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Huh. I'm from India, and from what I can tell, maths is taught much better here than in the US, at least till 10th grade, after which it's no longer compulsory.

Huh. I'm from India, and from what I can tell, maths is taught much better here than in the US, at least till 10th grade, after which it's no longer compulsory. It's actually taught in a very intuitive manner, and most students "get" it quite well. Edit: the textbooks are freely available on the web, if anyone wishes to take a look. Look up "NCERT class 10 maths textbook".

Gunax 7y ago
Im my experience there is so much variation between countries, between different regions within the same country, between schools within the same region, between teachers within the same school and even students' subjective experiences within the same classroom that I am generally skeptical of broad conclusions drawn between countries like that.
kkarakk 7y ago
My experience has been the opposite. Indian kids can solve math problems in the "curriculum" quite well but ask them to do anything WITH the math and they're lost. Ask them how the theorem relates to the natural world and they don't know. Ask them what applications it has and they don't know. Ask them to extrapolate their current knowledge base to a theoretical future and they are completely lost on what a "next step" would look like. Information is laser focused on getting into an "Engineering college" and not actually on "knowing" anything. It's like teaching someone about spoons and forks but never giving them any food to actually interact with but vaguely mention "food will be relevant when you get a job, not right now" Better than american kids sure but i'm not sure anything more of value is earned by making these kids essentially memorize theorems and algorithms
- y4mi 7y ago
  Try asking the average western student the same question. Most people -be they young or old- aren't able to do that. Nor is that a skill you actually need in real life. You should also think about if it's more important (to the people you're telling that message) to get a good wage or if they're fine taking a few years to catch up. "Understanding" concepts is great and all, but unless they're doing that additionally to training the simple application, they'll most likely start having issues once the tests are up. Having good grades (and being able to prove their ability on the spot) is definitely correlated with good starting wages. Not so much later on, but it's a massive difference at the start.
- iteratorloopmap 7y ago
  I can pretty much agree with you. Especially in state boards, it is just knowing how to solve problems given at end of textbook..
prad9104 7y ago
Why do you think math is taught much better in India?

Gunax 7y ago

Im my experience there is so much variation between countries, between different regions within the same country, between schools within the same region, between teachers within the same school and even students' subjective experiences within the same classroom that I am generally skeptical of broad conclusions drawn between countries like that.

kkarakk 7y ago

My experience has been the opposite. Indian kids can solve math problems in the "curriculum" quite well but ask them to do anything WITH the math and they're lost. Ask them how the theorem relates to the natural world and they don't know. Ask them what applications it has and they don't know. Ask them to extrapolate their current knowledge base to a theoretical future and they are completely lost on what a "next step" would look like. Information is laser focused on getting into an "Engineering college" and not actually on "knowing" anything. It's like teaching someone about spoons and forks but never giving them any food to actually interact with but vaguely mention "food will be relevant when you get a job, not right now" Better than american kids sure but i'm not sure anything more of value is earned by making these kids essentially memorize theorems and algorithms

y4mi 7y ago
Try asking the average western student the same question. Most people -be they young or old- aren't able to do that. Nor is that a skill you actually need in real life. You should also think about if it's more important (to the people you're telling that message) to get a good wage or if they're fine taking a few years to catch up. "Understanding" concepts is great and all, but unless they're doing that additionally to training the simple application, they'll most likely start having issues once the tests are up. Having good grades (and being able to prove their ability on the spot) is definitely correlated with good starting wages. Not so much later on, but it's a massive difference at the start.
iteratorloopmap 7y ago
I can pretty much agree with you. Especially in state boards, it is just knowing how to solve problems given at end of textbook..

prad9104 7y ago

Why do you think math is taught much better in India?