Revitalised mathematics syllabus put to the test
Leaving Certificate students at 24 schools have been learning part of the maths course through a revised teaching system under the Project Maths banner, branded as the way forward in boosting proficiency and getting more school leavers to take the subject at higher level.
Fewer than one-in-six of the 53,500 candidates sitting Leaving Certificate maths are expected to have opted for the honours papers, though the official figures will not be known until the State Examinations Commission issues results in mid-August. But for the students at schools teaching Project Maths, interest in the subject is anticipated to be higher, with the end target of bringing the numbers taking higher-level Leaving Certificate maths nationally up to 30%.
The pilot programme introduced in September 2008 has adopted new ways of delivering parts of the curriculum, making the subject more relevant to students’ lives and emphasising an understanding of maths concepts and how to apply them.
The schools already using the new methods have been teaching all their classes two of the new five syllabus strands – statistics and probability, and geometry and trigonometry – for the past two years and the 2011 Junior Certificate will give the first assessment of younger students on the changed syllabus.
The current uptake of higher level maths for Junior Certificate is just over 40% but it is hoped this will rise to 60% as the programme is rolled out in the next few years.
The report of an expert group on the implementation of Project Maths last week suggested a move to ensure all college applicants’ Leaving Certificate maths results are included when calculating points for admission, as any six subjects with the best grades are currently used.
The group failed to agree on the question of awarding bonus points to those with higher level maths, already being sought by Education Minister Mary Coughlan, but said extra training should be given to all teachers of maths as almost half do not have a formal qualification to teach the subject.
