Onderwijs. Nieuwe eindtermen wiskunde nog slechter (Berkeley)
The Wall Street Journal 5 augustus
Making Math Education
Even Worse
By Marina Ratner
I first encountered
the (new) Common Core State Standards last fall, when my grandson started sixth
grade in a public middle school here in Berkeley, Calif. This was the first
year that the Berkeley school district began to implement the standards, and I
had heard that a considerable amount of money had been given to states for
implementing them. As a mathematician I was intrigued, thinking that there must
be something really special about the Common Core. Otherwise, why not adopt the
curriculum and the excellent textbooks of highly achieving countries in math
instead of putting millions of dollars into creating something new?
Reading about the new math standardsoutlining what students
should be able to learn and understand by each gradeI found hardly any
academic mathematicians who could say the standards were higher than the old
California standards, which were among the nation's best. I learned that at the
2010 annual conference of mathematics societies, Bill McCallum, a leading
writer of Common Core math standards, said that the new standards "would
not be too high" in comparison with other nations where math education
excels. Jason Zimba, another lead writer of the mathematics standards, told the
Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that the new
standards wouldn't prepare students for colleges to which "most parents
aspire" to send their children.
I also read that the Common Core offers "fewer
standards" but "deeper" and "more rigorous"
understanding of math. That there were "fewer standards" became
obvious when I saw that they were vastly inferior to the old California
standards in rigor, depth and the scope of topics. Many topicsfor instance,
calculus and pre-calculus, about half of algebra II and parts of geometrywere
taken out and many were moved to higher grades.
As a result, the
Common Core standards were several years behind the old standards, especially
in higher grades. It became clear that the new standards represent lower
expectations and that students taught in the way that these standards require
would have little chance of being admitted to even an average college and would
certainly struggle if they did get in.
It remained to be seen whether the Common Core was
"deeper" and "more rigorous." The Berkeley school
district's curriculum for sixth-grade math was an exact copy of the Common Core
State Standards for the grade. The teacher in my grandson's class went through
special Common Core training courses.
As his assigned homework and tests indicate, when teaching
fractions, the teacher required that students draw pictures of everything: of 6
divided by 8, of 4 divided by 2/7, of 0.8 x 0.4, and so forth. In doing so, the
teacher followed the instructions: "Interpret and compute quotients of
fractions, and solve word problems involving division of fractions by
fractions, e.g., by using visual fraction models and equations to represent the
problem. For example, create a story context for 2/3 divided by 3/4 and use a
visual fraction model to show the quotient . . ."
Who would draw a picture to divide 2/3 by 3/4?
This requirement of visual models and creating stories is
all over the Common Core. The students were constantly told to draw models to
answer trivial questions, such as finding 20% of 80 or finding the time for a
car to drive 10 miles if it drives 4 miles in 10 minutes, or finding the number
of benches one can make from 48 feet of wood if each bench requires 6 feet. A
student who gives the correct answer right away (as one should) and doesn't
draw anything loses points.
Here are some more examples of the Common Core's convoluted
and meaningless manipulations of simple concepts: "draw a series of tape
diagrams to represent (12 divided by 3) x 3=12, or: rewrite (30 divided by 5) =
6 as a subtraction expression."
This model-drawing mania went on in my grandson's class for
the entire year, leaving no time to cover geometry and other important topics.
While model drawing might occasionally be useful, mathematics is not about
visual models and "real world" stories. It became clear to me that
the Common Core's "deeper" and "more rigorous" standards
mean replacing math with some kind of illustrative counting saturated with
pictures, diagrams and elaborate word problems. Simple concepts are made
artificially intricate and complex with the pretense of being deeperwhile the
actual content taught was primitive.
Yet the most astounding statement I have read is the claim
that Common Core standards are "internationally benchmarked." They
are not. The Common Core fails any comparison with the standards of
high-achieving countries, just as they fail compared to the old California standards.
They are lower in the total scope of learned material, in the depth and rigor
of the treatment of mathematical subjects, and in the delayed and often
inconsistent and incoherent introductions of mathematical concepts and skills.
For California, the adoption of the Common Core standards
represents a huge step backward which puts an end to its hard-won standing as
having the top math standards in the nation. The Common Core standards will
move the U.S. even closer to the bottom in international ranking.
The teaching of math in many schools needs improvement. Yet
the enormous amount of money invested in Common Core$15.8 billion nationally,
according to a 2012 estimate by the Pioneer Institutecould have a better
outcome. It could have been used instead to address the real problems in
education, such as helping teachers to teach better, raising the performance
standards in schools and making learning more challenging.
Ms. Ratner is professor emerita of mathematics at the
University of California at Berkeley. She was awarded the international
Ostrowski Prize in 1993 and received the John J. Carty Award from the National
Academy of Sciences, of which she is a member, in 1994.
Onderwijs. Uitvluchten van Pasi Sahlberg omtrent lage leerprestaties Finse 15-jarigen
Pasi Sahlberg zoekt uitvluchten voor daling PISA-score en
voor zwakke leerprestaties volgens studies van de universiteit van Helsinki
Pasi Sahlberg on
Finland's Recent PISA Results
By Marc Tucker onFebruary 14, 2014 (Education
Week) + commentaar van Raf Feys (Onderwijskrant)
For years following the release of the 2001 and subsequent
PISA results, edutourists visited Finland hoping to uncover their secrets.In the most recent survey, Finland's position
had slipped from 2nd to 5th in reading, from 6th to 12th in mathematics and
from 3rd to 5th in science.I recently talked with Pasi Sahlberg to
better understand what could have contributed to this fall in the rankings.As former Director General of CIMO (Center
for International Mobility and Cooperation) at the Finnish Ministry of
Education and Culture in Finland he is in a good place to know.Pasi recently joined Harvard University's
Graduate School of Education as a visiting professor, teaching a course on
international lessons from successful education systems, and is working on the
sequel to his popular book, Finnish Lessons.
Marc Tucker: How has Finland reacted to the news of the
latest PISA results?
Pasi Sahlberg: The results did not surprise the Finns,
because our own data monitoring student achievement and a recent study by the
University of Helsinki published a month before the PISA results came out
anticipated the PISA results. Their study compared skills in 82 randomly
selected schools in Finland between 2001 and 2012 and the results showed the decline
in mathematics and reading performance that was then confirmed by PISA. (NvOnderwijskrant:
Eigen evaluatiestudies van de universiteit Helsinki van 2004, 2°10 & 2012
wees uit dat de Finse 15-jarigen opvallend zwak presteerden voor de
doelstellingen van de basisvakken. Naar de buitenwereld toe werd dit steeds
verzwegen. Ook al in 2005 was er een alarmerend manifest van 200 docenten
wiskunde die waarschuwden dat de PISA-wiskundescore 2003 misleidend was en dat
de Finse 18-19 jarigen voor de echte wiskunde zwak scoorden bij de start van
het hoger onderwijs. Dat betekent dat de 15-jarigen al bij de afname van
PISA-2003 volgens de Finse wiskundexperts zwak presteerden voor de echte
(schoolse) wiskunde. Sahlberg wekt ten onrechte de indruk dat de zwakke
wiskundeprestaties op de eigen evaluatietests van recente datum zijn. Die
zwakke prestaties voor de echte wiskunde zijn ook veel erger dan de achtergang
voor de PISA-wiskunde.)
MT: What did the Finns think caused this?
PS: Finland had done very little to improve students'
mathematics performance since the first PISA results had come in 12 years
ago.Many of us had pointed out that
other countries with high PISA scores had continued to improve their systems,
but Finland did not do that.The
situation in education in Finland appears to be similar to the situation at
Nokia, Finland's international champion in the telecommunications
industry.When Apple came out with the
iPhone, Nokia had the dominant position in the cell phone industry and, blinded
by its success, failed to recognize the challenge.Nokia had invented the touch screen, but
failed to take the next step, which Apple did, leapfrogging Nokia.This is similar to the situation in
education.The huge flow of foreigners
from all over the world to visit the remarkably successful Finnish schools made
the authorities fearful of changing anything. The
drive of the 1990s activists in education has been extinguished. (NvdR:
Sahlberg debiteert hier een drogreden.) There is another factor that should
be considered.Non-Finnish speaking
immigrants are coming to Finland in larger numbers than ever before.This time they have a big enough number in
the PISA sample to see how they performed compared to their peers. (NvdR: Sahlberg verzweeg in het verleden
dat de hoge Finse PISA-score ook een en
ander te maken has met het beperkte aantal allochtone leerlingen.)
MT: I gather that Finland has a new education minister.How did she react to Finland's scores on the
latest PISA survey?
PS: Our new Minister of Education promised to conduct a
national campaign to examine the results and make recommendations that could
lead to a renewal of the whole compulsory education system.She does not want to look at just math and
science.In fact, no one has responded
to the data by saying Finland needs to focus just on math and reading, or on
any other silver bullet.Instead, the
discussion is about how Finland can improve the system as a whole and increase enjoyment
in learning.It is not just about how to
improve our performance on PISA.(NvdR:
voor enjoyment in learning scoorden de Finse 15-jarigen in PISA-2012 opvallend
zwak. Sahlberg wekte in het verleden steeds de indruk dat de leerlingen super
gemotiveerd waren en dat de betrokkenheid heel hoog was.)
MT: I recall that, before 2000, when Finland participated in
the first PISA survey, there was a lot of pressure from some people in Finland
for the use of market-oriented reforms, test-based accountability systems and
so on.What happened to those
agendas?Is there renewed pressure to
adopt reform measures of that sort now?
PS: Prior to the release of the first PISA reports in 2001,
many in the traditional academic community and in the business community pressed
hard for measures designed to enable students to begin focusing on STEM skills
as early as middle school, scheduling more examinations earlier in a student's
career in school and introducing choice and competition among schools. (NvdR: Finland en Sahlberg hadden beter de vele
klachten over het lage niveua vanwege de docenten en leraars ernstig genomen
i.p.v. ze te weerleggen met de PISA-cijfers.) That all came to a sudden end
when the first PISA results came out.We
had managed to be highly successful at accomplishing the goals of these
reformers without adopting their proposed reforms.Many in Finland believe that PISA saved
Finland from reforms that would not have been good, either for teachers or the
country.But these events, while staving
off unhelpful reforms, created another problem, as I said earlier in this
interview:All change in Finland, both
good and bad, came to an end, and we lost our capacity to renew and adapt to a
changing environment. (NvdR: Waarom zweeg
Sahlberg hier dan over in zijn boek Finnish lessons en wekte hij de indruk
dat het Fins onderwijs en de Finse leraars innovatie-minded waren?)
MT: One path to change would be to look at the strategies
used by the countries that lead the global league tables and pick a set that
seems appropriate for Finland.Does that
appeal to you?
PS: At one level there is some appeal to this approach.In the US, there are advanced schools that
are doing things that Finnish schools should be doing.Finnish high school students who spend a year
in some U.S. high schools say that these schools are better than their opposite
numbers in Finland at helping students communicate, present ideas and debate
meaningful issues.And there are pockets
of excellent practice and innovation in some American schools in the area of
integrating technology and new learning devices into the schools.Shanghai has built a system for
low-performing schools to get help from others that Finland can learn
from.The lesson study idea and way it
is used in Japan and Singapore is very attractive.There is not one country's system that the
Finns should simply imitate. Finns need to realize that they have a lot to
learn from all of their international partners in both the East and the West,
but at the same time, further advance equity-oriented policies and reforms.
MT: What do you think the next generation of change in
Finland should look like?
PS: Finland should not be gauging its success only by
measuring student achievement in the academic subjects.Schools need to help many more people find
out what their strengths are, what they are curious and passionate about. The
school system should be designed to inspire students and to enable them to lead
happy, fulfilled lives both at work and outside of the workplace.We may have to invent a way of thinking about
curriculum that is not so focused on the traditional academic subjects and time
allocation.That is, I think, a worthy
goal for the next stage of Finnish education reform.
Bijlage: View of
Finnish teachers versus view of Pasi Sahlberg
Oxford- Prof. Jennifer Chung ( AN INVESTIGATION OF REASONS
FOR FINLANDS SUCCESS IN PISA (University of Oxford 2008).
Many of the teachers mentioned the converse of the great
strength of Finnish education (= de grote aandacht voor kinderen met
leerproblemen) as the great weakness.Jukka S. (BM) believes that school does not provide enough challenges
for intelligent students: I think my only concern is that we give lots of
support to those pupils who are underachievers, and we dont give that much to
the brightest pupils.I find it a
problem, since I think, for thefuture
of a whole nation, those pupils who are really the stars should be supported,
given some more challenges, given some more difficulty in their exercises and
so on.To not just spendtheir time here but to make some effort and
have the idea to become something, no matter what field you are choosing, you
must not only be talented like they are, but work hard.That is needed.
Pia (EL)feels that
the schools do not motivate very intelligent students to work.She thinks the schools should provide more
challenges for the academically talented students.In fact, she thinks the current school system
in Finland does not provide well for its students.Mixed-ability classrooms, she feels, are
worse than the previous selective system: I think this school is for
nobody.That is my private opinion.
Actually I think so, because when you have all these people at mixed levels in
your class, then you have to concentrate on the ones who need the most help, of
course.Those who are really good, they
get lazy.
Pia believes these students become bored and lazy, and float
through school with no study skills.Jonny (EM) describes how comprehensive education places the academically
gifted at a disadvantage: We have lost a great possibility when we dont have
the segregated levels of math and natural sciences That should be once again
taken back and started with.The good
talents are now torturing themselves with not very interesting education andteaching in classes that arent for their
best.
Pia (EL) finds the PISA frenzy about Finland amusing, since
she believes the schools have declined in recent years: I think [the
attention] is quite funny because school isnt as good as it used to be I
used to be proud of being a teacher and proud of this school, but I cant say I
m proud any more.
Aino (BS) states that the evenness and equality of the
education system has a dark side. Teaching to the middle student in a class
of heterogeneous ability bores the gifted students, who commonly do not perform
well in school.Maarit (DMS) finds
teaching heterogeneous classrooms very difficult.She admits that dividing the students into
ability levels would make the teaching easier, but worries that it may affect
the self-esteem of the weaker worse than a more egalitarian systemSimilarly, Terttu (FMS) thinks that the
class size is a detriment to the students learning.Even though Finnish schools have relatively
small class sizes, she thinks that a group of twenty is too large, since she
does not have time for all of the students: You dont have enough time for
everyone All children have to be in the same class.That is not so nice.You have the better pupils.I cant give them as much as I want.You have to go so slowly in the
classroom.Curiously, Jukka E. (DL)
thinks that the special education students need more support and the education
system needs to improve in that area.
Miikka (FL) describes how he will give extra work to
students who want to have more academic challenges, but admits that they can
get quite good grades, excellent grades, by doing nothing actually, or very
little.Miikka (FL) describes
discussion in educational circles about creating schools and universities for
academically talented students: 3 Everyone has the same chances One problem is
that it can betoo easy for talented
students.There has been now discussion
in Finland if there should be schools and universities for talented students I
think it will happen, but I dont know if it is good, but it will happen, I
think so. I am also afraid there will be
private schools again in Finland in the future [There] will be more rich
people and more poor people, and then will come so [many] problems in
comprehensive schools that some day quitesoon parents will demand that we should have private schoolsagain, and that is quite sad.
Linda (AL), however, feels the love of reading has declined
in the younger generation, as they tend to gravitate more to video games and
television.Miikka (FL), also a teacher
of mother tongue, also cites a decline in reading interest and an increase of
video game and computer play.Saij a
(BL) agrees. As a teacher of Finnish, she feels that she has difficulty
motivating her students to learn: I think my subject is not the easiest one
to teach.They dont read so much,
newspapers or novels.Her students,
especially the boys, do not like their assignments in Finnish language.She also thinks the respect for teachers has
declined in this past generation.Miikka
(FL) also thinks his students do not respect their teachers: They dont
respect the teachers.They respect them
very little I think it has changed a
lot in recent years.In Helsinki, it was
actually earlier.When I came here six
years ago, I thought thiswas
heaven.I thought it was incredible,
how the children werelike that after
Helsinki, but now I think it is the same.
Linda (AL) notes deficiency in the amount of time available
for subjects.With more time, she would
implement more creative activities, such as speech and drama, into her
lessons.Saij a (BL) also thinks that
her students need more arts subjects like drama and art.She worries that they consider mathematics as
the only important subject.Shefeels
countries such as Sweden, Norway, and England have better arts programs than in
Finnish schools.Arts subjects,
according to Saij a, help the students get to know themselves.Maarit (DMS), a Finnish-speaker, thinks that
schools need to spend more time cultivating social skills.
Onderwijs. Kritische Finse stemmen over Fins onderwijs
1. Finse
leraar Atatus i.o. over verwaarlozing van sterkere/slimme leerlingen
It's kind of an
unspoken rule here in Finland that smart, talented kids are expected to take
control of their own learning very early on. I'm a teacher in training on my
fourth year in university, and while we've been taught quite a lot when it
comes to teaching kids who have trouble learning or behaving, teaching talented
kids has only been mentioned - in passing - once or twice. When asked about the
subject, one of my professors actually said that it's better to have the
teachers to focus their attention on children "who need that attention,
since smart kids are smart and can thus take care of themselves well
enough".
I do understand what my professor meant, kind of: if there
are 28 pupils in one class and if twelve of them have trouble learning or
behaving, those twelve will naturally need the teacher's time, help and
attention, even more so than those who are doing "well enough" by
themselves. Still, while smart kids can take care of themselves (to some
degree), it's certainly not fair that they're not being helped to try to
achieve their full potential, that they're not given enough opportunities to
challenge themselves, like the other pupils are.
I've noticed that there are many teachers who are even a bit
annoyed at smart children because they're "too" quick. Those kids
often finish their exercises while some of the other pupils are still trying to
solve their very first problem. Streaming can be challenging to any a teacher, and
while many a pupil is given extra exercises, many others are left to sit idly
at their desk, waiting for the rest of the class to catch up with them. During
my training, I've seen many a teacher scolding smart kids for being
"impatient" and "restless" after those kids have been
sitting at their desk for several long minutes without having anything to do.
It's sad and angering to see such young, brilliant minds
being held back like this. No wonder Finland has the narrowest gap between the
highest and the lowest achieving pupils when the lowest achieving pupils are
helped in any way possible while the highest achieving students are scolded and
frowned upon for being smart.
2. Timo
Ojanen:Some truths but also lots of
myths and partial truths here. Let's get the facts right.
My
information is based on having both studied (1990s) and worked (2000s) in
Finnish primary and secondary schools.
"Finland does not
give their kids standardized tests." Yes it does, but only once - at
the end of general secondary school (senior high school). The results of these
exams function as final secondary school grades which in turn play a role in
higher education admissions.
"All teachers are
required to have a master's degree."
Yes, if they want to get a "qualified" salary. But
many are working as "unqualified" and just get a lower salary and
less job security.
"Finland has a culture of collaboration between
schools, not competition. Most schools, according to Partanen, perform at the
same level, so there is no status in attending a particular
facility."There is some status to attending particularly famous schools.
Entry to senior high schools (upper secondary) is competitive and mostly based
on junior high school grades.
"Finland has no
private schools."
Not true. They are not very numerous but there are some.
Some are funded by the government and collect no tuition fees; others are
funded by tuition fees. Schools following Steiner pedagogy are one notable example.
"Finnish schools don't assign homework, because it is
assumed that mastery is attained in the classroom."
Simply not true. They do assign homework and expect it to be
completed.
"Finnish schools have sports, but no sports teams.
Competition is not valued."Team sports play a part in P.E. in Finnish
schools; the value given to competition depends on the individual teacher's
attitude. Competitive sports teams are generally formed outside schools.
"The focus is on the individual child. If a child is
falling behind, the highly trained teaching staff recognizes this need and
immediately creates a plan to address the child's individual
needs."Depends on resources. There are individual learning plans, but
things don't happen immediately. Access to extra tuition within the school or
other remedial measures also depend on staff resources, which quite often are
strained.
"Likewise, if a child is soaring ahead and bored, the
staff is trained and prepared to appropriately address this as well."True
if the child happens to be lucky and have a supportive teacher, not
automatically.