Math Crisis in Jamaica

[R_C]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The Daily Gleaner</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Last week, Education Minister Ronald Thwaites indicated he had been informed that only 16 per cent of the island's educators who specialise in mathematics are properly trained to teach the subject in the classroom. The report revealed that only 10 per cent of the teachers who are teaching at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level are qualified to do so.</div></div>
<span style="text-decoration: underline">Story</span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The Daily Gleaner</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The minister said 31.7 percent of students who sat Mathematics attained passes, a slight decrease from 33.2 per cent last year. &quot;We are very disappointed in these results.... The country has to come to grips with these realities,&quot; [Education Minister Ronald] Thwaites said.</div></div>

<span style="text-decoration: underline">Story</span>

So how did you learn maths ? I am positive that neither my primary nor secondary school teacher had a first degree in education, nor did either “specialize” in math..HOWEVER…..through memorization of our “times tables” (something children don’t seem to do anymore), and rigorous application of basic math facts and codes, by the end of second form I had mastered arithmetic, algebra and geometry…all without the help of computers and computer software.

Also, we were all scared to death of them.

So there you have it…fear and memorization. Worked for me. And I hate maths to this day...but passed every exam that I ever took in that subject.

[Wahalla]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

And that is y u should have a specialist teacher,!

My two elder children have haad to learn the times tables.

[R_C]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

I had to teach (my now adult) children their times tables. Bought them an &quot;exercise book&quot; from Jamaica and that's where they learned it. Apparently this kind of memorization has fallen out of favor with some educators.

[Gen]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

<span style="font-style: italic">I wonder if them read Huffpost, because everytime mi see an education article over there mi can bet on seeing it in the gleaner or observer
</span>


Any form of education that has to do with rote is usually frowned upon in the US. What does this have to do with Jamaica ? well JA seem to be forever peepee cluck clucking behind the US at every turn in the freaking road.

When my daughter was in 3rd grade, I noticed that not one lick of times table had been taught or was being taught. When I spoke to the teacher, she acknowledged that she was trying to get the students to learn it, but she never offered any tips to the class on how to &quot;learn&quot; it. (memorization must have been a bad word)

each time I met with her throughout the year, she would mention &quot;oh likklegen needs to work on her multiplication tables&quot;

I got flash cards and made her memorize them. I made her write them out each night over the summer, one number at a time for the next year, and quizzed her on them, until she knew them.

[Gen]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

the marble hard cover compostion books sold in the US has the tables in the back as well, along with the inches and quart measurements but no one really uses them. (from what me notice)


them soon start <span style="font-weight: bold">free</span> schools and <span style="text-decoration: line-through">forest</span> <span style="font-weight: bold">bush</span> schools in JA since dem suh fallah fashion

[R_C]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

Speaking of trends in the classroom...are the principles of Trigonometry explainable in patois ?

[Wahalla]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

yes all trig is school certificate oh hell another hour of argument.......

[R_C]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yes all trig is school certificate... </div></div>

What does that mean ?

[Wahalla]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: R_C</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yes all trig is school certificate... </div></div>

What does that mean ? </div></div>

School = Opp/ Hell

Cer = Another / Hour

Tificate = Of / Argument...

School Certificate Oh Hell Another Hour Of Argument....
It is a memoric to rember the basis of Trig....

[j-kid]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

Mi went up to Algebra wen mi was living there, and yuh rite mi learned it through fear!

Dem noh easy through wid dah deh cane an strap yuh noh! Plus di big red &quot;X&quot; dem put pan yuh papa, if yuh get anyting inna di calculation wrong, no partial credit. Yuh eida wrong, or right! Soh yuh deh deh ah scratch yuh head; as tuh whe yuh went wrong?

Is wen mi lef an came abroad mi did OUTSTANDING, because dem encouraged yuh through positive reinforcement, fi keep trying.

Now, noh get mi wrong. Mi established som good work habits in JA, but if yuh noh get it quick like di Einsteins inna yuh classroom, yuh salt.

[j-kid]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

Sure, noh dat yuh talk wen yuh deh wid yuh Jamaican friends dem ah study?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: R_C</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Speaking of trends in the classroom...are the principles of Trigonometry explainable in patois ? </div></div>

[R_C]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: J kid</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Sure, noh dat yuh talk wen yuh deh wid yuh Jamaican friends dem ah study?
</div></div>

Yes boss, an wi did have one name for those study sessions: The Blind Leading the Blind.

The only systematic study of shapes, curves and motions of physical objects that we did was of St. Hugh's girls.

[Wahalla]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

They are going to discuss it on THATS A WRAP on RJRtoday.

[jah_yout]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: R_C</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I had to teach (my now adult) children their times tables. Bought them an &quot;exercise book&quot; from Jamaica and that's where they learned it. Apparently this kind of memorization has fallen out of favor with some educators. </div></div>


To this day I still swear by the j-a multiplication table memorization method...
When I came to the US I made the math team in a mostly white school...
Something the bleeding heart delusionists would consider impossible today

[Wahalla]

Re: Math Crisis in Jamaica

si deh stupid rescue plan yah....50 super teachers.. papishow... I suggested to a journalist on thats a wrap.. develop lectures for the entire syllabub by super teachers as compilmentary to the teaching... put them on DVDs and on line for teachers to play.. that would be the first step...

On thats a wrap.. one of the talking heads pointed out that teachers in the system are for the most part female and margianlly qualified to enter theteacher training college.. (Martin Henry... made the comment.. they had 5 CXC's not qualified to go to university with at best a III grade at CXC )



NEWS

Math rescue plan
50 specialists to help schools
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY-WILLIS Observer senior reporter [email protected]
Tuesday, August 28, 2012




STILL reeling from the downward spiral in pass marks for Mathematics in the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) exams, Education Minister Reverend Ronald Thwaites says the ministry has come up with a rescue plan.
Speaking at a forum involving education ministry officials, members of academia, CXC officials and markers, and journalists last Thursday to explore factors contributing to the decline in English A and Mathematics this year, Thwaites said the ministry will be enabling up to 50 specialists in Mathematics instruction who will be available to offer assistance in schools.
Pro Registrar of the Caribbean Examination Council Glenroy Cumberbatch (centre) makes a point during a meeting last Thursday to explore factors contributing to the decline in the performance of students in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate English ‘A’ and Mathematics for 2012. The meeting was held at the education ministry’s National Heroes Circle offices in Kingston. Listening are minister of education Rev Ronald Thwaites and acting permanent secretary in the ministry Grace McLean. (Photo: JIS)
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&quot;We are primarily targeting the close to 600 primary schools where such weaknesses have been evident. We are hoping to roll out by the end of this year, a programme of virtual education where there will be transmission on a regular television set through a channel and also by specific virtual communication machinery, the best of Mathematics teaching to those schools,&quot; Thwaites said.
He said, too, that the ministry intends to pull together a working group in both Mathematics and English literacy which will include the best minds from the academic community.
&quot;This group will assist us to deal with what I consider to be a crisis and the main element that may drop us short of our 20/30 national targets,&quot; Minister Thwaites said.
Thwaites also hinted at a sweetener for teachers of Mathematics in the future.
&quot;The ministry, insofar as we can readjust our resources internally, we feel there is a strong argument for offering a particular financial incentive to qualified Mathematics teachers to stay in the classrooms,&quot; he said.
In the meantime, the honeymoon might be over for persons who benefit from Government scholarships but ditch the public school system.
The concern was among several noted by University of the West Indies lecturer Professor Verene Shepherd as one factor contributing to the cycle of troubling results.
&quot;What we have noticed is that some teachers get scholarships, whether from the ministry or other funding agencies, and they come to the UWI to do a degree but they don't necessarily return to the classroom... and so the cycle keeps going,&quot; she said.
Thwaites, in response, said, &quot;it's a problem throughout the education system&quot;, before sounding this warning.
&quot;The public should know that we simply cannot afford any longer to fund, in the tune of tens of millions of dollars, the upgrading of teachers which we very much want to support, but we must do so in areas that relate to the areas they are going to be teaching in. So we can't have people upgrading themselves in guidance counselling and then going back and being asked to teach Mathematics because the Math teacher is on leave.
&quot;This is not intended to be punitive, but if you have benefited from the taxpayer in terms of improving your qualifications, there must be a specified and clearly observed system of giving back. You must be bonded for a period and these are requirements we are progressing with,&quot; the education minister told the forum.


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz24qd6xc3j