English pupils prefer decimals over fractions

[Markus Kuhn]

Researchers who asked 3000 11-14 year old English pupils to
sit math exams used in 1976 found that today's pupils seem
to prefer decimal arithmetic over using fractions compared
to pupils 33-years ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8238759.stm

Markus

--
Markus Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ || CB3 0FD, Great Britain

[Pat Naughtin]

On Sep 5, 5:22 pm, n09W36+mg...@cl.cam.ac.uk (Markus Kuhn) wrote:
> Researchers who asked 3000 11-14 year old English pupils to
> sit math exams used in 1976 found that today's pupils seem
> to prefer decimal arithmetic over using fractions compared
> to pupils 33-years ago:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8238759.stm
>
> Markus
>
> --

> Markus Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridgehttp://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/|| CB3 0FD, Great Britain

Dear Markus,

The Telegraph at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6138456/Maths-standards-no-better-than-mid-70s.html
and

the Daily Mail at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211345/Maths-skills-standing-thirty-years-GCSE-grades-soaring.html
have both reported that metrication has helped students in the UK with
decimals knowledge.

Here is the quote from The Telegraph:

It found secondary pupils were much more familiar with decimals than
they were 30 years ago. Researchers put this down to “cultural
changes” including metrication and the increased use of calculators
and computers.

Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Geelong, Australia