An online post of a student’s maths quiz has caused a firestorm after it showed the student was marked down even though he gave the correct answers.
The quiz, posted to Reddit, caused outrage because the student was marked down by his teacher purely because he didn’t get the answers using the means his teacher wanted. The first question had asked the student to calculate 5 x 3 using repeated addition. The student answered 5+5+5 = 15, but this was marked incorrect by the teacher who advised the accurate answer was 3+3+3+3+3=15.
Question two was equally as contentious with the student being asked to draw an array to solve 4×6.
For their answer, the student drew six rows of four dashes, but this was marked incorrect by the teacher who advised the correct answer was four rows of six dashes.
New York high school math and physics teacher Frank Noschese said the questions were part of the Common Core standards — an educational initiative in the US detailing what students should know in English and maths at the end of each grade.
“The standards just lay out what kids should know and be able to do, not actual lessons. If the teacher specifically said ‘5×3 means five groups of three and 4×6 means four groups of six’ these answers are wrong because of the teacher’s forced interpretation. But mathematically, what the kid did is also valid. Kids likely know that five groups of three is equal to three groups of five.”
Do you think the answer was correct?
Source: lailasblog
the teacher is a v good teacher, accuracy and precision is very important especially in life science, so the student should stick to instruction, that would help the student to be a better student. that’s my take.
No the answer was not right.
The question had nothing to do with the answer.
3 lots of 2 has the same value (answer) as 2 lots of 3 BUT they are not the same thing.
Students get a lot of maths questions wrong because they think that what is most important is the answer.
Here, what was most important was the interpretation and I guess that is what the teacher was trying to emphasise.
Former maths teacher in the UK