You can use mental arithmetic at the checkout and when doing puzzles. But binomial formulas, power calculations and discussion of curves? The new Pisa study raises the question of what goes wrong in math lessons.
When Daniel Jung explains parabolas, polynomial division and integral calculus, millions see it. Some even rewind again. The clips, which are just a few minutes long, are available at any time on the video platform YouTube. “I can watch it as often as I want at my own pace,” says Jung.
He copied this more than ten years ago from the major US universities, which already put recordings of entire lectures online. Today his videos help school students and math students. A solution to the misery that is not new – but that the most recent Pisa study has made clear again?
In the often unpopular subject of mathematics, Germany performs – well – modestly. As with reading and science, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported the lowest values ever measured for Germany as part of Pisa. In mathematics, the performance of high-performing and low-performing students deteriorated equally.
Away from presenting formulas
For Daniel Jung, “a sign that the clock has struck twelve.” Teaching urgently needs to move away from presenting formulas in a recipe-like manner without the young people knowing what they need them for.
The Secretary General of the Federal Student Conference, Florian Fabricius, also sees it this way: “We have a world that works across disciplines.” Classes are separated too strictly. For example, discussions of curves should be explained using concrete economic developments. “And not apples-and-oranges textbook problems.” When you realize that everything is connected and an overall picture emerges, learning becomes fun.
45 minutes of frontal teaching are outdated. Especially when it comes to mathematics, it is important to understand the matter. Fabricius is convinced that this is more likely to succeed if students get involved themselves and solve mathematical problems on a project-related basis. In this context he refers to the website matheforschung.de.
New teaching methods put to the test
Germany’s highest student representative is calling on politicians and schools to have more courage to innovate and try things out. He suggests that new teaching methods could be tested at model schools.
There are approaches to this, as the chairman of the Society for Mathematics Didactics, Prof. Reinhard Oldenburg, says. It is important to move away from abstract, unworldly questions and to orient tasks towards real life. Autocorrection for texts is about conditional probability. Thermal with x and y can be explained using image processing programs. “Photoshop is actually a big math program,” says Oldenburg. “There are too many inauthentic tasks and not enough sense of relevance.”
Bureaucracy often makes it difficult to try out new approaches, says the professor. “Most teachers feel constrained by curricula.” An additional hurdle is that in many places children with different ability levels are taught together. Giving everyone cognitively challenging tasks is very difficult.
Oldenburg believes it is right that topics are also taught that at first glance do not have much to do with everyday life. In mathematics, everything is justified; you don’t have to believe a teacher based on his authority, as in other subjects.
AI and ChatGPT
This is important for logical argumentation, to be able to interpret facts and ultimately for democracy training – for example to be able to judge whether a statement is correct. The expert explains that such skills are becoming increasingly important with regard to artificial intelligence and the chatbot ChatGPT, for example. Stochastics is about interpreting data. Binomial formulas could help with mental arithmetic – and ultimately with recognizing fake news if it has a mathematical connection.
Wherever you are confronted with numbers in everyday life, people with an arithmetic disorder (dyscalculia) are particularly affected. It starts with the clock, with the assessment of distances and weights in recipes, explains Annette Höinghaus from the Federal Association for Dyslexia and Dyscalculia. Craft businesses used to have reservations about hiring those affected – because measurements are taken in construction, whereas in painting businesses the mixing ratio has to be right for a certain color. There is now a lot of digital help, says Höinghaus. Therefore the problem is no longer so big.
The advantage of explainer videos
Student Fabricius also sees explanatory videos such as those by Daniel Jung as support. The advantages: They are always available – you can’t quickly call a teacher the evening before the exam. And everyone can look at them according to their individual needs. The disadvantages are that such clips are less personal and you cannot ask questions directly. She also sees Didactic Oldenburg skeptically: often only recipes are taught.
Video on YouTube
Fabricius would like it if teachers explained such videos and how to use them. “That’s what the abstract word media education means.” Often the clips are just sent around in WhatsApp groups and the teacher acts as if they don’t even exist.
Jung says: “We need people who celebrate mathematics.” The content is important for understanding patterns and structures. Nothing is more important in a world of digitalization and data.