July 2021 – BAD MATHEMATICS
Month: July 2021| BAD MATHEMATICS
In 2022, in one of his first comments on this blog, Tony Gardiner introduced us to his three Mathsteasers books. These excellent books are extension companions to the (also very good) Maths — No Problem! series of primary school textbooks. The Mathsteasers also contain an appendix, an extended essay by Tony on the philosophy underlying the MNP series and his Mathsteasers companions. Although written in regard to MNP and, more broadly, the English curriculum, Tony’s writing, as always, c...| BAD MATHEMATICS
Over fifteen years, my colleague Burkard and I gave tons of free talks and articles and everythings for the Mathematical Association of Victoria. In turn, they, and by “they” I mean 98%…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Last month, it was announced that Nicola Phillips, Provost at the University of Melbourne, was to become Vice Chancellor of Adelaide University. Unimelb’s fond farewell noted,| BAD MATHEMATICS
I’m holidaying with the family, as one does. I have also brought along my work (?), as one does. There is a huge backlog of “current” posts to write, together with a bunch of back…| BAD MATHEMATICS
A month or so ago, I wrote a post asking if we needed a new mathematics association. The dearth of replies suggests that you guys are happy with what we have. Whatever. To quote Johnny Rotten, This…| BAD MATHEMATICS
There have appeared a number of things to write about, but I have been too crazy-busy to write on any of it. That should change a little now, and I will try to chip away at the backlog, but imminen…| BAD MATHEMATICS
I cannot stand podcasts. I really hate them, for all the obvious reasons. They typically consist of self-satisfied tossers interviewing their self-satisfied tosser mates, teaming up to aimlessly pi…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Grattan has just released a sequel to its recent Maths Guarantee report: a guide for primary school principals. It repeats much of their main report, and the criticisms still hold, but Grattan̵…| BAD MATHEMATICS
And, prior to that, are we a “we”? Long ago, before it became a gutless and utterly predictable rag, Crikey did valuable work by annoying a lot of people. Crikey’s subscriptions w…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Dear Sydneysiders, I know it’s hard right now. The future is uncertain, and you’re doing it tough. You’re going it alone, and you’re not sure how it’s going. So, here&…| BAD MATHEMATICS
No, this is not that 21st century skills crap that people keep trying to sell us. It is learning something about 21st century mathematics, as invented/discovered by 21st century mathematicians. Jus…| BAD MATHEMATICS
(In keeping with our culturally sensitive ways, the title should be read with a thick Mexican accent.) We’re working on a non-WitCHlike Crash post, but no way will that be done tonight. Lucki…| BAD MATHEMATICS
This is another quick one, but it keeps the bullets flying while we prepare a more substantial post for tomorrow(ish). It can be considered a companion to the previous ACARA Crash a Content-Elabora…| BAD MATHEMATICS
A few years ago, before having introduced the secret exam business and the exam error lists, I posted a WitCH on a question from the previous year’s Specialist Exam 1. For me, there was a gla…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Honestly, it wasn’t our intention to write three hundred posts on ACARA and their appalling draft mathematics curriculum. But, we did. Given that we did, it seems worthwhile having a pinned m…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Thank you all for coming to the funeral that Mommy decidedly didn’t want. I apologise in advance for this mess of a tribute. I’m used to public speaking, but it usually involves assigning homework,…| BAD MATHEMATICS
The VCE exam leak story is obviously big news, with both Melbourne newspapers running prominent reports and op eds, steadily increasing the heat. The Age published a strong editorial yesterday, whi…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Presumably many readers of this blog will have read or heard of Susie O’Brien’s new Herald-Sun story, on the “compromised” VCE exams, and if not they will probably hear plen…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Go for it. UPDATE (15/11/24) VCAA has now published the exam, here. UPDATE (06/12/24) And the marking guide is here.| BAD MATHEMATICS
Murdoch will do what Murdoch does.| BAD MATHEMATICS
A couple days ago, I non-responded to the release of the 2023 PISA results (because, this). In a comment on that post, Tony Gardiner referred to a paper he had written for ICME10, held in 2004. In …| BAD MATHEMATICS
This is our post for noting local nonsense in the new Australian Mathematics Curriculum (downloads here). It is a list of the content descriptions and the elaborations that appear to be deficient/w…| BAD MATHEMATICS
On July 8, AMSI released its submission to ACARA, in which AMSI called for a halt of the mathematics curriculum review. On July 20, ACARA contacted AMSI, requesting a “consultation session…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Jen Deyzel is a retired primary school teacher, a “septuagenarian” (now octogenarian) with decades of experience. She came up in conversation with a parent, whose children are tutored b…| BAD MATHEMATICS
The following is our complete Arena article, which we announced a couple weeks ago. It includes footnotes and references and links that didn’t make it into the Arena version.| BAD MATHEMATICS
Does anybody ever properly read Terms of Reference? Probably not, and in the case of ACARA’s Terms of Reference for their curriculum review, this was a fatal error. The Education Minsters who…| BAD MATHEMATICS
It’s a stretch, but this post is inspired by the nature of some of the comments on the AMT gender post. Growing up, my father, David, wasn’t a great father, or at least he wasn’t …| BAD MATHEMATICS
About a decade ago, the New York Times ran an opinion piece in which the authors argued for a renewed emphasis on the traditional algorithms for arithmetic. In particular, the authors claimed and l…| BAD MATHEMATICS
The background to this post is here. Although the Deloitte review of VCAA’s mathematics exams was a sham, designed to conclude nothing of substance, the final Deloitte report nonetheless cont…| BAD MATHEMATICS
The most maddening aspect of VCAA is their steadfast refusal to admit error. Typically, VCAA simply will not engage and whatever nonsense they’ve written remains written. 2022 was different, …| BAD MATHEMATICS
This will be my last VCAA post for a while. I’m sick of it all. And, anyway, it’s now a matter of waiting to see what the Minister and the newly acting CEO of VCAA will do. I think both…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Last year, as seemingly occurs every year, there were serious errors on the VCE mathematics exams. This was reported on at the time by the Age, on the basis of a teacher’s complaint and a com…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Burkard and I were planning this for later, but given the Guardian has named us and linked to the relevant document, I may as well post on it. Below is a critique of the 2022 VCE exams, which, afte…| BAD MATHEMATICS
One of the all-time great literary wallops, by one of the all-time great writers, is Mark Twain’s Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses: Cooper’s art has some defects. In one place …| BAD MATHEMATICS
OK, roll out the barrel, grab the gun: it’s time for the fish. Somehow we thought this one would take work but, really, there’s nothing to say. It has obviously occurred to ACARA that t…| BAD MATHEMATICS
UPDATE (02/11/21) The list is now “complete”, in the sense that it includes all the errors of which we are aware. (We have given the earlier exams only a very, very quick scan.) We will…| BAD MATHEMATICS
It is not our intention, much less our desire, to be actively monitoring Foundation Mathematics. Whatever the real or imagined purposes for such a subject, it is of close to zero interest to us. We…| BAD MATHEMATICS
Let’s see. Who haven’t we insulted recently? Ah, yes: teachers. OK, so the title of this post could have been a tad less inflammatory. I’m serious, however, so what the hell. We&#…| BAD MATHEMATICS
