UK Think Tank:  Radical Measures Have to be Taken to Move Mathematics From “Geek to Chic”. (June 9, 2008)

The UK think tank Reform describes itself as "independent, non-party whose mission is to set out a better way to deliver public services and economic prosperity". Last week it published its 32-page report The value of mathematics.

It is a scathing assessment of the teaching of mathematics in Britain since the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in September 1986.

Reform has conducted an analysis of O-level/GCSE examinations over time. From 1951 to 1970 these were a rigorous test of thought and initiative in algebra, arithmetic and geometry. Students were required to think for themselves. By 1980 questions were becoming simpler. Following the introduction of the GCSE there was a sharp drop in difficulty, with questions leading pupils step by step to a solution. Pass marks were lowered throughout the period.

The authors of the report, Laura Kounine, Professor John Marks and Elizabeth Truss, conclude that: "At the core of this problem has been the diminution of the O-level/GCSE which has gone from being a key 'staging post' [to A-level maths] to a 'tick-box test'. Scores of less than 20 per cent on the top paper regularly suffice to gain a grade C, despite a much reduced level of difficulty.

They go on to suggest that this dumbing down of the subject, which has been accompanied by the narrow teaching engendered by a drive for "relevance", has led to a generation of “lost mathematicians”.

Put simply, the result is a "turnoff" through the subject being a crashing bore.

The unintended consequences of politicisation and centralisation of the subject are demotivation of teachers, a diminution of the enjoyment in mathematics by pupils and an exclusion of universities and employers from education policy. Steps to increase accountability taken by the Government and a focus on examination results have created unhelpful pressures on institutions and exam boards, which have in turn led to declining examination standards.

[As a result] financial services are being forced to recruit a high proportion of overseas graduates – as many as seven out of eight of all such posts. UK workplaces are finding themselves short of people with basic mathematics skills. Universities are being asked to select from a significantly reduced pool of applicants, a large number of whom are independently educated or from overseas.

Radical measures have to be taken to move mathematics from “geek to chic”. Rigour must be central to this approach. The Government should step in and reverse the current inexorable drift towards modularising GCSE mathematics.

Marcus du Sautoy, professor of mathematics at Wadham College, Oxford, writing in The Guardian says: "The move away from rigour and logic, the bedrock of mathematics, has emasculated the subject. But it is precisely this ability to think logically that employers are so thirsty for. And it is not just the financial sphere that values such skills. Mathematics is much more than an ability to manipulate numbers and perform arithmetic computations. [Mathematics] teach[es]  people an analytic way of thinking that can be applied in all walks of life."

Professor du Sautoy says that rather than dumbing down maths in the name of "relevance" it should be "telling the kids the big stories of maths. ...[They should be] exposed to the wonders of four-dimensional shapes, the fascination of the primes, the mysteries of topology".

Of course you need the teachers that can accomplish that and in Australia as much as in the UK we ain't got enough of 'em.

Of one thing we can be certain, a 5-cent decrease in petrol excise won't solve that problem.