Comments on: Chinese Math Students vs. English Math Students

By: College Student USA - Binny

College Student USA - Binny — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:21:13 +0000

I was reading an article from another source and they mentioned that in china most of the problem solving and talking is done by the students in class. Every single class I have had (Being an american student) has been mostly focused on lecture. What is the point of attending a lecture without any requesite knowledge of what is being presented? There is none. How is a student supposed to familiarize themselves with concepts without engaging in them (In the exact environment where the Maximum amount of learning is supposed to take place; namely the classroom with the professor)?

The next series of steps involve the teacher/professor finishing the lecture, assigning homework (which is usually due the next class), then ushering the students out of the room. The students can the go home and work on the homework assigned; but they may have an unanswered question, which of course they can ask in the next class. This process leaves the student who “does what they are supposed to” by the class design perpetually behind.
According to the standard class design, a student is supposed to ask a question about something he/she doesn’t understand while in class (during the lecture.) But asking questions hinder the process of “delivering the lecture” to the students.The goal of the professor/teacher of course is to deliver the lecture.

I think the chinese method of teaching is outright superior becuse it is based on reason. It places students in an active and engaging learning transaction, taking advantage of the proper role of the professor.

By: jason

jason — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:46:00 +0000

it s ok, these 2 tests are not that hard. i am from china, i think since i was born there, i should get used to it. dont u guys think american students are eazy. i am a college student in america now, and i found the math, chem, ps were tough , even though i had studied in china for about 12 years.

By: kOxiNeLLe

kOxiNeLLe — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:13:03 +0000

Apparently you are not aware of the size of Chinese population… If you were, you would know that even if the two problems presented were for the same circumstances in both countries, China still needs to increase the level of competition to afford such a high number of students they will get, so I guess you need higher standards because you will have a larger number of students that will know how to solve that… just out of the number of the population, and placing the “American” problem in a selection exam in such a big population would lead to a high number of people with good scores.

By: learning new language is hard

learning new language is hard — Sat, 12 May 2007 05:24:33 +0000

for me, math and physics are so much easier than literature..:(

with math/physics.. everything is logical and predictable if you know the rules and all factors;

Literature, on the other hand, invovles many unknowns - one need to understand the cultural/historical/xxx contexts before they can comprehend a language

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 05 May 2007 01:13:57 +0000

It’s friggin sad. Remember a report a few years back showing how much more advanced in math and physics Chinese Middle School students were compared to US high school students. As a fomer one of the latter, that makes me sad. But, hey, I suck at math too.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:20:20 +0000

Serw, I think the problem of having too many questions that involve calculations and not enough proofs is going to happen anywhere. Proofs are just far more time consuming to grade. I wouldn’t say that there aren’t any well-known Chinese mathematicians, though. 曹怀东 and especially 朱熹平 are well respected for their work on the Poincare Conjecture, a problem that has baffled the top minds for over a century. 朱熹平 has published quite a bit of respected work, actually.

Maybe the real issue is that none of the contemporary mathematicians are well known to the populace at large. For that matter, few academics of any type are.

By: Serw

Serw — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:56:58 +0000

这条消息的发布恰好与一些废除高考的主张重合, 因此引起了网络和传统媒体的广泛的关注. 普遍认为, 在高考制度下, 由于考生高强度备考, 为达到选拔的目的, 出题者不得不加大难题, 怪题的比例, 多年来形成恶性循环, 导致数学教育脱离实际.

遗憾的是, 解数学难题三十年(2007年是恢复高考30周年)之后, 大部分人并没有认清数学的重要性. 最近有报道说, 教育部准备降低数学的难度, 压缩教学内容. 而针锋相对的, 理工类高校则普遍指责高中数学教育失败, 大学生数学水平太低, 需要在大学”回炉”.

教育部与高校的矛盾根源在于, 中国的数学教学一贯重计算而忽视逻辑. 一方面是传统使然(中国古代数学家的著作普遍以计算为主), 一方面计算题在批改时比证明题方便很多. 中国中学生从来没有接触过形式逻辑, 高校也普遍重视高等数学而轻视数学分析, 除数学专业外, 近世代数不被归入本科教学计划. 这导致了中国学生思维缺乏严谨性, 不能有条理的考虑问题. 高考制度实施30年, 没有为世界贡献一位有影响力的数学家, 足以说明这些年来的数学教育基本上是不成功的.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:56:46 +0000

Bryan said:

Math is really a just a language, a very concise language that holds a lot of information through strict relationships and grammars. I suppose that one could express the same ideas using regular languages, but it would be very hard to follow as it would go on for pages and pages.

Very true. This is probably why philosophers started using mathematical notation for symbolic logic long ago. Even now, symbolic logic courses are cross-listed as both mathematics and philosophy courses in most universities.

By: bezdomny ex patria » Blog Archive » maths?

bezdomny ex patria » Blog Archive » maths? — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 09:28:09 +0000

[...] further to a discussion at over at Mark’s…. Find x. Posted by wangbo Filed in [...]

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 05:15:03 +0000

I think a course in applied statistics and discrete math would be more valuable to students who don’t plan to go into science or engineering would be helpful. That is also another topic though.

Ha ha, perhaps I should have worked harder on my English though.