Mary Hanafin and Maths

[autumnleaf]

and what,pray tell,is a soft scientist??!

d

Social sciences such as psychology, anthropology, economics, etc. And yes, they do involve maths, not advanced calculus maybe but basic numeracy. I would be v worried about a potential psychologist who couldn't understand statistical analysis or an economist who couldn't grasp compound interest.

I would mandate a module in basic numeracy for all journalism courses, with special emphasis on statistics! The number of times i've seen a story misrepresented because of journalistic innumeracy....

 

[DrMoriarty]

We got charged for a pint bulmers instead of a pint of beer, the difference was 4.75 v's 3.95, so i copped it and pointed it out to the bar person (whom i overheard was going back to college soon) and she took a moment before coming back with 1.25e refund - it took a further minute to explain the difference was infact ony 80c.

I recently had a similar experience in our local shop, when the tills were momentarily out of order. The three shop assistants, who all looked to be about LC/1st year College age, were absolutely incapable of working out the most basic calculations without paper and pen — I mean things like calculating the correct change out of €1 for a 69c purchase... — and even then were sometimes coming up with different answers!

 

[joe sod]

this article today in the independent

One in 10 teachers of maths never qualified

ONE-IN-TEN Junior Cert maths teachers is not qualified to teach the subject.
And a further 20pc did not take maths or a related subject such as applied maths, statistics or maths physics as a major component of their degree.
The shocking figures emerged in a survey of 856 maths teachers.
It is not known how many of the unqualified maths teachers teach the subject at higher level for the Junior Cert, nor is it known how many also teach at the Leaving Certificate stage.
The survey - carried out by a team from the Educational Research Centre in St Patrick's, Drumcondra - also found that the use of computers in maths classes in Irish schools is very low.
Details are carried in the current issue of the Irish Journal of Education which is published by the centre.
One of the four researchers Dr Gerry Sheil said that given the continuing concern about failure rates in maths and the 'mediocre' performance of Irish 15-year-olds in an international study, the qualifications of our maths teachers was one area that should be monitored closely.
In the 2003 PISA study (Programme for International Student Assessment) the average score for Irish pupils was not significantly different from the OECD average.
Secondary schools are not obliged to confine teachers only to the subjects they are qualified in, but they generally try to match them as closely as possible.
Degrees
However, it's not always easy to get teachers with the right mix of subjects from their degrees for the available jobs in schools.
But, Dr Sheil said a difficulty may arise in the case of teachers whose major area of study did not include maths, or a subject that is heavily dependent on maths such as statistics, maths physics, etc.
"Mathematics teachers who are not specialists in the subject may not be able to contribute or respond to curricular change in the same way as specialists.
"Moreover, they may be more likely to teach the syllabus in a mechanical way designed to help students pass exams, rather than in ways that develop problem solving skills," he added.
John Walshe


I wonder will Mary Hanafin tackle this one seen how cosy she is with the teachers.

 

[GeneralZod]

The stats are frightening. In my year, only 1 person in a class of about 30 maths/theoretical physics students went into teaching.
Finance, computing, science and engineering careers were more attractive.