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I have no idea what this graph means (apart from the usual) or what it's doing on the same page as an ECONOMIST article on gifted children and their management in countries around the world.
Is it about sums per se?
Sums as in adding and subtracting?
Sums as in computation?
Using math facts?
Is it about lousy U.S. performance on international comparisons in general?
I would like to know.
source:
Bright Sparks
The Economist
8 comments:
I *hate* charts like this.
By dropping most of the chart (everything from 0 to about 470) it makes the difference look artificially large (70% of the spread rather than 10%).
By dropping the lower performing countries, it makes it look like the U.S. is in last place (which it *cannot* be if the reported average is correct ... there aren't enough low scoring countries on the chart to make up for the high scoring countries).
It doesn't report standard deviations, which are probably much more meaningful.
Grrrr ... the data is probably factually correct, but the presentation looks like a "how to lie with charts" example.
Grrrr ....
-Mark Roulo
Link to more detailed breakdown of the data is here:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2006/section2/table.asp?tableID=462
I'll observe that two countries that historically have produced lots of great mathematicians score poorly:
Hungary at 490
Russia at 468
The average U.S. 15-year-old is better at math than the average Russian 15-year-old? Really?
-Mark Roulo
hmm...
I wonder, though, how their schools have fared recently....
The news from Russia is extremely fragmented and contradictory.
I read articles about their demographic collapse; then, this week, I read a WSJ article about their booming middle class.
I'm definitely not going to get a picture of Russia reading the things I'm reading.
I have a firm opinion of Vladimir Putin, however.
Oxford English Dictionary says...
sum
• noun 1 a particular amount of money. 2 the total amount resulting from the addition of two or more numbers or amounts. 3 an arithmetical problem, especially at an elementary level.
Singapore's word problem books are called "Topical Sums" whether they are about addition or not, so I'm agreeing with Michael. I think they probably mean #3.
That Russia produces mathematcians without that being reflected by a very high national average was puzzling to me until I realized that they were able to have special programs for their mathematically talented. It turns out to a be a dimininishingly small fraction of their students that get specialized training directly under research mathematicians starting in the 6ht or 7th grade, it's not enough to pull up the whole nation, but it's enough to supply them with another generation of mathematicians. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
On the other hand, a country like Singapore which is off the charts has yet to produce a mathematician that anyone has ever heard of. Maybe the population is too small. Maybe their math program is intentionally planned around applications rather than theory.
"It turns out to a be a dimininishingly small fraction of their students that get specialized training directly under research mathematicians starting in the 6ht or 7th grade, it's not enough to pull up the whole nation, but it's enough to supply them with another generation of mathematicians."
This reminds me of discussions I am having about education with recent immigrants who are suffering from culture shock. I tell them how bad the state of education is in this country and they tell me this cannot possibly be since the U.S. is so technologically advanced. It even sent a man to the moon.
Maybe their math program is intentionally planned around applications rather than theory.
That's funny!
I just wrote a post about Singapore as an "applications" curriculum!
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