Syllabus development (3 Viewers)

[cutemouse]

Clearly these problems arise from the sad fact that the curriculum is being written by amateurs who are not properly trained in mathematics

Then you should write it

 

[buchanan]

It has come to my attention that there is yet another delay on the release of the senior national curriculum. It was supposed to be released in April. Then on May 3. Now they say mid-May.

 

[cutemouse]

Buchanan, do you think the current Year 11 and 12 HSC syllabi for all levels of Mathematics should be replaced? If not, then do you feel that it should remain as it is?

 

[buchanan]

We wouldn't want it to be replaced by something inferior.

As for suggested improvements to the current syllabuses, I wrote a submission on it at http://users.tpg.com.au/nanahcub/submission.pdf

 

[cutemouse]

After reading your submission, I feel that you quite dislike Probability. Why is this so?

And what is the Number Theory?

 

[buchanan]

I said we could replace it with Number Theory, which would be much more interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory

 

[Trebla]

I personally don't think probability should be erased. It is an essential foundation for statistics/econometrics at a tertiary level just as calculus is an essential foundation for differential equations at a tertiary level. If probability was removed, there would be zero statistics in the HSC course (there's already an insufficient level of statistics topics anyway) and somehow students are expected to forget about statistics after Year 10 and suddenly revist it at university...
Clearly, buchanan wants more pure pure mathematics topics in the course.

I personally believe the current syllabus needs a bit more flavour in ordinary differential equations (and maybe difference equations) because I'm on the applied side

Also, if anything the current syllabus seriously needs some linear algebra including the basics of matrices and vectors. They are so fundamental in mathematics (both pure and applied) yet they virtually are ignored in high school...

 

[buchanan]

I would concur with Trebla on the issue of matrices, vectors and linear algebra, as I also mentioned in my submission. There was quite a lot of it in the old Level 1 course (precursor to 4 unit maths) when it was a 2 year course.

I think we can make Mathematics Extension 2 a 2-year course again, and if we are serious about a national curriculum, make Mathematics Extension 2 a national course as well. I doubt if ACARA will agree to this however.

 

[Chemical Ali]

That was the first thing I thought after doing uni maths, why not do some vectors and lin-alg at high school? It's fun, and it's a great way to teach some easy-ish proofs, which seems to be something of a barrier for many students (I know when we had to start proving things in MX1 I got lost).

Also buchanan I feel your pain man, the biology syllabus is just... like... why do I have to teach some of these things?

 

[iSplicer]

I would concur with Trebla on the issue of matrices, vectors and linear algebra, as I also mentioned in my submission. They was quite a lot of it in the old Level 1 course (precursor to 4 unit maths) when it was a 2 year course.

I think we can make Mathematics Extension 2 a 2-year course again, and if we are serious about a national curriculum, make Mathematics Extension 2 a national course as well. I doubt if ACARA will agree to this however.

Derek, I read through your entire proposal document twice, and I completely, 100% agree with everything you said, especially the part about the dumbed down physics course where any egghead can take it. I wish you all the very best of luck in getting your program approved!

 

[dvse]

I would concur with Trebla on the issue of matrices, vectors and linear algebra, as I also mentioned in my submission. There was quite a lot of it in the old Level 1 course (precursor to 4 unit maths) when it was a 2 year course.

It would also be nice to stress that a derivative is a local linear approximation of a function. If linear algebra was in the course, the idea could be extended to multivariable functions.

Argand diagrams, multiplication of complex numbers as rotation would go with this as well. Plots of complex functions would be pretty cool.

 

[Drongoski]

Elementary linear algebra in the form of vectors & matrices already in IB Diploma Maths (Standard Level: SL) and to a further extent in (Higher Level: HL).

 

[cutemouse]

I certainly agree that Extension 2 could see some matrices.

I would probably opt for having Harder 3U being taken or reduced out in favour for matrices. That is, if it would not be made into a 2 year course.

The Mechanics is quite useful at university, considering the level of HSC Physics at the moment. So I think that it should remain. If it was made into a 2 year course then they should add all the material on energy.

Although, if they made HSC Physics into a proper Physics course then there would be no need to have mechanics in Extension 2 and other more theoretical topics could be included. I wonder how Mechanics actually slipped into the Extension 2 course in the first place (especially Circular Motion for the 1981 syllabus).

Moving Complex Numbers to Extension 1 wouldn't be a bad idea either. But I'm not sure of which topic could be removed in lieu of it.

I think the 2U course at the moment is quite short in length at the moment. Perhaps they move some topics from 3U into 2U.

 

[buchanan]

In light of the delay of the release of the 11-12 national curriculum, the consultation period for the K-10 national curriculum has been extended by 1 week, till May 30.

I very much welcome this new development.

It is essential that an overlap exists for the consultation periods for the K-10 and the 11-12 national curricula.

One of the things we will be looking for in writing submissions is the appropriateness of the K-10 assumed knowledge for the 11-12. We can't do that properly unless we have access to the draft documents for K-10 and 11-12 AT THE SAME TIME.

This same time will be very short, but this extension will make it easier for us to make a less rushed response to the assumed knowledge issue.

 

[buchanan]

The 11-12 curriculum has finally been released.

I've attached the pdf below.

 

[tommykins]

Despite my dislike of it, I believe we should have the removal of conics and mechanics in the current 4unit course and add in linear algebra as well as statistics as previously mentioned.

Mechanics can be incorporated into the physics part of the course, and less time can be spent learning history and be more towards the mathematical side of physics.

 

[Drongoski]

The 11-12 curriculum has finally been released.

I've attached the pdf below.

Looks reasonably balanced and contemporary. But I don't like the name "Mathematical Methods" for one of the subjects. Reminiscent of the university maths courses taken by students majoring in Psychology, Biological Sciences, the Social Sciences and the like; suggestive of a watered-down maths course.

All maths involve mathematical methods; so imo it is an unimaginative and unfortunate name.

 

[cutemouse]

Mechanics can be incorporated into the physics part of the course, and less time can be spent learning history and be more towards the mathematical side of physics.

Teacher incompentancy is the main reason why that doesn't happen.

Also another problem with the old Physics course was that they ran out of questions to ask. They asked the same thing in three difference ways in the final HSC exams in the 20 or so years that it ran.

 

[Trebla]

Is that LaTeX in the mathematical symbols? It looks so ugly lol

Wow, I never expected probability distribution theory and confidence intervals to make it in the curriculum.

Also, why are the senior maths courses named so similarly to the corresponding VCE courses!!!! A lot of this stuff looks like it is based on the victorian syllabus....

There are a lot of flaws in this curriculum...I'm not even going to bother listing them out

 

[buchanan]

Did you hear Verity Firth on 2GB today defending the national curriculum?

I made an mp3 of her at http://4unitmaths.com/acara14.5.2010.mp3 saying

"We're committed to a national curriculum. But we're not committed to a process that waters down the high standards we have in New South Wales. But we don't believe that will happen. We believe that with proper consultation we'll actually have a situation where everyone will be raised up and that there won't be a sense of a watering down of anyone's standards."

She is of course lying

There is also an article about it in the Sydney Morning Herald directly contradicting what she said on 2GB:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/educ...-not-up-to-scratch-critics-20100514-v4gt.html