Amazed at the number of comments this story generated.
Is your kid struggling with math? Is she flustered by fractions and laid low by long division? Here’s a secret: Her teacher may be struggling, too.
An alarming number of elementary-school teachers are so uncomfortable with math, they can’t teach it properly. This means that more and more students are arriving at university without having grasped the basics. Continue reading
In Brief:
http://www.fcpp.org/publication.php/3905
Winnipeg, MB: The Frontier Centre for Public Policy is proud to release a groundbreaking study authored by Frontier’s education research fellow Michael Zwaagstra. The study, entitled Math Instruction that Makes Sense, demonstrates conclusively that traditional math education methods are superior to the highly ineffective, discovery-based instructional techniques that are in vogue now in educational curricula. Zwaagstra shows why these techniques do not allow students to master basic math skills.
Zwaagstra draws on a wealth of relevant studies to argue that, “ in order for students to receive a strong grounding in math, they need to spend more time practicing math skills such as basic addition and subtraction along with the standard multiplication tables.” “There is ample research evidence showing that deliberate practice is the best way to gain mastery over a particular subject or skill,” said study author Michael Zwaagstra. Continue reading
http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/09/09/math-is-tougher-than-reading-study-finds/
Math is tougher than reading after all, a new study has determined
By Joannie Laucicus
Why is it that for some children reading is a snap, but math is daunting?
About six years ago, Jo-Anne LeFevre, director of the Institute of Cognitive Science at Carleton University, and her colleagues studied elementary students in Winnipeg, Ottawa and Peterborough.
One of the things they learned was that children need a more complex set of skills to master math than reading. These skills include the ability to process language, identify quantities and pay attention to the task. Children with attention deficit disorder, for example, often have difficulty with math. “It’s more complicated than reading,” says LeFevre. Continue reading
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/08/summer-school-is-hot
First posted: Saturday, July 9, 2011 4:04:57 EDT PM
Jonathan Penacho could be doing what lots of 13-year-olds do in the first week of summer holidays — hanging out at home.
Instead, he’s working on his reading and writing at an optional three-week, non-credit summer school held for Grade 7 and 8 Toronto Catholic board students at Loretto College in west-end Toronto. Continue reading
June 20, 2011
Ellen Roseman
http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1010830–roseman-perrcent-vs-percentage-take-my-quiz
I hope you had a perfect score in my quiz below. You’ll find the answers at the end of the column. Continue reading
by Anne Kershaw
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/big-drop-in-math-skills-of-entering-students.aspx
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| Deteriorating math skills among high school graduates is not just a North American phenomenon, experts say. |
The math skills of students entering Canadian universities have declined sharply in recent years, with many students unable to do basic arithmetic. Whether this is a learning crisis with dire implications for Canada’s citizenry and its future science and engineering base or simply an inevitable result of the ubiquity of calculators and computers is a matter of debate. Continue reading
http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=3938348
Canadian students continue to slip in international rankings of math, science and reading skills, but the country can boast of an education system that lessens differences of social class and gaps between immigrant and native-born students.
Canada sat 10th among 70 countries in math skills in 2009, down from seventh place three years earlier, according to the largest international survey of its kind. The country ranked eighth in science scores, down from third in 2006, and sixth in reading skills, sliding from fourth place three years earlier.
“The 2009 performance of Canada is a little bit disappointing,” says Bernard Hugonnier, deputy-director of education with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “At the same time, you are still much above the OECD average.” Continue reading
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/03/09/ont-math.html?ref=rss
A new study shows a third of first-year college students in Ontario are in danger of not graduating because they flunked or barely scraped through their math course.
Researchers at Seneca College who conducted the study say that equates to about 10,000 students.
About 67 per cent of students achieved good grades — As, Bs, and Cs — slightly better than last year.
The governing Liberals are focusing on post-secondary education as a way to pull Ontario out of a major economic recession.
Monday’s throne speech promised to increase the portion of the province’s population that has a university or colleges education to 70 per cent from 62 per cent. Continue reading
Louise Brown
Education Reporter
Check out the comments on this article.
So many Ontario teens are bombing university math now that there is no Grade 13, universities are scrambling to boost students’ skills before they arrive. Continue reading
Yes, this is a word with a long history. As the word suggests, “automagically” is (according to Wikipedia) a blend of the automatic and the magical. Dictionary.com notes that:
“This term is quite old, going back at least to the mid-70s in jargon and probably much earlier. The word `automagic’ occurred in advertising (for a shirt-ironing gadget) as far back as the late 1940s.”
Take charge of your life! Let the Magic do its work! Improve your basic math skills!