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Girls Good at Languages, Boys at Math

Girls are better with words and boys are good at calculating. They also study better when separated than in the same classroom, a state-run institute reported Wednesday while announcing an analysis of the nationwide College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) results. The test was conducted in November last year with more than 450,000 participants.

According to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, a section of the education ministry, girls outshone boys in the Korean and English languages section, while the latter were better at mathematics.

Coed schools were less effective when it came to academic achievements ― they were behind single-sex schools by 5.7 points in the Korean language, 5 in English and 1.9 in mathematics, on average.

Gwangju, a far southwestern city with a population of around one million, was the most impressive as it marked the highest overall average score among local administrations. The lowest was Incheon.

However, students in Seoul nabbed the top ranks in English, where experts assume that the elite private cram schools conducting English immersion classes contributed to the results.

Students from affluent areas such as Gangnam and Seocho in southern Seoul scored exceptionally high, while those living in rural areas were relatively less proficient.

Private school educated students achieved better results than those from public schools, the report noted.

While students from the former scored an average 102 on the Korean language section, those from public schools received 99.7.

The same pattern was seen in math marks, 101.8 to 98.2 and English marks, 102.1 to 98.7. Private schools produced more students with higher grades, while public schools had a larger number of less academic ones.

The report is in line with that for 2008, which showed that private schools, especially foreign language high schools or those in large cities were rated more privileged than others. Civic groups and educational experts have claimed that such an “educational gap” should be narrowed by strengthening teacher training and class activities in public schools.

Two new views of U.S. math instruction; Neither are reassuring

10:30 pm April 18, 2010, by Maureen Downey

Some interesting developments on math instruction in the education press this week:

First, a new study of future math teachers suggests that we need to improve their grasp of math. The study raises the question of whether teachers need more training in math once they’re in the field or whether we should recruit potential teachers with stronger math skills. And should there be math specialists for elementary schools?

According to Education Week:

The findings from the first Teacher Education Study in Mathematics, or TEDS-M, were unveiled this week at a press conference in Washington.

Among the world’s aspiring elementary teachers, the results show that American college students nearing the end of their teacher-preparation programs performed “neither particularly low, nor particularly strong.” They scored at rates similar to those of future teachers in Germany, Norway, and Russia, but not on par with typically high-achieving countries such as Taiwan and Singapore.

At the middle school level, however, the study contends that the next generation of teachers fared slightly worse, landing “on the divide between countries in which students usually do well on international math exams and those that don’t.” U.S. teachers-to-be outperformed their counterparts in Botswana, Chile, and the Republic of Georgia, for example, but trailed far behind the top-scoring Taiwanese teacher-preparation students.

“We must break the cycle in which we find ourselves,” said William H. Schmidt, an education professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, during a webcast held to announce the findings. He oversaw the U.S. portion of the study, which surveyed 3,300 future teachers in 80 public and private colleges.

“A weak K-12 mathematics curriculum in the U.S., taught by teachers with an inadequate mathematics background, produces high school graduates who are at a disadvantage. When some of these students become future teachers and are not given a strong background in mathematics during teacher preparation, the cycle continues,” he added.

Both Mr. Schmidt and Gene Wilhoit, the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said the results bolster the case for teaching all students to higher math standards­—a feat they hope to help accomplish with the common-core academic standards being developed now by the CCSSO and the National Governors Association.

In what seems to be a contradiction of sorts, another study — the first round of findings from a federal review of 77 middle schools — suggests that even intensive, state-of-the-art efforts to boost teachers’ skills on the job may not lead to significant gains in student achievement right away.

According to Ed Week:

The “Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study,” which was released April 6, is the second major experimental study by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to find that a high-quality professional-development program failed to translate into any dramatic improvements in student learning. A two-year study of efforts to improve teachers’ instructional skills in early reading reached a similar conclusion in 2008.

“What accounts for this somewhat consistent pattern of results? We don’t really know,” said Michael S. Garet, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research. His Washington-based organization conducted both studies with the MDRC research group of New York City. “I think what we’re learning,” Mr. Garet added, “is that it’s challenging to make a big enough difference in teacher knowledge and instructional practice to have an impact on student learning.”

The results are already providing some intellectual ammunition for finding better ways to select and retain effective teachers—and shedding those who are ineffective—as the best way to improve instructional quality in schools.

The new study shows that “you can’t change teacher effectiveness very well with the tools that we have, and that you can’t change ineffective teachers into effective ones,” said Eric A. Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, based at Stanford University. He is also the president of the IES advisory board, which heard a presentation on the new study’s findings last week.

But other scholars said it is too soon to issue a verdict on the effectiveness of professional development.

“We know teacher change takes time,” said Hilda Borko, an education professor who is also at Stanford. “The general belief is that it takes a while for teachers to take ownership of change and really incorporate change into their instruction.”

Read the two studies if you have time and let’s discuss.

Girls really do have an appetite for math and science

he slimy tofu-like organ in the hands of a University of Utah researcher wasn’t the first human brain 15-year-old Chelsea O’Crowley had ever seen.It was just the first brain she had ever actually touched.”It was surprising,” O’Crowley, a ninth-grader at Monticello Academy in West Valley City, said Saturday of the three-pound brain an anonymous benefactor had donated to science.”It doesn’t feel like our heads are that heavy. You’d think you’d get a headache all the time” with that much weight inside your cranium, she said.O’Crowley was among 450 teenage girls attending a science and mathematics conference in Salt Lake City sponsored by ATK Aerospace Systems, which develops and tests rockets and rocket engines in northern Utah.ATK has held science and math conferences in Ogden for girls in sixth through 12th grades for nine years. The conferences, however, have become so popular, that the company felt it needed to also hold similar symposiums in Salt Lake City.”In our field, we want to see an increase in women who work on rockets,” ATK spokeswoman Trina Patterson said.”Nationally, it’s been shown that, starting around sixth grade, girls start to lose interest in science, technology, engineering and math fields. We want to ignite that spark so that they can see these fields are exciting and challenging and anyone can do it,” Patterson said.
The conference “kind of changes the paradigm that it’sAdvertisement
not a man’s world and we are not geeks,” said Angela Trego, director of engineering at ATK.”I have a Ph.D., but I am not a geek,” Trego said.O’Crowley aims to be a neurosurgeon when she grows up. She thinks removing brain tumors and other neurological procedures is “cool.” She also knows she is smart enough to master four years of medical school and up to eight years of internships and residencies “if I try.”But even though more women than men attend U.S. colleges and universities, many shy away from math and science-based careers, said Rod Goode, principal of Northwest Middle School, where the conference was held.”We don’t believe that they have the aptitude to excel in the sciences and math, and we are completely wrong,” Goode said.There are lots of theories to explain the withering of interest, such as the perception that work involving science and math is men’s work. Or, elementary school teachers are afraid of mathematics, and their unease rubs off on female students.Many students, male and female, take perverse pride in claiming they aren’t smart enough or don’t have the aptitude — a perspective that galls Joleigh Honey, the mathematics supervisor for the Salt Lake City School District.”I don’t believe you are born intelligent. It’s something you become if things are [structured and nurtured] in the right way,” Honey said.Sometimes, it’s simply that girls become distracted by clothes and hairstyles and how they appear to others. Social pressure is a big deal, said Darian Luna, 13, an eighth-grader enrolled in ninth-grade algebra.”I’ve just always been good at it,” she said. “I like working with numbers. They make sense, just the way they all fit.”

Google remembers Greek Pi on Sunday 14 March
In Ulm, March 14, 1879 was born Albert Einstein: the birthday of one of the greatest geniuses of all time is the date chosen by many mathematicians to remember and celebrate Greek Pi .Disagreements within the leading experts from around the world, there are those who celebrate July 22 remembering Archimedes, but Google has joined the first group and the day on Sunday 14 March, has dedicated its logo to the mathematical value.The translation of the date also corresponds to the numbers “3, 14″, with the couple-months of 14 days and then the third month, March.
Celebrations bordering on manic madness, as they arrive to be accurate, as Wikipedia explains, “The day is devoted to pi greek ,March 14: The choice was inspired by the Anglo-Saxon writing for this day, 3.14, writing that calls to the nearest with three digits of pi greek. Someone tries to celebrate the famous transcendental number at exactly 1:59 pm, in order to adapt to the nearest 3.14159 six figures. ”Google is then covered with numbers to remember the Greek Pi, the value that characterizes many formulas in the world of physics and engineering.Google doodle celebrates Greek Pi.Albert Einstein was born on  March 14, 1879 .He was one of the greatest geniuses of all time , the same  date is  chosen by many mathematicians to remember and celebrate Greek Pi .Disagreements within the leading experts from around the world, there are those who celebrate July 22 remembering Archimedes, but Google has joined the first group and the day on Sunday 14 March, has dedicated its logo to the mathematical value.The translation of the date also corresponds to the numbers “3, 14″, with the couple-months of 14 days and then the third month, March.
Celebrations bordering on manic madness, as they arrive to be accurate, as Wikipedia explains, “The day is devoted to pi greek ,March 14: The choice was inspired by the Anglo-Saxon writing for this day, 3.14, writing that calls to the nearest with three digits of pi greek. Someone tries to celebrate the famous transcendental number at exactly 1:59 pm, in order to adapt to the nearest 3.14159 six figures. ”Google is then covered with numbers to remember the Greek Pi, the value that characterizes many formulas in the world of physics and engineering.
HistoryNumber among the most fortunate in the millenary history of mathematics, the “pi greek” really moves the first steps among the Babylonians, that two thousand years before Christ were calculated as the length of the circumference of a circle is equal to roughly three times thediameter. Were more accurate, more today to celebrate the Babylonian, Egyptian or jew or most since the same theme have hare-brained all people who succeeded on the stage, then Central Asia, the Near East. A center was done, however, Archimedes of Syracuse, indicating the value of pi greek (or Sicilian? At least Great Greek) in the range between 223/71 and 22 / 7.The greek symbol pi was only introduced in 1706 by Welsh mathematician William Jones, who used the most in honor of Pythagoras disregarding the merits of Archimedes, and was later popularized by Leonhard Euler. Given its long history, then, more than most should be called alpha greek Italian, one of the early success of Made in Italy.
The festival

The feast of pi greek officially debuted in 1988 Exploratorium in San Francisco, and has since spread and grew in importance until the “bubble” Journal obtained last year by the U.S. House of Representatives, which approved a resolution to support the Pi Day around the world. Even Italy is to look: among the most active in the celebrations is the Politecnico di Torino, but today the greek pi is also dropped in the square in Udine, where the entire historic center is engaged in the challenges of logic, mathematics and memory.
Number among the most fortunate in the millenary history of mathematics, the “pi greek” really moves the first steps among the Babylonians, that two thousand years before Christ were calculated as the length of the circumference of a circle is equal to roughly three times thediameter. Were more accurate, more today to celebrate the Babylonian, Egyptian or jew or most since the same theme have hare-brained all people who succeeded on the stage, then Central Asia, the Near East. A center was done, however, Archimedes of Syracuse, indicating the value of pi greek (or Sicilian? At least Great Greek) in the range between 223/71 and 22 / 7.The greek symbol pi was only introduced in 1706 by Welsh mathematician William Jones, who used the most in honor of Pythagoras disregarding the merits of Archimedes, and was later popularized by Leonhard Euler. Given its long history, then, more than most should be called alpha greek Italian, one of the early success of Made in Italy.The feast of pi greek officially debuted in 1988 Exploratorium in San Francisco, and has since spread and grew in importance until the “bubble” Journal obtained last year by the U.S. House of Representatives, which approved a resolution to support the Pi Day around the world. Even Italy is to look: among the most active in the celebrations is the Politecnico di Torino, but today the greek pi is also dropped in the square in Udine, where the entire historic center is engaged in the challenges of logic, mathematics and memory.

For almost three decades since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, there has consistently been a conflict between Iran and the United States over a host of issues. The relations between the two countries became more challenging since 2003 after it came to light that Iran had been developing its nuclear program. Since then some US officials have even gone so far as to announce – and repeat – the possibility of a military strike against Iranian facilities to end the nuclear program.In reality, up to now no such drastic action has taken place. Rather instead, in a milder reaction, the US, aided by its European allies and enjoying Russian and Chinese lukewarm acquiescence, has imposed several rounds of sanctions against Iran through the adoption of obligatory resolutions by the United Nations Security Council. But, these actions have failed to force the Iranians to end their program. As a result, many experts argue that a new policy should be pursued toward Iran vis-à-vis its nuclear dossier. So the main challenge which poses itself is to predict when and how this conflict will come to an end.In this paper, different game theory models are used to interpret the current situation of the crisis. It is shown that while at each step it may be more favorable for each party to insist on its claims, the overall result of this approach may not be so favorable for all. As a result, both parties should think about the long term effects of their decisions. It is also shown that the absence of mutual trust could be the main factor that has forced both sides to reach the current point of crisis.

Therefore, any attempt towards re-establishing mutual trust between the two governments might be a major step leading to a lasting solution. Furthermore, different possible choices for the US government and the long term effects of each choice will be analyzed. The analysis will also address economic aspects of the conflict, and the long-term effects of any decision and the best possible choices for both governments will be presented.

How would you describe the philosophy behind the books?

Patti Smith: The idea was to offer something with a balanced approach. For every lesson, there’s opportunities for teacher-centered instruction as well as student-centered instruction. Because one of the things we know from all of the research we do is that students have different skill sets, they have different learning styles. Teachers have different skill sets and different teaching styles. And so one of our goals is to provide options so that teachers can teach to the best of their ability and to the best of the students’ ability. We also have options that allow for students to collaborate and do investigations. The material is accessible for low-level students, and challenging for high-level students.

So there are a lot of different options for how a teacher might use these books in a class?

Smith: That’s exactly right. And one of the things we know is that a lot of options can be overwhelming. So one of the things we’ve done in our teachers’ materials is provide clear navigation for your different types of student groups.

Many parents want a traditional-looking math book with very specific examples of how to do math problems. Do your books do this?

Smith: That is one of the elements of instruction we have in our program, and it is consistent throughout the book, because we know a lot of teachers and a lot of students and parents do prefer direct instruction. For every lesson there are multiple examples, with solutions mapped out in the book for students to follow. And then, one of the things that parents have really liked about the program is our lesson tutorial videos. We have one for every example in the lessons, using a master teacher, Dr. Edward Burger, who recently won the Cherry Award for Great Teaching at Baylor University, and he’s a former stand-up comic.

In the inquiry-based versus traditional spectrum of math textbooks, where would your books land?

Robin Blakely: I would have to say it falls just to the right of the center — with the right leaning more toward the direct instruction. But pretty close to the center, because of providing the option to bring in investigations as you deem appropriate for your student.

And Holt thinks this is the best approach because it gives teachers lots of options?

Blakely: We feel that it’s very important to provide lots of options, because not every student learns the same way. Some need more instruction and more direction, and others don’t.

Some teachers say they like inquiry-based books because it’s easy to find supplemental math drills, but it’s hard to find well-written inquiry-based problems.

Smith: While it may be easy to go and get work sheets, you need to know that they work. So all the pieces tie together, link together to create really strong curriculum and content.

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So the math drills are specific to the topic you’re trying to teach.

Blakely: Exactly. We all know the Internet has made a ton of material available to teachers, but we have an outstanding group of authors who have helped us develop this program. You don’t know who wrote this other geometry instruction or exercise you might find online.

In Seattle, the fight over textbooks ended up in court. Is that happening elsewhere in the country?

Blakely: I haven’t seen any other lawsuits like this … It’s really not surprising to hear this happening at all. Everybody is really taking math, in particular, very seriously right now. There’s always been a controversy about the best way to teach math.

(From the Seattle Times)

Coe: We just received recently a letter from a teacher up in your area. Her math experience with her students up to that point is, “Your homework is to do 1 thru 50 odd.” And when she started using Discovering, the homework was: “Do 1 through 10 odd.” And the kids thought they had scored. And actually, they came back the next day and said, “You tricked us, you made us think.” And I think that’s what’s possibly going on in some of those reactions you’re hearing.

The Discovering books have been criticized by parents, but they’ve been the top pick of a couple of districts in our area, including Seattle and Issaquah. Any thoughts on why the textbooks seem to be more popular with educators than with parents?

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Coe: I think because (parents) lack familiarity — this doesn’t look like what I was taught. I don’t know how you get students to a place where more is required of them by repeating things that have been done in the past. That’s not how we move forward in life.

What can you tell parents who are struggling with this book, and can’t find examples of how to do the math?

Coe: We appreciate that parents won’t find what’s in front of them familiar. We have a Web site dedicated to parents, students and mentors: www.keymath.com.

Two math experts who reviewed textbooks for Washington state wrote a report that called Discovering “mathematically unsound.”

Coe: Our books are mathematically accurate. We don’t publish books with errors in them.

Ryan: There were also the two Washington mathematicians, Jim King and George Bright, who found the materials were mathematically sound as well. The materials were also the top-ranked by OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) in their study as the best match.

The Discovering series was on OSPI’s initial list of recommended textbooks, but last year the state whittled the list down to just one series, Holt Mathematics. Do you think your books should have remained on the list?

Coe: Well, a book (the Algebra I and II books) that gets ranked highest among 12 publishers, and the series as a whole ties statistically in first place with Holt, that was looked at by a team of over 50 experts — yeah. (Laughs.) We think that.

Is this tug of war over math textbooks being played out elsewhere in the country?

Coe: There is a very healthy debate, as there should be, around this selection of textbooks. A district makes a big commitment when they buy into a program. Quite right — whatever is getting looked at ought to be scrutinized very carefully. What’s unusual is that having gone through that process, and the (Seattle) school board having made the decision based on the evidence in front of them, that a lawsuit was then filed. This is very unusual.

How would you describe the philosophy behind the books?

Jim Ryan: Rather than going from a traditional book where a teacher explains the abstract and then the students practice that abstract concept, and then eventually they get to an application — which are generally called the word problems — we’ve turned that around for each lesson. The lessons are approached so we can try and answer that question “When will I ever use that?” before it ever gets asked. And so students see the meaningfulness of the math as the lesson is being presented to them.

Karen Coe: When we meet teachers, the way they characterize our books is we teach for understanding, or we explain the “why” behind the “what.”

Can you give us an example?

Ryan: When students learn linear equations, we start off with the students gathering data, or figuring out data, so the first thing is they will put data into a numerical table, and then they’ll graph that data in an x-y graph and fit a line to that data. Then they solve for the equation for that line. In the traditional materials, we present every student with the equation y = mx + b and then you give it meaning after they’ve seen that. So, you ask them to memorize that and then you try and give it meaning afterward.

Sounds like you’re trying to lead students to an “aha” moment rather than having them memorize formulas.

Coe: That is a perfect way of describing it.

One of the criticisms of Discovering is that its investigations take too long, and that can turn off students who are good at math.

Coe: It’s not our experience. And every time we work with schools on implementation plans, we work on pacing guides (materials that help teachers plan lessons), and it’s simply not possible in a book for every investigation to be done in a year.

Another criticism, from students and parents, is that what’s missing from Discovering is direct instruction, or very specific examples of how to do a math problem.

(read the whole article here)