… to a mathematically ‘challenged’ social science class.
I’ve previously mentioned the hilarity evoked by Firstborn’s decision to take a course in statistics during her Masters year. Well, that is over now and she didnae enjoy it, concluding that statistics is “evil”.
Tutors take note! That’s what happens when a subject is badly taught. From a pedagogical perspective the teachers could learn much from the following extract from Jordon Ellenberg’s book ‘How not to be wrong; the hidden maths of everyday life“:
“Working an integral or performing linear regression is something a computer can do quite effectively. Understanding whether the result makes sense … requires a guiding human hand. When we teach mathematics we are supposed to be explaining how to be that guide. A math course that fails to do so is essentially training the student to be a very slow, buggy version of Microsoft Excel. And let’s be frank: that really is what many of our math courses are doing.”
