By
Geoffrey O. Okeng'o
© All Rights Reserved by Okeng'o Geoffrey Onchong'a, 24th March, 2016.
Talking
to any average Kenyan person who has had the privilege of completing
high school about the significance of the Mathematics they were
taught at school, the common denominator in their responses may quite
surprise you. For example, “where have I been able to apply the
BODMAS that I was thoroughly whipped mercilessly about?”, one of my
primary schoolmates asked me recently. If you have never been asked
such a question or even asked it yourself at some stage, then you may
have been probably very lucky or you dropped the question and changed
your mind at some point when you pursued mathematics beyond
undergraduate level. To give you some good food-for-thought for the
long Easter weekend, let me refresh your thinking.
In
a mind-provoking article by Tim Gowes, a Royal Society Professor of
Mathematics at the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical
Statistics, at the University of Cambridge titled: “Mathematics
isn't the problem, the way it is taught is” [1], Professor Gowes brings
to life the disturbing reality of the way mathematics is taught in
our schools. Ordinarily, mathematics should be taught as a tool for
enhancing the learner's thinking power and not presentation of “a
set of pointless rules for manipulating symbols and numbers”. If
the later is true- as it often is- then the end result is the numbing
of the learner's minds with years of manipulation of symbols and
numbers- barely understandable to them and hence useless!
The
depth of this problem cannot be expressed any better than in the
question another old primary school classmate of mine asked a while ago: “why was I thoroughly whipped when I could not be able to find the value of x? ” Despite having had the privilege to study and
apply mathematics beyond postgraduate level, well up to today,
putting myself in my friend's shoes, I couldn't help but sympathize
with him and the teaching of mathematics in our schools. The question
is “is our mathematics education system making critical thinkers
able to apply the mathematical skills acquired to solve ensuing
mathematical problems and hence enable better decision making? That's
a question for all of us to answer. But, I will give an example.
Let
us consider as an example on how a different and practical way of
teaching of statistics can help in solving the high accident
problem common in our municipalities. If data collected by the
municipality shows that certain areas are more prone to more
accidents than others, the municipal leadership can resolve to
install speed cameras in those “hotspots” and mark them to be
accident black spots. Interestingly, the result could be that indeed
the accident rates reduce and alas! There comes the solution, isn't
it? We can go have coffee. Problem solved- Installing speed cameras
reduces accident rates. After all data from many other municipalities
could indicate the same trend, right?
I
want to tell you why this problem is not as straightforward as it
seems at face value, and that making such a quick conclusion could be
wrong as many variables might come into play. Mathematically
speaking, the truth could be that the accident hotspots were spread
throughout the municipality randomly and that during the period when
the data was collected, the identified areas happened to record more
accidents than average- thus giving a wrong impression that were
hotspots. The speed camera solution was then quickly sought. In the
subsequent period (during which time speed cameras were installed) it
happened that the “blackspot” areas recorded lower accident
rates! However, the crucial point here is that in such case the
installation of cameras can be argued to have been independent of the
drop in accident rates!
The
correct reasoning can be based on a mathematical statistical
technique called “the regression of the mean” which is very
important to understand in order to arrive at a correct decision.
Decision makers, therefore, need to be aware of this truth and
emphasize on practical application of mathematics rather than mastery
of repeated manipulation of numbers and simple cramming of formulas-
as is the case in our education system. A proper solution to the
above problem would be to collect more data over a prolonged period
of time and determine the “regression of the mean”. Indeed a
nation that cultivates a healthy mathematical literacy is highly
likely to make rapid and sustainable progress. Such progress would
include a population versed with high standards of literacy levels,
not easily swayed by incorrect arguments, and who will not elect
mathematically challenged politicians to make bad decisions on their
behalf.
References
- http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/11/maths-isnt-problem-curriculum-lacking-imagination
