Students drop important HSC subjects
“And back in elementary schools, where there might even be teachers who might not have done that [higher level] “I have studied math and have been a ‘math avoider,’ and I exercise their discretion to shift classroom activities away from the important fundamental areas and toward areas that are more calming and engaging,” he said.
The President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering, Dr. Katherine Woodthorpe called for an overhaul of the scaling of HSC grades because she said students may avoid advanced math at risk of being penalized with a poor ATAR if they do poorly.
“We could actually look at the ATAR and see how it distorts children’s decision-making [who think] “Do I want to take the harder math course that I’d like to do but I’m not going to do as well against the cohort?” and all these ridiculous things that go into decision-making,” she said.
Professor Barney Glover said that while work needs to be done to address the ATAR and subject selection, he said qualified mathematics teachers in schools are vital.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Western Sydney University Vice-Chancellor Barney Glover said work had been done to examine the challenges of calculating ATAR and how it affected student decisions related to advanced math subjects before the pandemic.
Glover, who has a background in mathematics, said he believes the lack of trained math teachers is key to getting students excited about the subject.
“We need fewer physical education teachers who teach math […] ATAR reform won’t help us if we don’t take care of it,” he said.
Engineers Australia estimates that Australia will need an additional 100,000 engineers to fill projects by 2030, while job data shows that just 11.2 per cent of those working as engineers are women.
Chief Engineer Jane MacMasterCredit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Engineers Australia’s chief engineer, Jane MacMaster, said there was currently a shortage of people with “deep” knowledge and technical skills in areas such as nuclear technology and power supply.
“We need to support teachers to teach math in a more inspiring and practical way,” she said. “We don’t have to force or encourage everyone to do this. But we need to do even better to expand the pool of young Australians who can see the magic of advanced mathematics.”
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