<p>Every once in a while one is faced with a scholarly article that yields a good laugh. </p>
<p>Here's one that was written in The Educational Forum in the Spring 2003 by a tandem of scholars. William G. Holliday is Professor of Science Education at the University of Maryland at College Park. His research interests include science learning and teaching strategies, education policy, and narrowing the gaps between research and practice. Berchie W. Holliday is a retired high school math teacher and a textbook author. Her research interests address teaching and learning secondary school mathematics.</p>
<p>The scholars offered this explanation for the lesser results of US students on an international test.</p>
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[quote]
A popular TIMSS question, designed to assess 12th grade U.S. math students, perhaps illustrates some subtle problems with comparing students’ responses across nations. We recommend that readers read and solve the problem and contemplate how U.S. students performed in comparison to students schooled in other cultures. </p>
<p>*Problem: Stu wants to wrap some ribbon around a box measuring 3 by 6 by 12 centimeters (an image of a box with the ribbon tied around it is shown) and have 25 centimeters left to tie a bow. How long a piece of ribbon does he need?</p>
<p>A. 46 cm
B. 52 cm
C. 65 cm
D. 71 cm
E. 77 cm*</p>
<p>Specifically, we asked ourselves four subtle questions after reading this item, based on our experiences dealing with U.S. high school math and science students. First, how many U.S. students have a good sense of how to the measure 25 centimeters? Though Canadian students would not be disadvantaged by this issue, most U.S. students would be. We suspect that most U.S. students are clueless about exactly the length of 25 centimeters of ribbon, because this system of measurement is not regularly emphasized in schools and in society—unlike in Canada, where some students recognize that it is about 12 inches.</p>
<p>Sure, the metric system is covered in math and science classes, but how much of this information is retained and useable by the average U.S. high school student, who very seldom uses metric measures beyond the classroom compared to students living in other countries?</p>
<p>Second, how many students “wrap some ribbon around a box”? Third, how many “tie a bow”? When wrapping packages, most U.S. and Canadian students would place a self-adhesive bow on the package without placing additional ribbon on the package. Fourth, how many students would want to know with any precision “how long a piece of ribbon” is needed to wrap a box with “25 centimeters left to tie a bow”? </p>
<p>Thus, this word problem may be viewed as irrelevant to many students. Many of the Canadian and U.S. students we have taught and observed, even those enrolled in advanced pre-calculus and advanced-placement science courses, perhaps would call this a trick or unfair question that fails to assess students’ real understanding of their achievement in math.</p>
<p>Major U.S. and Canadian mathematics programs and textbooks typically include math problems of much greater relevancy to students than this particular item. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.education.umd.edu/news/timssarticleholliday.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.education.umd.edu/news/timssarticleholliday.pdf</a>
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<p>First, one might wonder about the qualification of a math teacher and a textbook author who thinks that 25 centimeters are about 12 inches (and not 10 inches.) However, while the conversion of centimeters to inches is trivial, the worst failure consists of not recognizing its complete lack of relevance in solving a MULTIPLE CHOICE problem where all the dimensions are expressed in the same measurement. The size of the box could have been expressed in inches or yards and it would not made a bit of difference.</p>
<p>This would be more comical if it was not so pathetic, because this tandem is not only respected enough to be published, but also permitted to remain in a position to educate students and lead them to a "better" future. </p>
<p>Come to think about, this might explain why most high schools textbooks are what they are and why the United States trails most industrialized nations in mathematical performance and barely edges third-world countries where students have to learn math with paper, a pencil, a bit of reasoning power, and competent ... teachers.</p>
<p>PS 68% of US seniors failed the question.</p>
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