Time To Overhaul Our Education System.

[Bargepole23]

8 hours ago, Anna B said:

I'm not suggesting finance should be an alternative to maths, but be part of it. Engineering etc may need certain aspects of maths but not everybody will become engineers, but everybody will need financial education. Maths should be relevant.

The relevant bits of maths for personal finances are how to work out simple and compound interest, and how to add and subtract numbers. Nothing more, and both of which are currently taught at school in Maths lessons.

 

The rest of personal finance is terminology and the different kinds of financial instruments, absolutely nothing to do with the teaching of maths. They are the bits that should be taught in form period or PSHE, along with the application of the relevant basic maths.

 

Maths is relevant to all kinds of professional careers. The relevant maths for most peoples lives is adding up sums of money, primary school stuff, which is where it is taught.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Bargepole23

[Bargepole23]

15 minutes ago, enntee said:

I firmly believe that the process of writing out (lessons, notes, revision etc.) is a way of helping a student to remember what is being read.

I can read stuff and forget it within the hour.

Couldn't agree more. Reading documents online as a way of learning and revising is ineffective at best, certainly for me anyway.

[Anna B]

When I was at school I was one of the first kids to do 'a new type of maths course ' (this was in the 60's) so while half the  kids were up to their necks in algebra, Trigonometry, Logarithms etc (which we also did a bit of) we concentrated on 'Commercial maths' learning about statistics (fascinating,) probability, (interesting) problem solving which included algebra (useful) and applications (this had another name I can't remember but crossed over into science and other subjects, I remember doing stuff about space shots and trajectories...)  and lots of other stuff including, copious amounts of arithmetic (including compound interest) and some finance. We were guinea pigs; I hated maths and went on to love it. I still find it interesting.

 

I know some of it was eventually adapted into the national curriculum, but never in the way we were taught it. The applications stuff seems to be missing.  

[Bargepole23]

On 14/01/2021 at 19:31, Anna B said:

When I was at school I was one of the first kids to do 'a new type of maths course ' (this was in the 60's) so while half the  kids were up to their necks in algebra, Trigonometry, Logarithms etc (which we also did a bit of) we concentrated on 'Commercial maths' learning about statistics (fascinating,) probability, (interesting) problem solving which included algebra (useful) and applications (this had another name I can't remember but crossed over into science and other subjects, I remember doing stuff about space shots and trajectories...)  and lots of other stuff including, copious amounts of arithmetic (including compound interest) and some finance. We were guinea pigs; I hated maths and went on to love it. I still find it interesting.

 

I know some of it was eventually adapted into the national curriculum, but never in the way we were taught it. The applications stuff seems to be missing.  

Mechanics?

[whiteowl]

On 14/01/2021 at 09:38, enntee said:

I firmly believe that the process of writing out (lessons, notes, revision etc.) is a way of helping a student to remember what is being read.

I can read stuff and forget it within the hour.

I used to teach Maths many years ago - you are correct. Forcing pupils to write stuff down means at least it's gone through their brain at least once 🤷‍♂️

[Anna B]

3 hours ago, Bargepole23 said:

Mechanics?

That doesn't seem to ring a bell, but we did learn a lot of different algorithms, and ways to estimate.  And I remember doing the binary system, not bad for the 1960' when computers were the size of a very large rooms and home computers unheard of.  We went on a trip to the Manchester science museum to see one, and I also remember a trip to somewhere to see an electron microscope. It was all about making maths useful, relevant, and understanding how it fitted into all sorts of areas, even algebra which previously a lot of my fellow students couldn't see the point of. A lot of it was mixed up with science and things like logistics. Great days.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Anna B