Why can't most people understand science and math? (doctor, basketball, assessment)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
I think you hit the nail on the head with this. I've posted before that I have to be careful to do many math problems the way the students were taught because if I don't follow those exact steps, they're lost. For example, if I want to solve X/2 = 3/4, I can't just multiply by 2 to isolate the variable. I have to cross multiply by 2 AND 4 then divide by 4 to isolate the variable. My students learned to solve this problem by "Cross multiplying and then dividing". They were taught this way because that will work if the problem is 2/X = 4/3 too. Here, if you ask them to isolate the variable, many will divide by 2 and think the've isolates X when they really have 1/X on the left hand side.
lmfao dear god that math problem! my head hurts trying to understand ..hahah but this is true
One thing about math is that is builds upon itself so you do "use" it as you learn deeper, higher leve math.
Now, put spiraling into the picture and see how well that works.
When it comes time to learn the next step, the kids still don't quite have the first step down pat.
The problem with math and science is how kids are taught to learn. They have learned to memorize, get through the test and dump everything. Math and science actually require you to remember (or better yet, understand) what you learned before AND USE IT.
For the third time in two weeks I gave my class a problem that required knowing the density of a solution only to have them look at me, bewildered, when I showed the solution and ask "How were we supposed to know that?" Um, guys....this is the THIRD time in two weeks I've given you a problem that required the SAME conversion factor. We do way too much hand holding in school these days.
I keep telling them they need to remember what we did before and they are better off understanding than memorizing but I'm fighting years of conditioning. I'm good at math and science because I can't memorize to save my life. I have to understand to do. So math and science have always been favorite subjects of mine even back when I couldn't do math or science in high school. The fact I couldn't do it didn't stop me from liking it. They weren't like the other subjects. You could actually figure them out.
The absolute worst form of education is memorization, in fact, I claim it isn't education at all. Now I understand the value of knowing your times tables and how numbers are related to each other, and memorizing them is valuable. But that is only a tool in order to understand math, and not to be used as a template to learning the subject.
The very worst STEM professors that I ever had were the ones who threw a bunch of DiffyQ's, proofs, and formulas on the board and said that's it, now you know the material. They do it because they want to do the least amount of work to fulfill their undergrad teaching mandate, and go back to their labs and offices to do what makes them tenured, chasing grant money. The problem is that undergraduates and their enormous loan and debt balances are what are keeping colleges going. No one really wants to talk about the collapse in quality of college degrees, or why in hell has tuition gone up nearly 5x what it was in the late 70's/early 80's, for the CA public unis at least. Has the quality of education risen by 5x's? Are students now learning 5x's the material? Of course not, across the board, costs have gone up, student achievement has not risen at anywhere near the same rate. So where is the money going? If it were being used effectively, then we wouldn't be asking why is math hard, we would have figured out a way to get more people to understand it. It isn't a lack of resources, imo, it's that somehow, someone doesn't want us to learn the material. Why, I don't know, but from my perspective as a former teacher, something is wrong.....
I think you hit the nail on the head with this. I've posted before that I have to be careful to do many math problems the way the students were taught because if I don't follow those exact steps, they're lost. For example, if I want to solve X/2 = 3/4, I can't just multiply by 2 to isolate the variable. I have to cross multiply by 2 AND 4 then divide by 4 to isolate the variable. My students learned to solve this problem by "Cross multiplying and then dividing". They were taught this way because that will work if the problem is 2/X = 4/3 too. Here, if you ask them to isolate the variable, many will divide by 2 and think the've isolates X when they really have 1/X on the left hand side.
For your first example, you just multiply both sides of the equation by 2, and you are essentially done. (depending on the format you want the constant). For the second problem, multiple both sides of the equation by X, then both sides of the equation by 3/4. I used the same simple technique for both.
As the problems get more difficult, you have to change your strategy; intermediate steps, where dividing by a variable, and its value is zero....
Okay so I see this article today about how only a third of PA 8th Graders are proficient in science. What is the deal with people learning science and math? Out of all the subjects I've taken throughout my career it's the science and math courses that seem to confuse people and I'm not sure why.
How do we as a society help change the way most people think about everyday science and math?
I love science and always have, because of the logical way it is revealed to us. I love the magic of math, too, but I am perpetually confounded by the ways schools want to complicate it in teaching it. Every generation seems to come up with a new, more convoluted way of explaining it. Most parents I know understand math, until they sit down with their child -- or, worse, grandchild, and then they wonder what the heck our educators were thinking.
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because its analytic and something you have to know how to do, not like how you can memorize history or something else..english (as far as correct) is also a bit analytic but you use it everyday all day so you can get a lot of practice
I have never had trouble with math or science. In fact, math was one of my more easy and less time consuming subjects in college (it's just easier to study for whereas many classes require so much memorization).
But the labs in introductory classes turned me off to science. They seem so menial, repetitive and pointless. I couldn't get into it, and I hated it.
Biology... forget it. It's just memorizing 1000 terms.
Students in our state rank second in the world for science and 6th in the world for math--don't seem to have problems with understanding math or science here.
I havent read this entire thread, so perhaps I'm repeating something said earlier. But I think one of the biggest reasons kids find math is hard is that they're taught that, well, math is hard. You have to be smart to be good at math they'll tell you. Not persistent, or hard-working, or diligent, or creative. Just smart. Schools, parents, and society in general will reward the results and not the process. That's great if you're running a mutinational corporation. But it sucks if you're trying to teach an eight-grader algebra, 'cause the learning is in the process. When that's not valued success in math turns on being smart--and nothing else. Kids will pick up on this.
I think that's reinforced by all the emphasis these days put on math (and science) in the public sphere, which kids are well aware of, especially once they hit middle school. There is no one telling them that the fate of the nation depends on knowing how to write a brilliant essay, or understanding the history of China, or improving how their state legislature works, or the value of speaking more than one language. It's all STEM, all the time.
That emphasis has had the unfortunate effect, intended or not, of a) devaluing all non-STEM educational fields in the public consciousness and b) making kids (K-12 I'm speaking of here) who are not comfortable with math/science feel dumb and useless, sometimes to the point of not even finishing HS.
The fact is that most folks will never use any math beyond basic algebra in their entire lives. But who cares about that inconvenient fact? We've entered a tyranny of STEM--a place where a thread like this can go on for 23 pages, everyone laments that U.S. kids are scoring lower than their Asian counterparts, and instead of worrying about our kids entire education we're spending an inordinate amount of time fretting about who gets the quadratic equation or knows the density of a solution.
Or priorities in education have been warped. All fields are valuable. None are "better" than others. And every kid has different strenghts that should be nurtured.
End of rant!
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..hahah but this is true
Um, guys....this is the THIRD time in two weeks I've given you a problem that required the SAME conversion factor. We do way too much hand holding in school these days.
