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US Students In Mathematics - High on Confidence but Low on Scores
Desh
If you are having fun while studying, the chances are that you would be doing a good job of learning the subject as well. Right? Wrong! A Brookings report was based on the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study suggests this!
Strangely the American fourth and eighth graders feel confident that they do well in Mathematics far more than their Asian counterparts. In fact the chasm is as huge as 40% US kids to 4% Japanese kids and 6% Korean kids. Yet the scores tell a completely different story. Singaporean kids - modesty personified - think they are downright terrible and yet they beat the Americans hands down!
In the Eighth Grade section, the US kids stood 12th in the Advanced International Benchmark just above the International Average. The Fourth Graders, on the other hand, did worse against the International Average but got the same rating world-wide.
Some people say that one of the reasons for this may be that the American schools like to "cloak" their math subjects in a more "interesting way so that kids don't feel the drudgery. Japanese and Koreans on the other hand don't care two hoots for making calculus look sexy! They just learn it! This is what the author of the Brookings Report says about the reasons:
One reason the United States does not score as high, he suggested, is that American textbooks are not as challenging as their overseas counterparts. Loveless pointed to some textbooks that have twice as many pages as Singaporean books and are filled with stories, games, colorful pictures, and "not as much math.""We have arrived at the conclusion that American kids cannot learn math as math, and that we have to dress it up as something else," Loveless said.
The question then is, does it pay to mix fun and work in the schools or is hard work the main ingredient? In other words, how true is "All Work and No Play makes Jack a Dull Boy"?
US Students In Mathematics - High on Confidence but Low on Scores
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Sanjeev
URL
October 20, 2006
03:48 AM
Hi Desh,
I used to believe that you really have to have an inclination for the work you choose as your vocation. But with experience I have learnt that you have to learn to like whatever you've chosen as your vocation! A student good at mathematics may not necessarily do very well as a book-keeper. Similarly liguistically-inclined students do not all end up becoming journalists.
I read somewhere that the students even develop love for a subject if they have a crush on the teacher who teaches it!
While pursuing CA, I noticed many of my fellow students didn't have the slightest inclination of the kind of work CAs do; ironically they were the ones who were all-India toppers!
I think a student who "loves" a subject takes it as a lark, a leisurely activity. When he's under duress to "please" others, he fails to make the grade. A Srinavasan Ramanujan may be fascinated by numbers, but that doesn't mean he is cut out to be an actuary or an accountant.
Art loses its beauty when it is pursued not as a hobby but as a duty; when there's a great deal of pressure on you to do well. Lucky indeed are the likes of Sachin Tendulkar who do what they love to do and get paid for it!
Sanjeev
Durgesh
October 20, 2006
05:22 AM
Aaman dearest, why haven't you ever given me such a gushing invitation???????
Desh
URL
October 20, 2006
07:54 AM
Sanjeev:
I am completely with you. I believe that we should follow where our heart is. But then one can build a career on what we have pursued forcibly too.
I had been an artist by heart... but had background in B.Com (Hons). So when I finished my MBA, I enquired with my Uncle:
- Creative Advertising is where my heart is. But Accounting is what my background says. Where should I go?
He said Follow your background. And I got stuck with finance and accounting forever without liking it even for a moment all these years!
So, I understand what you are saying.
Cheers,
Desh
Drishtikone.com
Hiba
October 22, 2006
09:44 PM
Hi Desh,
Was visiting and bumped into your article. Very interesting. I'm actualy doing a teaching degree in the US. As educators, we are very concerned about why American kids are not doing well in Maths. New laws have come about that require state testing with the hope that this will help raise standards and accountability.
We do try making learning fun which I think is key but if we lose focus of the real goal, then it isn't really fun anymore..:)
hidielyn
URL
October 23, 2006
02:05 AM
what's the reason why the americans are confident that they are good in math?
Desh
URL
October 23, 2006
09:41 AM
Hiba:
hey welcome and thanks!! Thanks for the "insiders view"! According to the Brookings report - the countries who are just very direct in terms of learning in Mathematics. .are the ones who do well ;-) go figure!
hidielyn: Great question.. have you heard of George Bush - remember his confidence on Iraq? See his results? That is the story of US in general.. High on Confidence.. Low on results!
Cheers,
-desh
drishtikone.com
Shanti Mangala
URL
October 23, 2006
02:25 PM
That is the story of US in general.. High on Confidence.. Low on results!
Very nice, Desh - nothing works better than painting with broad brushes to make a point.
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