College students are still struggling with basic math. Professors blame the pandemic
College students are still struggling with basic math. Professors blame the pandemic
U.S. colleges are searching for solutions as they see alarming numbers of students arrive with gaps in their math skills.
Colleges across the country are grappling with the same problem as academic setbacks from the pandemic follow students to campus. At many universities, engineering and biology majors are struggling to grasp fractions and exponents. More students are being placed into pre-college math, starting a semester or more behind for their majors, even if they get credit for the lower-level classes.
Colleges largely blame the disruptions of the pandemic, which had an outsize impact on math. Reading scores on the national test known as NAEP plummeted, but math scores fell further, by margins not seen in decades of testing. Other studies find that recovery has been slow.
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Math is fucking boring and we have way more things to do now versus decades ago when solving math problems could be entertaining.
We also have tools to do the computation for us. It makes more sense for people to focus on theory and application over calculations.
This is an extremely stupid take. You don't have to enjoy math to understand fundamental concepts of it and even if you hate it you can't avoid the need for it in your life.
Yeah, you don't have to enjoy anything to understand it.
I'm talking about the level of math people need in their lives.
Basix fractions are needed. Even just to understand ratios, compound interest or to calculate repayment plans.
That'd be like trying to learn about basketball strategy without putting in the fundamental time shooting and defending.
Sure, coaches operate on a higher level and don't have their hands on the ball as often as players do, but they definitely know how to play. Would you hire a coach that didn't?
No, it wouldn't be. Basketball and mathematics are different. Try to stay on topic instead of resorting to analogies. It just shows that you can't argue your position effectively, so you have to derail to something that makes more sense to you.
Unfortunately, now we end up debating the accuracy of your analogy instead of the actual topic at hand. Great tactic, but I'm not going to engage in it.
Let me know when you want to stay on topic.
It's not really an analogy b/c I'm referring to how brains learn in general for any subject, whether math or basketball.
Yes, we don't need to memorize all those old mental math tricks used before calculators were invented, but you still need to understand exponentiation, which follows from multiplication, which follows from putting time in to practice the basic times tables.
Yes, but do you need to know how to solve them? I'd say that's fine stuff for reviewing, as long as you understand the concepts behind them.
For example, it would be totally understandable for STEM college students to not know how to solve 1/42/3 without review. It's just realistic and doesn't mean they are ill-prepared. If anything, we should be teaching students that they should get used to reviewing things instead of assuming they already know.
I think so, to an academic (not necessarily a professional) level, because how could one reach a conceptual understanding without?
It's like the professors that allow open book tests. If you've practiced solving before, it'll be quick and easy to recall deep knowledge and expand on it. If you haven't practiced solving and don't really understand the concepts, you won't perform well enough in time.
Try to stay on topic instead of resorting to analogies.
Failure to comprehend abstraction while arguing against math education. Yep, that checks out.
🥱
Lol, you completely ignore the "now we end up debating the accuracy of your analogy instead of the actual topic at hand" part of it.
Why are people like you incapable of seeing the bigger picture? Lol.
Let's try with a real life (but slightly simplified) math example taken from my mostly innumerate coworkers.
Problem:
2.5 + 2.5 = ?Many will answer "5"
My coworkers won't type 4 extra keystrokes into their calculator, so they follow the written rounding rules (which shouldn't apply here) and key in 3 + 3 = 6. Six. It's six every time.
And they will argue it to the fucking death.
This is the depth of the problem. They have the tools to avoid doing math "in their head" and use their amazing modern tools but no conceptual understanding of the fundamental principles that will bring them from "2.5 is the same as 3 because I learned rounding!" to "there's a fundamental difference between 2.5 and 3 if you're trying to add them." They just never came to that breakthrough understanding because no one taught them.
Sounds like a very specific case that I don't see in the real world.
Not saying it doesn't happen, but just because it happened to you doesn't mean it's a widespread problem.
Everyone I know, especially in a work setting, wouldn't 'round because they don't want to type.' Lol. That sounds like a shitty employee who has bigger problems than math.
you're missing the forest due to the single example being given; kind of like their coworker missing the point about rounding. the lack of the fundamental understanding of mathematics is leading to this person making a mistake repeatedly and their insistence that they followed the rules (which they don't actually understand don't apply here) leads to confidently incorrect answers. these types of behaviors will show up repeatedly in many contexts.
Lol. I'm tired of explaining things to ya'll.
Keep living in your own, neurodivergent bubble. You were going to anyways.
its amusing how you can't realize you're demonstrating the same behavior as the coworker.
It's amazing how you don't understand survivor bias, lol.
Doing accurate math in embedded systems is very important.
Sure but, what if you're not working in embedded systems?
That's what these people fail to grasp. Just because higher level math is relevant to them, therefore it should be relevant to everyone else.
Lol. I'm glad I rose above the 'math is super important' rhetoric and learned to think for myself. It's a shame most of you didn't.