Posted on 08/11/2010 10:38:23 AM PDT by Freeport
Taken very literally, not all students are created equal -- especially in their math learning skills, say Texas A&M University researchers who have found that not fully understanding the "equal sign" in a math problem could be a key to why U.S. students underperform their peers from other countries in math.
"About 70 percent of middle grades students in the United States exhibit misconceptions, but nearly none of the international students in Korea and China have a misunderstanding about the equal sign, and Turkish students exhibited far less incidence of the misconception than the U.S. students," note Robert M. Capraro and Mary Capraro of the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M.
They have been trying to evaluate the success of math education through students' interpretation of the equal sign. They have published several articles on this topic, with the most recent one published in the February 2010 issue of the journal Psychological Reports.
Students who exhibit the correct understanding of the equal sign show the greatest achievement in mathematics and persist in fields that require mathematics proficiency like engineering, according to their research.
...
The Texas A&M researchers examined textbooks in China and the United States and found "Chinese textbooks provided the best examples for students and that even the best U.S. textbooks, those sponsored by the National Science Foundation, were lacking relational examples about the equal sign."
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(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
But they know who Lady Gaga and Fiddy Cent are.
Unfortunately, you are correct... Doomed I say! Dooommmmeeedddd!!!
Is public education often teaching them that John’s middle class hard work = their income?
They know how to use the equal sign to make emoticons when they text each other.
=)
Good. grief.
But on second thought, students today are probably confused because the “greater than” and “less than” symbols are introduced at the same time as the equal sign in the pathetic math textbooks used in our elementary schools. This wasn’t done 50 years ago when students had no trouble grasping the “equal to” concept. College students today can’t pass the eighth grade math proficiency tests of the 1940s.
Thou art truly shltting me.
[shakes head...wanders off]
So I guess being an Engineer, as I am, I should ask for a huge raise since none of the new hires get it? Hummm... Possibilities....
I’m having trouble mentally digesting this. What do they mean, don’t understand the equal sign? What alternatives, what misunderstandings about it, can you possibly have??
I think this all started when they recalled the word “IS”.
Public schools are not only an outdated 19th century paradigm, but they seem to do more harm than good. On many levels.
And, reading this article, I just discovered a new one.
How do you know if you are a Redneck?
If you laugh at Redneck jokes.
"equal" opportunity means affirmative action quotas.
"equal" rights means being able to use the race card at will.
"equal" access means handicapped parking spaces and building entrance ramps.
They’re still teaching kids the “greater than” and “less than” sign?!! That’s outrageous! It promotes racism, bigotry, xenophobia . . . .
2+2 is 4
I guess it depends on what the definition of “is” is
You bring up an interesting point. I’ve noticed some very good youtube videos that really educate and offer interesting and insightful information, such as this one: http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse
I consider them really excelling in getting the word out of they have more than 100,000 hits. But then I’ll come across something that is mildly amusing and, frankly, kind of stupid, and I’ll notice it has millions of hits.
It is because we are actually living in a real world form of the imaginary world of Idiocracy.
Is that it?
Otherwise, I'm flubbity-dubbity-dub-bub-dub...
How can one not understand an equal sign?That just makes no sense to me.Are Americans really that stupid now?
I'll join you! Many college graduates can't do any simple math, mentally. They can't decide or even think of what is cheaper of two different sizes of the same product in a supermarket.
Many recent graduate engineers "trust" what the computer "says" even if it's totally an unacceptable answer due to the wrong input.
Our communist educators made sure that your "feeling and judgment" is paramount. This translates to the meaning of symbols to the individual. No flunking policy to promote "self-esteem" contributes to dumbing down the kids by deleting personal responsibility.
It's pathetic, to say the least.
So this has nothing to do with that sugar substitute I see people putting in their ice tea?
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