The results of international students' mathematics appraisal show that American 15-year-old students' mathematics ability and application problem solving ability rank 25th among 30 developed countries. According to statistics, 50% of senior high school students in the United States have great difficulties in learning mathematics and physics. Only about one-third of the students studying for science and engineering degrees in the United States. The number of students enrolled in physics and engineering disciplines and the number of people who have obtained degrees have declined.
* Focus on something *
Two years ago, the National Mathematics Advisory Council appointed by President Bush unanimously passed a report, suggesting that American primary and secondary schools should focus on mastering key mathematics skills in mathematics teaching. Skip Zenner, the chairman of the National Committee of Mathematics Teachers and an American professor of mathematics, analyzed the problems existing in the mathematics syllabus when interviewed by a reporter from the Chinese Department: "In our 50 states, each state has its own syllabus, which is a bit like other countries, and each course has a national unified syllabus. Some states stipulate that students should master more than 30 important contents in a certain grade, some states stipulate that important teaching contents are close to 100, and some states stipulate that they exceed 100. In fact,' focusing on something' is an issue that the National Mathematical Advisory Committee hopes to attract people's attention in this report. "
According to the report of the National Mathematics Advisory Council of the United States, the common feature of countries that have achieved excellent results in international mathematics competitions is that the focus of mathematics teaching in primary and secondary schools is outstanding, and students have enough time to master basic mathematical principles, while mathematics teaching in primary and secondary schools in the United States is comprehensive and lacks depth.
Professor Skip Zenner agrees with this conclusion: "In most successful cultures and countries, teachers teach fewer math topics than in the United States, so teachers can spend more time teaching a math topic and ensure that students can master what they have learned."
* Fundamentals of Algebra *
The National Mathematical Advisory Council of the United States pointed out that the obvious decline of American students' mathematical ability began in high school, when most students began to study algebra. Therefore, experts suggest reforming the mathematics syllabus, so that students from preschool to eighth grade can concentrate on learning important operation skills, master integer and fractional operations skillfully, learn some geometry courses and weights and measures operations, and lay a foundation for learning algebra.
American students can do calculations with calculators from elementary school. Does this have a negative effect on students' mastery of basic mathematical knowledge and accumulation of mathematical strength? Wayne Williams is a math teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia, and a member of the National Mathematics Advisory Committee. He doesn't approve of students using calculators easily. He said, "I don't think students should use calculators when doing math problems." There is a simple reason. Students are expected to have mathematical operation ability. If students can't do math problems without calculators, they will gradually lose their computing ability. "
* Should students use calculators? *
Williams believes that the use of calculators is not conducive to students' understanding of mathematical principles: "Using calculators affects students' understanding ability. Because, in most cases, students just press the keyboard of the calculator and the answer comes out. They don't really understand the meaning of every question. If students do their own problems from beginning to end, it is usually beneficial to master the operation process or skills explained by the teacher. "
In the United States, school teachers, especially primary school teachers, are very cautious about giving students homework, because they should consider giving students enough rest time without causing heavy academic burden to them. Professor Kip Zener said that, in fact, the National Mathematics Advisory Committee had planned to implement a mathematics tutoring plan, and mathematics homework was one of the contents of this plan, but it has not been implemented, because how appropriate the homework is needs to be agreed. Professor Zenner believes that it is very important for students to have more time to do homework and discuss math problems with their parents after class, which can consolidate what they have learned in class and exercise their ability to reflect on various math problems.