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US math education vs singapore

Those textbooks are awful😛

What was the point of that video btw...I wort of dozed off😛

That multiplication, while deadly effective on paper, is useless in my head. The partial, while incredibly inefficient on paper is deadly in my head.


edit: I know the OP was spam but I can't stay away sometimes
 
15 min is too long for me too know how stupid we are.

I need someone to tell me how stupid we are within 15 min for me to have saved time.
 
I'm not bothering with the video (dial-up here), but math education in the US is horrible compared to in Singapore. Singapore concentrates far more on understanding, while (especially in grade school), the US concentrates on memorization of algorithms. What's unfortunate is that the majority of elementary education majors never have a strong focus on mathematics... typically, they are horrible at math themselves. Thus, you end up with people who can't add 2/7 and 3/5 in their heads teaching kids how to do it.

One of my friends (an elem ed teacher), showed me a test he had from college (a rather respected school: St. Bonaventure University). He asked me what level I thought the test was at... "about 4th or 5th grade". In his class, they had taken that test (the el ed students) - an overwhelming majority had failed it. That was at the beginning of the course though... So, of course, they had 14 weeks in college to become experts on math in grade school. And, the cycle will repeat itself... people who aren't strong in mathematics will continue to teach mathematics to kids.

The US's attitude towards math is pathetic. Anyone can openly say, "heh heh, I never was that good at math" after making an error on about a 3rd grade level of mathematics, and everyone will sympathize with them. But, if someone says, "I have a hard time reading at the 3rd grade level", they're looked at with scorn.
 
If you split up the US by state, Minnesota tied with Singapore (a few years ago at least; it's probably gone down quite a bit).

No one in the US takes math education seriously anymore.
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza
I'm not bothering with the video (dial-up here), but math education in the US is horrible compared to in Singapore. Singapore concentrates far more on understanding, while (especially in grade school), the US concentrates on memorization of algorithms. What's unfortunate is that the majority of elementary education majors never have a strong focus on mathematics... typically, they are horrible at math themselves. Thus, you end up with people who can't add 2/7 and 3/5 in their heads teaching kids how to do it.

One of my friends (an elem ed teacher), showed me a test he had from college (a rather respected school: St. Bonaventure University). He asked me what level I thought the test was at... "about 4th or 5th grade". In his class, they had taken that test (the el ed students) - an overwhelming majority had failed it. That was at the beginning of the course though... So, of course, they had 14 weeks in college to become experts on math in grade school. And, the cycle will repeat itself... people who aren't strong in mathematics will continue to teach mathematics to kids.

The US's attitude towards math is pathetic. Anyone can openly say, "heh heh, I never was that good at math" after making an error on about a 3rd grade level of mathematics, and everyone will sympathize with them. But, if someone says, "I have a hard time reading at the 3rd grade level", they're looked at with scorn.
Click to expand...

Once more I must agree with Dr. Pizza, though I somewhat disagree with the first statement. In the US the focus, when on memorization, is on memorizing relatively useless @#$% like the box or lattice method. I can't agree enough, though, with the bit about sympathy for the pathetic "hehe I was never good at math" crap. Often I tell someone I just met what I do (which boils down to math & coding) I get the same nervous titter, and I want to scream. Gahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza
I'm not bothering with the video (dial-up here), but math education in the US is horrible compared to in Singapore. Singapore concentrates far more on understanding, while (especially in grade school), the US concentrates on memorization of algorithms. What's unfortunate is that the majority of elementary education majors never have a strong focus on mathematics... typically, they are horrible at math themselves. Thus, you end up with people who can't add 2/7 and 3/5 in their heads teaching kids how to do it.

One of my friends (an elem ed teacher), showed me a test he had from college (a rather respected school: St. Bonaventure University). He asked me what level I thought the test was at... "about 4th or 5th grade". In his class, they had taken that test (the el ed students) - an overwhelming majority had failed it. That was at the beginning of the course though... So, of course, they had 14 weeks in college to become experts on math in grade school. And, the cycle will repeat itself... people who aren't strong in mathematics will continue to teach mathematics to kids.

The US's attitude towards math is pathetic. Anyone can openly say, "heh heh, I never was that good at math" after making an error on about a 3rd grade level of mathematics, and everyone will sympathize with them. But, if someone says, "I have a hard time reading at the 3rd grade level", they're looked at with scorn.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: Even I as a student could recognize many times that my teachers didn't understand what they were teaching very well. Not just math either.

Edit: Although I think teaching some of the methods in this video would enhance students' understanding of math.

Originally posted by: JS80
Who cares? US is still the superpower.
Click to expand...

Man, you say such idiotic things sometimes.

Scratch that, all of the time.
 
I would like to remind people to not paint with such a broad brush the US math curriculum. Every school district is independent and has their own curriculum. Not every school is learning the "box and lattice" and memorizing algorithms or whatever. Of course, on average, US students do suck compared with the rest of the world.
 
Russian kids are insane at Maths...

But yes asians in general seem to be better at Maths but the ones I met are the ones that could study abroad in England.

Koing
 
Originally posted by: JS80
Who cares? US is still the superpower.
Click to expand...

China will be a major superpower in about 20 years thanks to.... edumacation. If the US doesn't improve education then it risks being overshadowed by other powers in the future and losing its influence in the world.

But who really cares in America anyway, I mean it's not like being unedumacated hurt anyone anyway.
 
The US does have a good bunch of high level highschool math students (as they always had at the IMO). The average, however, is weak (relatively).
 
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