Maths & science in USA & UK

[michel]

From US Teens Lag Behind in Science and Math
US Teens Lag Behind in Science and Math

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, AP Education Writer
(AP) -- U.S. students are lagging behind their peers in other countries in science and math, test results out Tuesday show.

I hear much the same can be said of English Teens....

Why do you think that this is so? have you noticed a reluctance to get into these subjects?

[silvermoon383]

I think part of it might be mentality. We're turning into a sound byte, instant result culture. Math and science take work. Lots of it.

Not to mention curriculums are starting to have little time for labs, and w/o labs science classes are boring.

[Guitar's Cry]

Well, the teens lag behind in the math and science that the standardized tests tested for. I'm not a fan of standardized testing. They typically focus on only a couple forms of intelligence and usually memorization plays a huge part in it.

I personally am not great at math, and while conceptual science isn't much of a problem for me, where the "math meets the concept" is where my science falters.

[Gentoo]

I was always bad in math, still am for the most part. I don't want to place blame on teachers (I hope to become a science teacher myself one day) but most of my math teachers didn't care if I understood the material or not, and it was clear from my test scores that I didn't understand it. Granted the school district I went to was notorious for have bad teachers, that doesn't excuse them from dismissing me when I went to them for extra help and just passing me to the next grade when I should have been held back.

[jacquie4000]

Honestly I thought the U.S. ways always behind academically. We for one have shorter school days and shorter school years for the most part. Don't quote me but I believe for instance the US average is 180 school days. In Germany the average in around 225 days. This could be one reason we fall behind.

[Don Penguinoini]

im in middle set for maths, and my dad hates me for it

[michel]

I loved maths, but always had teachers who hated it.

It is sad that science and maths should be shunned by the youth; after all, we need scientists more than ever now, I would have though.

[Mike182]

i did alright in my maths and science exams, though i stopped studying them as soon as i had the option to drop them. my entire way of thinking is outside of what is required for maths and science, i'm a humanities student through and through lol.

my little brother is a lot better at maths at the moment than i was when i took my exams though, and he's only 13! he also likes history, but he kinda sucks at explaining why certain factors lead up to historical events, and which had more influence etc.

i spent some time in a German school, our school had a student exchange program where we lived over there for a week then they lived over here for a week, staying with the family of a student. i went on that 4 years on a row, so i got fair experience on the way one school in Germany worked. the level of academia is a lot higher there than in the UK. i think one of the reasons why is discipline. all the German students were well disciplined, they were set more homework to do than us and not doing it wasn't an option, where as in my experience of the UK education system, teachers really don't follow up on homework tasks like they should do.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Mike182

...where as in my experience of the UK education system, teachers really don't follow up on homework tasks like they should do.

That was my sorta my experience in my school district in Massachusetts. The homework had little to do with the lesson plans, it (along with the classwork) basically amounted to nothing more than busywork. Although, I did have one biology teacher (one of the best teachers I ever had) not only gave us relevant homework, but if it wasn't done by the due date, we had another night to get it done, and if it still wasn't, we had detention and did it there after school. I never missed an assignment.