Many US Kids confused by equals sign

[Regs]

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?

That is like...an expression or something.

 

[swanysto]

What trailor park of ghetto was this study done in?

 

[lsv]

This is a direct result of the foolish idea that all students are capable and intelligent. This is simply not the case. Some students are just stupid, and should be treated as such. These foolish teaching methods are to blame for the ignorance of todays children. We have to abandon the idea that all children are equally intelligent. Some kids are just stupid. Everyone knows this.

/thread

 

[Ika]

what the hell, in 6th grade I was learning algebra. sure, I had a hell of a time with factoring but not knowing what an equals sign was? puh-leez.

 

[disappoint]

If children don't understand =, then children were not taught =.

It's time to disband the destructive teachers union and hire only teachers who.....


yeah obvious friggin statement alert....


you have been warned....




know how to teach.

 

[Jeff7]

In college intro CS classes, there were several math majors who couldn't wrap their heads around this:

x = x + 1;

So I guess even math majors can be confused by equal signs

Though as far as a plain math equation goes, it might seem initially weird.

x = x + 1
x = 3
3 = 3 + 1
3 = 4
Head asplodes.

Hopefully once they get the idea that "=" is an assignment operator, they'll be able to comprehend it better.

(Then tell them about x += 1; )

 

[her209]

0.999... = 1?

 

[Anubis]

0.999... = 1?

yes

also

coke > pepsi

 

[waggy]

yes

also

coke > pepsi

lies.

coke < pepsi

 

[halik]

Though as far as a plain math equation goes, it might seem initially weird.

x = x + 1
x = 3
3 = 3 + 1
3 = 4
Head asplodes.

Hopefully once they get the idea that "=" is an assignment operator, they'll be able to comprehend it better.

(Then tell them about x += 1; )

That's not math, that's assignment expression. Mathematically x=x+1 doesn't make sense.

 

[ObscureCaucasian]

That's not math, that's assignment expression. Mathematically x=x+1 doesn't make sense.

Well durr, it's still an "equal sign" though so it's relevant because they were confused by an equal sign.

 

[halik]

Well durr, it's still an "equal sign" though so it's relevant because they were confused by an equal sign.

Eh that's just mark up, it's an assignment operator. You can use set, :=, let etc. That's got nothing to do with the idea of equality.

 

[bfdd]

Fucking duh? This is what happens when all you do is push for standardized testing scores. This is what happens when you base how much money a school gets on what kind of score their kids get in standardized tests. Our educational system is so fucked up if I ever have kids I'll work as many jobs as needed in order to send them to a private school. I also wouldn't doubt that you could track this "change" back to the feminist movement and the drastic changes feminists have had on the educational system.

 

[Cheesemoo]

i hear some of them have issues with editing and using the copy/paste functions on a pc as well....

this made me laugh...

 

[yhelothar]

lol this doesn't surprise me at all. Back when i used to tutor, our tutoring center had us teach percentages by stupid little algorithms that make the problem mindlessly easy but allows someone with no understanding of the problem to be able to return the correct answer.

What is X percent of 30.
Take the number after is, put it over the number after of, set it equal to x/100.

 

[yhelothar]

Fucking duh? This is what happens when all you do is push for standardized testing scores. This is what happens when you base how much money a school gets on what kind of score their kids get in standardized tests. Our educational system is so fucked up if I ever have kids I'll work as many jobs as needed in order to send them to a private school. I also wouldn't doubt that you could track this "change" back to the feminist movement and the drastic changes feminists have had on the educational system.

Yup this is exactly why stuff like this happens. The primary goal of education is no longer to learn, but it's to do well on tests.

 

[SunnyD]

That's not math, that's assignment expression. Mathematically x=x+1 doesn't make sense.

Neither does x++, ++x or x+=1. But I live with it.

 

[GhettoPeanut]

Chanting will surely save us from ignorance and mediocrity.

+1

 

[ObscureCaucasian]

Eh that's just mark up, it's an assignment operator. You can use set, :=, let etc. That's got nothing to do with the idea of equality.

Yes you can, but my point is we were doing C and in C '=' is the assignment operator, and '=' is an "equals sign". The thread isn't called "Many US Kids confused by equivalence operator" (which is probably the case).

 

[Wyndru]

And all this time I thought = was a double negative.

 

[Kev]

lol this doesn't surprise me at all. Back when i used to tutor, our tutoring center had us teach percentages by stupid little algorithms that make the problem mindlessly easy but allows someone with no understanding of the problem to be able to return the correct answer.

What is X percent of 30.
Take the number after is, put it over the number after of, set it equal to x/100.

Um that doesn't work.

Unless I'm completely not understanding your explanation?

 

[Jeff7]

Eh that's just mark up, it's an assignment operator. You can use set, :=, let etc. That's got nothing to do with the idea of equality.

Yes, we know.

The problem is, the incoming students evidently don't know that.

In the rest of the sane world, x = x + 1 is a nonsense equation.
In the madness of programming P), "=" can do something totally different, just as "^" can refer to an exponent, but if you're doing programming, now you might be doing an XOR operation.

So yeah, I can show x = x + 1 to one crowd, and be met with confusion. I can show x = x + 1 to another, and they'd point out that I'm missing a semicolon.

 

[Jeff7]

http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

Interesting read.

About the only difference between the described curriculum there was that my school ordered it: Algebra I -> Algebra II -> Geometry -> Trig.

 

[techs]

If children don't understand =, then children were not taught =.

It's time to disband the destructive teachers union and hire only teachers who.....


yeah obvious friggin statement alert....


you have been warned....




know how to teach.

Yah. In the 1950's the teachers unions were far more powerful than today. And they only taught the generation that sent a rocket to the moon.

It's 100 percent bullshit the teachers unions are the reason kids aren't learning.
It's because there is a political ideology in this country that wants to destroy unions that this myth is perpetuated.
Many, many, many school systems don't have unions, or have very, very weak unions. And kids don't learn there either.

Its the war on teachers and education that's the reason we don't address the two real reasons. The parents and the funding.

Remember that the "conservative" philosophy is don't overeducate the lower classes. If you do they will not be happy with their status.
There's a great quote by Winston Churchill about this, I can never remember what is was exactly.

 

[ShawnD1]

I find myself having trouble in college math courses sometimes now because of the way I was taught to do math all of my life. I don't have problems with the equals sign, public school just did not teach me how to LEARN.

You don't learn that skill from school. You learn it from video games. Die and die and die until you learn how to play the freakin game. Then when you go to math class it's the same way, sort of. Just like Megaman, math is easy if you know where to stand and which weapon to use on each boss.

Um that doesn't work.

Unless I'm completely not understanding your explanation?

He's technically right, but his method is convoluted and confusing. Normal people just divide numbers and multiply by 100. Say I have a room of 20 people and 7 of them are black. If I express that as "per unit" it would just be 7/20 = 0.35
Per Cent literally means per 100, so normalize it to 100 by multiplying by 100. 0.35 * 100 = 35&#37; of the people are black.
The way he wrote it is like this:
7/20 = X/100 ----> X = 35%