The need for skills support for students- a worrying development.

studentphil

It is really rather worrying that some universities are having to provide maths support and extra Maths classes to students on course like Engineering. What does this really say about the quality of Maths Education in the UK?

It surely proves that our Education system is limiting this nation and it being good at Engineering and science.

shellsuit

Why dont you post this on the student board Phil - I'm sure you would get better responses than you would on DT.

UNICORN_2

Positive proof that secondary education is dumbed down. Mind you with the wealth of pointless degree courses offered these days, most don't need maths :rolleyes:

normanmark

It doesnt say anything, id be more concerned if universities didnt offer the support.

In my experience of being on a degree which needed a maths module, the extra support provided has been a god send. If you're in lectures of over 100 people its difficult to get a one to one moment with the lecturer, these support classes/groups/centres have the ability to provide it.

Also lets take into account some of the maths taught at university level might not be something thats even covered during a-level!!

Support shouldnt be seen as something which means a system is failing, it should be seen as something thats successful in proactively supporting its students!

lisa_75

I am sometimes pretty shocked at the lack of literacy levels and basic general knowledge of students. One 20 year old girl on my course did not know when the 2nd world war started. I found that pretty shocking. I recently proof read a friends essay and it was littered with grammatical and spelling errors (such as using there instead of their and putting the word "and" at the beginning of a sentence). This girl is in her 3rd year and has been averaging 58%. I am amazed that she is allowed to get an “average" mark when her grammar is clearly well below average. Even my 10 year old knows the difference between their and there! Makes me wonder why I bother proofreading my work as lecturers clearly don’t mind dumbed down essay writing.

pinkfluffybabe

lisa_75 wrote:

I am sometimes pretty shocked at the lack of literacy levels and basic general knowledge of students. One 20 year old girl on my course did not know when the 2nd world war started. I found that pretty shocking. I recently proof read a friends essay and it was littered with grammatical and spelling errors (such as using there instead of their and putting the word "and" at the beginning of a sentence). This girl is in her 3rd year and has been averaging 58%. I am amazed that she is allowed to get an “average" mark when her grammar is clearly well below average. Even my 10 year old knows the difference between their and there! Makes me wonder why I bother proofreading my work as lecturers clearly don’t mind dumbed down essay writing.

I think the problem there is that the marking criteria at University does not usually take into account spelling and grammar. They see it as the schools job and not theirs to teach it, therefore it can go unnoticed.

I do some marking myself and I have failed assignments that have poor spelling and grammar as, in my opinion, they do not meet the criteria of 'reasoned submission'. Not everyone thinks this way however, and will not bother as long as they can get the jist of what is being said.

holstar

My course last year had an entire maths module, and we covered loads of different statistical analyses, with different base assumptions, different tailed tests, different confidence levels etc, that we simply didnt cover at A level (which I did). These are necessary if we want to do well in our dissertation analysis, or to have a better understanding of the scientific literature, particularly if we intend to go into research. Going through examples and questions with lecturers and PG demonstrators on hand to help is a lot more useful than letting the entire year group struggle, and means that these tests don't need to be explained by other lecturers in the main modules.

tr3mor

I'm too often astounded by the number of people at university without basic writing skills.

I think the major problem lies within the way English is taught at school. There's too much messing around looking for the meaning in poetry and literature but nothing useful like spelling and grammar lessons.

There needs to be more effort teaching the technical sides of English, especially in today's txt msg and internet slang world.

pinkfluffybabe wrote:

I think the problem there is that the marking criteria at University does not usually take into account spelling and grammer. They see it as the schools job and not theirs to teach it, therefore it can go unnoticed.

I do some marking myself and I have failed assignments that have poor spelling and grammer as, in my opinion, they do not meet the criteria of 'reasoned submission'. Not everyone thinks this way however, and will not bother as long as they can get the jist of what is being said.

Grammar, grammar. Repeat G R A M M A R.

Come on, if you're marking people down for bad spelling the least you can do is get it right yourself!

studentphil

One of the big problems with lecturers is they do not give enough time to marking and feedback in some cases. They write a few notes done the side, they are good at the critical and finding the error, but then offer very little in way of comment on improvement.

pinkfluffybabe

tr3mor wrote:

I'm too often astounded by the number of people at university without basic writing skills.

I think the major problem lies within the way English is taught at school. There's too much messing around looking for the meaning in poetry and literature but nothing useful like spelling and grammar lessons.

There needs to be more effort teaching the technical sides of English, especially in today's txt msg and internet slang world.



Grammar, grammar. Repeat G R A M M A R.

Come on, if you're marking people down for bad spelling the least you can do is get it right yourself!

Oh the irony! :rotfl:

studentphil

tr3mor wrote:

I'm too often astounded by the number of people at university without basic writing skills.

I think the major problem lies within the way English is taught at school. There's too much messing around looking for the meaning in poetry and literature but nothing useful like spelling and grammar lessons.

There needs to be more effort teaching the technical sides of English, especially in today's txt msg and internet slang world.



Grammar, grammar. Repeat G R A M M A R.


Come on, if you're marking people down for bad spelling the least you can do is get it right yourself!

School English does not teach the important stuff, the system lets you pass GCSE and A level without the need for proper English skills and then at HE level when you need them you dont have them.