International Science Exam Shows Plateau in U.S. Performance - washingtonpost.com: "U.S. students are doing no better on an international science exam than they were a decade ago, a plateau in performance that leaves educators and policymakers worried about how schools are preparing students to compete in an increasingly global economy..."
Grain of salt: are we comparing apples and oranges? Or at we comparing the best 1/100 of 1% of one country vs. 100% of the U.S.? Sometimes it is very difficult to accurately decipher the methodology in these studies.
5 comments:
It's thinking like yours that makes people not care about education. Check out the study methodology before you cancel it out and "find it difficult to accurately decipher". The Unites States is not some perfect all-around country, especially when it comes to math and science. Our kids don't care. Probably because no one makes them actually care. Then we complain that all the Indians, East Asians and Africans get all the tech jobs. That's because they do better in science and math. Oy!
I have a better idea-- why don't you explain it to me? I'm busy teaching right now. The last time I looked at this stuff was ten years ago and the methodology was off-- a comparison of 6th graders -- 400k American students of all levels vs. the top 1% of some country-- Japan I think. That's what I'm talking about. From my real experience, American students are not nearly as horrible as people moan about, and I have had some foreign students who were absolute duds.
I'm asking. If you know the answer, please enlighten me.
p.s. I have eaten public crow on this blog before and I don't play gotcha. In other words, I'm serious about your input.
I am not saying that ALL American Students are on the slow side. Just saying that when I lived in Germany, Israel and visited Latvia and speak to people who Asia, I either see or I am told by American teachers how these students take math and science seriously on a whole more than we do in the U.S. Here's a little proof:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008016
and...
http://www.enews20.com/news_US_the_10th_in_Math_and_12th_in_Science_in_a_World_Wide_Study_03698.html
Also, let's look into the math ans science departments of most colleges. Who are most of the dept. majors and the teachers?
Oh...Thank you for being a teacher!!! If you teach English or social sciences- even more of a THANK YOU!
I prefer teaching science subjects but don't do much of that these days-- mostly softer subjects(like English and humanities), since that where I have the most graduate hours. Anyway, I get the point, but I think the problem is more than just attitude-- we have serious structural issues in our approaches. I am very concerned that we are not producing enough engineers, but then why would anyone torture himself to get an engineering degree when more money can be had "managing?"
The attitude problems of American students can be tossed right back where it belongs-- the parents. Every time I run into a "problem" student, I eventually find a problem parent or two who think the world owes them and their spawn a living. The math and science issue, I think, revolves around a lack of discipline-- math is a discipline discipline-- absurd pun notwithstanding.
Just today I tried to convince a student, who has math scores in the 99th percentile, to pursue an engineering degree but she wanted to go into marketing because that's where the money is. It is frustrating.
On your department critique, I see an even greater problem in higher education and that is the ridiculous number of "adjunct" and "part-time" teachers who are being abused by a corrupt educational system that spends far too much on non-teaching frivolity.
I did quick look at your first link-- good info btw. I'll pursue the others over the weekend when I have more time. Thanks for the input-- and for being civil! (I haven't had a death threat in over a week; time to celebrate!)
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