Carol Vorderman Report
Carol Vorderman report summary
In her report Carol Volderman highlights the main problems with Mathematical education in England, stating where they exist, using statistical examples and also ways in which they can potentially be resolved. She seems concerned with the fact that everyone seems to recognise that being able to read and write English is a necessary skill while they ignore the fact that many young people leave education innumerate. “85% of all students in England give up mathematics at the age of 16: only 15% go on to study AS and A level Mathematics”. In my opinion it should be the “norm” for the majority of young people to study mathematics until they are 18 years of age. This does not have to be pure maths, e.g. Mathematics …show more content…
These students have been taught mathematics for at least 11 years but have not learnt enough to pass what is a simple examination. Worse still, after all the time and effort involved, many of them have learnt little, if any, mathematics that will be useful to them. Instead, they are frightened of the subject”. By the time a young person is to take their GCSE Mathematics examination there is a 10 year difference in the Mathematics taught to students, resulting in a significant difference in knowledge between the highest and lowest achieving students. In this respect there is a problem with the way that Mathematics is tested. Typical questions target a small percentage of students, pupils outside this percentage will either find the questions extremely easy or exceptionally hard. This form of questioning makes it almost impossible to reasonably test such as vast group of student who are various levels of Mathematics using one qualification. This system, inclusive of the tiering system where a student or school can opt to do wither Foundation or Higher tier, is not fit for purpose. Unlike other subjects, Mathematics is marked on the basis of whether the answer is correct or not. Other subject will allow a wider range of student to be able to answer the same question; there is no one correct answer, they test student on how well they answer the
In her report Carol Volderman highlights the main problems with Mathematical education in England, stating where they exist, using statistical examples and also ways in which they can potentially be resolved. She seems concerned with the fact that everyone seems to recognise that being able to read and write English is a necessary skill while they ignore the fact that many young people leave education innumerate. “85% of all students in England give up mathematics at the age of 16: only 15% go on to study AS and A level Mathematics”. In my opinion it should be the “norm” for the majority of young people to study mathematics until they are 18 years of age. This does not have to be pure maths, e.g. Mathematics …show more content…
These students have been taught mathematics for at least 11 years but have not learnt enough to pass what is a simple examination. Worse still, after all the time and effort involved, many of them have learnt little, if any, mathematics that will be useful to them. Instead, they are frightened of the subject”. By the time a young person is to take their GCSE Mathematics examination there is a 10 year difference in the Mathematics taught to students, resulting in a significant difference in knowledge between the highest and lowest achieving students. In this respect there is a problem with the way that Mathematics is tested. Typical questions target a small percentage of students, pupils outside this percentage will either find the questions extremely easy or exceptionally hard. This form of questioning makes it almost impossible to reasonably test such as vast group of student who are various levels of Mathematics using one qualification. This system, inclusive of the tiering system where a student or school can opt to do wither Foundation or Higher tier, is not fit for purpose. Unlike other subjects, Mathematics is marked on the basis of whether the answer is correct or not. Other subject will allow a wider range of student to be able to answer the same question; there is no one correct answer, they test student on how well they answer the