The presidents of both the Students’ Union and Graduate Students’ Union, Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem, and Dearbháil Lawless, have announced the opposition of both unions to Trinity’s acceptance of proposed maths bonus points.
Lawless, who is taking a sabbatical from a Masters in education, told The University Times, that “I stand firm on the belief that giving additional ‘bonus points’ to those who study higher level Mathematics in secondary school is a detriment to the Irish education system.”
She argues that the real problem with maths teaching at second level is a lack of qualified maths teachers, which could be addressed by either incentivising those who study mathematics at third level to teach or encouraging unqualified maths teachers to obtain a maths teaching qualification. She also stated that there is “absolutely no reason” why a student with a pass in HL maths should gain an advantage when applying for a degree in Arts and Humanities.
Trigoub-Rotnem and Jen Fox, SU Education Officer, raised objections to Trinity’s decision to offer the bonus points at three separate committee meetings. The Union highlighted an Irish University Association (IUA) survey from 2008 which showed 61% of HL maths students do not go on to study maths-related subjects. Trigoub-Rotnem said, “This is a third-level solution to a second-level problem and attacks the symptom, not the disease.” Jen Fox said the real problem was maths teaching, and that it should have been in Trinity’s “progressive nature” to “highlight the issue of second-level mathematics teaching as a major flaw in the Irish education system.”
The IUA recently announced that NUI, UL, DCU, TCD, DIT and RCSI will each give an additional 25 leaving cert points to any Higher Level maths student with a grade above a D3. No bonus points are given to Ordinary Level students.
Equivalent bonus points will be available for students coming from abroad. The proposed scheme would be introduced in 2012 for a four year ‘pilot period’. Mary Coughlan, the Minister for Education, said the scheme is aimed at increasing the participation of students in Higher Level maths.
Trinity recently held a symposium on mathematics in third level education. Elizabeth Oldham, of the Irish Mathematics Teachers Association, argued that maths is crucial subject, where students learn logical, procedural and problem-solving skills. But she also highlights that maths teachers are under resourced and seldom have enough time to cover the syllabus and teach understanding of mathematical concepts, the result being the problem of maths teachers having to teach ‘rules without reasons’.
Patricia Callaghan, TCD Academic Secretary, in her presentation, noted that the skills maths teachers need, educational resources and the time required for effective teaching are in uneven supply across Ireland, and that the quality of maths teaching available to all students must be improved alongside any system of incentivising students to study the subject.
Alison Doyle, officer for students with Specific Learning Difficulties, recently published a research paper on the mathematics learning difficulty called Dyscalulia and entry into 3rd level. She highlighted the fact a large number of students fail mathematics and hence fail what is a hugely important matriculation requirement for entry into third level in Ireland. Other requirements are passes in English and Irish, but students can receive spelling and grammar waivers, language exemptions and other supports for those subjects, while there are few such supports for dyscalculia. In any case, the rate of students who fail maths is much higher than the rate of students who fail English and Irish. Trinity, only as of this year, is the only college in Ireland that offers a maths waiver to students with dyscalculia. Ms Doyle told The University Times that, while her paper wasn’t aimed at fully answering what is the effect of dyscalculia on entry into third level in Ireland, she was, “the only one currently asking the question.”
