Michael Hansen

Mathematics Dept.

St. Albans School

Mount St. Alban

Washington, DC 20016-5095

 

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12/3/2002 ISMAW meeting at NCS

15 people attending, including speakers

See also Syamala's sheet summarizing math education in India (copies distributed at meeting).

 

1. Ayana Touval (here in U.S. for 17 years, after teaching in Israel)

   --Concept of teacher's editions (with answers!) was foreign to her.  Basic assumption was that teachers would use the text and work through it entirely on their own.

 

2. Stephen Evans (U.K. Fulbright teacher at St. Albans)

   --Echoed speaker #1 but said the materials here in U.S. are very helpful

   --He went on to talk about standardized national curriculum (by levels, but integrated maths taught each year)

   --In U.K., different levels of students are prepared for different levels of exams & are taught from a different syllabus--tested at age 11 & final decision made by approximately Christmas of the year they sit for the exam (age 16?); Stephen feels students attempt more difficult courses earlier in the U.S.

   --Running totals are not normally kept in the U.K.

 

3. Clay Kaufman, Field School

   --Taught in Turkey for a year on a Fulbright

   --In Turkey, the whole country is on the same schedule

   --Many holidays sprinkled through the schedule; no attempt to have them fall on a certain day of the week, so that when they fall near the end of the week, several days or even a whole week of instructional time may be lost.  If a holiday falls on a weekend, it is not observed in the school calendar.

   --Math is important because Ataturk said it is.

   --32 students in a class (his class or all classes? can't remember)

   --At one point, Clay got a few days ahead & was told to stop teaching for a week!

   --Calculators/computers essentially banned, though Clay introduced some.

   --Spent 2 wks. calculating square roots of 4-digit numbers.

   --No failures allowed through grade 8.

   --Last couple of weeks are a waste of time, after the last test.

   --Anyone who passes (score of 2) in the first semester can (....notes missing; I think he said such a student had the ability to coast thereafter)

   --College entrance exam is _everything_ in determining college placement.

   --Very memorization-based, very little exploration.

   --Ataturk page is required in every semester project. Clay passed around an example.

   --Classroom culture is very much along the lines of "everyone talks all the time." Clay got the students in one class to be relatively quiet for a month by reading (summarizing) one chapter/day of To Kill a Mockingbird.

   --Math is revered--students look forward to it.

   --College-bound studnets take Saturday exam-prep classes, often duplicating the exact HW problems from the course.

   --Math teachers are revered--all teachers get free admission to (...notes missing; I think he said museums and cultural events)

   --Material & level of material very similar to U.S.

   --Grade cutoffs: 25%=2 (pass), 50%=3, 70%=4, 85%=5

 

4. Tony Licha, St. Albans teacher of geometry, formerly taught in Venezuela

   --HW assigned but not counted for final grade

   --English mandatory; all textbooks were in English as of 15 years ago.

 

5. Olga V., formerly of the USSR/Russia

   --Teacher in control--students stand when teacher enters room.

   --No teacher's editions.

   --Striking difference in geometry: SSS, SAS, ASA are presented as _theorems_, not postulates, and now Olga teaches that way in the U.S., too.

   --Total deference by parents to teachers' decisions--also the case in Poland & China (based on comments by woman from Poland).

   --Few diagrams in geometry textbook--almost all words!

   --Exposition in text is almost exclusively through problems and "conversations" with student.

   --Everything in H.S. math is called "algebra" or "geometry."

   --Olga used 6th and 7th grade Russian problems when teaching H.S. courses in U.S.

   --No calculators at all in Russian H.S., Olga says. (At least this was true up through the time she left.)

   --Math mandatory through grade 11.

   --University entrance exams (_not_ standardized) are given by the university professors and are the sole determining factor in university admissions. The only restriction is that the entrance exam cannot go beyond the prescribed H.S. curriculum.

 

6. Woman from Poland (discussed Poland and China)

   --In Eastern Europe & China, many students (30%? she estimated) are diverted to vocational/technical schools instead of university.

   --Texts are very different--role of the teacher is much more critical.

   --In China, classes of 40 are visited by rotating teachers at the podium.  Lecture format exclusively.  No talking.  Only the final exam counts.

   --Master's degree in mathematics required (unclear whether this comment referred to Eastern Europe, China, or both)

   --Very little calculus in Polish H.S.; virtually none in China.

   --No calculators up to the 11th grade.