Dumbed down curriculum

IN 40 years of teaching maths to Leaving Certificate students, John Brennan, of the Ballinteer Institute, thought he had seen it all.

Then, this year’s Project Maths ordinary-level paper II arrived on the scene.

Question 1 on the paper perplexed him: “Four paragraphs of English, the only figures associated with the question was the number of the question and the number of marks that could be awarded. This is Projects Maths gone mad.

“Ireland is out of step with the rest of the world. The syllabus is completely wrong. It is all fur coat and no knickers, there is nothing like it anywhere in the world. All students are going to suffer. If they go to college to take up serious science subjects in university they’ll fall flat on their face and it won’t be their fault.”

He believes dropping standards will make us the laughing stock of the maths world.

“It is imperative that the roll-out of Project Maths in all schools this September should be postponed.”

Brennan is not alone. He is one of a group of professors, lecturers and teachers who have come together under the leadership of one of the country’s top mathematicians, Steve Kirkland, Stokes professor of mathematics at the Hamilton Institute, NUI Maynooth.

“Project Maths, as it is currently constituted, decreases the emphasis on calculus, and eliminates the treatment of matrices and vectors,” he said.

“These are the very topics that serve as the foundation for higher studies in science and engineering.

“If the Project Maths curriculum becomes the norm, then students entering science and engineering at third level will not have had exposure to some of the key mathematical topics that they’ll need. That makes for a steeper learning curve as those students begin their university studies.

“Further, in order to make up for that missing background on matrices, vectors, and calculus, third-level students either will have to master more material in the same amount of time, or they will simply learn less mathematics at university. The students’ needs are not well-served in either scenario.”

The Canadian-born academic said Ireland’s knowledge economy was very much centred around science and engineering, and that sector had an expanding need for people with strong backgrounds in mathematics.

“Consequently, people seeking employment in that sector will need to know more mathematics — and more sophisticated mathematics at that — in order to be competitive in the job market. So, the sooner that students are introduced to sophisticated mathematical concepts, the better. Unfortunately, Project Maths appears to be moving in the opposite direction, and that can’t be good for future job-seekers in the knowledge economy.”

The paper, prepared by Kirkland and his team, was also led and co-ordinated by Cora Stack, maths lecturer at ITT Dublin in Tallaght. She was the driving force behind the academic team which wrote the paper: “Major flaws in the curriculum design of Project Maths and the dire consequences for Irish mathematics education and the knowledge economy.”

The team pull no punches and argues that Project Maths containsserious flaws in both its syllabus and methodology.

“Specifically, the Project Maths syllabus contains an ill–advised balance of topics, with a strong emphasis on commercial mathematics, applied probability and Euclidean geometry, and a minimum of calculus and linear algebra. This is particularly unsatisfactory for the higher–level students who wish to study technical subjects (engineering, any of the sciences, or even economics) at third level. As a result of this lack of preparation, technical colleges and science faculties at universities will have to lower their standards. Further, the absence of calculus ultimately leads to a very superficial understanding of the probability that is being taught.”

They are not the first Irish academics to ask questions about Project Maths. Last November, the school of mathematical sciences at University College Cork issued an Interim Report on Project Maths. In it, they said they were “deeply concerned” about a number of aspects of Project Maths.

In particular: “The exaggerated claims being made for the new approach including, a deeper understanding of mathematics and the acquisition of skills required for the development of a smart economy.”

They also questioned the “unnecessary haste with which the new programme is being introduced into schools, coupled with the delays in providing syllabus details which is causing confusion and anxiety among teachers and students”.

Just last Wednesday, a survey by Engineers Ireland found that 57% of maths teachers believe the introduction of Project Maths alone will not improve achievement in the subject.

Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor — former principal of the Harold School, Glasthule— in July raised what she described as her “serious concerns” with Education Minister Ruairí Quinn, about the effectiveness of Project Maths.

“I have serious concerns about the effectiveness of the Project Maths programme, which has been hailed as the answer to the below average performance of our teenagers in a subject that is so important for a wide range of careers in the IT, engineering and hi-tech sectors.

“Most of the subject’s core elements — including calculus, vectors, matrices, sequences and series and difference equations — have been significantly reduced on the new paper.

“Third-level institutions are acutely aware of these issues. The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies placed a recent advert in the Irish Times outlining that it is holding a calculus prep course for prospective students of maths, science, engineering and economics, due to the reduced amount of calculus being taught on the new curriculum,” she said last month.

Dr Cora Stack said the Project Maths curriculum does not provide the proper mathematical foundation for students entering third level: “Irish students of Project Maths will encounter very significant difficulties in their first year in third level when they will have to catch up on what they should have learned in the secondary system. No other country in the world that this group looked at, has done this to their top level maths curriculum and left the ‘catching up’ to third level sector. This is a major mistake on the part of the Project Maths curriculum designers.”

The authors of Major Flaws in Project Maths conclude: “Project Maths will result in a significant lowering of standards... This will have serious consequences, not only for mathematical education itself but also for the scientific and engineering education systems at all levels, not to mention the development of the technical competencies and skills required to support the ‘smart’ or ‘knowledge’ economy. This should be a matter of considerable concern for all involved in mathematical education, as well as for policy makers.”

The academics argue that Project Maths in its current format will: have a detrimental long-term effect on the scientific and engineering education system at all levels; leave students wholly unprepared for the study of engineering, science and mathematics at third level; severely damage the reputation of our universities and institutes of technology; damage Ireland’s international competitiveness.

Prof Kirkland believes the problem can be addressed: “Perhaps when it comes to second-level mathematics, one size does not fit all. Perhaps Project Maths is suitable for those who do not intend to pursue third level studies in mathematics, or any of the sciences, or engineering. If the Project Maths curriculum goes forward unchanged, then it can be paralleled by a suite of new mathematics courses that are specifically designed for students intending to study science or engineering at third level.”

It seems Albert Einstein had it right when he said: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”