Re: [Fhsst-maths] Some Concerns about the Syllabus

[Frans van Eeden]

Hi all

I will have a look at the chapter on Patterns in numbers and compare it 
to my own teaching notes. I hope to have some constructive insights by 
tomorrow evening. From memory i'm not aware of any proofs that the Grade 
12 should know with regards to Sequence & Series in the syllabus but 
i'll check.

I have to agree with Sam. proofs for a 16 year old is better explained 
and adds more value, if its presented in a real life, practical example 
on why this particular formula/piece of math work.

Frans

Mark Horner wrote:

> Hi Sam
>
> Valid concerns. As with physics, the syllabus seems a little disjoint. 
> We really need to get a teacher
> involved. Unfortunately I don't have answers to any of your questions 
> but I'll ask around and
> see if anyone knows someone currently teaching who can help out a bit 
> on this - but we should
> check what Frans thinks as he said he is currently teaching grade 12 
> part time.
>
> You raised your concerns before he joined the project. Maybe we should 
> go through some specifics in the sequences and series chapter where I 
> think some of your proof concerns come from and see what Frans
> thinks?
>
> Mark
>
>
> Sam Halliday wrote:
>
> > hi everyone,
> >
> > lately i have started to be concerned about the syllabus and the 
> > level we are writing to.
> >
> > i've been tutoring "standard grade" maths here in scotland and i was 
> > comparing it to the South African syllabus. at face value it appears 
> > that the SA syllabus is way more hardcore than the UK system... but 
> > then i started thinking "this can't be... they are asking for stuff 
> > in the SA syllabus which we sometimes only do at university. 
> > something is wrong here!"
> >
> > then i realised that perhaps the people who wrote the SA syllabus 
> > created their own terminology for things, against the maths 
> > community. this would *really* not surprise me, as the syllabus 
> > itself looks like it has been written by a non-specialist. as a 
> > specific example, i mean words like "prove"... when i read that, i 
> > think "ok, they want a proper proof". but in reality they probably 
> > mean "show that its true for the first few terms by inspection and 
> > then assume it holds for all".
> >
> > so for that reason i'm thinking of editing a few chapters and really 
> > dumbing them down...  removing proofs and not deriving a bunch of 
> > equations. i think the content at the moment, in patterns for 
> > example, would scare a 16 year old away for maths forever!!!
> >
> > if anyone who knows more about the SA syllabus and would like to 
> > comment.... *please* do! i'm just afraid that we are aiming our 
> > language too high. and i urge all contributors to do the same.
> >
> > cheers,
> > Sam
> >
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