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Some reflections on a recent seminar tour of Western India
by Douglas Butler (Director, iCT
Training Centre, Oundle School, UK) May 2001
Maths in Sydney, Melbourne & Hong Kong 30 Nov - 7 Dec 1999
Douglas Butler
The objective was to take the opportunity to share some of my ideas about using computer-based methods in the teaching and learning of mathematics, with teachers in Australia and Hong Kong, and to learn from them about their experiences of its effectiveness. In many ways Australia is about 4 years ahead of us, certainly in teacher IT competence, but I found them struggling a bit with subject specific applications.
Sydney
My first task though on arriving in Sydney was to visit the Sydney Olympic site and do a live report for Oundle School's OSCAR radio station (87.7FM) (Tuesday 8am = Monday 9pm in Oundle) using my mobile phone. A nice practical use of today's technology - apparently I came over loud and clear!
School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney: presentation to a good cross-section of secondary teachers from the Sydney region. Australia has a much more mature use of the internet and IT in education than we do, but it was surprising to find these teachers at about the same stage in the use of software in mathematics as a similar group would be in the UK.
Sydney Grammar School: a highly academic down-town boys grammar school. The teachers' work area is based round a well established PC network with a terminal on every teacher's desk. I have seen similar arrangements in Singapore and firmly believe that a school network will never really take off until it is freely available at every teacher's main work desk (and study at home).
Music technology: I visited a lesson on composition being taught very effectively using a sequencer and score-writer (Cubase). I was impressed by the lesson objectives and how the technology was facilitating the learning process.
Mathematics Department INSET - I then led a 2-hour session with the 16 full time mathematicians in the lab: as usual the teachers are all at different stages - clearly some very proficient computer users, others very timid. My session covered using Word for mathematical work-sheets, and links with internet text and graphics. I also covered the use of Autograph as a teaching tool.
Interesting to note the general attitude of the NSW mathematics curriculum:
there is an emphasis on depth rather than pushing on as we do to more and more topics (as in our Further Maths). Not much applied maths either - akin in that sense to the IB. The consequence is they often have success in competitions at a national level. The department further strengthens its academic base with regular exchanges with the University of Sydney.
Melbourne
I then gave 2 presentations at the Mathematics Association of Victoria conference on the theme of using IT and the internet. These seemed to strike a chord and they were interested in the UK approach. I had some interesting discussions with members for their "Board of Studies" who write the syllabuses (different for each State!). What really impressed me was that this was just a state conference, but it attracted 2200 teachers. The UK national Maths Association conference rarely gets over 250 teachers.
There is a much more established approach to professional development in Australia - regular sabbaticals, and time off to attend conferences and INSET. Most IT managers I met considered all their teachers to have been trained up to a minimum competency in IT about 5 years ago.
The state curricula are trying to merge, but, if mathematics is anything to go by, it will not be an easy task. Quite a different philosophy in each State. CUP have commissioned a complete series of texts for each State - which is a bit like having a separate text book for 4 London LEAs!
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong I met with officials from the education dept at Hong Kong University, and the Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE). Gave a presentation to 50 teachers in the provincial city of Tuen Mun (near the Chinese mainland border), at the South Tuen Mun Secondary School. They were all ages and very keen to pick up ideas on using IT. Spoken English was excellent. Their Dept of Education very keen to increase the use of IT throughout the curriculum, so this was well timed. Some pressure from Beijing to reduce spoken English in schools, but Heads are keen to retain it.
The Hong Kong Education Dept will, through CITE, be incorporating some of my ideas in the new draft of their secondary curriculum that is being worked on now for 2001.
Also visited the Chinese International School - they do the I.B., which involves huge dissertations in each subject, and 6 subjects right through to the end of year 12. I saw some of the mathematics dissertations that make our GCSE and A-level coursework look very tame.
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