Working out energy bills and direct debits
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Just been looking at my credit balance on my account and you really need to know this stuff! According to my provider, I have over twice the amount of credit I actually have because their stupid website takes no account of the cost of energy used since the last bill. All it does is take the balance, credit or debit, from your last bill and add on how much you have paid to date.
I can see how easy it could be to think you had far more credit than, in fact, you do were you not aware of this and unable to work out how much you have actually used.0 -
When I was teaching GCE and CSE maths there was a section of the syllabus covering practical application of mathematical skills to real life situations. ( utility bills, other billing with a standing charge, simple and compound interest on savings and loans).
The higher ability pupils also had to make formulae which would calculate bills (eg cost of using a courier who asked a basic charge then so much per kg)then apply them for given data.
I understand all methods taught nowadays, but some are long winded and not the obvious choice. Also,too many teachers are expected to teach subjects which need specialist knowledge, just so staffing figures are met.
I'm also curious as to why a provider of basic mathematical skills is asking how others would solve a problem.0 -
... Doesn't sound as if it does much to teach them maths either which, in a maths lesson, is surely the point? If "critical thinking" were correctly applied in the situation Hengus described, your students would not get to the till without knowing they had tried to buy more than they could pay for. No wonder employers complain about the woeful lack of numeracy (and literacy) skills in young job applicants.
If you think that a couple of children of an unknown age and level are an appropriate representative sample on which to be drawing any conclusions then perhaps you could do with some more teaching on critical thinking.
And I'm not a teacher, but I'm going to guess that I've been through the education system more recently than the majority of the people posting on this thread. And I feel that both teachers and young people need defended because there is a lot of good teaching going on and a lot of very clever children leaving school. This seems to be completely overlooked when grandparents start comparing how capable their grandchildren are compared to what level they remember being at, at a similar age. And maybe in these cases there should be more effort put into supporting the teachers and the material, rather than teaching the children alternative methods.0 -
If you think that a couple of children of an unknown age and level are an appropriate representative sample on which to be drawing any conclusions then perhaps you could do with some more teaching on critical thinking.
And I'm not a teacher, but I'm going to guess that I've been through the education system more recently than the majority of the people posting on this thread. And I feel that both teachers and young people need defended because there is a lot of good teaching going on and a lot of very clever children leaving school. This seems to be completely overlooked when grandparents start comparing how capable their grandchildren are compared to what level they remember being at, at a similar age. And maybe in these cases there should be more effort put into supporting the teachers and the material, rather than teaching the children alternative methods.
However, only having been a student and recently, you only have your peer group to compare with.
Circa 1990,I had a job in a private school and was asked to teach A level maths, so commented that I would need to revise (even though I have a maths degree),as I hadn't taught A level before. The head of department laughed and said that there was no need as formulae were given in separate questions, removing the need commit to memory and decide on the appropriate formula to use.
This was quite true and the questions ,though current students will deny this, were easier, as instead of being one long complicated question (especially in applied maths), multiple simpler questions now guided the way, by providing data for the final result.
With an easier system, a false impression of better ability is given, while clever children do achieve the top target, but aren't allowed to show their full potential.
My 8 year-old grandson is finding his now (he had a reading age over 8 years when just 4)as when he finishes his work well ahead of his classmates, he is told to go away and read, instead of being given something more challenging.0 -
My wife and I were in a supermarket this morning. An elderly lady ahead of us bought goods amounting to £12.69. She handed over a plastic bag of coins to the teenage cashier who then had three goes at counting out the money. The coins came to £8.50. The cashier said rightly said that there were insufficient funds to cover the cost of the goods. This is were the problems started. Both parties concluded that an additional sum of money was needed somewhere between £4 and £5. Two £2 coins were handed over and by this time the cashier had forgotten how much cash she actually had. My wife helped out and said that you now have £12.50 in your hand. Even then, the cashier couldn't work out how much more money was needed.
She did though have the common sense to know that £4 was too little and that £5 would be too much. Finally, £4 was handed back and a £5 note given. The cashier still struggled to work out how much money she had in her hand, so my wife again obliged. Once £13.50 had been entered into the till, the till did its thing and worked out the change. All this took about 5 minutes.
There is no one size fits all here. Clearly, the brightest need to be pushed given that it is often said that in most modern countries less than 10% of the population generate over 80% of a Country's wealth but, equally, the less gifted have to be given the additional teaching needed to attain a basic level in the 3 'R's.0 -
However, only having been a student and recently, you only have your peer group to compare with.
Touche
I'm sure that we were always provided with formulae sheets, never just given the formula to use. But surely these changes are actually beneficial to the majority of children. Yes they maybe don't separate out the smartest, but they do given others a change to pick up marks rather than just fail completely, which has to be positive for their education.
I think problems with dealing with advanced pupils is a different subject though. It just isn't possible to provide an personalised education to every child. And attempts to do so within mainstream eduction are never particularly successful.0 -
My wife and I were in a supermarket this morning...
I blame decimalisation and calculators. Shop assistants used to work out the total in their heads, or write the cost of each item on a paper bag working in fractions and base 12 and base 20 quite happily. And if the total was £4-18s-6d you could hand over a five pound note and a couple of thruppeny bits confident in the knowledge the you would get a two shilling piece back.
And of course imperial weights and measures meant we could all do base 8, base 14, and base 16 as well.
Try giving a young person £5.03 when the bill is £4.93 and they will look at you in bewilderment.0 -
The problem is that today's teachers have also suffered from the dumbing down of education. You need to be educated to a level quite a lot higher than that at which you are teaching, so by lowering the ceiling for the teacher you also lower the level for the pupil.
A good maths teacher is able to offer a struggling pupil an alternative approach; something which may not occur to someone educated in a streamlined situation aiming at a predictable set of exam questions.
For example, a question about paying change could just be taught as a subtraction sum, in order to pass an exam, which will require proof of calculation, but in real life ,the pupil needs to know how to work out change mentally by rounding and also how to use rounding as a means of keeping tally of the cost of items in their basket or for working out how many f an item can be purchased for a named sum of money.
Calculators are fine, if you know how to work them(there are two types) and can estimate in order to realise that you have made a mistake and that the answer is incorrect.0 -
I reckon most teachers take the Jimmy Edwards approach (only us old un's will remember) and that was just to be one lesson ahead of the kids.
My daughter teaches both O & A level science (they don't seem to do much in the way of discrete Physics, Chemistry or Biology nowdays) and the science department have to run a parallel course in Maths for Science as the kids can't do the maths required. Apparenty that sort of maths isn't thought necessary in the normal maths classes.
She says the time to get them up to speed in maths just detracts from the time left to teach the science subjects. Her biggest bone of contention is that the kids dont even know how to draw or interpret graphs.Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers0 -
A friend of mine used to lecture on BSc Electrical Engineering. She complained that she spent half the time teaching maths that should have been covered at A level but wasn't.0
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