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MSE News: Practical maths courses to be offered to students
Former_MSE_Helen
Former MSE 2.4K Posts
Sixth-formers will be offered practical maths courses that teach everyday maths skills from this week...
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Practical maths courses to be offered to students
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Practical maths courses to be offered to students
Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
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So those in most need of practical maths skills won't be eligible to take this course? Something doesn't add up.
If they fail the GCSE, they work towards it/an equivalent again.
They just keep coming back to ask you to do the simplest thing, again and again.
My sister never learned to wire a plug, because I did it for her.
I assume her husband has been performing that duty for her, and now it's the son.
Cold turkey, lock them in a room with no food, just water, until they learn something.
The GCSE qualification is essentially an academic subject to prepare students for A level and higher mathematical studies. It was never originally intended that GCSE maths be taken by ALL students at the age of 16. Hence we have vast numbers of students (40% or so?) re-taking their maths in year 12, as they failed to get grades A to C on their initial attempt.
The maths GCSE demands that students learn topics such as geometry and algebra, hardly of practical use in everyday life. In nearly 40 years of employment I've never needed to work out (say) the area of a hexagon, or to solve a quadratic equation.
Of far greater use to the majority of the population would be an understanding of statistics and how we are routinely misled through their use by politicians, civil servants, scientists and medics, all intent on furthering their interests at our expense.
So, let's stop this unrealistic expectation that ALL students should obtain GCSE maths. Leave the GCSE to those going on to study maths at a higher level and substitute a Practical Maths qualification for the rest of the population.
It's intended for those students who are not doing A-level maths but still wish to study some maths beyond GCSE. It is not in any way intended to be a replacement for GCSE.
What is happening to mathematics teaching/exam syllabus lately?
This may make me sound like an old fogey, which I'm not, but I'm sure I learnt how to work out things like interest, currency rates and profit margins when I was still in junior school, although admittedly it may have been as late as yr9 by the time we got into some of the more complicated APR calculations.
With all the who-ha I read about recently regarding Hannah's sweets asked about in this years GCSE maths paper, whats next?
A level students expected to understand how to do long division, perhaps???
:cool:
No, everything comes with a pre-fitted plug nowadays ... by law ... as we continue to pander to the lowest common denominators in this land
This stuff is all still in the GCSE. I think MSE have misrepresented what Core Maths is about.