Why 2nd grade students do not learn math

If Baccalaureate is a crucial time in the studies of any young person, more is the second year. That year they studied especially with the aim of achieving their long-awaited note and reach what they wanted: the career they dreamed of. That is why what young people learn at this age is so important, and that is why it alerts so much that many students end this cycle without knowing how true they are. maths.

A study prepared in the Oviedo University ensures that Maths Applied to the Social Sciences that are studied in the second year of Bachillerato, they are focused on passing the Selectivity and not on the student solve problems. Specifically, he warns that the teaching of this subject "is not based on students acquiring skills to solve problems of daily life because teachers adapt the contents to pass the entrance exam to the University".


The methodology of mathematics in the 2nd year of Bachillerato

The authors of the work, which has been published in the magazine 'Plos One', highlight that the influence of the University Access Test (PAU) in mathematics is "remarkable" and that this implies a reduction in the use of "active methodologies", and the teaching of this subject is reduced to exercises very similar to those that will be found in the Selectivity students.

"The teaching thus poses few problematic situations, a minimum decision making and little interpretation of the solution in its real context or everyday. "This is how the researchers are shown, who warn that teachers recognize that if this test of access to the University did not have a" so rigid "format, they could spend more time on other content that barely works.


To reach this conclusion, the authors analyzed the PAU tests of Applied Mathematics in Social Sciences in Asturias, Andalusia, Madrid and the Basque Country for five consecutive years. In this way, researchers have observed a total of 154 tests that contained 628 exercises.

After this came the important part of the work: compare these tests with the practice of real teachers. Thus, they have observed the work of 51 teachers in Asturias and have determined to what extent this test influences them.

 

Mathematics in Selectivity

The main conclusion of the investigation leaves few doubts: Selectivity (or PAU) causes a "reduction in the real curriculum"Of the Mathematics Applied to the Social Sciences, that is to say, the Baccalaureate teachers focus on explaining and teaching what falls under Selectivity, forgetting almost completely the rest of the points that, although they are not subject of said examination, do form part of the official curriculum set by the competent Administration.


Another result of this important work reveals how are the exercises that students do daily in mathematics: "very repetitive"and with the sole objective of planning the tests, but forgetting" key aspects such as problem solving, "they warn.

And the teachers? Your math skills

It also stresses that another of the consequences that these final evaluations have is related to the work of the teachers: these are canceled as essential agents in the acquisition of mathematical skills. In short, the influence of the PAU on the day-to-day of the institutes "greatly hinders the passage of a mathematical content evaluation model to an assessment of mathematical competence".

Not everything is bad. The study appreciates some progress with respect to previous research. So for example, in the block dedicated to Statistic and probability problems of real life and everyday occur more frequently.

To conclude, the researchers wanted to point out the "crucial importance" of this work, whose objective is not to "demonize" the University Access Tests, but to make clear its influence in the design of the new evaluations that will replace to the PAU.

Damián Montero

Video: Double Digit Addition Worksheet for 1st and 2nd Grade Kids


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