Canada's D Math Score

No one wants to be a Negative Nancy but we've got some bad news for Canada. Math skills across all provinces have declined - a lot! Alberta had the second steepest decrease which is disappointing for a province rich in the technology sector development along with small businesses and of course the oil & gas industry. 

For additional details, please see the Fraser Institute news release:

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/04/08/2206424/0/en/Fraser-Institute-News-Release-International-math-test-scores-decline-nationwide-over-recent-15-year-period.html

Canada doesn't only rely souly on PISA results but also the Pan-Canadian Assessment of Science, Reading and Mathematics (PCAP). PCAP is our only national achievement measure and it does not completely agree with PISA findings but the the relative performance of the provinces is similar. This decline in math performance continues to be part of why curriculum adjustments are a priority however, each province will have to do its own development given education is provincially regulated.

Additional details can be found here: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/math-performance-in-canada.

In a recent article published by Big Think, three main reasons are pinpointed for low math proficiency.

1. Students have a fundamental misunderstanding of what math is, and what it can do. 

2.  A lot of mistakes come from pressure to memorize math concepts and to get speedy answers.

3. A huge misconception that says "I will never use this in the real world."

Professor Pho-Shen Lo at Carnegie Mellon believes that "everyone is a math person; all they lack is the proper instruction." The professor goes on to say, "that math is a language that builds upon itself, and not understanding the foundations of math is like not understanding the roots and structure of a language."

Another apt description of what Math actually is was given by Neil deGrasse Tyson who said, "Math is the language of the universe. So the more equations you know, the more you can converse with the cosmos." 

Mike Colagrossi, author of the popular "Why America is bad at Math" article, says, "Math, in a sense, is a way to speak and manipulate the world in a logic- and reason-based system using a specialized written language. It is the language of numbers, quantity, and space, and it's used in applications for engineering, physics, and so on. It's doubtful that math is presented this way to children or students at an early age. But that's just one part of the problem with how we approach math."

So if your child's experience with math isn't sufficient, where do you turn? What can you do to help them master the "language of the universe"?

Mathnasium of Killarney centrally located in SW Calgary is ready to turn your child's math education around. We have the right math tutors with the right training to provide your student with the right experience. Math results begin to soar when math is taught under specific conditions. Conditions such as:

• Teaching for understanding, not just memorization.
• Teaching at the right pace - no rushing and no pressure on the student to meet a deadline for understanding hard concepts. 
• Individual tutoring experience - not sitting in a classroom with 20 other kids, each kid at a different level of math understanding. 

If you're ready to see your child bloom in math, bring them to Mathnasium of Killarney for a risk-free assessment today.