Times – Jack Grimston and Chris Gourlay
“Great Britain – Primary school maths teachers are failing to attain the standard of arithmetic expected of 11-year-olds, new research has claimed. Only 20% of the teachers tested for a Channel 4 television documentary were able to work out that the solution to 4+2×5 is 14, not 30 — multiplication takes priority over addition.”(more)
Outside the Box – Juliann Talkington
With the US lagging Britain in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science testing, one has to wonder if there is a proficiency problem with US elementary school mathematics teachers too. If we want US students to perform well in international testing would it be wise to require that all elementary school math teachers pass a rigorous arithmetic, algebra and geometry test?