Category Archives: 2 Prof. Knowledge & Understanding

Why I Chose Discovering Maths

When it came to choosing an elective for my second year, Discovering Mathematics was one of the options that I automatically avoided. All I could think about was my previous experiences of Maths and ‘why would I want to put myself through that again?’. However, after discussing the elective with someone from third year, who had actually done it themselves, my mind was changed. They explained that the elective wasn’t about formulas or standard deviation, or any of those other horrible topics of maths, but more of the understanding of maths, why we need it and how we can use it. I thought this would be really useful for me as a learner, as well as a teacher.

My Maths Experience
Throughout primary, I was in the top group of maths and found most of the work pretty straightforward. The only thing that I knew I wasn’t good at was my times tables and this really knocked my confidence. Every night me and mum would sit and practice them, over and over again. Eventually I could see myself improving, which helped my confidence within the subject.
Then came secondary school, where my confidence and ability in maths took a drop. Preparing for my N5’s, I remember dreading a Tuesday morning; double maths first thing. I was still in the ‘top group’ and our class was moving at an extremely quick pace. During class examples, I would still be processing the question we had been asked and the rest of the class would be shouting out answers. I never contributed to these discussions, I knew I would get it wrong! In the end, I got a tutor to try and help me pass. It was going well, and my confidence was growing the more we practiced. About 3 weeks before the exam, I was packing up after a session with my tutor feeling good about my ability. She however, explained to my mum and I, how worried she was about me, and that I should speak to the school about getting a calculator for the NON-calculator exam!! I completely freaked out, if she thinks I need a calculator for the non-calc exam then I have no chance in passing! I just gave up at that point and gave up trying, it completely knocked my confidence.

Thankfully, the exam paper was good to me and I managed to get a good grade. I dropped maths after N5, so I have never been able to rebuild my confidence. Through this elective, I am hoping to regain some of the confidence that I lost and also increase my knowledge and understanding of maths. I need to work towards this as to teach a subject, I need to know it myself. I definitely regret dropping maths as soon as I could, as I feel as though my knowledge of, even basic maths, has taken a hit from this choice.

Science Group TDT

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Scientific Literacy and Education

Group – Emily Lloyd, Elise Clark, Claire Campbell, Amy Laing & Amy Johnston

AC1

Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes. ‘Scientific literacy is the capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identify questions and to draw evidence-based conclusions’ (OECD, 2003). This means that a person can ask, find, or come to a conclusion on answers to questions that come from curiosity about everyday experiences relating to science. It means that a person has the ability to describe, explain, and predict scientific occurrences. Scientific literacy includes the skill of being able to read, with understanding, articles about science in everyday reading such as articles on the internet and news stories. Scientific literacy also means that a person can identify scientific issues that impact national and local decisions. What is also achieved is the ability to express opinions that are scientifically informed. A scientifically literate individual should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific information based on its source and the methods used to create it. (National Research Council, 1996, page 22)

AC2

In the 1990s the scare of vaccines and autism being related took off. Due to a report being realised about how the MMR vaccine was related to autism in children. This resulted in a massive scare and many parents did not want to take the risk of being the reason their child developed autism. Therefore, many children did not receive the vaccine putting them at risk of developing measles, mumps and rubella. The horrendous factor in this is that the researcher – Andrew Wakefield lied about some of the conditions of the children when he did his sample group and all the testing. The overall outcome of this paper being published with fake results has put many children and adults at risk of becoming seriously ill. Even with papers being published and doctors encouraging all children to get the vaccine there are still some parents who are scared so will not get the vaccine or allow their children to.

The major reason as to why the terror surrounding the MMR vaccine spread so quickly was down to the media coverage. There was a lack of understanding around the research Wakefield had conducted (Goldacre, 2009). Take the sample size Wakefield decided on – 12 children. Having a large sample size is important to have more reliable data and to include a variety of people to represent the population. Having 12 people is too small of a sample size to prove the idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism. However, this point was overlooked by the media who subsequently focused on the shocking nature of Wakefield’s research. The Mail as an example; “Scientists fear MMR link to autism” (Beck, 2006). By not focusing on the scientific aspect of Wakefield’s published research, the media helped create a false image of the vaccine and led to a severe decrease in people taking the vaccine.

AC3

When teaching a science lesson, it is key that the children learn and understand the importance of fair testing. Fair testing can be conducted by ensuring that only one factor is changed while all other variables stay the same. Fair testing is one of the most important elements when carrying out an experiment. The reason for this is the fact it creates a scientifically valuable outcome allowing the children to draw reliable and accurate data from the results.

The exploration within the topic of fair testing can help children show a basic understanding of their scientific knowledge and literacy of scientific concepts. Giving children the opportunity to participate in science experiments that require the process of fair testing will allow them to explore and challenge their scientific literacy.

REFERENCES

Beck, S. (2006) ‘Scientists fear MMR link to autism’, The Mail, Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388051/Scientists-fear-MMR-link-autism.html

Goldacre, B. Bad Science (London: Fourth Estate, 2009)

National Research Council. 1996. National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] (2003) The PISA 2003 Assessment Framework – Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem-Solving Knowledge and Skills. Paris: OECD.

Science Buddies. (2018). Doing a Fair Test: Variables for Beginners. [online] Available at: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-fair/doing-a-fair-test-variables-for-beginners [Accessed 9th Feb. 2018].

BBC Article – Hartsdown Academy School Uniform

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After reading this article, I would have to agree that the Head Teacher of this school has taken the issue of ‘inappropriate uniform’ far too far.

I fully understand why a school would wish to keep their uniform guidelines tight, however in this case, I think the pupils are being treated unfairly. Uniforms create a sense of unity, and in general, makes the image of the school a lot smarter and professional. In the video which is included in the article, you can hear the father of a pupil speaking to the head, and stating that his daughter’s shoes are ‘perfectly, black, normal, everyday shoes’. I feel like the Head Teacher is marking his position, making it clear to all pupils that he has the final say. The girl’s shoes, from what I could see from the images on the article, are in fact, perfectly black shoes, and I don’t see any problem with them.

I feel that I can relate to the frustration of both the parents and pupils. At my school, we didn’t actually have a uniform – we could wear whatever we liked. I personally think this is better than uniforms as it gives pupils the freedom of choice, and also the opportunity to express themselves. However, in my last year, a new head teacher arrived and cranked up the focus on clothing. What frustrated me, was that we had never been told about a dress code. During my whole 6 years of education, there was no written rules as to what you could and could not wear. All of a sudden, I was getting stopped in the corridor and told off for wearing sandals on a hot summers day, which to me, seemed crazy! It also frustrated me, that it was generally girls getting told off rather than boys. Boys were allowed to leave the PE department in their shorts when it was nice weather out, however if girls attempted to leave the department, they were quickly turned back to the changing rooms to ‘cover themselves’. Having been spoken to, several times about my choices of clothing, be it sandals, or my stomach being slightly on show, I felt picked on. The clothes that I was wearing was not inappropriate, yet I was being told it was the wrong thing and that it was ‘against the dress code’. The dress code being non-existent apart from inside the head teachers head…

Fair enough, have a dress code, have a uniform, but there has to be some sort of flexibility regarding these. Some pupils don’t always have the money to be able to buy the most appropriate items to match their uniform guidelines. If the code says black shoes, and the pupil is wearing black shoes, they should not be denied their education.