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noitanigami comments on What is wrong with mathematics education? - Less Wrong Discussion

18 Post author: Perplexed 20 March 2011 02:40AM

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Comment author: noitanigami 21 March 2011 05:11:26PM *  6 points [-]

There is a more fundamental flaw in maths eduction than calculus vs, statistics. Very few people come out of school knowing what a maths problem is. If you ask most people to identify a maths problem, they will point to the exercises in a book or a work sheet. Very, very few will point to the world or their experiences. There is no place in the current curriculum that shows people how to frame a question about the world in a way that maths can be applied. Neither calculus or statistics is useful if you don't know how to frame the problem in the first place.