Originally posted by Leon Alvarado the study is statistically sound
No it is not. A survey of 155 is worthless. Three people are 2% of the poll. You come across a group of four or five teachers somewhere with an unusual ability or lack of ability, and the whole thing is skewed. 155? It's ludicrous. If another newspaper printed a poll and asserted findings based upon it, and it had a sample size that small, you would scoff at it - and you'd be right to. Or perhaps, if it coincided with your views, perhaps you would accept it.
Originally posted by FMF The U.K. has a literacy rate of 99%. As far as I know the rate for numeracy is much the same. My sister qualified as a primary school teacher last year. Because she's never been especially good at maths, she had to do over a hundred of hours of maths training. If I'm not mistaken this kind of rigorous training has been par for the course since about 1982, and wa ...[text shortened]... you referring to? Why start a thread about a specific "study" and not provide a link to it?
😵
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_rates
List of countries by literacy rate
Many high-income countries, having attained high levels of literacy, no longer collect basic literacy statistics and thus are not included in the UIS data. In calculating the Human Development Index (HDI), a literacy rate of 99.0% is assumed for high-income countries that do not report adult literacy information.
19 United Kingdom 99.0 [d]
^d For purposes of calculating the HDI, a value of 99.0% was applied.
Rates of literacy in the United States depend on which of the various definitions of literacy is used. Governments may label individuals who can read a couple of thousand simple words they learned by sight in the first four grades in school as literate. Other sources may term such individuals functionally illiterate if they are unable to use basic sources of written information like warning labels and driving directions. The World Factbook prepared by the CIA defines literacy in the United States as "age 15 and over can read and write." [1]
Jonathan Kozol, in his book Illiterate America, suggests that the very high figures of literacy may be due to poor methodology [8]. The Census Bureau reported literacy rates of 99% based on personal interviews of a relatively small portion of the population and on written responses to Census Bureau mailings. They also considered individuals literate if they simply stated that they could read and write, and made the assumption that anyone with a fifth grade education had at least an 80% chance of being literate. Kozol notes that, in addition to these weaknesses, the reliance on written forms would have obviously excluded many individuals who did not have a literate family member to fill out the form for them. Finally, he suggests that because illiterate people are likely to be unemployed and may not have telephones or permanent addresses, the census bureau would have been unlikely to find them (and that if they did, these people might be especially reluctant to talk to a stranger who might be a bill collector, tax auditor, or salesperson).
Originally posted by FMF The U.K. has a literacy rate of 99%. As far as I know the rate for numeracy is much the same. My sister qualified as a primary school teacher last year. Because she's never been especially good at maths, she had to do over a hundred of hours of maths training. If I'm not mistaken this kind of rigorous training has been par for the course since about 1982, and wa ...[text shortened]... you referring to? Why start a thread about a specific "study" and not provide a link to it?
are you sure you didn't mean to say 99.0 percent? 😵
Originally posted by FMF No it is not. A survey of 155 is worthless. Three people are 2% of the poll. You come across a group of four or five teachers somewhere with an unusual ability or lack of ability, and the whole thing is skewed. 155? It's ludicrous. If another newspaper printed a poll and asserted findings based upon it, and it had a sample size that small, you would scoff at it ...[text shortened]... d you'd be right to. Or perhaps, if it coincided with your views, perhaps you would accept it.
Never heard of a pilot study?
I am sorry to say that your evident ignorance of accepted statistical theory is in keeping with your lack of knowledge of most of the topics on which you daily pontificate here.
Originally posted by Leon Alvarado Never heard of a pilot study?
I am sorry to say trhat your evident ignorance of accepted staitistical theory is in keeping with your lack of knowledge of most of the topics on which you daily pontificate here.
As ever, your posts degenerate into this wearisome spoof Col.Blimp character thing. Never seen you debate anything. Not even once.
Originally posted by zeeblebot Primary school teachers struggled with the following Maths questions. How well can you do?
Question number
Question
Percentage of teachers who answered correctly
Question 1
1.4 ÷ 0.1
34%
Question 2
2.1% of 400
39%
Question 3
ABCDE is a pentagon. Name all its diagonals
25%
Question 4
7/16 + 3/4
55%
Question 5
The mean height of a ...[text shortened]... ght is 1.9 metres. What is the height of the new person?
14%
The answers can be found here.
In my math class, our teacher said that he would flunk 32 percent of us.
Funny he didn't know more of math... We were only 29 in our class...
Originally posted by FabianFnas In my math class, our teacher said that he would flunk 32 percent of us.
Funny he didn't know more of math... We were only 29 in our class...
Perhaps he regarded you as only 0.28ths of a person?
Originally posted by FMF As ever, your posts degenerate into this wearisome spoof Col.Blimp character thing. Never seen you debate anything. Not even once.
Debate?
All you do when challenged is to divert attention from the issue under discussion by introducing a 'red herring', in this case one you call 'Col.Blimp'
In Holland the colleges that train primary school teachers are notorious for their poor standard and for focusing on "teaching skills" rather than on actual knowledge. Recently however they have introduced some very basic math and Dutch language tests that you have to pass (in 3 tries!). Some people still manage to flunk those, but I'm happy we won't see them in front of a classroom.
Innumeracy in the UK
15 Feb '10 10:20
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