[BTW. I wonder how many pronounce 'era' as 'eera', and how many as sounding like, 'error'?]
Alas, this is not the funny ha-ha variety of joke, but the totally incompetent, waste of space sort of 'joke'.
Should the present proposals go forward uncorrected, and carry on past the next election, even the "fill a bucket" approach to Education will be fatally holed...
"The Association of Teachers of Mathematics is dismayed at the programmes of study for mathematics just published (New curriculum to introduce fractions to five-year-olds, 8 July). The association drew on the expertise of its members to compile a comprehensive response to the consultation and met with the parliamentary undersecretary of state, Elizabeth Truss, to discuss our response in detail. We feel that our thoughtful and evidence-based response has been almost completely ignored.
We raised concerns about the overly ambitious yearly programmes which have many age-inappropriate expectations including premature formalisation. We also raised our concerns over the heavy reliance on practice as a principal teaching approach, as this will not lead to the development of fluent mathematicians. The curriculum as presented will result in more attention spent on developing technical competence in outdated written methods for arithmetic at the expense of developing secure foundations for progression through mathematical concepts and skills. Mathematical foundations compromised in the draft programmes include developing an excellent understanding of relations between number and quantities including place value; using mental methods as a first resort; the skills of estimation and equivalence; and, most importantly, the ability to reason mathematically and solve problems, both as a means of learning new mathematics and developing understanding of mathematics through use and application.
The proposed changes will result in many children being labelled as failures in mathematics from an early age, as teachers attempt to cover the yearly teaching programmes. The presentation of the curriculum will not support primary to secondary transition as there are no clear lines of progression. Appendix 1, entitled formal written methods for multiplication and division, but including addition and subtraction as well as multiplication and division, is a complete travesty and needs to be removed.
We would urge further revision to the programmes of study before taking them through legislation.
Dr Tony Cotton
Honorary secretary, Association of Teachers of Mathematics"
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jul/29/maths-study-programmes-add-upIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
