173 sats \ 11 replies \ @SimpleStacker 26 Mar \ on: Math scores declining charts_and_numbers
It's because of online math education. I saw it with my own eyes with my kids.
The problem isn't that online lessons are bad. The problem is that online assignments don't promote putting pen to paper. There's something about the way our brains are wired, that writing with our hands promotes learning and retention, relative to trying to do things on a screen.
My kids struggled with math coming out of Covid, but when I realized that all they needed was some light drilling via pen and paper, they improved quickly.
Yep, I just hope that these few years after lockdowns turn out to be the outliers. But I can definitely confirm that you can’t do math with paper and pen :)
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I know for a fact that as I was learning I needed like 10 extra sheets of paper to do my math problems.
I wonder if a figma-like tool that just give you a large blank space on an iPad combined with some KaTeX like functionality could help give students a reason to "show their work" its immensly important and definitely will produce better results than an input looking for a single number as the answer
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Yep, I had to teach my kids simple habits like having a stack of paper nearby when doing math, and resisting the temptation to do too many steps in their head.
Some sort of automated functionality for grading handwritten assignments would be amazing
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Hmm interesting. I haven't had this experience at all. My son is homeschooled and has done primarily online lessons his entire academic career. Some book work as well but mostly online and he is doing grade 11 math while he should be in grade 8 for his age. He is a smart kid but I don't think online lessons have hampered him at all, in fact they have helped him.
Personally I think it has to do more with attention span.
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Curious as to his habits on tackling more complex math problems. Does he work them out on a sheet of paper with a pencil or pen?
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That's great for him, but what I see is that a lot of kids never develop the habit of using pencil and paper, including my own. I had to teach them to use it, when I found out this was the problem. Once they got used to using pencil and paper, they got better at math.
I see it at the college level too. A lot of college students these days are allergic to using pencil and paper, and I'm convinced it's harming their development. Source: I teach at a large state college.
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I would agree with this as a partial, maybe primary, reason.
I think there are a lot of other contributing factors, as well. I think the further separation between asian countries and european/western countries is evident of some of these.
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An over emphasis on feelings. As society often does, there has been an over correction from ignoring your feelings that a lot of current parents experienced as children to constantly considering them. This means kids can use feelings as an excuse to underperform or get out of things altogether. Sometimes it is valid, but I am close with a lot of educators who are told kids need to be given breaks for all sorts of BS.
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For a long time western cultures, maybe just the US, have told kids it is okay to be bad at math because math is hard. Eliminating any math requirements from certain colleges is cementing this belief. A lot of parents I know also think the new teaching methods are stupid because they don't understand them which further perpetuates this.
I don't get the sense these first two have occurred to the same degree in asian cultures. I could be wrong, so would be interested in other's perspectives.
- The age in which kids start social media is decreasing which leads to a whole host of issues. I can't imagine mindless scrolling makes it easier for kids to focus on math homework.
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