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ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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If education and exam assessments were returned to what I had to go through 30 years ago, most of the procedures and a certain amount of the content would be irrelevant to skills required today. If you take the mathematical functions that appear to be absent in a modern syllabus, maybe you don't know this but whatever content remains has to be delivered through skills like COLLABORATION TEAM WORK LISTENING Curricula have to be designed around ways of teaching. Some of it makes sense, but some of it is irritating, believe me. Remember - We are following what the government requires us to do. If we refuse, we get bad grades as an establishment. If we get bad Ofsted marks - and they are marks - then we go down in the league tables. Then parents turn away. Then teachers' jobs are lost. Then schools close. Schools have been over-run by systems that judge and quantify them. Originality and inspired lessons are hard to introduce when you are in chains because you are taken to task if you have a maverick's approach. I guess I mean we are having to do as we are told. If exams seem simpler, do not blame the teachers. They just have to do as they are told. Edited: ReallyBrown - Wed 14 May 2008 (2:18PM) |
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Dud IP address: Logged Posts: 1641
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I don't think anyone was blaming the teachers? (But to be honest when I found out about the embarassing low standard in the maths cirriculum I was tempted to blame my daughter's tutor - this was an emotional and erroneous response and I soon corrected myself before I said anything stupid) [Edited to hide the low standard of my english education] Edited: Dud - Wed 14 May 2008 (2:17PM) |
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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Yes. I would have bitched about that. |
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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I thought Maths was boring as hell at school. Now it's japes, juggling and fun size Mars Bars. Maybe that's good. After all, is Maths much use aside from buying a remnant at Paul Simon Carpets? |
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| Dud IP address: Logged Posts: 1641
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Is Music any use apart from singing carols in church? Is French any use except for the phrase "encoulez vous, vous fromage mangez singe de surrender"? I fully admit I'm biased. But I am firmly of the belief that it is the most important subject. From teaching essential life skills, without which it would be difficult to function independently: teaching people to deal with weights, money, numbers (one only realises how important and sub-conscious this ability is when one meets people who haven't learned this); learning logical thought, learning how to design the length of a flute (the ancient Greeks thought knowledge of music and maths indivisible); working out how much carpet you need to buy for your bedroom, what angle to cut your skirting board, how many greenbacks you get for your pound etc etc etc. Through to being a tool used by many people without which they could not do their jobs - accountants, biologists, chemists, designers, engineers, financiers, geologists, horologists, insurers, jewelers, kineticist, lawyers, maret analysts, naturalists, opticians, programmers, quants, radiologists, istatisticians, telemetrists, urban planners, vets, x-ray operators, yoga instructor, zoologists. (I may be mistaken about yoga instructors?). And at the extreme end it is used to further our understanding of life, philosophy, medicine, motion, the planets. |
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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Yes. Many maths teachers refer to Maths as The Queen Of The Sciences. Your 'defence' of Maths would get you a good post. They're the ones who whinge most if anyone alters the routine of the school.
I got O Level Maths early so had to do something called AO Maths. Probably like an AS these days. I just found it dull, and to be honest we were left to our own devices. I doodled, mostly. |
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| Dud IP address: Logged Posts: 1641
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Well, they were probably doodles of a geometric nature! |
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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Probably silhouettes of The Eagles. My Year 7 and Year 8 books were covered in drawings of Marc Bolan. |
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DARKSTONE IP address: Logged Posts: Too Many!!!
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Eighths, Quarters & Ounces. I was too busy selling crack to the teachers. * Kids Please Note That None Of The Members Of High School Musical ParTake In Any Such Activities As Its Not Big And It's Not Clever* * Adults Please Note,Look What Happend To Zammo *
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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Eighths, Quarters & Ounces.
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| mtnluvver IP address: Logged Posts: 5879
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i always say this when we talk about education because i just think the whole system is so outdated and wrong, but i never see one problem as a big deal like things getting easier. maybe they're just cutting up the complicated stuff that is not necessary for every day life, and leaving those things for the kids that specialise at A level or further education? it's an age old argument that maths is full of shit that no one ever uses, and then as soon as they cut it out we complain!! i just did my brother's SATs revision with him the other day and it was full of algebra and complicated stuff that i had to dive deep in to my brain to remember. there was a bit of trig in there that he was convinced he hadn't covered but he does talk about of BS that boy, so i taught it to him anyway and it only took about 10 minutes. i forgot to ask if it came up actually. I have got pretty good exam results and a lot of them, and I would say with confidence that they still raise eyebrows, no one is complacent about it |
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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UK tests and league tables have made children the unhappiest in the western world, teachers have claimed. Sats were the poison at the heart of the education system – they turn teachers into robots and they turn children off learning. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7311863.stm |
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| Dud IP address: Logged Posts: 1641
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So what's the remedy? Just dogmatcally scrapping the concept of assessment would be just as bad wouldn't it? |
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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Yes. It would. Some of the 'cure' lies in differentiation. The brighter kids will be being stretched all the time. They should be learning some of the content you say is lacking. Assessment can be teacher-led. My teacher assessments are on the case. There are just too many of them to do. They are time-consuming and boring. The pupils could be learning more instead. SATS are experimental. They change all the time. Standardisation, therefore, doesn't really exist. Maybe for one cohort, but the results of this session might have no correlation with SATS two years ago. I'm starting something of my own tomorrow with a demoralised and awkward class. They're awkward because I've had to do crap with them for months. Many of my colleagues are totally fucked off with having to do what the programme tells us we must do. I'll try and pep things up, but it's hard to do sometimes. And understandable. Kids gets bored with this approach at times because it allows no relaxation or fun. To be frank, it's depressing to plough on relentlessly with nonsense, so I'm going Che Guevara.
But in short, Dud, teacher assessment can be standardised and can work. In fact this is what the government has been touting recently. Teacher Assessment - Do It To Me One More Time. Edited: ReallyBrown - Sun 18 May 2008 (11:47AM) |
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| Dud IP address: Logged Posts: 1641
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I think birching is the way forwad - fear is a great teacher. Sod that touchy feely stuff - flog a retard today! Edited: Dud - Sun 18 May 2008 (11:58AM) |
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| ReallyBrown IP address: Logged Posts: 596
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I have the lots of Mutha Teresa's genes and so could not possibly comment. |
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| Dud IP address: Logged Posts: 1641
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Ah - good, a fellow sadist - Agnes was not nice person. |
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| Discussion > General Chat > Maths Dumbing Down | |||
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