Understanding Maths

There are two basic approaches to teaching Maths:

  • Getting students to repeat procedures over and over again until they are learnt like a parrot. This is the main technique used by most teachers and implied in most modern textbooks.

  • Teaching students the language of Maths so they can understand the concepts and procedures and can apply them in various situations. Very few teachers use this approach and there are very few textbooks available any more that make it easy teaching this approach.

The first problem with learning things by rote is that unless they are practised regularly they will gradually be forgotten. In other words they do not stay in the long-term memory like understanding and language does – there are just too many patterns to learn and they often look similar to other patterns. Take addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of fractions and decimals for example. Despite learning how to do this for many years in Primary and High School, very few people can still do these operations by the end of their schooling. If you don’t believe me, make up a quick test of these skills and give it to anyone aged 10 or above and see how many they can do.

Another major problem with just learning Maths procedures by rote is that it is often difficult to determine which procedure to use if the problem is presented as a word problem – there is no point being able to remember how to add fractions if you can’t work out that you need to add fractions to solve a particular problem. This difficulty becomes very apparent from about Year/Grade 10 so it is not surprising that this is the time that many people drop Maths even though they may have been getting good grades in earlier years.

DANGER! Poor Maths Skills Severely Limit Your Child’s Career Choice

Poor Maths skills in Senior High School make it very difficult to learn Science subjects like Physics and Chemistry, so courses at University in Medicine, Science or Engineering are not an option for the student. Fixing the Maths skills at Senior High School level is much more difficult that fixing them in Primary or Junior High School, so proactive parents should have the learning approach of their children assessed so any weaknesses can be fixed as soon as possible.

Even if your child does not want to do Medicine, Science and Engineering courses, most other University and College courses contain a significant component of Maths! And the Maths part of the course is usually compulsory so failure in the Maths means failure in getting the qualification. Take Nursing for example, well over half the people who enroll in Nursing fail because they can’t pass their drug calculation test. The same thing happens in Psychology where students must learn very sophisticated Statistics and Research Methods. In fact, most University courses require students to understand and use complex Statistical skills.

‘I Was No Good at Maths Either’

It is common for parents to have low expectations for their child in Maths if they did not do well in Maths themselves. Such attitudes often become a self-fulfilling prophecy because they affect the child’s attitude to Maths and destroys his/her confidence.

Poor Mathematical ability is NOT hereditary – you cannot pass it on to your child by your genes!

Maths is the Easiest Subject to Learn – Provided Your Child Learns it the Right Way

There is a surprisingly small amount of content to learn in Mathematics so if it is learned using language and understanding so the child gets good long-term memory, Maths usually becomes the easiest and most enjoyable subject for the child.

When your child is able to learn and remember Maths skills the first time, he/she will not have to keep learning them over and over again, like most of the other students.

Maths Can Be Fun

One of the most enjoyable ways to practise and maintain Maths skills is to play Maths Games. We have games that teach and revise many of the concepts needed in Primary and High School.

We also provide our students with many practical activities which provide them with a much more concrete understanding of Maths concepts, and so make the concepts easier to understand and remember.

To find out more about Our Mathematics Programs click here.

By Chris Brooks
Principal
High Performance Learning

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The Bad News: Mathematics Education at School is ‘Broken’

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Is your child struggling with Maths at school – if so, he/she is not alone. You could even say your child is normal! The problem is in epidemic proportions.

In technologically advanced nations like Australia, UK and USA you would expect Mathematics education to be highly developed. You would also expect the vast majority of students would leave school with reasonable levels of Mathematics achievement.

Not so!

In 2008, a major study by the US Government’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel considered the US results in Mathematics Achievement showed that their Mathematics education system ‘is broken and must be fixed’.

The US National Mathematics Advisory Panel considers mathematics education needs a major overhaul – Australian student performance in Mathematics is below that of the USA.

This is what their report had to say in more detail:

This Panel, diverse in experience, expertise, and philosophy, agrees broadly that the delivery system in mathematics education—the system that translates mathematical knowledge into value and ability for the next generation—is broken and must be fixed. This is not a conclusion about any single element of the system. It is about how the many parts do not now work together to achieve a result worthy of this country’s values and ambitions. (Principal Messages, page xiii)

What This Means for Your Child

If your child has only average Maths skills then he/she will NOT do formal Mathematics in Year 12 – in Australia, less than one third of Year 12 students study Intermediate or Advanced Mathematics subjects.

In my experience, most high schools start the process of segregating the students who will do higher Maths in Year 12 from as early as Years 8 or 9 where students are moved into classes which ‘do the same curriculum but are given more help’. Yeah, right! These students almost never get back into the normal stream (unless they work with us at High Performance Learning).

Then comes the crunch at the end of Year 10 when many children are not allowed to choose to study Advanced Maths in Year 11 based on the marks in the end of year exam, even though they have been getting A’s and B’s in Maths up until that time, and you as a parent have been given no previous warning that there was a problem. (If this happens to you, contact us immediately so we can fix the problem straight away.)

The biggest crunch of all comes after the half-yearly exams in Year 11. It is not unusual for more than half the students in Advanced and Intermediate Level Maths classes to get ‘weeded out’ at this stage. (We can still help your child at this stage – but you are sure making our job even more difficult by not having acted sooner.)

More students drop out of Advanced and Intermediate Level Maths at the end of Year 11, and of course, not all those who keep going until the end of Year 12 get high enough marks to get into the course of their choice.

The Good News: The US National Mathematics Advisory Panel Recommendations

The US National Mathematics Advisory Panel didn’t offer a solution to the problem of a broken system but they did highlight the key indicators of future success in Mathematics.

They recommend:

Primary School students should be proficient in fractions, and before that with whole numbers, geometry and measurement:

‘A major goal for K–8 mathematics education should be proficiency with fractions (including decimals, percent, and negative fractions), for such proficiency is foundational for algebra and, at the present time, seems to be severely underdeveloped. Proficiency with whole numbers is a necessary precursor for the study of fractions, as are aspects of measurement and geometry. These three areas—whole numbers, fractions, and particular aspects of geometry and measurement—are the Critical Foundations of Algebra.’ (Curricular Content, point 4, page xvii)

Junior High School Students should be proficient in Algebra:

‘All school districts should ensure that all prepared students have access to an authentic algebra course—and should prepare more students than at present to enroll in such a course by Grade 8.’ (Curricular Content, point 6, page xviii)

‘To prepare students for Algebra, the curriculum must simultaneously develop conceptual understanding, computational fluency, and problem solving skills. Debates regarding the relative importance of these aspects of mathematical knowledge are misguided. These capabilities are mutually supportive, each facilitating learning of the others. Teachers should emphasize these interrelations; taken together, conceptual understanding of mathematical operations, fluent execution of procedures, and fast access to number combinations jointly support effective and efficient problem solving.’ (Learning Processes, point 10, page xix)

When to Act if Your Child Is Struggling with Maths

NOW!

If you can’t help your child yourself then you need outside help:

  1. Do NOT blame your child for being lazy and berate him/her to work harder – your child does not know what to do.
  2. Do NOT rely on the school – if they let the problem develop in the first place they are unlikely to be able to fix it once it has become serious.
  3. Do NOT get a tutor who just goes over the school work or who gets your child to do a lot of repetitious work – there is no point repeating the mistakes that were already made in the teaching of Maths at the school.
  4. YOU NEED to find someone who will diagnose the cause of the problem by assessing your child’s thinking, learning, literacy and maths skills. And you need to be sure they have a detailed program which is different from what happened at school to fix the underlying causes of your child’s Maths problems. Not surprisingly, this is what we do at High Performance Learning, and we can work with your child anywhere in the world. You can contact us here.
  5. DO NOT GIVE UP ON YOUR CHILD. Maths is the easiest subject at school if your child has been taught to do it in the correct way.

To find out more about Our Mathematics Programs click here.

By Chris Brooks
Principal
High Performance Learning

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Australia, UK and USA Are Way Behind Advanced Asian Countries in Mathematics Achievement

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In Australia during the years 2010-2011, 66% of migrants were admitted under the Skilled Migration Scheme.

Why is it that technologically advanced countries like Australia, UK and the USA need to import so many highly skilled migrants when many of the people already living in those countries do not have a job?

The answer is simple, the standards of Maths and Science in the schools are so low that not enough of the children in advanced countries have the skills needed to pursue technological careers.

The 2007 TIMSS International Study of Achievement in School Mathematics found that Australian students at Year 8 level (average score 496) are below average (average of all countries was 500) in a group of 49 countries. Australia was marginally behind the United States (av. 508), which was behind the United Kingdom (av. 513), and these three countries and many others were way behind the leaders: Chinese Taipei (av. 598), South Korea (av. 597), Singapore (av. 593), Hong Kong (av. 572), and Japan (av. 570).

Similar results were obtained for Mathematics achievement in Year 4. Results for Science achievement in Australia were similarly disappointing.

The US Government’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel considers mathematics education needs a major overhaul (Australian student performance in Mathematics is below that of the USA)

In 2008, a major study by the US National Mathematics Advisory Panel considered the US results showed that their Mathematics education system ‘is broken and must be fixed’. This is what their report had to say in detail:

This Panel, diverse in experience, expertise, and philosophy, agrees broadly that the delivery system in mathematics education—the system that translates mathematical knowledge into value and ability for the next generation—is broken and must be fixed. This is not a conclusion about any single element of the system. It is about how the many parts do not now work together to achieve a result worthy of this country’s values and ambitions. (Principal Messages, page xiii)

Teaching Methods Are to Blame for Poor Results

Educators have been aware of the problems with Mathematics Education for many decades and so have tried a series of different approaches in the schools:

  1. New Maths (with a focus on understanding through set theory),
  2. Back-to-Basics (a return to rote learning of number facts),
  3. Problem Solving (with an emphasis on application and reasoning),
  4. Constructivism (where the teacher does less teaching and encourages the students to work the Maths facts out for themselves).

I hear you asking: ‘What is the result of all these experiments?’

The answer is: There has been a steady decline in the number of students studying advanced Maths at Year 12 level, year after year.

High Performance In Mathematics

Year after year, all the students who get Maths tutoring here at High Performance Learning get outstanding results because our curriculum teaches HOW TO LEARN MATHS, as well as teaching the content.

Our programs incorporate the best parts of the four approaches to teaching Maths detailed above, PLUS we teach our students:

  • The psychology of thinking and learning (including Game Theory),
  • The use of concrete materials to develop abstract concepts,
  • A heavy emphasis on learning the language of Mathematics,
  • The use of in-depth reading, comprehension and understanding skills to support long-term memory,
  • Careful setting out strategies,
  • The importance of mastering each level of Mathematics before moving on to the next one.

If you look through your child’s Maths textbook you will see little or no mention of these things. If your child’s Maths teacher is using these techniques effectively then all the children in the class would be getting high marks.

To find out how you can access our Maths Programs and tutoring contact us by email here or phone us in Australia on (08) 8370 0110.

To find out more about Our Mathematics Programs click here.

By Chris Brooks
Principal
High Performance Learning

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