Month: April 2024

A Non-Post on Indigenous Mathematics

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April 30, 2024

11:56 pm

22 Comments on A Non-Post on Indigenous Mathematics

education

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A few weeks ago, ANU Science published a puff piece:

Maths has no borders: Professor Rowena Ball brings Indigenous mathematics to ANU

Professor Ball is an ANU mathematician and the article was a promotion of Mathematics Without Borders, a “research and teaching initiative” led by Ball. In particular, the article promoted a special topics course at ANU created and taught by Ball and fellow ANU mathematician, Hongzhang Xu, the course being “based on the Mathematics without Borders research program”. The article is bad in all the ways one can imagine.

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Explicit Objections

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April 29, 2024

3:56 am

43 Comments on Explicit Objections

teaching

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The New South Wales Department of Education is cajoling, and possibly commanding, teachers to engage in “explicit teaching”. What does that mean? According to the Department,

Explicit teaching practices involve teachers clearly showing students what to do and how to do it, rather than having students discover that information themselves.

Yeah, what dinosaurs. Continue reading “Explicit Objections” →

A Couple Quick Words on the Palestinian Protests

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April 27, 2024

9:19 am

1 Comment on A Couple Quick Words on the Palestinian Protests

politics

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(1) Of course the protests are antisemitic.

(2) People are allowed to be antisemitic assholes.

Regarding (1), non-Jews should be aware of what the overwhelming majority of Jews are seeing. Regarding (2), Jews should accept that they have to tolerate assholeness, just like everyone else. Continue reading “A Couple Quick Words on the Palestinian Protests” →

VCAA’s Mathematical Flea Circus, Part Two

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April 25, 2024

12:41 pm

21 Comments on VCAA’s Mathematical Flea Circus, Part Two

VCE

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Yesterday’s post was on the 2023 Methods Exam 1 report (Word, idiots), its foggy focus on trivia and also on the ludicrous non-solution of one particular question. Now, it’s on to Exam 2 Report (Word, idiots), which is what prompted these posts.

Here are the Exam 2 General Comments in their entirety. I have commented elsewhere on a couple aspects (here on Q3(a), here on Q3(e) and here on Q5(b)). I won’t comment further now, except to note that it seems to me to be nothing but fleas. I can detect no sign whatsoever of any underlying host. Continue reading “VCAA’s Mathematical Flea Circus, Part Two” →

VCAA’s Mathematical Flea Circus, Part One

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April 24, 2024

4:06 pm

5 Comments on VCAA’s Mathematical Flea Circus, Part One

VCE

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To people not involved in Mathematical Methods it is difficult to convey the awfulness of the subject. Even regular readers of this blog, who will be somewhat aware of our million or so posts, cannot properly appreciate Methods’ unrelenting shallowness and pedantry and clunkiness and CASiness. The subject, to the extent there is one, is infested with fleas.

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My Previous Post on Julie Inman Grant

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April 23, 2024

1:24 pm

3 Comments on My Previous Post on Julie Inman Grant

censorship

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A (friendly)* lawyer advised me that I should delete my previous post on Censorship Commissar, Julie Inman Grant. I question the concerns, but he is a lawyer and I am not, so I have deleted the post. I believe it is safe to say I think Inman Grant is extraordinarily dangerous, and I am appalled by her heavy-handed and self-righteous censorship. My previous posts on Inman Grant are here, here and here. Continue reading “My Previous Post on Julie Inman Grant” →

Can’t Do My Homework Anymore

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April 15, 2024

10:05 pm

20 Comments on Can’t Do My Homework Anymore

education

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It’s not a clever title but it leads into a great Fleetwood Mac song, guaranteeing one worthwhile feature of the post:

On with the post, which concerns a study conducted by academics at the University of South Australia and Nova Scotia’s St. Francis Xavier University, reported in their 2023 paper, Mathematics homework and the potential compounding of educational disadvantage. The study was announced a month ago in a UniSA media release, Numbers do not add up for maths homework, and was accompanied by the subsequent Educator report, Maths homework causing more harm than good – study. This all sounded like nonsense, so I took a quick look at the paper. I gagged, considered the work required to even skim the nonsense and decided to ignore it. Then frequent commenter Dr. Mike lobbed a Science Alert report at us, Math Homework Can End Up Doing More Harm Than Good, Study Shows. A third temptingly silly headline made me ponder further but I still decided to ignore it. Then then on the week-end Greg Ashman wrote a little about the study in his weekly curios. At which point I decided “to Hell with it”, and here we are. Continue reading “Can’t Do My Homework Anymore” →

WitCH 138: Second Rate

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April 14, 2024

3:22 pm

10 Comments on WitCH 138: Second Rate

WitCH

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Not counting the Witchfests on Nelson‘s Proof and Complex chapters, I don’t think we’ve had a textbook WitCH for quite a while. This one is hardly in the same league but it’s been on my to do list for a long time and it’s definitely a source of irritation. The topic came up in discussions with a colleague today, and I’m too busy and too tired to do the posts I should be doing, so this’ll do for now. It is an example from the differential equations chapter of Cambridge’s Specialist Mathematics 3 & 4, and it is related to this previous WitCH from the same text and chapter. As was the case with the previous WitCH, it is a representative, one of a type.

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TNDOT 5: The Party of the First Part

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April 8, 2024

7:26 pm

34 Comments on TNDOT 5: The Party of the First Part

TNDOT

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This multi-TNDOT is a little different, not as high a level or as old school as the previous ones, but the questions still seem pretty wild. We haven’t thought about the questions at any length, but conceivably they could also be used to challenge/tease younger students.

The TNDOT consists of two questions, each with two parts, from the 1911 Victorian Pass Algebra Matric exam. The exam paper instructed students to answer only one part from each question but we run a tough blog here and all readers are expected to answer all questions. As usual, commenters might refrain from posting answers too quickly, so that other readers have a chance to have a go. Have fun. Continue reading “TNDOT 5: The Party of the First Part” →